Perspectives on Reason and Proofs for the Existence of God

Perspectives on reason and proofs for the existence of God.

Think and Discuss

1. Dawkins dismisses Aquinas’s proofs as based on an “infinite regress” to which God himself is immune. Discuss how Aquinas or a critical rationalist might respond to Dawkins argument. Which person makes the strongest argument? Critically evaluate the two arguments.

• One may say that Dawkins’s arguments are based clearly upon his own assumptions or self-reasoning. His idea of infinite regress isn’t quite what Aquinas was really saying. Aquinas’s regression is finite in a sense that it doesn’t regress any farther than God.

• For Dawkins to try and ridicule Aquinas’s arguments of the existence of God, he is only showing how reckless he could be. If you feel you have to ridicule your “opponent” in order for someone to succumb to your arguments, either you don’t have much faith or belief in your own words, or you’re beginning to believe in your “opponent”. But sadly enough, Dawkins and the people who follow his beliefs are usually impetuous thinkers. They are those who don’t want to believe in God, but can’t prove that He doesn’t exist. They grab and hold on to any theory or argument that opposes the existence of God or creation without realizing all the holes and unanswered questions within their own arguments.

• Strongest arguments? I believe that Aquinas makes the strongest argument.

• The 2 arguments:

 Aquinas’s argument that God does exist; the universe and everything in it was created by one all-powerful being, God. The proof is in the order of the universe, the fact the all things in the universe are in constant motion; and that motion is in the order of perfection. Something or someone had to design and create this universe and cause its perpetual movements to be in sync and in perfect order. We call this designer and creator God. This kind of thing doesn’t just happen by chance.

 The question remains: where did God come from? Even with all the biblical scriptures, we cannot regress beyond God.

 Dawkins’s argument that God is a delusion and does not exist; the universe and everything in it happened by incident. The universe is moving because it’s constantly expanding. Man, animals and plants weren’t created, everything just happened to come into being the way it did through natural selection with its origin being only single-celled organisms.