Philosophy of God

Many philosophers have argued and examined proficiently on the existent and beliefs of God. Among the many would be Alvin Carl Plantinga, an American Christian theorist who is renowned for his work on philosophy of religion. He is particularly acknowledged for his argument upon how various people know that God exists as to them it is a fundamental faith that requires no rationalization. As he feels this is parallel to how humans usually assert that other minds also exist. Plantinga goes on to make clear that there is no coherent discrepancy linking evil being existent between us and the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, wholly good God (Plantinga, 1980). This essay highlights and criticizes Plantinga's arguments on the claim that belief in God might be properly basic.

A enhanced perceptive of the term "properly basic" is a confidence that someone embraces on to that does not necessitate or require a substantiation to verify it. Illustrations of beliefs that are identified to be properly basic is "there is a past", "heaven exist", and also "everything is as it seems". Plantinga utilizes this hypothesis to argue the being of the Almighty, which he asserts that it does not need verification to affirm this confidence. The claim that the belief in God is properly basic is the anchor of what we all today call "reformed epistemology" (Baker, 2007). This is an area in the field of epistemology that was formulated with the objective of permitting religious claims to be excused from coherent debates (Baker, 2007). I argue that Plantinga's conclusion on this is merely based on classical foundationalism that was widely accepted during the times of Socrates and Aristotle. As this foundationalism begins with someone observing and then other interpreting what they see/hear based on another's persons view. I believe that the word cat is spelt as c-a-t; this belief of mine is based on another belief. This is the dictionary who says cat is spelt in that manner (Baker, 2007). Then there are also beliefs that I do not believe based on other such as I have a tooth ache. This too is a basic belief however I have not based my belief on anything or anyone else. Without any evidence Platinga's theory is hard to comprehend. This view point is very similar and accepted just like Russell's "First-cause Argument". Russell describes this argument to be the basis behind everything (Russell, 1957). He goes on to elaborate this by using Hinduism, where it is said that the world is rested upon an elephant. The elephant on the other hand is supported by a turtle. But there is no clarification or answer on what held the turtle. Thus, without any justification people rely on the first-cause which is labelled by numerous as God (Russell, 1957). Here I would like to question, if everything has its basses then the existence of God to must have a cause as well. This in my view