Theology paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Theology paper - Essay Example Feuerbach and Marx dismissed God and His expression in religion to be an illusory of projections of what is lacking in man. Feuerbach argued that God is really just a dream of the human mind, an illusion that became sacred, a projection of man’s unfulfilled desires. For Feuerbach, the idea of God’s magnificence is just a projection of man’s failure to realize its full potential and His holiness is just man’s expression of guilt towards his sin. In a way, Feuerbach believed that God is just a defense mechanism of man’s inadequacy and his attempt to fill it through the idea of God. Marx, shares many of Feuerbach’s argument that God is just an illusion and projection. But Marx went as far as dismissing God and religion as an â€Å"opium† that impedes development. And for man and society to progress, that opium has to be removed. For Marx, God is not only non-existent, but He is also an inconvenience and a stumbling block towards progress that needs to removed. Freud argued his skepticism on the existence of God according to his expertise in psychoanalysis. But his argument is still consistent with Feuerbach â€Å"illusory and projection† argument. ... An intelligent man who is predisposed to reason and logic goes beyond the physical evidence to believe that there is God. By just looking around, he would realize that there is a Supreme Being, a Supreme Intelligence who created it all. He knew that everything in this universe is made of a single element of carbon and there must be Somebody greater than man who created it. But merely believing on the existence of God by sheer faith renders that belief not only vulnerable but also unreasonable thus can easily be dismissed. It has to be supported by reason not only to convince, but to establish God’s existence according to the language of an intelligent man, which is reason. There were philosophers who established God’s existence through reason. Among them were Anselm, St. Aquinas, and the great scientist, Blaise Pascal. Anselm ontological premises raised the first argument on the existence of God. His argument purports to a priori proof of God’s existence which is independent of any proof or observation. He argued that because God is God, His existence does not need to be validated by experience to justify that He exists. He concludes that because there is nothing that exists to be greater than God, then it is unimaginable to think that there is no God. St. Aquinas took a different route from Anselm in explaining the existence of God. He was a cleric but he argued God’s existence from the point of view of reason. For St. Aquinas, he posited that God’s existence can be known without relying on mere faith and the Scripture because God’ existence is not self-evident but has to be argued. He argued that God does exist but the mode of knowing should be proportional to what is being observed. Man, being just a created being, cannot be proportionate