This document discusses different perspectives on belief in God, including arguments that are used to support or reject theism. It outlines three major positions on the existence of God: theism is the belief that God exists, atheism is the belief that God does not exist, and agnosticism is not knowing if God exists. Common arguments for believing in God include design, the idea that complex things like the human eye imply a designer, and the first cause argument that everything has a cause and God caused the universe. Religious experiences are also cited as evidence, involving feelings of God's presence or acts that break natural laws. However, reasons against believing include problems with design being explained by evolution, questions about what caused God, the existence

1. Believing in God
(or not)
THEISm – THEre IS a God
Atheism – God DOES NOT exist
AGNOsticism – (A ..G.. No) Don‟t know
if there is a God

2. Arguments for believing in
God
 Design
 Paley said no-one would believe a
watch just go there by chance, it‟s
too complex (it has purpose and
design).
 The world too is full of complex
things, like the human eye and
DNA.
 These too must have been designed
by someone i.e. God.

3. Another argument for
 First Cause
 Aquinas said everything that happens
(every effect) in the universe has a cause.
 This creates a cause and effect „domino
chain‟
 If you go back to the start of the universe
something must have caused it
 That 1st cause was God – only
He is powerful enough to cause
Something so big

4. Religious Experiences
Involve a feeling of God’s presence
A feeling of AWE
and WONDER of
something
GREATER than you
When someone
feels god has
ACTED in their
life to change
their BELIEFS
An act which
breaks the LAWS
OF NATURE and
can only be
explained by GOD

5. Religious Experiences
 All religious experiences convince
BELIEVERS that GOD EXISTS because
only he is POWERFUL enough to do
these amazing ACTS and cause SUCH
FEELINGS
Lord, please
help my nan get
better.
Oooh, that pain
in my back has
gone!

6. Religious upbringing
as a reason why people believe..
 Taken to church –
surrounded by believers
 Sunday school – taught God
exists
 Taught to pray and read
Bible at home
 Go to religious school –
Assemblies & RE lessons
 All make it natural to
assume God exists

7. Reasons against believing
Design?
 explained by Evolution (the scientific idea that
animals have become more complex over
millions of years)
(Christian Responses:
 Some say evolution is wrong (because some
plants and animals couldn‟t have developed in small
steps, e.g. the Venus fly trap) and Genesis is true
 Others say Genesis tells us why God made the
world not literally how he did it, so evolution
and the bible are both true)
First Cause?
 If everything has a CAUSE, what caused God?
 The universe could be ETERNAL (it‟s always
been there)
 The Big Bang is a better SCIENTIFIC
explanation
 Answered prayer?
 Unanswered prayer:
 Why does God not answer so
millions of prayers to end
suffering? e.g. famine or
people dying of disease. This
could lead to believing God
isn’t there or doesn’t care.
Reverse the
„for‟ arguments
Think: Could God answer
all prayers? Prayers to
win the lottery or for your
football team to win? Is
NO sometimes an answer
to prayer?

8. More reasons against believing
Evil and
Suffering

9. The Problem
 Christians believe God is omni-benevolent (all
good/kind)
 so he must want to stop evil and suffering
 and omnipotent (all powerful)
 so he must have the power to stop it
 The fact that he doesn’t means
 he mustn’t exist
 He‟s also supposed to be Omniscient, which means
he must have known that creating the world would
result in all this evil

10. Christian Reponses to
Evil
 The Fall - the world was
created perfect, but evil entered
it when Adam and EVE chose
to sin and go against God‟s
rules
 Christians try to help out by
setting up charities to relieve
suffering, like Christian Aid.

11. Cont…
 Free Will (the idea that humans are free to make
their own choices) – God wanted people
that would follow him out of
CHOICE, not robots. Some people use
their FREE WILL to disobey him and
do moral evil.
 Christ understands our pain, because
He himself suffered on the cross

12. The Media and God
 Yes
 They make religion more
appealing with human
interest stories
 They may contain
evidence of religious
experiences (e.g. Arthur
White‟s conversion) or
Miracles (e.g. stories of
healings)
 No
 They are boring and
irrelevant to most people
 Some religious
documentary
programmes question
belief in God (e.g. “The
Tsunami – where was
God?”
 Religious programmes
are about religious
practice NOT whether
God exists
Do religious programmes
like „Songs of Praise‟ and
„Heart of the Matter‟
Support belief in God