A dispute · spans 4 eras
Does God Exist?
Three families of argument, three centuries of counter-argument.
The classical theistic proofs come in three flavors: ontological (from the very concept of God – Anselm, Descartes), cosmological (from the existence of anything contingent – Aquinas, Leibniz), and teleological (from the apparent design of the world – Aquinas, Paley). Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion devastated the design argument; Kant showed the ontological argument illegitimately treats existence as a predicate; Russell publicly debated the cosmological argument with Father Copleston in 1948. The arguments still have defenders. They still have critics. Nobody has knocked the other side out.
// The sides
Theist arguments
The very existence of God can be shown by reason alone – whether from the concept of a perfect being or from the contingency and order of the world itself.
The Wager
The wager stands apart from the proofs. Reason cannot settle whether God exists, and for that very reason the question falls to the will of a creature who must stake a life one way or another. Pascal held the metaphysical proofs to be inert – they convince the head and never move the person.