Thanks to Rich Shipe for alerting me to this listing of Ten Arguments for the Existence of God. Some of them I had never heard of before (e.g., the argument from aesthetics; the argument from arguments; the argument from evil).
Of course, such arguments are not the basis for true faith. Few of us believe in God because of such chains of reasoning. And to know there is a God tells us nothing about His disposition to us. For that we need Him to reveal Himself to us, which He does in His Word. And such arguments tell us nothing about Christ, that God has come in the flesh as a human being. And such arguments tell us nothing about the Cross, how the incarnate deity took into Himself the world’s sin and suffering to redeem us all. (That point has always seemed to be a powerful response to the problem of evil put forward as an argument against God’s existence.)
Still, these arguments are intriguing and helpful in their own spheres, and an answer to the assumption that religious belief is somehow anti-rational.
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“Still, these arguments are intriguing and helpful in their own spheres, and an answer to the assumption that religious belief is somehow anti-rational.”
Exactly you may have reason to believe, and still believe. Some of what we believe cannot be explained without revelation, but it is not irrational for us to believe in say the Trinity, because we have sufficient reason to believe what Christ says about himself, the Father, and the Holy Spirit.
Evidence for the Christian faith does not undermine the Christian faith. Many people point to doubting Thomas and what Christ says about blessed are those who don’t see and yet believe. I like to point out though that Thomas did believe for seeing, and was no less blessed by that faith for having seen the nail holes. In fact his doubt led to a blessing for many of us.
“Argument from aesthetics” I have theorized along these lines. Put another way: How might we explain the origins of beauty? Beauty is happening all around us, and there is also the gift that we have the capability to appreciate it.