Does the universe imply the existence of God?

Does the universe imply the existence of God?

This section of the course begins by outlining the traditional philosophical concept of God as the transcendent, omniscient, ommipotent and omnibenevolent being and examines whether these qualities are singly and jointly consistent in light of puzzles such as the paradox of the stone and challenges like the compatibility of human free will and God’s foreknowledge of our future actions. Each of the three major approaches to establishing the certainty or probability of God’s existence are considered, starting with the ontological argument which seeks to prove god existence purely from the concept of God as a necessary being. The Cosmological argument, which seeks to establish God’s existence from the necessity of a cause to the universe is presented both in its Islamic Golden age expression in Al-ghalizali as well as it’s presentation in foundational christian scholastic works such as the summa theologica of Thomas Acquinas.  The Design argument takes the universe’s features of design as grounds to reason that their probable author is God. The Problem of Evil considers two defences (theodicies) to the claim that God’s existence must be considered unlikely or impossible given the character and extent of evil in their ‘creation’. The freewill defence argues that this evil is the unavoidable cost we pay for free will and that this free-will is more valuble than a world without suffering. The Soul making approach of Hick’s argues that the world is a vale of soul making, not a home for God’s pets and that God must have some distance from the events world in allowing evil or faith would not be free. Finally the topic Religious language considers the challenge posed to religious claims by philosophical positions such as verificationism and falsificationism which argue that only claims capable of empirical demonstration or disproof should be considered meaningful.