{"id":26926,"date":"2021-02-03T13:09:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T17:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=26926"},"modified":"2021-02-14T21:13:18","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T01:13:18","slug":"proof-there-is-no-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/proof-there-is-no-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Proof There Is No God: Why God Is Logically Unlikely"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Is there proof there is no God? How likely is it that God exists?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>The God Delusion<\/em>, Richard Dawkins explains that while we don&#8217;t have definitive proof there is no God, it is extremely unlikely. Particularly when it comes to creationism, arguments tend to be extremely weak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to find out whether or not there&#8217;s proof there is no God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Proof There Is No God: The Unlikelihood of God\u2019s Existence<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the last chapter, we talked about the extraordinary claims made by religion, all of which would have a significant impact on the world if they were true. In this chapter, we will evaluate the <em>likelihood <\/em>of the theistic position we explored in the last chapter. Specifically, we\u2019ll:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Explore some of the most common arguments that theists put forward for the existence of God\u2014and expose their fundamental weaknesses<\/li><li>Examine how science, and particularly the theory of evolution by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/natural-selection-in-evolution\/\">natural selection<\/a>, offers a more durable, testable, and evidence-based explanation than religion for the things we observe in the world<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Weakness of Creationism&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Not everyone believes that there&#8217;s proof there is no God. Most arguments for God\u2019s existence postulate a supreme designer, similar to the figure we discussed in the previous chapter. Proponents of this belief are called creationists.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Creationists believe that the universe we observe is the handiwork of an intelligent designer who consciously and knowingly created everything<\/strong>, from the movement of galaxies throughout the universe to the orbit of electrons within an atom. For creationists, an intelligent God is the ultimate and simple explanation for everything.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The medieval Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas, writing in the 13th century, argued that all things must have a primary cause and that the mere <em>existence <\/em>of physical things proved the existence of God. He reasoned that there must have been a time <em>before <\/em>physical things existed. But that meant that a non-physical force must have, at some point, brought the physical world into existence. For Aquinas, that force could only have been God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this is where the \u201csimple\u201d theistic position begins to fall apart. <strong>If all things can be said to have their root cause in an intelligent God, then one must raise the obvious question\u2014what is the root cause of God? Who designed the designer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the fundamental flaw at the heart of most theistic arguments. You can postulate an infinite regression of the physical universe that terminates with God. But if you can\u2019t explain the existence of God in the first place, the argument collapses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is there proof there is no God? How likely is it that God exists? In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins explains that while we don&#8217;t have definitive proof there is no God, it is extremely unlikely. Particularly when it comes to creationism, arguments tend to be extremely weak. Keep reading to find out whether or not there&#8217;s proof there is no God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,39,21],"tags":[210],"class_list":["post-26926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-history","category-philosophy","tag-the-god-delusion","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Proof There Is No God: Why God Is Logically Unlikely - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is there proof there is no God? Not exactly\u2014but the existence of a God is extremely unlikely. Here&#039;s all of the important evidence.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/proof-there-is-no-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Proof There Is No God: Why God Is Logically Unlikely\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is there proof there is no God? Not exactly\u2014but the existence of a God is extremely unlikely. 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