Arguments In Problems From Philosophy, By James Rachels

The two-hour special documentary, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, features the Kitzmiller v. Dover School District case in 2004. It captures the turmoil that tore apart the community of Dover, Pennsylvania in one of the latest battles over teaching evolution in public schools. Some members of the community believed that not only Darwinism, but also a so called theory, Intelligent Design, should be taught in their public high school. It was a battle between the two theories. It forced neighbor against neighbor and friend against friend. The community itself was broken half and half on the controversial issue.

Throughout many centuries philosophers have argued over the existence of God. In today’s society many people tend to hesitate in believing in a God because of the new scientific discoveries. For example, in the mid 1990s scientists built the Hubble telescope which revealed that there were billions of galaxies in our universe, this discovery led some people to question how can one divine being create so much and yet have a personal connection with everyone in the world. Which, in result, may take some scientific explanation to strengthen one’s belief in God, but for those who believe there is a benevolent God they do not need science to show proof that he exists because of their morals and beliefs they have been raised to follow. In this paper I will prove that God does exist by explaining the ontological, cosmological, and design argument.

Moreover, today’s criticisms and denials also come from all quarters in various forms such as creationism, Li 2 neo-creationism, and intelligent design. Even though several points exist on either side of the creationism versus evolution argument, notwithstanding the gaps on both sides of the divide, it becomes apparent that the theory of evolution has some serious fundamental flaws. Creationism is the belief that concept and design require a creator (Sarfati and Mathews). When applied to detecting design in the universe and life, this principle becomes a more reasonable explanation to believe in a higher power as the Creator or Designer of both (Sarfati and Mathews). Unlike the concept of evolution, which remains unproven and continues to lack even the slightest experimental or observational support, the creationist argument is sound because it argues against a set of misunderstandings about evolution that people are right to consider ludicrous (Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini).

Since then, the origin of the universe became a very big question to everyone. The curiosity we possess help us seek answers from different questions we can think of. Different hypotheses and ideas were formed with great scientific evidence to prove that the universe began as a single primordial atom. The scientists even found out that the universe is expanding because of the great amount of dark matter present in it. However, with these ideas, the religious thinking of people could not be removed. The concept of God being the Creator of all the things that existed contradicts the views of the theories formed. The stories and verses contained in the bible are different from the results of studies connected to it. Here, I investigate the things

The feud between creationist and scientist about the origins of the universe dates back to the 20’s during the Scopes trial. Scientist are against creationism because there is no evidence to support the theory. Scientist support Charles Darwin’s theory Darwinism, the theory that organisms evolve from simple to complex through minor adaptations over time, because it has held up for more than a century. Rowe’s article expresses how he believes that creationist created intelligent design to take the place of creationism in public schools after the Supreme Court ruled that

The Kalam Cosmological Argument presented by Dr. William Lane Craig states that everything that beings to exist has a cause, the universe began to exist; therefore: the universe has a cause. The Cosmological argument argues that the universe that we live in has a cause and purpose. There must be a creator (God) of the universe because the universe cannot have a cause without something or someone feeling the need to create. In the Craig-Dacey debate Dr. Dacey opening argument or rebuttal was aimed to disprove God’s existence. Dr. Dacey begin to show that the concept of God is self- contradictory.

Evolution proves that there is no reason to credit the design of the universe to God, and therefore, atheists have no reason to believe that God does exist. It is much more logical for atheists to base their beliefs on something that exists rather than on possibilities that have no way of being proven. With that said, atheists can reasonably believe that there is no God or designer of the universe because there is no evidence showing that there is. Using the strength of Darwinian theory, it can be hypothesized that the universe came from no intentional designer. Rather, it came from the unplanned and mindless processes of natural selection. A look into nature reveals such processes; slow and gradual changes have been found in the historical

There is no objective evidence to demonstrate the existence of nature’s creator. If we were to think the design argument was reasonable, then one must also take under consideration the amount of ‘creators’ are required

Does God exist? This question has been in debate for centuries with many opposing views, some arising from philosophers on the same side while others refute Gods existence altogether. However for this particular paper I will be taking the best explanations approach. What I mean by this is I do not have proof of God’s existence but the existence of God is the best explanation for the universe around me. With this statement in mind we will discuss arguments in support of God’s existence as well as philosopher H.J McCloskey’s article On Being an Atheist.

He has scaled the mountains of ignorance, he is about to conquer the highest peak: as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”[v] Though Jastrow treats the issue as settled and declares that scientists have finally been “defeated,” it is too early to reach any judgements on the implications the new cosmology has for both science and religion. Our image of the origin of the universe is not yet complete and further investigations must be conducted before the towel is thrown in. Science has still much to offer to help us understand how the universe came to be. Therefore, let us now attempt to solve the cosmic mystery of creation by referring to the great scientific minds as our guide. Let us now rewind the story of the big bang and look into the origins of the universe.

In the Cosmological argument, we are presented with a very sound argument. In this argument, Aquinas is answering the question of why there has to be a first cause and why the first cause is God. He tells us that everything that exist in this universe needs an explanation for why it exist. Secondly, Aquinas tells us that all the objects that exist now were caused to exist by other objects before them and this cycle goes on. Thirdly, he tells us the universe couldn’t possibly be something that goes on infinitely.

Hello, Savanna. Thank you for replying! I really do love this kind of discussion topic. Anyways, although we can't actually touch God I still be Intelligent Design is as scientific as Darwinian evolution. The beginnings of evolution can't be touched or proven either; however, both theories can claim scientific evidence. What I am trying to say is both theories require faith because no one was there to experience the beginning. I agree with you about how sad it is that a different theory can't be taught in public schools. Neither has been proven as fact, so both be presented and left to the students to decide what they believe.

taken away part of the Earth, right. By taking away that part of the Earth, the "machine" is

Religion has been a source of conflict in this world since the Bible proclaimed “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." There would be other conflicts that would arise because of religion and thousands if not millions would die because Sara sent her handmaiden, Hagar, to Abraham’s bed and conceived Ishmael. Conflict has defined humankind since the dawn of time and the greatest conflict has been: how did it all begin? Intelligent Design is yet another challenger to creationism and evolution as its proponents believe that it has the best answer to the dilemma of origination.

Throughout the course of this essay we shall examine two of the major philosophical arguments for the existence of God. The arguments that we are going to focus on shall be the Design argument and the Ontological argument. We shall compare, evaluate and discuss both the Design (or teleological) argument for the existence of God and the Ontological Argument for the existence of God, as well as highlighting philosophical criticisms of both theories too. By doing so, we shall attempt to draw a satisfactory conclusion and aim gain a greater understanding of the respective theories and their criticisms of each theory.