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Unlock This CourseAsk ten believers why they believe in God, or in an ultimate reality, and you may get ten different answers. The reasons fall into two groups. Some are arguments: they start from something everyone can see, such as the world itself, and reason step by step to God. Others are factors in a person's own life, such as how they were brought up or something that happened to them.
Key terms:
Push the first domino in a line and the rest fall, each one knocked over by the one before. Nothing in the line falls by itself. The cosmological argument says the world is like this. Everything we see was caused by something earlier, which was caused by something earlier still.
The chain of causes cannot go back for ever, because then it would never have started. So there must be a first cause that nothing else caused. Thomas Aquinas, a Christian thinker of the 13th century, said that this first cause is what people call God. Muslim thinkers such as al-Ghazali set out the kalam form of the argument: whatever begins to exist has a cause, the universe began to exist, so the universe has a cause.
What caused God? If everything needs a cause, God should need one too. If God does not, perhaps the universe does not either. Must the universe have a cause at all? Things inside the universe have causes, but that does not prove the universe as a whole has one. It may simply exist.
Believers reply that God is different from everything else. Remember, God is said to be eternal. Something with no beginning does not need a cause.
A second argument does not ask what started the universe. It asks a deeper question: why is there something rather than nothing?
Everything in the world depends on something else for its existence. You depend on your parents, on air and on food. The Earth depends on the Sun. Nothing we know of had to exist, and the world might never have existed at all. Yet here it is. Believers argue that a world like this cannot explain itself. There must be something that does not depend on anything else and that explains why everything else exists. They say God is the only possible explanation.
Notice how this differs from the first cause argument. It would still apply even if the universe had no beginning, because it asks why there is a universe at all, not how it started.
Critics answer that the universe may have no explanation. It may be a plain fact that it exists, and that is where the questions stop.
The design argument starts from the order and beauty of the world. The eye lets us see, the planets keep to their paths and the seasons return each year. Things seem to fit together and to work for a purpose.
William Paley, an English Christian thinker, used the example of a watch. If you found a watch lying on the ground, you would not think its parts had come together by chance. They are shaped and arranged to tell the time, so there must have been a watchmaker. Paley said the natural world is even more complex than a watch, so it must have a designer too: God. A modern version points to fine-tuning. The laws of nature, such as the strength of gravity, seem to be set just right for life to exist.
Evolution. Natural selection explains how living things came to fit their surroundings so well without a designer. They only appear to be designed. Suffering and waste in nature. Disease, animals that must kill to eat and the many species that have died out do not look like the work of a wise and loving designer.
The spec calls this the appearance of design. Many critics accept that living things look designed. They disagree about whether they really are. Some believers say evolution is simply the way the designer works.
These three factors are about a person's life, not about arguments.
People ask what life is for, above all at times of birth, illness or loss. Belief in God or an ultimate reality gives an answer: life is not an accident and it has a goal. Finding that answer can lead to belief or make it stronger.
Many believers trust a source they see as reliable. This may be scripture, a religious teacher or leader, or the faith of their family and community. Children who grow up praying, celebrating festivals and hearing the stories of their religion often come to share its beliefs.
Some people have an experience that changes them. In a conversion a person comes to faith, sometimes suddenly and sometimes slowly. Other religious experiences include a prayer that seems to be answered and a sense of awe that feels like the presence of something greater.
For the person involved, a religious experience can be the strongest reason of all, because it feels like meeting God directly. There are two standard criticisms. First, it cannot be checked by others. The experience is private, so nobody else can test what happened. Second, it may have a psychological explanation. Strong emotion, stress, hope or the mood of a crowd could produce the same feelings without any God. Non-religious people such as humanists add that life can have meaning and purpose without God.
Do not mix up the two best-known arguments: the cosmological argument is about what caused the universe, and the design argument is about the order within it. Do not write that Paley found a watch. It was an example he imagined. Do not say these arguments prove or disprove God. Write 'believers argue' and 'critics reply'.
Paper 1 style question. Parts (a) and (b) test AO1. Parts (c) and (d) test AO1 and AO2.
(a) Identify three reasons why some people believe in the existence of God. [3 marks]
(b) Outline two criticisms of the argument that God is the first cause. [4 marks]
(c) Explain why some people believe that the world itself shows there is a God. [6 marks]
(d) 'The appearance of design in the world proves that God exists.' Evaluate this statement, showing you have considered different points of view. In your answer you should refer to at least one religion. [12 marks]
(a) 1. The world appears to be designed (1). 2. A religious upbringing (1). 3. A conversion experience (1). (The need for a first cause, the search for meaning and trust in scripture would also score.)
(b) One criticism is that it does not say what caused God (1), because if everything needs a cause then God should need one too (1). Another is that the universe may not need a cause at all (1), since things inside the universe have causes but this does not prove the universe as a whole has one (1).
(c) Some people believe there must be a first cause. Everything in the world is caused by something earlier, and they argue the chain cannot go back for ever, so an uncaused first cause, God, must have started it. This is the cosmological argument, set out by Aquinas.
Others argue from the existence of the world. Everything in it depends on something else and might not have existed, so they believe God is the only possible explanation of why there is something rather than nothing.
A third reason is the design argument. The world shows order and seems to work for a purpose, as a watch does. Paley argued that a watch needs a watchmaker, so the world needs a designer.
(d) Plan. For: the world shows order and purpose, like Paley's watch; fine-tuning suggests the universe was set up for life; chance seems a weak explanation for so much order.
Against: evolution explains the appearance of design without a designer; suffering and waste in nature do not fit a wise and loving designer; 'proves' is too strong, as the argument could at most make God likely.
Your religion: add what your own religion teaches about whether the world was made on purpose, by name, on the side it fits.
Possible conclusion: judge each point as you go, then pick a side. For example: I disagree. Design can support a belief in God, but it does not prove it, because evolution gives another explanation for the same evidence.
In part (d), test the word 'proves'. You can accept that the world looks designed and still argue that this falls short of proof.