Monday, July 11, 2016

Evidence for God

In my Philosophy of Religion courses at MCCC I introduce students to evidential arguments for God's existence, such as: William Lane Craig's Kalam Cosmological Argument for God's existence, and the Fine-Tuning Argument for God's Existence on the basis of anthropic coincidences.

I have heard and read atheists who say "There is no evidence for God's existence."(These tend to be internet village atheists.) That claim is false and sophomoric. Both the Kalam and Fine-Tuning arguments are evidential; i.e., they rely on empirical evidence, and then reason logically to God's existence.

The piece of empirical evidence the Kalam argument uses is: the existence of a universe (ours) that began to exist (a temporal universe with a beginning; therefore it had a cause).

The piece of evidence the Fine-Tuning argument uses is: a universe that is fine-tuned for life (anthropic coincidences; cosmological constants).

The village atheist who says there is no evidence for God's existence is misinformed. The statement "There is no evidence for God" is a mindless mantra echoed by people who are unfamiliar with the philosophical literature on God's existence or nonexistence. At least it should be acknowledged that evidential claims are being made.

Other evidential arguments for God's existence include:

The Argument from Consciousness for God's Existence - J.P. Moreland.

The Argument from Reason for God's Existence - Victor Reppert.

The Moral Argument for God's Existence - William Lane Craig, et. al.

The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Christ - N.T. Wright, William Lane Craig, et. al.