Logic cannot prove the existence of God

Logic cannot prove the existence of God


There are those that would agree with this statement, such as atheists like Hume who would argued that existence can’t be proved using reason as we need both observation and empirical evidence to prove God’s true existence. Others argue that faith doesn’t need logic in order to prove the existence of God, through believing in his existence he exists, alongside knowledge from revelation in the Bible. Kant argues that existence is not a predicate of God, it adds nothing to our knowledge of God, and so we cannot just assume that he exists. It is impossible to compare God to a perfect island, just because he appears to perfect does not mean we can assume he exists; applying logic to a being doesn’t bring it into existence.

Others would argue that God’s existence is logically necessary. It could be argued that philosophers like Plato use logic and reason to prove God’s existence for example in the allegory of the cave. Anselm would have disagreed with this statement completely as he clearly thought that God could be proved by logic and reason alone. His ontological argument relies upon using logic as he deducted, he argues that God is, ‘than that which nothing greater can be conceived’ thereby if there is nothing greater than the most Supreme Being conceivable, the most Supreme Being must exist. Thus his entire argument is based upon the foundation of logic in order to prove God’s existence. Similarly Descartes would have also disagreed with this statement as he felt it was as logically necessary for God to exist in the same way that it was logically necessary for triangles to have three sides and three angles. Those who accept Descartes idea that God is a ‘supremely perfect being’ leads to accepting the logical conclusion that God must exist.

In conclusion it appears that logic cannot prove the existence of God, as just because we can identify something as having the capabilities to exist doesn’t mean it exist. Similarly logic doesn’t prove existence as...

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