Omnipotence

The final skeptical argument that Descartes offers is the argument from God’s omnipotent power (Class notes, Week 1). This argument is different from the first two arguments because it is calling into question God’s omnipotent power to deceive us into believing what is true is actually false. Descartes arrives to this argument because after the dream argument he admits that though he maybe dreaming, there are things in that world that remain consistent whether the senses were fooled or not.…

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” These are the sage remarks of the third century BCE Greek philosopher Epicurus who founded the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. He taught the purpose of life was to obtain tranquility and peace with the avoidance of pain and suffering. Epicurus rejected…

The problem of evil has been a consistent argument coming from both theists and atheists for ages. In this paper the argument will be examined from both sides, the article A Simpler Free Will Defense” will be summarized, and I will analyze the article and additionally explain why my side of the argument is correct. The question that stands is “if there is a God how does he let evil occur?” Is it that this God cannot prevent the evil, which goes against the typical theist view that God is…

The problem of evil is one of the most tenacious challenges to God’s existence and has been a very important topic of debate between theists and atheist philosophers. According to theists, God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. These are characteristics that must be believed with full faith if one is committed to worshipping God. However, the issue arises when the existence of evil is brought into the conversation.. The existence of evil is accepted by the majority of humans,…

In this essay, I will defend for the existence of God. First I will present Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God on the claim that he is the greatest conceivable being, then I will present Gaunilo’s objection for the unsoundness of Anselm’s argument on the claim of which there are no set limitations for the characteristic of the greatness, which I think fails. I will show that Anselm’s ontological argument can withstand Gaunilo’s objection by emphasizing the maximal…

Faith in God Here we were at the end of the summer visiting the same holy place thrice. It was back then in 2011 that we planned for the visit. My mother is a devotee to god and follows the omen and luck charm strictly. I was fed up growing in religious boundary. Though our visiting was for the religious purpose, I felt the fun in it. Journey started on the cold morning. We packed our bag for a week long journey. For a group of people, a car was reserved. Walking for a straight one day was long…

Can evil exist without good? Evil cannot exist without good because they are the structure of humanity and existence. Good and evil coexist together, and if you simply get rid of one you also take away the other. If there was only good, and no evil, it would not necessarily be considered good. Society would just view it as normal because there would be nothing to compare our actions to. The world is all about opposites. For instance, yin and yang (dark and light), one cannot exist without the…

Descartes argues that the only way to arrive at the truth is to postpone on judgment until something is “clearly and distinctly understood.” He comes to this conclusion by first stating that as a creation of God we are imbued with free will and understanding, and since God is a being of ultimate goodness, he therefore would not imbue us with gifts that would deceive us as “trickery or deception are always indicative of some imperfection (54).” Descartes also posits that although humans are made…

ANSELM: Like Augustine, Anselm used both faith and reason in his investigation for truth. In his view, Faith comes first but reason should follow, giving reasons for what human beings believe. Anselm’s monks asked him to write a model reflection on God in which everything would be proved by reason and nothing on the authority of Scripture. He replied with his “Monologion”. It contains three proofs of the existence of God, all of which are based on Neoplatonic thought. The first proof moves from…

The Existence of God and the Devil Demon In Descartes’s piece of philosophical writing, “Meditations on First Philosophy”, he argues that he has the idea of God, therefore God exists. In my paper, I will contend that the same argument will not apply for the possibility of the Evil Demon. In the beginning of the Meditations, Descartes claims if he want to establish the stability of anything in science, he must start over from the foundations. He set the standard for knowledge, which must be…