Religion

Are there any arguments for the existence of God which the panel would view as philosophically legitimate?

Comments

None. Besides Belgian ales, that is.

I'm a plain old atheist: I don't find any of the arguments I've come across for the existence of something I'd be at all tempted to call "God" even slightly compelling, so I consider myself to have as little evidence for believing that there is such a thing as I have, alas, for believing that there's a number such that, if I think of it, my freshman papers will magically grade themselves. In both cases I not only do not believe that there is such a thing but also believe that there is not such a thing. Why I take that further step (in both cases) is harder to say. (It's not that I believe that if there were such a thing I'd likely have evidence of it. )

Anyway, I think that many arguments people have given for the existence of God are enormously philosophically respectable. Thinking about them has produced some really good philosophy. It's just that they're not sound.

You might also mean, can we imagine being convinced by an argument for God? Well, some of the panelists already are convinced. We're not all atheists. People sometimes suspect, about atheists, that their belief that there's no God is dogmatic: that nothing can shake it; and this seems to make it as irrational as any prejudice atheists accuse believers of having. But I doubt that this is right. Find me the atheist of your choice. I confidently predict that there is easily imaginable evidence that, were it to arise, would convince them that God exists. In my case, I imagine the skies parting, a big face with a booming voice poking though the clouds and doing really impressive magic tricks. But that's just me.

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