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Is it possible to prove that God exists?

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Well, probably not, but it hasn't
stopped people trying over the years.

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You see, it's not enough for some
people to believe there's a God

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just because it says so in a holy book.

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'How do I know the holy
book is true?' they say,

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and the answer,'Because God wrote it',

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doesn't seem to satisfy them.

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'Ah! But what about religious experiences?'
say the believers,

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'Surely they prove that God exists?'

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Well, not necessarily.

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People who say they've had religious
experiences could be mistaken,

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or making it up or... mad.

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Science and coincidence can
often explain the rest.

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'So where does our sense of
right and wrong come from?'

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say the believers, 'it
must come from God'.

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Well, again, not necessarily.

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Humans could have worked
it out for themselves.

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For example:

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If a man is living in a small community,

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it's not going to work if
he steals someone's food;

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sleeps with someone's wife,

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or shoots someone's brother.

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And if he did,

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the rest of the community would
have something to say about it,

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probably along the lines of,
'Don't do that! It's wrong.'

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While the search for
solid evidence goes on,

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there are three main arguments that try
to prove from what we already know,

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that there is, without any doubt, a God.

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So, let's start with the
Cosmological Argument.

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Or, First Cause Argument,
which goes like this:

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God must exist, because who else
could've made the universe?

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Everything has a cause,
nothing just happens.

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A vase doesn't smash by itself; 
a ball doesn't bounce by itself;

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a child doesn't just suddenly appear.

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They all have causes, and so, 
the argument goes,

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the universe must have a cause as well:
a First Cause,

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therefore, God exists.

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And what caused us?

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We don't have to be here, but we are,

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so something or, someone,

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must've had a reason for creating us,

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or, to put it another way:

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the universe is big, in fact,

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the universe is a bigger place
than it's comfortable to imagine.

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Each person is a tiny dot on the planet,

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which is an even tinier
dot in the solar system,

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which is an even tinier dot in the galaxy;

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which is an even tinier
dot in the universe.

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If we didn't exist, the cosmos
wouldn't even notice,

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and yet, here we are.

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So there must be a cause -
therefore, God exists.

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But there are problems with this argument.

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It's all built on the idea
that everything has a cause,

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so who, or what, caused God?

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And, if the universe is so big,

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then it's highly likely, that in all that space,

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with countless billions
of planets to choose from,

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other life forms exist on some of them,

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and like our alien friends,

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we could be here just because we got lucky.

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The Teleological Argument,
fortunately also known as

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the Argument from Design,

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states that because the world is the 
perfect environment for humans to live in,

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it must've been designed
specifically with humans in mind,

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therefore, God exists.

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In 1802, a man called William Paley
had a best-seller on his hands

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when he wrote an explanation
of the argument.

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It goes like this:

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Say you're walking in the
country and you find a stone.

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You pick it up and look at it.

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It doesn't do anything,
however much you shake it,

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the stone obviously has no purpose,

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so you throw it away.

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You walk on a bit and find a watch.

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You pick it up and look at it.

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It ticks, it has numbers,
it has hands that go round.

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Unlike the stone, it's obvious
that the watch has a purpose,

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and so it must've been
designed by someone.

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Now, take a look at the at the world.

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It's the perfect environment
for human beings.

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There's air, food and water.

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It's the right temperature.

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It has the right amount of gravity

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and everything seems to work together

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to provide humans with a good home.

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It's obvious that it has a purpose.

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In fact, it's just the sort of place

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someone might design
for humans to live in.

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'Well,' said Mr Paley,'it's staring
you in the face isn't it?'

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'It was designed. Therefore, God exists.'

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For a little while, this
argument seemed to clinch it.

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Nice one, Mr Paley.

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But then, along came Charles Darwin

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and turned the whole
argument on its head.

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'The world', he said,
'wasn't made to suit people,'

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'people changed to suit the world'.

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The Earth appeared by chance,

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and as plants and animals grew,

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they adapted over millions of years,

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to deal with what was already here.

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That wasn't the only problem
with the Argument from Design.

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People pointed out that
the design isn't perfect.

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There are lots of dangerous
and nasty things out there.

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Diseases, for example,
that spread without check,

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causing suffering and death.

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'So, if the world was designed', they
said, 'this must be the prototype',

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and as a parting shot they added,

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'If God designed us,
then who designed God?'

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So, that just about wrapped it
up for the Teleological Argument.

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But there's one more to look at:

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The Ontological Argument,

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and it's a bit of a mind mangler.

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It goes like this:

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If God is the greatest being in
the universe, then he must exist,

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because if he doesn't exist,

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he wouldn't be the greatest
being in the universe.

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Therefore, God exists.

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Or, to put it another way:

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something that exists is greater
than something that doesn't exist,

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so in order for God to be the greatest
possible being in the universe,

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he must exist.

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The general opinion of this argument

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is that it's trying to confuse
people into believing in God.

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Eminent philosophers are divided
on whether it's brilliant,

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or a bucket full of gibbon dribble.

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But it's not as mad as it might sound.

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Describing something in a certain way

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can sometimes mean that it must exist.

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For example:

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The tallest man alive.

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Even if you had never met
the tallest man alive,

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you would know that he exists,

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because somewhere in the
world there is a man

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who's taller than the
second tallest man alive.

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Therefore, the tallest
man alive must exist.

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Or, think of how you would
describe a triangle -

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a three sided shape.

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As soon as you start mucking about
with the number of sides it has,

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it stops being a triangle.

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A three sided shaped is always,
by definition, a triangle.

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So what about the description of God
as the greatest possible being?

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Philosophers have argued that
something doesn't have to exist

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for it to be great.

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Greatness is so hard to define.

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Someone could describe the
greatest possible chocolate bar,

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the size of a tower block and
full of marshmallow pieces,

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but that doesn't mean it must exist.

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But if it doesn't exist,

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then can it really be called 'the greatest'?

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And, so on ...

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... but you can argue about the
meaning of words as much as you like.

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The Ontological Argument doesn't
prove the existence of God.

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These arguments have made many
theologians, philosophers and scientists

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very famous over the years,

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but they have failed to
prove that God exists.

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But then, no one has managed to prove
that God doesn't exist either.

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Some would say that it's pointless
to try and prove or disprove

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the existence of a God
who is, if he exists,

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completely beyond our
understanding anyway.

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In the end, what it
comes down to is this:

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Do you believe in God, or not?