General Meeting #3

General Meeting #3

Does God exist?

Here's what you missed!

In our last meeting we were posed with the question “does God exist?” this simple question might be clear to us for a number of reasons but defending it against harsh critics might become challenging. Fr. Pellessier was able to give us a couple of points to defend our belief that God does exist and help strengthen our arguments for God’s existence. Understanding these arguments, even if you are already convinced that God does exist, can help you grow in your relationship with God the Father.  Since the existence of God can not be watered down to one simple fact, it is impossible to give every possible reason for God’s existence in one talk or blog post. In focusing on some of the popular arguments for God’s existence, we can them formulate our own subarguments using the points given. Essentially, everyone believes what they believe for different reasons what may convict you might not convict someone else. For some, the beauty of nature might convict them, and for others, a 12 page theological argument might convict them. Thankfully we serve a God who can tailor to each of us in specific ways and seek each of us out individually. Here is a brief outline of the fifteen points presented by Fr. Pellessier.

Outline

1. Pascal's Wager - Betting for God is a win-win situation because in the end, if God doesn’t exist, you still lived a happy life.

2. Happiness - Believers are happy.

3. A Priori Knowledge - from The Latin phrases a priori (“from what is before”) because perfect beings can exist, there is a perfect God.

4. Most people believe in religion - give in to positive peer pressure.

5. Saints and Sages believe in God - people who are known for being wise believe in God (more positive peer pressure).

6. Miracles - Tilma (do I even need to say anything else?) Miracle workers never take credit for the things they have done and always attribute their works to God. 

7. Nature - Not just the beauty of nature but the law of motion. Something or SOMEONE had to set the world in motion.

8. Existence - No first cause.

9. Contingency - If our existence is based on something of this world, that can only be traced back so far but God spans across all time.

10. Perfection - Judgement of value has objective worth

11. Design - A book is not an explosion in an ink factory (mic. drop.)

12. Subjective - Mathematics was not invented but discovered, in this same way, the truth of God is for us to discover, not invent.

13. Violation of conscience - There is always something behind or conscience with real definitive authority. 

14. Desire - Our natural desires correspond to something real and tangible but the desires beyond that are hard to define. Denying our desire for things beyond the natural world means denying there is any ultimate good we are working toward and in turn life just a passing phase without any real meaning. If life is full of appetizers and there is no main course, what’s the point of life? 

15. Bach exists thus God exists.

Announcements

- Halloween Party next meeting! Be sure to get with your group to coordinate your costumes!

- Thanks to those of you who make it to meetings and are committed to John 15!

Praise God for you! | Communications Coordinator | Haley M. Gauthier | +JMJ+