In a scientific age, it is getting harder and harder to believe in god due to the frequent scientific discoveries but does that really change the thoughts and opinions of those who choose to believe in such a thing? This is a very hotly debated question as over 51 per cent of the population believe in God but there is evidence to suggest that a hundred years ago, a smaller number but a higher percentage of people believed in a God. So therefore why has the percentage gone down and is it reasonable for it to do so?
First of all, I think I need to look at some of the Christian beliefs; Christians believe there is only one God (monotheism) who is all powerful and all knowing, their God is a loving God who cares how people behave and treat each other and they believe in the principle of the trinity, which shows that God can be shown in three different ways – as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Some of the more obvious beliefs are that they believed God created the universe and is active in the world and performs miracles such as healing the sick for the benefit of society.
The religion of Christianity has been around for over 1950 years so what are the reasons why Christians believe in God and follow those beliefs? There are three main arguments for the existence of god. The first one being the ontological argument which is the argument based on the idea that God is greater than anything else people can think of. A bit like the childish argument when one child says to the other “I’m a million times better than you!” and the other child says in response I’m a million and one times better than you!” thinking he has one the argument but then the first child says “I’m everything you say plus one!”. This basically means whatever child B says, child A is always better. One Christian man named Anselm summed up this argument perfectly in a quotation and said God should be described as ‘that which nothing greater can