Essay on The Spiritual Reality: A Christian Worldview

Belief in God, or deities, is common on the earth, according to several studies, but neither    universal nor immutable. In the Vaughns’ book, the belief in God was 63% in 2014, whilst those who did not believe were 9%. However, the belief in God has balanced significantly by the worldwide pandemic that is taking place at this moment. I came to know God as I grew up, but I personally did my own study of how omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent and omnipresent God is. It is morally permissible to believe in God, since it is an individual's point of view, backed up by personal knowledge, in other words, evidence of the consequence of their conviction.

According to experts, "Belief in God or spiritual reality has shaped societies and transformed history." The term for believing in God is called theism. The functions of the theism constructed temples/churches, influencing others, created art, illustrated holy texts, and produced songs, etc. Many who believe in God have had a sense of purpose, worth, courage and faith, when encountered with a religious experience. William James states “All at once I experienced a feeling of being raised above myself, I felt the presence of God—I tell of the thing just as I was conscious of it—as if his goodness and his power were penetrating me altogether. The throb of emotion was so violent that I could barely tell the boys to pass on and not wait for me. Then, slowly, the ecstasy left my heart; that is, I felt that God had withdrawn the communion which he had granted, and I was able to walk on…” 

When proving the actuality of God, it generates a variety of arguments. Philosophers has sorted these types of claims into two groups. Posteriori arguments are described as those which call for proof of experience. In other terms, Cosmological, teleological, and religious experience arguments. Cosmological arguments aim to prove that God exists regardless of the existence of the world; if the universe exists, then God exists. Thomas Aquinas is an example of this concept; he argues that there must be the first undisguised cause of God. 

Teleological arguments are grounds for the presence of God from the obvious indications of design or intentional creation in the universe to the existence of the supreme designer. That is why the world was created by an intelligent being. William Paley claims, by contrast, that a watch is typically designed by an intelligent designer. This example illustrates how the world/universe was created by an intelligent creator who would be God.

“A prior argument logically derives the conclusion that God exists from concepts of God. Ontological arguments take this form.” Ontological arguments recall the idea of Deity itself. From the concept of God, we can only prove with logic that the supreme being is a fact. For many philosophers, the best reasons for the presence of God come from pure reason. It is necessary to note that even though the arguments do not argue their case, they do not reveal the inexistence of God. The defeat of these claims will only demonstrate that they do not provide a strong reason to believe in the conventional God.

St.Anselm is the first to render an ontological statement. Anselm argues that God is the best thing we can ever think of. Things can only exist in our imaginations, or they can occur. Things that really happen are much better than things that only exist in our imaginations. If God had existed only in our imaginations, he would not have been the best thing we could ever think of, because in fact, God would have been better. Therefore, there must be a God. But a monk named Gaunilo did not agree to Anselm’s statements. Gaunilo has suggested that the best island you can imagine is one where you can swim and relax on a tropical beach and ski down the snow-covered mountains in one afternoon. If you're wondering, you might say, "Hey, this must exist." Otherwise, it wouldn't be the best island because there would be additional better one, that one would have to be real and so on and so forth! Gaunilo is basically implying that you might make the same kind of claim to prove the existence of anything you wanted most – but it would not make it true. Anselm replied to Gaunilo's point by saying that he overlooked the point that the logic only works for the necessary beings, of which there is only one God. 

The explanation for this variety of claims is to provide epistemological justification for believing or not believing in God. But there is also an argument intended to provide pragmatic justification for reasons of presumption that believing in God provides practical advantages. Defining the word "Pragmatism" is the idea that seeking true conviction is less important than finding a belief that works, literally in the existence of your life. An example of this is a French philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, who created the “Pascal Wager”.   

To sum up, "Pascal's Wager," he says that whether God exists or not, it can't hold you back from choosing an answer. He explains by adding that if you choose to believe in God and he exists, you will get the best reward that is heaven. If you want to believe in God, he doesn't exist, so you're at a dead end. If you don't believe in God, and he does exist, you're at a dead end. Lastly , if you don't believe in God because he does exist, you'll get the worst reward in hell. This wager may be very self-explanatory, because common sense, you'd choose the  one that's going to offer the best benefits, right?   But there are some weaknesses in the argument. Basically, taking this route means choosing to submit to this service of an invisible deity by abstaining from opportunities for the things you wanted to do in your life. But that’s not what Pascal was trying to say. He felt a state of security that the world is ordered and meaningful, that someone is always looking out for you no matter what, without judgement or fears. But when it comes to believing without proof, Pascal says that it may be awkward at first, but over time, it will soon become part of your belief system that you will live for your entire life.

All things considered; the belief in the presence of God is a matter that is common all over the world every day. There is written evidence, and there are unsolved questions. But the only thing that matters is what your point of view is, how you feel about it, and how you feel about your lifestyle right now. In my opinion, I am a believer and I have been through a variety of personal experiences where it is impossible not to believe in my perspective. It made me a stronger person both inside and out. In my opinion, I am a believer and I have been through a variety of personal experiences where it is impossible not to believe in my perspective. It made me a stronger person both inside and out.  I leave you with a quote from Mary Margaret Blanchard “Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a powerful thing, but living with that kind of belief. That’s the most powerful thing of all. That’s hope.”