Does God Exist Essay

In the vast study of philosophy, a particular question has baffled even the most intelligent minds. This question is, “Does God exist?” Philosophers have considered the answer to this question for centuries, each coming up with their own argument and reasons behind their thinking. A platform of debate often used is Antony Flew’s parable of the two explorers, who find a garden so beautiful, that one of the explorers is positive that there must be a gardener tending to it, even if he can’t be detected in any way. The other explorer is not so easily convinced that a gardener exists at all. This is an analogy for the theists, who believe in God without any proof, and the atheists, who cannot be convinced of God’s existence because there is no tangible …show more content…
Because he cannot detect God in any way, he cannot be convinced of his existence, making him an atheist. The atheist in this story could respond to the theist through a number of viewpoints. One perspective comes from Sigmund Freud who believed religion was in place because of the human need to feel secure. Palmer elaborates, “According to Freud, religion is for weaklings, for people who need delusions to accompany them into the harshness of the world” (Palmer 182). If the atheist used this perspective when responding to the theist, his point of view would mirror this. He would ask the his fellow explorer why he feels more secure when he can blame the existence of the beautiful garden on the gardener, instead of just accepting that the natural garden is just beautiful. Another perspective that the atheist explorer might use comes from Richard Dawkins who built his theories from Charles Darwin and his theory of natural selection. Dawkins rejects any theory that has God as a creator because he believes Darwin’s theories of evolution which has no need for God to exist. Instead Dawkins’s theory states, “Any creative intelligence, of sufficient complexity to design anything, comes into existence only as the end product of an extended process of gradual evolution” (Palmer 186). Dawkins believes, that given enough time and through a trial and error process, anything can be created. With this ideology in mind, the atheist could respond to the theist by telling him he is silly for thinking an invisible gardener is the cause of the garden. The atheist would explain to the theist that there could have been a time where it was less beautiful, but through trial and error, it has gotten to be as beautiful as they found it. As a biology major, Dawkins’s viewpoint resonates with me the most because I wholeheartedly believe in evolution and that anything that exists