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In two of my previous articles for Think, ‘Do Souls Exist?’ and ‘Does Free Will Exist?’, I laid out the reasons most philosophers don't believe that souls or (libertarian) free will exists.1 Some insist that such revelations entail that God does not exist; they do not. Indeed, the reasons philosophers cite for the non-existence of God usually have nothing to do with either topic.2 Still, most philosophers (73 per cent) do not believe that God exists.3 Indeed, when compared to the general population, atheism is highest among academics (Attwood 2008); and when compared to other academics, atheism is highest among philosophers.4 In fact, the longer one studies philosophy, the more likely one is to be an atheist.5 So to complete my ‘Does X Exist’ trilogy for Think, I would like to lay out the reasons philosophers most often cite for not believing in God.
To do so, I am going to (a) explain why the most powerful arguments for God's existence fail, (b) show why the most powerful argument against God's existence is successful, and (c) explain why the respective failure and success of these arguments generally convince philosophers to avoid theism.6 In doing so, I mean to show not only why most philosophers reject belief in the perfect ‘tri-omni’ (omniscient, omnipotent, and omni-benevolent) God of traditional theism, but why they reject the idea that any kind of deity exists. (Consequently, I will essentially be using the terms ‘God’ and ‘deity’ interchangeably throughout.)
The Arguments for God's Existence Fail
Undoubtably, the most persuasive arguments for God's existence are the Kalam cosmological argument (which suggests that God caused the universe) and the fine-tuning theological argument (which suggests that God designed it). Now, in truth, even if our universe needs a cause or designer, it need not necessarily be the perfect God of traditional theism. Still, establishing the existence of such a cause or designer would go a long way towards vindicating theism. As we shall now see, however, both arguments fail to do so.
The Kalam Cosmological Argument
The Kalam cosmological argument was originally formulated to make up for certain deficiencies in other cosmological arguments.7 It gets its name from the ʿIlm al-Kalām, a Muslim school...