Every Argument For God RANKED and EXPLAINED — Transcript

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1. 0:00There are many different arguments for
2. 0:02the existence of a God, and some of
3. 0:04these arguments are really, really good.
4. 0:07However, other arguments are horrible,
5. 0:09and they're going to make you look like
6. 0:10an idiot. So, today, we are going to go
7. 0:12over all of the different arguments for
8. 0:14God. We're going to explain them so that
9. 0:16you guys can use them in evangelization,
10. 0:19and then we are going to rank them based
11. 0:21off of effectiveness. So, today, we have
12. 0:24five different tiers. First of all,
13. 0:26where do I sign? These are arguments
14. 0:28that are the best of the best. They're
15. 0:30going to get people excited about
16. 0:32theism, and maybe even lead to a full
17. 0:34conversion to your religion. After that,
18. 0:37we have that convinced me. These are
19. 0:39still great arguments. They're very
20. 0:40good, and they will typically convince
21. 0:42people of God's existence. However,
22. 0:44they're just not the absolute best.
23. 0:46Next, we have let me think on that.
24. 0:48These are arguments that don't typically
25. 0:50lead to conversion, but they definitely
26. 0:52provoke thought into the atheistic mind.
27. 0:55They're going to give them something to
28. 0:56think about. Then, we have I'm not
29. 0:59convinced. These are arguments that are
30. 1:01not so good. They're not really going to
31. 1:02convince anyone, and the people that
32. 1:04hear these might walk away not really
33. 1:06thinking about anything new. And then,
34. 1:08finally, we have you are an idiot. These
35. 1:11are arguments that you should not use,
36. 1:13and you're going to look stupid if you
37. 1:14do. So, now that we have that out of the
38. 1:16way, let's go over the different
39. 1:18arguments that we're actually going to
40. 1:19be ranking. We have moral arguments,
41. 1:22ontological arguments, Pascal's Wager,
42. 1:24the Kalam Cosmological Argument,
43. 1:27fine-tuning, the contingency arguments,
44. 1:29intelligent design, resurrection
45. 1:31arguments, miracle accounts, personal
46. 1:33experience, and the nature of minds
47. 1:36arguments. So,
48. 1:38those are all the different arguments
49. 1:39that we have for the existence of God.
50. 1:42Let's start ranking. The first one is
51. 1:45moral arguments. These are arguments,
52. 1:47basically, from objective morality, and
53. 1:50the claim is that atheists cannot have
54. 1:53objective morality without adhering to
55. 1:56the existence of a God. So, here's how
56. 1:58it goes. You ask an atheist and you say,
57. 2:00"Hey, how do you know that punching
58. 2:02someone in the face is bad?" And then
59. 2:04they'll say, "Well, because you're
60. 2:05hurting someone." And then you say,
61. 2:06"Okay, how do you know that hurting
62. 2:08someone is bad?" And then they'll say,
63. 2:10"Well, because it makes them feel bad."
64. 2:12And you say, "Okay, but why is making
65. 2:13someone feel bad a bad thing?"
66. 2:16Eventually, it just leads to them
67. 2:17saying, "Things are bad because I feel
68. 2:19like they're bad." Or because I think
69. 2:21that they're bad. And that is completely
70. 2:24subjective. Okay, there's no objectivity
71. 2:26to that. And so, that is where you can
72. 2:28say, "The only way to have objective
73. 2:30morality, where we know that certain
74. 2:32things are wrong or certain things are
75. 2:33right, is if you believe in a God." And
76. 2:37that is where you kind of get this
77. 2:39ascent to religiosity or this idea that
78. 2:42a God does exist. Now, moral arguments
79. 2:45for me, they're going in the let me
80. 2:47think on that category because these
81. 2:49arguments don't convince anyone that God
82. 2:51exists. It kind of just shows them that
83. 2:53their moral framework isn't the best and
84. 2:56that it actually isn't objective. And a
85. 2:58lot of atheists will just say, "Yeah,
86. 2:59you know what? Morality isn't objective.
87. 3:02It is subjective. It changes over time."
88. 3:04And so, I don't think that this is the
89. 3:05best argument. Um I haven't actually
90. 3:08seen it convince too many people, but
91. 3:10it's definitely good to get them
92. 3:11thinking about theism.
93. 3:13Next up, we have the ontological
94. 3:15arguments. And the ontological arguments
95. 3:17are pretty cool, but only if you already
96. 3:20believe in a God. So, let me explain.
97. 3:22The ontological arguments are arguments
98. 3:24based off of God's existence, based off
99. 3:26of the way that he is, his essence, if
100. 3:29you will. So, one of the most popular
101. 3:31ones is, "We define God as the greatest
102. 3:34being." That's how we understand what a
103. 3:36God is. Now, if God is the greatest
104. 3:39being, that means that he exists because
105. 3:42existing is greater than not existing.
106. 3:45Therefore, God exists. And while that's
107. 3:47a super cool thought experiment, and
108. 3:49while, you know, that argument is
109. 3:51technically logically sound, it's not
110. 3:53going to convince anyone that God
111. 3:55actually exists. You're not Nobody's
112. 3:57going to be like, "Oh, there you go. Now
113. 3:59I'll become a Christian." That's not
114. 4:01really going to work. Another famous
115. 4:02ontological argument is from actuality
116. 4:05and potency. So, a great example of this
117. 4:06is this guitar pick, okay? So, this
118. 4:08guitar pick is a mix of actuality and
119. 4:11potency. The actuality is the way that a
120. 4:13thing is. So, it is a triangle, it has
121. 4:16checkers, um it exists. That is the
122. 4:19actuality of this guitar pick. Now, the
123. 4:21potency of this guitar pick are the
124. 4:23possibilities in which it is another
125. 4:26way. So, for example, if I cut this
126. 4:28guitar pick in half, that is a potential
127. 4:30in it. It could be cut in half, but it's
128. 4:32not currently. Or it could be bigger, it
129. 4:34could be smaller, it could be a
130. 4:35different color, and so on and so on.
131. 4:38Everything in the universe is a mix of
132. 4:40actuality and potency. Um
133. 4:43so,
134. 4:44when we take that scale, right?
135. 4:45Everything is a mix of the way that it
136. 4:47is and the way that it could be, we can
137. 4:49look towards the end of that spectrum
138. 4:50and say, "Okay, well, something exists
139. 4:52where there's no potency, right? It's 0%
140. 4:55potency and 100% actuality." And the
141. 4:58thing that is 100% actuality is God. And
142. 5:03we could say, right? Since we define God
143. 5:05as being actus purus according to
144. 5:07Thomistic theology, that therefore God
145. 5:10has no potency, he's 100% actuality,
146. 5:13he's 100%
147. 5:15existent. That is the ontological
148. 5:17argument. There There's two very common
149. 5:19ones which we just went through. I'm
150. 5:21putting these in I'm not convinced just
151. 5:23because it's very rare that you actually
152. 5:26convince someone with these. I think
153. 5:27they're super fun, they're awesome to
154. 5:28walk through, but nobody's really going
155. 5:30to say, "Wow, I get it now. God does
156. 5:32exist." Cuz they're super wordy and
157. 5:34there's not not going to convince
158. 5:35anyone.
159. 5:37After that, we have Pascal's Wager. This
160. 5:40is going directly in the you are an
161. 5:43idiot because if you use this as an
162. 5:45argument for the existence of God, you
163. 5:47don't even understand Pascal's Wager.
164. 5:50Pascal's Wager is basically this: If you
165. 5:52are an atheist and you are correct, then
166. 5:55you gain nothing because there's no life
167. 5:57after death. But, if you're an atheist
168. 5:59and you're wrong, then you go to hell.
169. 6:02So, an atheist only has things to lose,
170. 6:04whereas someone who believes in God,
171. 6:07right? If they are correct, they go to
172. 6:09heaven.
173. 6:10They gain everything, but if they're
174. 6:12wrong, nothing happens. So, they have
175. 6:14everything to gain and the atheists have
176. 6:16everything to lose. However, that's not
177. 6:19an argument for God. That is just an
178. 6:21argument based off of probability. And
179. 6:24to use this to say, "Therefore, God
180. 6:26exists." It just means you don't
181. 6:28actually understand the argument. So,
182. 6:29that's going straight into the you are
183. 6:30an idiot. I think Pascal's Wager is
184. 6:32awesome, super fun to think about, but
185. 6:34it doesn't prove that God exists.
186. 6:36After that, we have the Kalam
187. 6:38Cosmological Argument, sometimes just
188. 6:40called the Kalam Argument. Okay.
189. 6:43The Kalam Argument goes like this:
190. 6:45Whatever begins to exist has a cause,
191. 6:47and the universe began to exist,
192. 6:49therefore, the universe has a cause.
193. 6:51That's a very simplified version. Um and
194. 6:54I think that honestly, it's a pretty
195. 6:56good argument. I don't think it's going
196. 6:57to necessarily convince someone just
197. 6:59like that, but I think it is going to
198. 7:01cause them to think, okay? Because when
199. 7:03you say, "Yes, we we agree that the
200. 7:04universe had a beginning." Okay, where
201. 7:07did that come from? What is the cause?
202. 7:08And there's not really a good answer to
203. 7:10that. However, it leads to something
204. 7:11known as the God of the gaps, where
205. 7:13you're basically just filling in this
206. 7:15spot, "Okay, well, what caused the
207. 7:17universe?" Um and you're saying, "Well,
208. 7:19therefore, it's God." There there's a
209. 7:20little bit of a disconnect there, and I
210. 7:22don't think that the Kalam Cosmological
211. 7:24Argument is the strongest that we have.
212. 7:27Next up, we have the Fine-Tuning
213. 7:29Argument. The Fine-Tuning Argument, I'm
214. 7:32putting it in, let me think on that
215. 7:33because it is I think it convinces
216. 7:35people sometimes. It makes them think.
217. 7:38However, it doesn't actually prove that
218. 7:40God exists in any way. So,
219. 7:43the fine-tuning argument is basically
220. 7:45things are so perfected and so
221. 7:47fine-tuned to order that they must come
222. 7:50from some sort of intelligent being. So,
223. 7:52for example, if if the gravitational
224. 7:54constant was off by just a little bit,
225. 7:57then the universe would fall apart,
226. 7:58right? Stars wouldn't be able to form,
227. 8:00planets wouldn't be able to hold
228. 8:01together, it wouldn't work.
229. 8:03Um or you could say something like the
230. 8:06the sun is the perfect distance away
231. 8:08from the Earth and therefore there's
232. 8:10some intelligent design behind that. I I
233. 8:13don't I don't think that's a great
234. 8:14argument. It definitely causes people to
235. 8:16think, that's why I'm not putting it in
236. 8:17I'm not convinced. For me, I think it
237. 8:19belongs in I'm not convinced, but
238. 8:21fine-tuning is simply not the best
239. 8:23argument, okay? And a really good
240. 8:25refutation to the fine-tuning argument,
241. 8:27which makes it so dumb in my opinion, is
242. 8:31this analogy, right? If there's a hole
243. 8:33in the ground, right? It's a certain
244. 8:35shape, and then it starts to raining,
245. 8:37and the rain falls into this puddle,
246. 8:40the puddle could then look around and
247. 8:42say, "Wow, look at this this hole in the
248. 8:44ground. It's perfectly shaped for me.
249. 8:47That means there must be some sort of,
250. 8:49you know, fine-tuning, some intelligent
251. 8:51being that created this." When in
252. 8:53reality, it just existed that way
253. 8:55because of its surroundings. The the
254. 8:57water takes the shape of whatever it
255. 8:59goes into. And so, the the refutation of
256. 9:02the fine-tuning argument is basically
257. 9:04life is a similar way. Just because we
258. 9:06can't understand life another way now
259. 9:08doesn't mean that it wouldn't just take
260. 9:10the shape of something else if the uh
261. 9:13fine-tuning was some sort of other way.
262. 9:15So, I don't really like the fine-tuning
263. 9:17argument. However, I've seen it convince
264. 9:19so many people that I'm going to leave
265. 9:21it here in the C-tier in the let me
266. 9:23think on that, okay?
267. 9:25I don't like it, but I've seen it
268. 9:26convince a lot of people.
269. 9:28Next, we have the contingency arguments.
270. 9:31This is where we start to get to the
271. 9:32good arguments, okay? I really think
272. 9:34that uh the contingency argument is is
273. 9:36irrefutable. I think it's it's one of
274. 9:38the greatest arguments that we have. I'm
275. 9:39thinking about putting it in Where Do I
276. 9:41Sign, but right now it's going in the
277. 9:43That Convinced Me. Okay. So,
278. 9:46the Yeah, I'm putting it up there. Hold
279. 9:47on. Sorry for my my indecision there.
280. 9:49It's going in there. Contingency, the
281. 9:51argument from contingency is basically,
282. 9:52okay, God exists.
283. 9:55That's the whole I don't know why I said
284. 9:56that. This is a whole argument. No. Um
285. 9:58okay, so everything is contingent upon
286. 10:00something else. Everything with potency,
287. 10:02as we described earlier.
288. 10:03Um so, for example, this this guitar
289. 10:05pick is dependent upon the guitar pick
290. 10:08manufacturer, right? And the guitar pick
291. 10:10manufacturer is contingent or only
292. 10:12exists upon or is dependent upon the
293. 10:15creator. It only exists because of the
294. 10:17the you know, the CEO. The CEO only
295. 10:19exists because his parents, uh you know,
296. 10:22they they had intercourse and then gave
297. 10:24birth, right? Then those parents only
298. 10:26exist because of their parents and and
299. 10:28so on and so on and so on. Everything is
300. 10:30contingent upon something else.
301. 10:33And there's two options. Either there is
302. 10:35a first cause, something that isn't
303. 10:37contingent upon anything else, or this
304. 10:40goes back in time infinitely, where
305. 10:43everything is dependent upon something
306. 10:44that's dependent upon something all the
307. 10:46way back in time. And the problem with
308. 10:47that second idea
309. 10:49is imagine a chandelier, right? Where
310. 10:52there's chains connecting
311. 10:55going up. So, the first chain is what we
312. 10:56have right now, and then above that
313. 10:58there's another chain. And and and
314. 10:59that's the contingency.
315. 11:01If that chain went up forever, it would
316. 11:03never hold up. It would just fall.
317. 11:06But if there's a first cause, right?
318. 11:08Something that causes that chain to
319. 11:09exist in the first place, like a
320. 11:10ceiling, then the whole chain can hold
321. 11:12up. So, it can't go on to infinity.
322. 11:14So, there must be some sort of first
323. 11:16cause that isn't dependent upon
324. 11:18something else. And and if you have
325. 11:19potency, right? This idea that there's
326. 11:22another way that you could possibly be,
327. 11:24then you are contingent. So, we know
328. 11:26that the thing that isn't contingent has
329. 11:28no potency. It is pure actuality, which
330. 11:31entails, you know, um perfection, it
331. 11:33entails all-knowingness,
332. 11:35all power. It it it basically you end up
333. 11:38describing a god. And so, the first
334. 11:40cause is that god. I think the
335. 11:42contingency argument is is pretty
336. 11:43unstoppable. Trent Horn has some good
337. 11:45examples of this. Or you could read the
338. 11:47five ways by St. Thomas Aquinas. I
339. 11:49believe it's in in pars prima question
340. 11:51four, would be my guess of Summa
341. 11:53Theologiae.
342. 11:54But there's there's multiple different
343. 11:56ways that you can go about the
344. 11:57contingency argument.
345. 11:59So, yeah.
346. 12:01Next up, we have intelligent design.
347. 12:02Intelligent design is a
348. 12:05an interesting argument. It's very
349. 12:07similar to the fine-tuning argument, but
350. 12:08I think it's a little bit worse. I'm
351. 12:10thinking about putting it in the you are
352. 12:11an idiot, but I know that a lot of
353. 12:13people like this one, so I'm going to
354. 12:14put it in the I'm not convinced.
355. 12:16Intelligent design is basically this
356. 12:17idea, okay, look how
357. 12:19like well-put-together humans are. That
358. 12:21couldn't possibly happen by accident.
359. 12:23Look how, you know, intricate the
360. 12:25eyeball is. That couldn't happen through
361. 12:27evolution, right? Surely a god must have
362. 12:29made that. And I think that's a dumb
363. 12:31argument. I think it's stupid.
364. 12:32>> [snorts]
365. 12:32>> Because evolution pretty clearly can
366. 12:35explain that, right? I'm not saying that
367. 12:37that means evolution is true or that
368. 12:39evolution is, you know, this replace
369. 12:41gods, but evolution can explain it.
370. 12:43Right? So, imagine
371. 12:45you have, you know, a being without
372. 12:47eyeballs, and then it develops through
373. 12:50some form of mutation. Eventually, it
374. 12:52has something that is able to see. Now,
375. 12:54that being will
376. 12:56survive better, it will have kids with a
377. 12:58similar mutation, and then they're going
378. 13:00to overpopulate cuz they survive more,
379. 13:02they're going to grow that species, and
380. 13:04eventually you have a whole species with
381. 13:06eyeballs. And so, that's where, you
382. 13:07know, that intricacy gets. And the
383. 13:09better their vision is, the more likely
384. 13:11that they are to
385. 13:13reproduce and survive, and therefore you
386. 13:15get the the eyeball from that. You can
387. 13:17if you if you want something else that
388. 13:19would help explain it a little better,
389. 13:21you could imagine
390. 13:22somebody who develops like something
391. 13:24that's not very
392. 13:26intricate, like a spike on their head,
393. 13:28right? Like you get a spike on your
394. 13:29head. That's a mutation that you have
395. 13:31when you're born. And let's say you live
396. 13:32in like this primal world where
397. 13:34everybody's fighting each other. If you
398. 13:36have a spike on your head, you can like
399. 13:37hit people with it. You can kill them.
400. 13:38You're you're survive better. You're
401. 13:40going to survive more, um which is going
402. 13:41to allow you to reproduce more, and then
403. 13:43there's going to be more kids with that
404. 13:45mutation, right? With a spike on their
405. 13:47heads. And those kids are going to
406. 13:48survive better than the other kids.
407. 13:49They're going to be able to kill them,
408. 13:51and then that spike is just going to get
409. 13:52passed on until eventually everybody has
410. 13:54a spike because it's needed
411. 13:56in order to survive against the people
412. 13:58with spikes. Um and so that that's
413. 14:01that's the way that evolution can
414. 14:02happen. And so the fine-tuning argument
415. 14:04I just don't find it very convincing.
416. 14:06I've never seen it or not sorry, not
417. 14:07fine-tuning, the intelligent design one.
418. 14:08I don't I I think that you can describe
419. 14:10that through uh evolution. However, that
420. 14:13doesn't mean that evolution is the cause
421. 14:14of all of the intricacies. Um next up we
422. 14:17have a resurrection arguments, and this
423. 14:18is specifically one for Christianity,
424. 14:20the historicity of the resurrection of
425. 14:22Jesus Christ.
426. 14:24Now look, I love the resurrection. I
427. 14:26think there is good evidence for it.
428. 14:28But again, it's going in the
429. 14:30Okay, you know what? No, we're going in
430. 14:31the let me think on that cuz there is
431. 14:32good evidence. There's there there's
432. 14:34good evidence for the resurrection,
433. 14:35right? You have writings of the
434. 14:37existence of Christ from Babylonian
435. 14:38Talmud, from Josephus, from Tacitus,
436. 14:41from the four gospel accounts, from
437. 14:42Paul, and from the 500 eyewitnesses that
438. 14:45Paul claims and says that he's using as
439. 14:47evidence. It says that you can go check
440. 14:48with them. Um you have the early church
441. 14:50fathers like Ignatius of Antioch writing
442. 14:52about Christ, uh Clement of Alexandria
443. 14:54um you you have a lot of accounts of the
444. 14:56of the resurrection early on. Um
445. 15:00And so when we have things like that,
446. 15:01it's pretty easy to say, "Yeah, you know
447. 15:03what? There is some good evidence for
448. 15:05it." But to go from the resurrection
449. 15:07to automatically the classical idea of
450. 15:10God,
451. 15:11I don't think it's the best because for
452. 15:12example, the Mormons
453. 15:14Mormons believe in the resurrection, but
454. 15:17they don't believe in the classical idea
455. 15:19of God. Now I'm I'm saying that they're
456. 15:20atheists, but they don't believe in in
457. 15:22the same type of God that we're talking
458. 15:24about. And so, the resurrection
459. 15:25argument, it's good for making people
460. 15:27think about theism, but it's not always
461. 15:29going to lead them to classical theism.
462. 15:32Next up, we have miracle accounts.
463. 15:35Now, I'm going in that convinced me
464. 15:38because I'm a Catholic, and Catholics
465. 15:40have really, really good miracles. If
466. 15:42you've never heard of some of these, um
467. 15:44first of all, we have what's known as
468. 15:46Eucharistic miracles. And a little bit
469. 15:48of Catholic theology, I know there's
470. 15:49probably a lot of atheists watching this
471. 15:51or Protestants watching this, but in
472. 15:52Catholic theology, we have uh the
473. 15:55Eucharist or communion as it's called
474. 15:57sometimes, the bread and the wine, last
475. 15:58supper.
476. 16:00And we believe that that's the real body
477. 16:01and blood of Christ. Like in the we
478. 16:03believe it is Jesus's body and Jesus's
479. 16:06blood body blood soul and divinity. We
480. 16:07believe that that is in there when it's
481. 16:09uh transubstantiated.
482. 16:12And something interesting will happen
483. 16:14where when the host is consecrated on
484. 16:17not just its inward substance, but on
485. 16:20the outward appearance, it turns into
486. 16:23flesh and blood. Like it it starts
487. 16:25bleeding. The bread starts bleeding.
488. 16:28The Eucharistic host starts bleeding.
489. 16:30You can look into this. It's been
490. 16:32confirmed over and over again by uh
491. 16:34scientific study. It's a really, really
492. 16:35cool thing. So, that's one miracle
493. 16:38account I show to atheists often and it
494. 16:39really does a lot for them. There's also
495. 16:41Marian apparitions where Mary, the
496. 16:43mother of God, this is another Catholic
497. 16:45thing, will appear to people.
498. 16:48Um a great example of this is is the
499. 16:50apparition in Zeitoun, Egypt in 1968, I
500. 16:53believe. Mary, she appeared, she's like
501. 16:55flying in the sky, she's got doves
502. 16:57flying around her head, um and she's
503. 16:59kind of just standing there and there's
504. 17:01like millions of eyewitnesses to this
505. 17:02cuz it happens multiple times. The
506. 17:04president of Egypt even like flies down,
507. 17:07he sees it and he confirms that he's
508. 17:09like, "Yeah, that's Mary, the mother of
509. 17:10God." Um and there's so many conversions
510. 17:14because of this. People like, "Yeah, no,
511. 17:15Mary is the mother of God, therefore
512. 17:16Jesus, therefore God exists. So, yeah,
513. 17:18there's great miracle accounts that you
514. 17:20can use as arguments for God, especially
515. 17:23if you're Catholic, cuz we have some
516. 17:24unbelievable ones. Like literally
517. 17:25millions of eyewitnesses. Another thing
518. 17:27with the miracle of Fatima, you know,
519. 17:29Mary appearing in Fatima, there's some
520. 17:31really, really good ones.
521. 17:33Um next up we have personal experience.
522. 17:36Now remember,
523. 17:37we are ranking things based off of how
524. 17:40well they can convince atheists.
525. 17:44Atheists do not have your personal
526. 17:46experience. So, if you try and say
527. 17:47actually okay, hold on. Actually,
528. 17:49let me put this in the I'm not
529. 17:50convinced, cuz I don't think you're an
530. 17:51idiot for bringing up personal
531. 17:52experience.
532. 17:54I have had some amazing personal
533. 17:55experiences. I've had dreams in Latin,
534. 17:57my conversion actually came out of that.
535. 17:59I've had
536. 18:00literal visions, talking, having
537. 18:02conversations with Mary, conversations
538. 18:04with Christ.
539. 18:05I've had I've been blessed with awesome,
540. 18:07awesome visions, dreams, all that stuff.
541. 18:11I simply cannot bring that up to other
542. 18:13atheists like to the to atheists though,
543. 18:15right? It's not going to convince them.
544. 18:16They just will say, yeah, I don't really
545. 18:17believe you or you're maybe crazy. They
546. 18:19can really easily dismiss that.
547. 18:21Now, for yourself, personal experience
548. 18:23is the best argument. If we're talking
549. 18:25about, you know, convincing yourself,
550. 18:26it's going up here.
551. 18:28But if we're talking about convincing
552. 18:29others, personal experience is just not
553. 18:31going to cut it.
554. 18:32I think personal experience is awesome,
555. 18:33it's beautiful, and your testimony can
556. 18:35really help people convert.
557. 18:38However, I don't think that it's really
558. 18:39going to convince anyone, unless they
559. 18:41have some sort of personal experience
560. 18:42too or see one of these other arguments.
561. 18:45And finally, we have the nature of the
562. 18:47mind argument. Nature of the mind
563. 18:50is basically what the intellect is
564. 18:52ordered to.
565. 18:54We are ordered towards goodness. We are
566. 18:56ordered towards knowledge, towards
567. 18:58happiness. We we have a conscience,
568. 19:01right? We literally we experience. And
569. 19:03this was one that kind of blew my mind
570. 19:05when I first heard it. The idea that you
571. 19:07are conscious cannot be explained simply
572. 19:11materially. Okay? So, for example,
573. 19:14uh no matter how many atoms you put
574. 19:16together,
575. 19:17you could even like build a brain, and
576. 19:19that brain could operate like a
577. 19:21computer, but there will never be a
578. 19:24first-hand experience. There's never
579. 19:25going to be see someone seeing through
580. 19:27the eyes. There's never going to be
581. 19:28something experiencing that.
582. 19:31And that has to come from some sort of
583. 19:33transcendental thing. It cannot come
584. 19:35from material alone because you can't
585. 19:37make consciousness.
586. 19:39It only comes from some sort of
587. 19:40transcendental thing. I really like this
588. 19:43argument.
589. 19:44I'm going to put it in the let me think
590. 19:46on that though. You know, this one's
591. 19:47it's personal to me, but I don't think
592. 19:48it's going to convince anyone really.
593. 19:52It'll it'll definitely provoke them to
594. 19:53think more about theism,
595. 19:55but it's not going to be like, "Okay, I
596. 19:57have consciousness, therefore God
597. 19:58exists." That's not really going to
598. 19:59happen. Um and those were all the
599. 20:01arguments we have, um but I'm going to
600. 20:03run one more argument past you guys.
601. 20:05This is my go-to, and it it's not a
602. 20:07formal argument, but this is this is
603. 20:08what I I tend to go to when I want to
604. 20:11argue for the existence of God. It's one
605. 20:14that I made up, um and and it go it goes
606. 20:17something like this. I call it the
607. 20:18argument from parts and potency, okay?
608. 20:21So,
609. 20:22premise one,
610. 20:24anything with parts has potency. So,
611. 20:26anything that is a composite of
612. 20:27different parts uh has some other way
613. 20:30that it could be. So, for example, my
614. 20:31phone,
615. 20:32we'll say that this is a part, my camera
616. 20:34is a part, and then the base of the
617. 20:35phone is another part.
618. 20:37The camera's up here and not down here,
619. 20:40and that's potency because there's a
620. 20:41logical reality in which the camera was
621. 20:43down here. So, that that's all that it
622. 20:45means really.
623. 20:46The second premise is that anything with
624. 20:49both actuality and potency requires an
625. 20:52outside cause or explanation. So, just
626. 20:54like this phone, right? The camera's up
627. 20:56here and not down here. So, there has to
628. 20:58be an explanation as to why this part is
629. 21:01up here instead of being down here.
630. 21:04Um so so there has has be an outside
631. 21:05cause, and for this phone, the cause or
632. 21:07the explanation is the manufacturer that
633. 21:10made the phone the way that it is.
634. 21:12And then premise three,
635. 21:14the material universe is made up of
636. 21:17parts and therefore has actuality and
637. 21:19potency.
638. 21:20So, there is an actual uh aspect of the
639. 21:23the universe and then there's potency
640. 21:24because it's made up of parts. So,
641. 21:26similar to the phone, right? Um I am a
642. 21:28part of the universe. This is a part of
643. 21:30the universe. My microphone is a part of
644. 21:32the universe.
645. 21:33Therefore, the universe as a whole has
646. 21:35potency. There has to be something that
647. 21:37explains the way it is and that's where
648. 21:38that's where our conclusion comes from.
649. 21:40Therefore, the universe requires an
650. 21:41outside cause or explanation. There has
651. 21:44to be something that is outside of the
652. 21:46material universe that explains its
653. 21:48existence in the first place and the way
654. 21:51that it is, the efficient cause and the
655. 21:54formal cause of the universe. So, that
656. 21:56is my go-to argument. I would put it in
657. 21:58S-tier because I've literally never seen
658. 22:01it not work.
659. 22:02Um when you really, you know, get into
660. 22:04the nitty-gritty and and start pressing
661. 22:06people on these ideas. Those are the
662. 22:08arguments for God. That is the ranking.
663. 22:10God bless everyone.