GOD,
EXISTENCE OF

Since what may be known about God is plain to them [those who are evil], because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

The Bible, Romans 1:19–21

God is that, nothing greater than which can be conceived.

Anselm

That there is a God my Reason would soon tell me by the wondrous works that I see, the vast frame of the Heaven and Earth, the order of all things, night and day, summer and winter, spring and autumn, the daily providing for this great household upon the Earth, the preserving and directing of All to its proper end.

Anne Bradstreet

If God does not exist, then everything is permitted.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

A purpose, an intention, or design strikes everywhere the most careless, the most stupid thinker; and no man can be so hardened in absurd systems, as at all times to reject it.

David Hume

The question whether there is or is not a God can and should be rewarding, in that it can yield definite results.

J.L. Mackie

If there is no God, then there is no problem of reconciling the existence of pain and sin with his love and power.

Eric Mascall

The evidence of God’s existence and his gift is more than compelling, but those who insist that they have no need of him or it will always find ways to discount the offer.

B. Pascal

If God does not exist, we find no values or commands to turn to which legitimize our conduct. So, in the bright realm of values, we have no excuse behind us, nor justification before us. We are alone, with no excuses.

Jean-Paul Sartre

The conclusion we reach in our reflection on this question [of the existence of God] has the most momentous consequences in the orientation of our thinking and our daily living.

Edward Sillem

If we refuse to discuss the existence of God we are simply avoiding the central issue, which is the issue of delusion.

Elton Trueblood

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

Voltaire