Philosophy of Religion: The Existence of God

Philosophy of Religion: The Existence of God
Introduction
One of the religious issues that philosophy explores is the existence of God. Philosophy has attempted to prove that God exists, and the way that the discipline has used is analyzing the mind and engaging the perspectives on morality (Baggett and Walls 5). There are various moral arguments about God’s existence. One of the philosophers who developed the moral arguments about God’s existence was Emmanuel Kant. Kant said that his arguments about God’s existence were not theoretical. He said that his arguments were based practical reasons that qualified God’s existence. The paper explores the moral arguments of the existence of God from the philosophical perspective. Philosophy supports the notion of God’s existence. Some philosophers have given philosophical explanations that prove God’s existence. However, some philosophers gave the perspectives that discredited God’s Existence.
Kant’s Philosophy on the existence of God
Kant argued that the morality of God’s existence is grounded on practical reasons. Kant also stated that the moral agent (God) acts using the maxims that apply the universal principles (Kant 650). Kant’s arguments about morality and God’s existence show that the aim of morality is to achieve the highest good. When humans achieve the highest good through their moral actions, Kant explains that they maximize happiness and other virtues. Humans have the duty to seek the highest good so that they can achieve happiness and virtue (Kant 650). However, as they seek the highest good, the role of morality is to guide their actions so that they do not have bad consequences on other people. Achieving the highest good, therefore, requires that humans act according to what morality requires them to do. However, Kant notes that humans have several weaknesses that prevent them from acting according to the moral requirements. God’s existence, according to Kant, is a rational presupposition that exists before the moral life. In other words, God is the source of morality. Humans cannot overcome their weaknesses that prevent them from acting morally if the ignore the moral agent, God. God’s existence, according to Kant, therefore, is the reference point of morality.
Kant’s philosophy on the existence of God relies on priori, which is the pure and practical reason. The priori, according to Kant, is what credits and explains God’s existence. Kant would disagree with the criticisms that Adams leveled against his explanations because in his view, the priori is what explains the ends of morality. Kant also admits that reason alone is not adequate to achieve morality. Kant shows that the strong faith (belief) in God alone is enough for someone to achieve morality even if he does not apply reason and rational thinking. Kant’s argument is based on the existence of the moral law that comes from God. Due to the existence of the moral law from God, one follows the moral law when he believes in God. The moral law maximizes the individual’s achievement of morality and he can achieve the highest good without using rational thinking (Kant 651).
God’s existence is to guide human actions so that they achieve morality. A better understanding of Kant’s argument about God’s existence is derived from the connection between acting morally and achieving the desire for happiness. Kant’s explanation shows that morality, which entails acting as God requires, comes before happiness. People become happy only if they act according to the moral law that comes from God. Kant’s implication is that humans should sacrifice their happiness if achieving it involves violating God’s law. Not all the human actions that seek pleasure (happiness) follow the moral law. Also, not all the moral laws of God cause happiness to mankind. However, Kant states that the existence of God as the highest end of morality compels humans to act according to what God requires of them, even if the result of their actions does not create happiness for them.
Henry Sidgwik and God’s Non-existence: Kant’s critics
Some philosophers have criticized God’s existence and questioned His purpose for humanity using the psychological concept of duality of reason. The concept of duality of reason goes against the premises of Kant concerning God’s existence. One of the philosophers who used the duality of reason discredit Kantian philosophy on God’s existence was Henry Sidgwik. Henry argued that humanity possess duality of reason because they always desire their happiness. In each action that human beings engage, the end result is good when it brings happiness to them (Sidgwik 401). Duality of reason, according to Sidgwik, entails human beings acting to seek their happiness and attain morality at the same time. Dualism of reason creates competing states of acting morally and fulfilling the happiness requirements. According to Sidgwik, therefore, it is not possible for humans to sacrifice their happiness so that they cat morally as Kant argues. Humans will act morally on the condition that their actions also cause happiness (Sidgwik 401).
Some philosophers and critics have interpreted Kant’s arguments to understand his position on the existence of God. Adams (152) interprets the Kantian argument of the highest good to mean that God is the source of morality. However, Adams notes although the highest good that Kant talks about is reasonable for mankind, it is not possible for humanity to achieve the highest good. In Adams interpretation, Kant means that by achieving the highest good, humans try to be perfect like God. Only God, as Adams states, is the perfect being with the highest good. According to Adams (152), therefore, Kant’s argument that morality requires humanity to seek the highest good is wrong. However, Adams agrees with Kant on the existence of God as the source of moral actions. Adams (154) explains that achieving the state of acting in a moral way is not possible without divine intervention. Divine intervention points towards humanity relying on God’s guidance towards acting morally. Adams, therefore, agrees with Kant on the existence of God but differs with him on the possibility of human beings achieving the highest good. God is the being who possesses the highest good, and even if He guides humans to act morally, humans cannot achieve the perfect state of the highest good (Adams 155).
The dualism of reason is a practical criticism to the existence of the Supreme Being (God). Sidgwik posits that the existence of God means that the duality of reason is resolved, something which is not realistic according to him. When the duality is resolved, Sidgwik explains that it is when Humans can sacrifice their happiness so that they act according to God’s moral laws (Sidgwik 402).
Human beings have the duty to obey God’s law irrespective of their consequences on their happiness. The duty to obey God, according to Kant, is compulsory. Human beings have the duty to follow God’s command because He is the highest point of morality. Man’s moral actions, according to Kant’s arguments, rest fulfilling the duty that God has given man to do what is right. Such actions, according to Kant, do not have to yield any reward or happiness but they have to fulfill the moral duty of obedience. However, John Hare criticizes Kant by stating, “If we have to endorse wholeheartedly the long-term shape of our lives, we have to see the shape as consistent with our happiness,” (Hare 88).
Rene Descartes and God’s Existence
Descartes’ arguments about God’s existence support the notion that Kant gives because Descartes argues in support of God’s existence. However, unlike Kant who uses morality and moral actions to show the existence of God, Descartes applies deductive reasoning to show the possibility of God’s existence. Rene Descartes’ Meditation III is an important source that shows his perspectives on God’s existence. Descartes yields the idea of the existence of a perfect God. One idea that emerges as Descartes argues for God’s existence is that he applies deductive inference in his arguments towards proving that God exists. Descartes argues that since human beings are imperfect, there must be a being that possess the opposite quality of perfection, and that being is God. Descartes also emphasizes on the importance of the mind as a source of knowledge, and he explains that the mind is capable of accounting for the existence of God. Doubting, according to Descartes, is the source of knowledge about God’s existence. The human mind is in a state of doubt. The mind, for example, wonders about the origin of Life. The scientific theories that attempt to explain the origin of life have their flaws. Deductively, Descartes concludes that there is the Supreme Being whose existence is unquestionable and undoubted. The being is God.
One of the advancements that Descartes makes while arguing in support of God’s existence is that develops the principle or criterion of certainty to explain God’s existence. Descartes states that the things that he perceives clearly and distinctly are true. Also, Descartes notes that in his previous meditations, he expressed his belief that only the things that can be proven are true. However, Descartes became uncertain about the reality of the physical things, and he doubted that they were true. Descartes notes that all things must not exist physically for them to be true. He notes that he discovers how evident things become doubtful. Descartes yields the notion that God’s existence is the object of human reason. Descartes notes that, “Of my thoughts, some are as if they were images of things … as when I represent to myself a man, a chimera, the sky, angel, or God,” (Descartes 88).
The human ideas and their sources, according to Descartes, explain why God exists. Descartes analyzes his intrinsic feelings or ideas that lead to his conclusion that God exists. He observes that some of his ideas are innate (from within him) while others are adventitious. The adventitious ideas emerge when one thinks in abstraction. For someone to develop adventitious ideas that yield the notion of God’s existence, his mind must move from his body. The individual must start thinking about the things that are beyond the physical environment (metaphysics). The God and the angels are the metaphysical beings that Descartes’ adventitious thinking yields.
Descartes also states that ideas represent things, and it is, therefore, impossible to think about God if he does not exist. Also, not only the things that are tangible (physical) exist in reality. It is, therefore, possible that even the abstract ideas, including the notion of God’s existence, are real. Descartes proves that imagined ideas are real and they resemble real things using two pieces of evidence. First, he states that the ideas appear in his mind without his ability to control them. There must be the source of the ideas that must be beyond his control. Secondly, Rene states that nature has taught him to believe that ideas are real. Since Descartes thinks about God in a way that is beyond his control, he states that, “The most obvious judgment to make is that the thing in question (God) transmits to me its likeness rather than any other thing,” (Descartes 89).
Conclusion
In conclusion, some philosophers have supported the notion that God exists while others have discredited the notion. The philosophers who believe in God’s existence, for example, Descartes and Kant, produce various philosophical accounts to support their belief. Kant, for example, uses morality to support the existence of God. Kant states that God is the highest end of morality. Human actions must confine within God’s moral requirements for them to pass the test of morality. Human actions are moral only if they follow the moral laws of God. Human beings are imperfect and they cannot act morally if there is no source of moral authority. They have the duty to obey the highest point of morality even if it means sacrificing their happiness.
However, Sidgwik is a philosopher who challenges God’s existence using the idea of duality of human reason. He states that human actions must fulfill both the requirement of happiness and morality. God’s existence is false, according to Sidgwik, because it challenges the duality of reason.
Although Kant and Descartes support the idea of God’s existence, they do so differently. Whereas Kant supports God’s existence from the perspective morality and human actions, Descartes uses the mind to support God’s existence. Descartes explains the levels of thinking and states that the ideas that he thinks outside the body are real. His metaphysical ideas come from God as the source. It is, therefore, God who inspired Descartes to think about his existence (according to Descartes’ own accounts).

Works Cited
Adams, R., “Moral Arguments for Theism,” The Virtue of Faith and Other Essays in
Philosophical Theology, New York: Oxford University Press, 144–163. 1987. Print.
Baggett, D., and Walls, J. Good God: The Theistic Foundations of Morality, Oxford: Oxford
University Press. 2011. Print.
Descartes, R. Selected Philosophical Writings. USA: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Print.
Kant, I. Critique of Pure Reason, trans. Norman Kemp Smith, New York: Macmillan. 1965.
Print.
Sidgwick, H. Methods of Ethics, London: Macmillan and Co. 1884. Prin