The Encyclopedia of World Religions

God, the existence of S 177

to be fully human, God had to create people who could freely choose both good and evil. Others simply admit that there is no good answer to these questions. DOES GOD EXIST? In ancient Greece the philosopher Xenophanes noted that people made the gods in their own image. He noted: “if oxen and horses . . . had hands, . . . horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses, and oxen like oxen” (fragment 15). In the time since Xenophanes, many philoso phers and theologians have tried to prove that God exists ( see G OD , THE EXISTENCE OF ). In the 19th and 20th centuries, some promi nent thinkers disagreed. The philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach said that God was simply a projection of what humans valued most. Karl M ARX , Émile D URKHEIM , and Sigmund F REUD expressed similar ideas. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution caused many to doubt God’s creative activity ( see EVO LUTION AND RELIGION ). The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche celebrated “the death of God.” Nevertheless, at the end of the 20th century an overwhelming majority of North Americans still believed in God. Further reading: Karen Armstrong, A History of God (New York: Knopf, 1993); John Bowker, God: A Brief History (New York: DK Publishing, 2002); Jean Daniélou, God and the Ways of Knowing (Cleveland: World, 1960); Richard H. Niebuhr, Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (New York: Harper, 1960).

In addition to identifying the attributes of God, philosophers and theologians have tried to identify how God relates to the universe. On one extreme is God’s transcendence: God is totally other. On the other is God’s immanence: God is in the world (panentheism) or identical with it (pantheism). Finally, some religions have adopted specific doctrines about God. Examples include the Chris tian ideas of the TRINITY and INCARNATION . WHAT DOES GOD DO? Some Hindus say that God creates the world, pre serves it, and destroys it. God does these things in the form of three gods: B RAHMA , Vishnu, and Siva. Traditional Christians say that God both creates the universe and redeems fallen humanity. Gnostics deny that God created the world. For them, God simply redeems the particles of light that creation dispersed among particles of darkness. In the 20th century, some philosophers and theologians sug gested that God was not active at the beginning but will be at the end of the world. That is, God is the supreme good to which all the universe is tending. HOW COULD GOD . . .? Jews, Christians, and Muslims have puzzled over two questions about God for centuries. The first question sets God’s omniscience—his knowledge of everything—against the ability of human beings to act freely ( see FREE WILL AND DETERMINISM ). The question runs: If God knows everything, then God knows what I am going to do in the future; in that case, how can I act of my own free will? Many thinkers have proposed subtle answers to this question. Others simply assert that God knows everything, and that human beings act freely. They do not try to resolve the paradox. A second question sets God’s omnipotence— his ability to do everything—against God’s good ness ( see THEODICY ). If God is both omnipotent and good, why do evil and bad things happen, especially to the good? Why does God allow some babies to be born without brains? Why does God allow people to torture and execute each other by the millions? To answer the second question, some appeal to “free will.” In order for human beings

God, the existence of A standard topic in the philosophy of religion. Because God does not appear to our human senses the way a chair or a desk or even these words do, how do we know God exists?

CLASSICAL ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

Philosophers and theologians have proposed many arguments to prove that God exists. Perhaps