Argument from Argumentation
“Prove God exists”
To prove a proposition means to provide evidence in logical sequence sufficient to convince a rational judge freely to assent to the truth of the proposition.
This is impossible in a cosmos without free will. All things in nature are determined by necessity. Therefore free will is supernatural.
All natural biological process are determined by mechanical molecular motions, including brain processes. Therefore rational thought is supernatural.
Rational thought operates by laws of logic, which are purely formal, and exist without duration, location or extension. All things in nature have duration, location, extension. Therefore the laws of logic are supernatural.
Natural things are governed by necessity, therefore supernatural things are not. If not governed by necessity, must be governed by volition, that is, willed, decided, decreed, enacted.
If free will, rational thought, laws of logic, did not arise from necessity, they arose from volition.
Human will did not create human mental faculties such as free will or rational thought. Nor, by definition, could these arise from prehuman apelike ancestors who lacked free will or reason.
Creation is an act of volition. Volition does not arise in nature. Therefore the volition which gave rise to human nature and granted the faculties of free will and rational thought, as well as ordaining nature to be bound by the laws of logic was superhuman and supernatural.
And this all men know to be God.
Therefore the request to prove that God exists, by itself, on its own terms, proves God exists.
Personal note: I used to be an atheist and serve the atheist cause. I could construct a rigorous argument to challenge each of these steps given above.
Sad experience shows that no modern atheist, following Dawkins and Hitchens, is likely to do so. Modern atheists are weak-minded, sophomoric, emotional and girlish. None can follow a syllogism of three steps. Instead of proofs, they offer irrelevance, ambiguity, ad hominem, petitio principii. They are a disgrace to the cause I once served.
I am happy to serve on the opposing side now, in the company of Thomas Aquinas, John of Damascus, Aristotle, and all the logical minds of history.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
