I knew there was a reason I never pined to be a philosophy major in college. Although Descartes gets my vote for being eminently mathematical and practical.
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Addendum from my uncle:
There were five “proofs” in my day, and two arguments why there couldn’t be a God.
What all these arguments (pro and con) lack, even the ones which are “sufficient” is that they aren’t “necessary.” They might explain how God might be possible, or not possible, (some better than others) but they don’t PROVE the existence or nonexistence of God.
Therefore, they fail to accomplish what they purport to do: prove the existence of God.
You’ll notice Pascal’s Wager is not among them. That’s because it isn’t a proof, but a means of choosing among choices.
My reading of Christian theory about God (as opposed to what the Bible says, since it assumes that God exists and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool) is that God designed the universe so his presence (or absence) CAN’T be proved. That forces each of us to believe and act on your belief for our own reasons, not because you “have to.” It’s a blend of Free Will, Faith and Love.
I’m almost sorry I wasted all those college courses on philosophy (though it’s occasionally fun to throw our that I majored in philosophy in college–a more useless degree I cannot imagine), except that it prepared me not to believe anything advertisers or politicians say–even if I want to believe it. (“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.”)
On the other hand, it cleared the decks for me to not waste time on either these proofs or Darwinism or naturalism or whatever is seeking the ruling principle of my life. Otherwise, we (serious philosophers) spend all out time trying to define terms because none of us mean quite the same thing by the same words (see “logical positivism”). Most modern philosophers are either apologists for science or mystics. (Not to be confused with ethicists, who are usually the most intellectually immoral people existing.)
More than you probably wanted to know. And certainly more than I intended to say.
