Table of Contents

1. Question
2. Theories
3. Big Picture Graphic
4. Explanatory Arguments for the Existence of Supernatural Beings
   1. Argument against Divine Explanations
5. Non-explanatory Arguments for the Existence of Supernatural Beings
6. Argument against the Existence of a Supreme Being
7. Arguments between Atheism and Agnosticism

Question

What supernatural beings exist? Does God exist?

Theories

• Monotheism
  • A supreme being exists, God
• Dualism / Polytheism
  • More than one god exists
• Atheism
  • No supernatural beings exist
• Agnosticism
  • It’s an open question whether supernatural beings exist

Big Picture Graphic

Explanatory Arguments for the Existence of Supernatural Beings

• An explanatory argument for supernatural beings is that their existence is the only plausible explanation of certain facts.
  • Origin of Functional Organs
    • Teleological Argument
  • Universe Coming into Being
    • Kalam Cosmological Argument
  • Religious Experience and Visions
  • Occurrence of Miracles
  • Emergence of Life
  • Efficacy of Prayer
  • Existence of something rather than nothing
  • Cosmic Fine-Tuning

Argument against Divine Explanations

• For any fact claimed to be explicable only in terms of supernatural beings:
  • Either, there’s a more likely, natural explanation
    • For example, the origin of functional organs
  • Or the “fact” is not established
    • For example, the occurrence of miracles
  • Or the fact has no explanation
    • For example, the fundamental laws of nature

Non-explanatory Arguments for the Existence of Supernatural Beings

• Argument from Revelation
• Ontological Arguments
  • Anselm
  • Descartes
  • Spinoza
  • Leibniz
  • Kant’s Critique
• Pascal’s Wager

Argument against the Existence of a Supreme Being

• Argument from Pain and Suffering against the existence of a supreme being:
  • The existence of an all-loving, all-powerful, all-knowing God is incompatible, or at least inexplicable, with a universe in which:
    • Natural disasters happen resulting in the pain, suffering and death of innocent children
    • Animals die in agony every day as they are hunted down, ripped apart, and eaten by predators
• A typical reply is that “we can’t know the mind of God” or that “God works in mysterious ways”
• But this a non-explanation. Granting for the sake of argument that God exists, there’s a alternative, real explanation of the existence of pain and suffering: that God, though all-powerful and all-knowing, is an nonmoral being indifferent to the pain and suffering of animals and human beings.

Arguments between Atheism and Agnosticism

• Atheism is the view that there are no supernatural beings.
  • That is, it’s rational to believe supernatural beings don’t exist.
• Agnosticism regards the existence of supernatural beings as an open question.
  • That is, it’s not rational to either believe or disbelieve that supernatural beings exist.
• Argument against Atheism:
  • It’s rational to believe supernatural beings don’t exist only if it’s been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. But it hasn’t been.
• Argument for Atheism:
  • It’s reasonable to believe that mermaids don’t exist on the grounds that
    • there’s no credible arguments for their existence, and
    • how the idea of a mermaid developed is explained without postulating their existence.
  • In the same way it’s reasonable to believe that supernatural beings don’t exist on the grounds that
    • there’s no credible arguments for their existence, and
    • how the idea of supernatural beings developed is explained without postulating their existence.