God Existence Essays (1348 words) - , Term Papers

God Existence If you take a look up out in the sky on a seemingly clear night, try and ask yourself how the stars, the moon and everything else came to be. Again the question of existence takes over your mind the same way it did everyone else's years ago. How did the world begin? What was the cause? Who was the cause? A couple of weeks ago, I had the most interesting conversation with my brother. Actually, it was more like a provoked conversation to help me begin this paper. I asked him, "Do you believe that there is a God? A God who is said to be creator of all things, the one responsible for life and everything that happens to it? A being so mighty and great?" Of course, like he and any other catholic would say, "yes!" From there I was anxious to begin an argument based on what I had learned from the previous topics in my philosophy class on the existence of God. I asked him how one can attach himself to such belief based on what others say, what he has heard and from a holy book that was said to have come from God but dictated by man? How could he put all reason of existence behind nothing he has experienced on his own but only what others claim they have? Then a light shined on me. I was expecting him to give me reasons that questioned my faith. Instead, he casually turned and threw a question back at me. "Do you believe that there is such a thing as one million dollars?" I hesitantly answered, "yes," knowing what he was coming to. And then he asked me if I have ever seen one million dollars? I replied, "no". From there I saw his point. "What we believe has nothing to do with whether God exists." -Daniel Kolak I was never raised with a solid basis of Christian influence. In fact, I was never made to attend Sunday school where I would be taught the whole essence of my religion. I did though, go to mass every Sunday with my family, only to find it very funny how I did not really know or understand anything about the religion. I did not base my belief on God because of books and conditioned teachings because I was never exposed to any. In truth, I do not base it on anything at all. I don't need to listen to proofs formulated by scientists and philosophers such as St. Thomas Aquinas and his Five Cosmological proofs. I do not need to hear the story on how it was said that Jesus Christ saved us all, or about Moses and the Ten Commandments. I don't know why but I just do. Don't get me wrong, I have not closed my mind on this belief about God. I have learned that it is not good to attach our self to anything and close all doors on other possible ideas. "Being able to shift points of view is one of the main skills philosophy has to offer, not so much for the purposes of changing our views, but for the purpose of freeing ourselves from attachment of our own point of view so that we can really see and understand other's points of view." -Daniel Kolak This is where the role of your philosophy class came into place. It was more so to enable me to understand the other side and take on another perspective in hope that I will learn more about the ideals that I believe in. So why is it that philosophy teachers should be limited and restricted in accordance to the institution? Why is it that they are treated as a threat to Christianity and the teachings of religious schools? When in reality, all that these teachers are doing is allowing their students to grow by understanding something at all angles and allowing them to think for themselves. "...but they cannot harm nor destroy God, if there is a God." I took this line right out of the reading for it gave such a big impact. A line that should be posted, for all religious believers who are appalled when an atheist speaks his/her mind, to see. Why are these people so threatened? Can't their faith withstand the striking? Or is it not strong enough? When I heard your lectures, read your readings and read my own selected reading, I came to see the other side of