God/s

So I was lying in bed, thinking about the existence of God/gods and the problem of evil. The first thing that came to my find was the downfall of the polytheistic religion and the rise of the monotheistic religion that dominates society today? Why did the polytheistic religion die out? Was it because the races of people that believed in this form of religion died out? Or does the monotheistic religion have some distinct advantages that really appealed to people?

If we let ourselves believe in the gods of old, such as the Gods of Greece and Rome, then I think we would have no problem defeating the problem of evil. In the stories of Homer and Aeneid, and countless other ancient poets and writers, the Gods are depicted as powerful creatures that have their own character flaws. The stories show that when a god is angry, they can kill innocent people (not onmibenevolent ). In this polytheistic religion, we can clearly see many flaws. For one, the gods have varying degrees of power. For example, Zeus the almighty is said to be the supreme god, the one who has power over all other gods; he defeated his father Cronus and took over the "universe". And the fact that Cronus swallowed his own children again proves that he (and all other gods) are not omnibenevolent . However, if this was believed to be true, then there can be someone who is more powerful than him, which means that omnipotence of an individual god does not exist, and therefore omnipotence of the gods does not exist. Another flaw in this belief is the idea that the gods are omniscient. In the story of Aphrodite and Ares, the couple is tricked and captured in a net by Venus' husband Hephaestus. If the gods were omniscient, then Ares would have known that there was a trap waiting for him, and would have escaped or would have chosen another place to lure Venus. And the fact that the pair remains trapped in the net without a way out also proves that they are not omnipotent. And finally, in the story of Iliad , when Juno tricks Zeus and puts a sleeping spell on him, omnipresence of the gods is disproved. If Zeus (or any other god) was omnipresent, he would have been there when Juno sought the help of Aphrodite to conquer Zeus and thus stopped Hera's plan. It seems that the polytheistic religion really does not allow a god to be omnibenevolent , omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; in other words, the polytheistic religion fails us when we say the goods are all-powerful. Is this the reason for the rise of the monotheistic religions that dominate society today?

With monotheism, there are definitely greater and more varied ways to argue the existence and the omni's of god.

One of the arguments for the existence of god is the prime mover theory. This theory first acknowledges that there is movement in the universe; it says that nothing can move by itself; thus the first thing that moved must have gotten a "push" from God. There is another similar theory that says everything has to be caused by something else (like movement). Since things exist, something must have caused it to exist: the first cause (God). But the idea of the first cause is itself contradictory. If everything is caused by something else, there must have been something that caused to exist. Thus, he cannot be God according to the argument. Furthermore, since everything is caused by something else, there cannot be a first cause because it would assume that that cause was not caused by anything. Thus, there must be an infinite cause of causes. This conclusion is a disturbing one. Why? Because it cannot be true. This conclusion says that time and causes are infinite; thus there is no beginning of time or space. And since every cause has a preceding cause, there must be a first cause that caused everything else. Thus, this argument is contradictory and untenable. And from the cosmological argument (below), since there must have been a time when nothing existed, nothing could have caused anything to exist (no first cause and no infinity of time/space).

The cosmological argument for the existence of God says that since all things decay and go out of existence, there must have been a time when nothing existed. Thus, for something to exist out of nothing, God must have created it. However, if there was a time that nothing existed, there must have been a time that God had not existed. Thus, God cannot exist because he did not exist. And because of the prime mover/cause argument, he could not have created himself.

The ontological argument say that nothing greater than God can be conceived. Thus, if God was only an idea in our minds, we could have a idea better and greater than the idea of God, which is impossible because nothing greater than God is conceivable. Thus, God has to exist in reality. But since we can conceive in our minds a perfect being, which means that we cannot think of anything better, the ontological argument does not really hold. And since we can conceive things that are not existent, just because we can conceive of a perfect being does not mean it exists.

Another argument for the existence of God says that since there are good and bad things (differing degrees of goodness), there must be something absolutely good that all things are compared to (God). But herein lies the problem of evil. For most modern believers, or most Christian believers, god is omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipresent. But the are these fundamental tributes of a higher power contradictory? For example, God's omnipotence and omnibenevolence seem contradictory; the only explanation is that God is not always righteous, and does allow the innocent to suffer, which means that he cannot be omnibenevolent. How can there be evil and suffering in the world if God knows everything, is good, and can do anything? Does the contradictory nature of God's characteristics prove that there is no God? What if we believed that God was all but omnibenevolent? Could God exist then? Of course. However, we would have to confront ourselves about the fact that our lives are controlled by a malevolent (and sometimes benevolent) high power? Would we want to accept this fact? Or would we rather believe that there is no God?




If this actually offends anyone, let it be known that I am only trying to think to myself whether god exists or not. I do not intentionally push my views onto anyone. And since I have reasoned that infinity cannot exist, and alternatively has to exist, I see no real way to prove that god does or does not exist.

Please feel free to object, agree, or add anything pertinent to the argument for the existence of god.