God’s Existence Essay

For different people God is different. For someone it is an abstract power that is an essential part of their life, for others it is a concrete divinity that watches their actions and knows everything about them. Anyway, God is always considered to be loving, caring and unable to hurt people. There are various confessions in the world that gradually convert more and more people, all of them argue with each other defending their doctrines. Along with the popularity of religion, atheism is also widespread. Skeptics, including philosophers and scientists, advance various theories and thus, dispute the existence of God. The absence of evidences of his existence, the contradictions of philosophical concepts and simply the impiety serve the basis for their arguments against God’s existence.

The theory that is one of the most popular among those who do not believe in God is the inconsistence of such phenomena in the world as the omnipotence and God and evil, existing all over the world. The fact that in all the religions God is the supreme and the most beneficent power that rules the world is obvious. Actually, that is why all the faithful worship their gods and ask them for help in some trouble. They do believe in God’s power and submit to the reality. On the other hand, the evil is an essential part of our life, and with time, it grows, thriving in this world.

Nobody can omit evil; it exists despite everything. Thus, the theory grounds on the contradiction of these two phenomena. They are opposite and it is impossible to explain why God lets the evil exist if he rules the world and is, in fact, omnipotent. If the omnipotence of God is hard to believe than consequently the existence of God is also very disputable. The Greek philosopher Epicurus, who lived in the third century BC, is considered the first to phrase his arguments against the existence of God:

“Either God wants to abolish evil and cannot,

or he can but does not want to,

or he cannot and does not want to,

or lastly he can and wants to.

If he wants to remove evil, and cannot,

he is not omnipotent;

If he can, but does not want to,

he is not benevolent;

If he neither can nor wants to,

he is neither omnipotent nor benevolent;

But if God can abolish evil and wants to,

how does evil exist?” (Everitt, 2004, pp. 250)

Those who adhere to this theory claim that the good and the bad are mutually exclusive, that is why the omnipotence of God is disputable. If he knows everything and is able to change any situation, then what is the reason to make people suffer and experience pain?

I am inclined to believe that all points of view have a right to exist and both faithful and atheists are free to hold their opinions. Personally, I am a faithful and I believe in God. Therefore, for me this theory is not persuasive because everything can be explained from a religious point of view. All the evil that exists is a sort of punishment for human sins. Not mentioning such great sins as thefts and murders, we sin every day, lying, raging, and being jealous or proud. God is omnipotent and loving, but at the same time, he is just and strict. Those who claim that God does not hear them or complain on the troubles they have, forget about their own behavior, they forget to ask themselves what they have done wrong to get those difficulties. Nothing is done without leaving a trace; in fact, people are guilty, perhaps indirectly, almost in all problems they have. God is not only a powerful benefactor but also a judge, and those who realize it never dispute the impossibility of simultaneous existence of God and evil.

On the other hand, our life is a continuous trial, as “the process of living is the process of reacting to stress”. (Braine, 1988, pp.15) We have to pass tests in order to develop, to know the delight of victories and the frustration of defeats.

Everything we experience makes us stronger and wiser, provided we take lessons from our past.  Without evil, we would not know the value of the good. This struggle is the basis of our world, it makes it exist and progress.

Moreover, God, as an essential part of the universe, is a component of this contention.

Thus, to make a conclusion I can state that in spite of numerous disputes and arguments for and against the existence of God, every person has his or her own opinion and adheres to it. Having examined the theory of the inconsistence of God and evil, I did not change my opinion that God exists and is omnipotent, while the subsistence of evil just means the supreme justice in the world, performed by God.