The debate starts at 50%. Some God either exists or doesnt. 3rd option doesnt exist, and debate already assumes equal probability of both options. It is not possible to provide any evidence that God doesnt exist, thus the 50% cannot be changed to favor my opponent in this debate in any way. I only need to provide evidence of clear effects of supernatural to move the chance to slightly above 50% in my favor, which would be probability evidence where a more likely option is accepted over less likely option to increase chances of being right.
I. Observed supernatural effects by science
The mere faith in God completely changes the way people think and changes structure of their brain. People who believe in God are happier and less suicidal. They live longer and have better mental health, and more love in life. They achieve better success in life. They are more likely to have family. They are more likely to achieve what they want and raise successful children. They look at things differently. They change their life decisions. They treat others differently. It harms a person and society to even think God doesnt exist, thus it is irrational to as well, and the effect is strong evidence for divine punishment. The mere faith in God grants many rewards in life, and the obvious conclusion is that if supernatural didnt exist, we likely wouldnt see these effects. You could say that there is a natural explanation, but the problem is that such explanation is unlikely and cannot explain why Godless world just happens to give rewards to people who believe in Gods, and punish those who dont believe in Gods. Atheism cannot explain why something is evil, thus it lacks morality. God is needed for good people to be rewarded properly. Without God, we have no explanation for anything. With God, we have the explanation for everything.
Societies with religions were historically most successful and more moral and more healthy than societies with less religion. Removing God from culture leads to moral decay, such as one observed in China and USSR. Something which is said to not exist at all has had such great effect and has changed life of almost every human on Earth, and has changed almost all societies and governments on Earth since ancient times to now. When people lose faith in supernatural, they end up feeling more alone, depressed and suicidal. There is no logical explanation why faith in supernatural must exist everywhere if supernatural doesnt. Why do people feel the strong need to believe in supernatural and even suffer and die just to please the supernatural, and suffer more if they abandon their belief? If it was just a lie, no other lie in history has seen even close to that consistent success and consistent range of effects on all people in history.
According to survival of fittest, societies which are better at using their resources would easily defeat societies which waste mass resources on worship of supernatural. Yet the only societies which survived in history are the ones that wasted countless resources, time, money and manpower on worshipping supernatural. The pyramids are example. At the time when resources were few and societies were competing and struggling with each other to survive, and where every advantage over others was most wanted, they also spent countless resources, manpower and money building something which has no any use in economy or warfare or in anything else whatsoever. No one had any logical reason in those societies to be so wasteful, and there is no explanation how those societies ended up being a great success while atheist societies didnt survive, unless help from supernatural happened.
Each life comes from other life, and cannot be created randomly because many basic elements of all life like genetic code cannot be possibly written on its own out of nothing, let alone be put in exactly correct place they need to be with countless other elements in exactly correct place as well to do their function. DNA alone is an information system, and information requires intelligence to create it. The universe shows order and complexity, implying a designer. Objective moral values exist, which suggests a divine moral lawgiver. Human mind, rationality, dreams, wishes, feelings and logic point to a higher source beyond material processes. Consciousness is not purely material, indicating a spiritual source. The order and precision of mathematics suggest a mind behind the universe.
The ability to love selflessly contradicts own survival and suggests a divine source of love. The precise constants in physics suggest intentional calibration. The Earth is precisely suited for human life and supports growth of human knowledge, implying design and purpose. Life cannot emerge from non-life without an intelligent cause. Many biological systems require all parts to be put in place at same time to function, suggesting design and not randomness. Human body has so many parts and human brain has trillions of parts, and if only one bigger part wasnt there, humans wouldnt function properly. Thus, gradual creation of humans is impossible, as hundreds of thousands of parts depend on each other, must be in correct place at the same time for human to function properly.
Historical evidence supports supernatural events. Against all odds, religions like Christianity spread globally. Apostles willingly died for their belief in Jesus’ resurrection. Resurrection has over 500 witnesses. Documented cases of healing defy medical explanation. Many former atheists testify to radical changes after accepting any religion. Countless prayers have been answered. All cultures, even cultures which never met each other, have sought God, suggesting an inner awareness of supernatural. Many experience an overwhelming sense of God’s presence. Some people convert instantly after spiritual experiences.
Perfect moral laws require a perfect moral lawgiver, and wishes require a creator of wishes, thus existence of God is necessary for any "should" to exist, and for perfect "should" to exist. Logic cannot explain why people even have wants, wishes or "should" thoughts. It is not possible to ever create wishes with random movement of matter. Denying God requires assuming his meaning exists, thus the meaning of God must exist. Science confirms the universe is not eternal. Without God, life or universe has no ultimate meaning.
II. Logical axioms
The laws of universe and laws of logic were put in place consistently everywhere. There is no explanation for what caused them to exist equally everywhere and to keep existing forever other than God. All logic depends on premises, and each premise in order to be proved depends upon another premise, creating a need for supernatural first premise which doesnt depend on any other premise. There is a logical need for God(supernatural being above logic) to exist, because only God(supernatural being above logic) can create and enable logic in the first place. Everything contingent(something which depends on something else) must depend on necessary(something which doesnt depend on anything else). Everything we know of and can think of is contingent, except supernatural which is necessary and can be independent as it doesnt bow to laws of logic.
Greatest being must exist by own definition tautology. Greatest being must exist because things greater than other things exist, and if there is anything greater than greatest being, then the greatest being is not the greatest being and a contradiction happens. Everything that begins to exist must have a cause. There are no exceptions to this which we have ever observed. Yet causes cannot go back infinitely, thus a supernatural uncaused cause must exist to start the chain. The only possible explanation for existence of cause and effect is God. When A causes B, there must be some connection by means of which this causal relation occurs. And even that connection must be caused by something, demanding another connection, and this results in necessary supernatural which is capable of producing infinite number of connections in every place in universe to enable cause and effect.
Logical laws cannot be produced in human minds. Logical laws cannot be produced by matter or energy. Nothing in the universe we observed is capable of creating or changing logical laws, yet they are everywhere. Thus, they can only be produced by something which is neither energy nor matter, and since their existence requires a creator to explain why they exist as they do, that creator must be neither matter neither energy, thus supernatural. If everything needs an explanation, then nothing can be explained, as every explanation requires explanation for explanation. Things which dont need an explanation are the only ones which can be a true explanation for other things. The only thing which doesnt need an explanation is a supernatural which explains itself, such as being able to create itself out of nothing. Supernatural being must exist, because the being capable of violating laws of logic cannot be prevented from existing in any way. It is impossible for such a being not to exist, because by the definition of such a being, nothing can possibly stop it from coming into existence at will and nothing can contradict its existence because such a being is above everything else by definition.
The mere agreeing to a definition is a concession that such a being cannot be prevented. If supernatural or not supernatural explain logic, and not supernatural cannot explain logic in any way because not supernatural depends on logic, then only supernatural explains logic. Thus, the existence of logic makes supernatural necessary, where lack of supernatural makes logic impossible, as logic is contingent and incapable of proving or explaining itself on its own.
III. People observed the supernatural
There are plenty of people who observed the supernatural, who see things other people cant see, who hear things other people cant hear, who experience things they cannot explain in any way. Many people who do witchcraft describe things happening after which they cannot explain logically. Plenty of religions around the world have many known miracles. Most people on Earth say they feel God's actions affecting their life and helping them. There are many people who claim to have seen ghosts, demons and many other supernatural beings. There are many examples of recorded possession which was healed by religion. There are people who have predicted future for decades and even centuries ahead. Science has said that dreams have possibility of predicting future, and many people have claimed their dreams have predicted what later happened in their life.
Then there are healing miracles which cannot be explained by science. There are near death experiences where people witness another world. There are people who claim to have gained great knowledge and guidance after praying and doing rituals. There are people who have visions from Gods. Are 7 billion people on Earth just lying when they claim to have observed supernatural effects in their life? Science says that belief in supernatural has many positive effects on a person. Is science lying when observing these results? Are 95% of people insane, or is the remaining 5% just rejecting all evidence others see and which science and logic demonstrate?
Thanks, I sometimes get these debates right.
Great job formatting and debating this
This is an easy vote! Meow
Yes that would be preferred, if you want to use another argument we can always do a continuation and I’d be for that
Yeah, okay, so for me, just responses in last round and no new arguments.
I didn’t put that in the writing of the debate so you very much could if you wanted to but i would not be able to respond to it
Just so we are clear, since I get the last word in last round, no new arguments are allowed for me in last round, right?
Dont worry, use as much time limit as you want.
Apologies but I have school and reply after