The Existence of God

In this paper I am going to discuss the existence of God. Some people believe that God does exist and others do not. Many people have written novels and articles about their belief of God. Cardinal Newman believes that there is a God and he is everlasting. Bertrand Russell, on the other hand, says that there is no first cause because if there was, God must also have something before him. Thomas Henry Huxley believes that a person's belief of God is based on their faith and what they choose to believe in. Also, the only acceptable form of evidence is tangible. I believe that Huxley is correct. The existence of God is a based on what one believes in. Although, if I am going to believe in God, I must have acceptable evidence, which Huxley states as being tangible. The existence of God all comes down to is a person's faith. If you believe in God you do because of your own faith. If one does not believe in God, it is because they don't have faith in Him.

A traditional argument for the evidence of God has been presented by Cardinal Newman. He says that reason shows you there must be a God. There must be a God because there is no other way this universe could have been made. It is not man-made because man is "but a part of it." God is everlasting, meaning he cannot grow or decay nor be made or destroyed. Therefore, God has no beginning and will have no end. He will always remain the same. He had no beginning, because if he did, who brought him into being? There must be two Gods if you believe that. There is but one God and he is everlasting. Since God was not created, nothing can interfere or affect it. Because it is completely independent, everything and everyone depends on it but it depends on nothing (Newman 2-3).

Not everyone accepts the argument that there must be a first cause - a creator, a God. For example, Bertrand Russell says the idea of a first cause is not valid. He did believe in the first cause until he was eighteen and came across this sentence, "Who made me?" because it further suggests, "Who made God?" this made him believe that if everything had a first cause, God does also. The argument is no better than the Hindu's view: "The world rested on an elephant and the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, "How about the tortoise?" the Indian said, "Suppose we change the subject.'" The only reason people believe that everything has a beginning is due to their imagination and the desire to know. Therefore, the world had no beginning or the thought of a beginning is just due to the poverty of our imagination (Russell 6-7).

Another approach to the belief in God is simply faith. Every action and form or reasoning is