Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that God must exist

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The PSR, applied universally, demands a sufficient reason for God's own existence, generating an infinite regress or an arbitrary stopping point.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Leibniz's escape—that God is self-explanatory as a necessary being—smuggles modal assumptions that the PSR itself cannot establish without circularity.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.A principle that cannot be applied consistently to its own foundational case lacks the universality required to ground any cosmological proof.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Kant argued in the Critique of Pure Reason that 'existence' is not a predicate, so no analysis of a concept can entail that its referent exists.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If existence is not a genuine predicate, then P4's claim that God 'cannot internally rule out his own existence' conflates logical consistency with ontological necessity.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.For each thing there must be a cause or reason both for its existence and for its non-existence (Principle of Sufficient Reason)
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.God is a substance, and substances are causally independent of each other, so God's existence or non-existence cannot be caused or explained externally
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.If God did not exist, God would have to be the internal cause of his own non-existence, just as a square-circle is the cause of its non-existence
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.