Towards a Propaedeutic for Arguments about the Existence of God

Abstract

This article sets the groundwork of the theoretical elements that are needed in order to defend the use of “arguments” instead of “proofs” in the discussion about the existence of God. A philosophical standpoint concept of God was followed, where any belief or religion could be included. We defended the validity of rhetoric within the philosophical discourse, remarking the main points of the new rhetoric stated by Perelman in the 50s.Traditionally we have talked about “proofs” of the existence of God, such as St. Anselm proof or the five ways of St. Thomas Aquinas. We considered “proof” as the argument that tries to establish a certain conclusion in a necessary way. And “argument”, as the set of propositions that justify or refuse a proposition. We believe that talking about “arguments” is more appropriate in this topic rather than the traditional “proofs”. The concept “argument” is, in the first place, wider than “proof”, and so includes it. On the other hand, talking about “proofs” seems to imply the irrefutable truth of its result thanks to the rules of logic. Nevertheless, the existence of God belongs to the field of the probable, plausible, that cannot be proved in an empirical way.