Several problems stood out regarding Jake Moore's article, "Simple logic help's prove God's existence" in the April 6, 2005 edition of the Daily News. First and foremost was why Jake decided to use the Pope's death to segue into his criticism of atheism. Just because this international event received a large amount of media coverage doesn't mean that the general public starts calling into question their belief in a deity. Also, while Jake claims to define atheism correctly as a denial of a belief in a deity, he incorrectly used it by saying that it is a "perspective on religion." This bias view indicates that atheists automatically dislike religion, or that atheism has anything to do with religion. This is clearly false by the definition of atheism, which states, "The denial of the existence of any deity." Some definitions will use "God" or "supreme being" in place of "deity," but for this article, the difference is negligible. The title of Jake's article also betrays him, as it capitalizes "God," when in fact, if it can't be proved that any one god is right (as Jake says), there is no reason to capitalize the title.
Before I address Jake's argument, I would like to point out that this argument form for God's existence, commonly known as the cosmological argument, has been around since the 13th century, when philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas presented it as an adaptation of one of Aristotle's ideas. As soon I saw the title of the argument, I thought to myself, "Proving God's existence in an editorial section of a daily newspaper? Surely he jests." But unfortunately, Jake seems to be certain of his argument. Let's take a look at his first point, which criticizes the atheist for assuming the negative. Why should the atheist have to prove anything? Certainly, Jake would agree that I don't have to prove that small green elves don't exist, simply because none of us have a good, rational reason to believe in them. Nor do I believe that a good, rational reason exists to believe in God. Also, is Jake going to prove to me that it is part of God's "plan" for evil to happen in the world, without using a human-authored book ("The Bible," of course)? If he has such an argument, I would like to hear it. If not, then he certainly cannot assume the positive, i.e., that God exists. Assuming the negative is plausible when there is no clear evidence towards a positive claim.
Jake states that because of our understanding of existence, everything has a beginning and an end. This is quite relative, I think. Energy certainly doesn't seem to have an end that we know of. Nor can any of us conceive of the "end" of the universe as we know it. Following this "understanding of existence," Jake writes that this "God" is somehow exempt from all this, being a "timeless entity" and "exempt from the laws of creation." Why can this not be the universe itself? If "everything" has a beginning and an end, as Jake himself states, then God must have one, too. Certainly this "God" is something. Jake's bold claims raise many questions that he doesn't provide answers to. It seems that "God" was the only answer he needed, and he thinks it intuitively follows from his inquiries. These assumptions are somewhat insulting to those of us who do not openly accept these sketchy, short proofs.
Lastly, trying to hide this proof under the guise of being "respectful" towards those with different beliefs is misleading. Clearly, Jake holds some contempt towards atheists, as he claims that we should "live and let live," unless you're an atheist, of course. Then your beliefs are hard to back up, and perhaps even illogical! Regardless of Jake's personal views, trying to logically prove the existence of God is a hopeless task, especially in approximately 600 words. While his article was enjoyable on an entertainment level (of naivety and pretentiousness, I might add), it only reaffirms that fact that philosophers have known for hundreds of years --- proving the existence of God through logic is a difficult, if not impossible, task.
Write to Sam at
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