The arguments against God are too often misunderstood or dismissed a priori by believers. There are two general ways one could disprove God. One is to show that the very idea of an all-powerful, loving, intelligent being is incoherent and self-contradictory. The other is to show that such a being is inconsistent with the world we live in.

Arguments from the incoherence of God take the general form:

(1) God has attribute X and attribute Y by definition

(2) Attribute X implies not attribute Y

(3) Therefore God can’t have both X and Y

(4) Therefore, God doesn’t exist

X and Y are typically any combination of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omnibenevolence

Here are some excellent examples of this type of argument:

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theodore_drange/incompatible.html

http://members.aol.com/ps418/coherence.html

This argument takes the general form

1. God has a set of attributes S
2. An element of S is inconsistent with something T
3. T exists
4. Therefore, God’s attributes are inconsistent with the world
5. Therefore, God doesn’t exist.

T is most commonly taken to be the pervasiveness of unbelief or else some sort of evil.

I found this article especially interesting and challenging as it takes T to be unbelief in God:

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theodore_drange/aeanb.html

And a more recent development of similar reasoning is here:

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/steven_conifer/ar.html

This one defends the argument from evil against some of the most sophisticated answers

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/nicholas_tattersall/evil.html

A very strong list of links to arguments against God from both categories mentioned

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/nontheism/atheism/arguments.html

The purpose of this page is to motivate deep thinking about tough problems with God. As a laymen, I should hardly claim the ability to answer all these arguments, but I do feel I have some insights. Although many of these articles have skilled responses by more qualified theists{*}, I would love to write my own responses per request.

Back and forth responses are going on at a deeply intellectual level. I find good thinkers like, Kai Neilsen, JL Mackie, Quinten Smith, Theodore Drange, Michael Martin on the side of atheism and thinkers like, William Craig, Alvin Plantinga, Robert Koons, Richard Swineburg, and JP Moreland on the side of theism. Both atheists and theists should keep a humble attitude in tackling these issues. I hope believers will go deep in grappling with these questions and understanding the problems with God. And also, as I’ve said many times elsewhere, my hope is that atheists will find a place to truly wonder about God, perhaps even to find answers to their deepest questions about God.

{*}Just a couple examples of responses by Christian philosophers:

Craig’s reply (http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/cossingu.html) to Smith’s article (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/quentin_smith/bigbang.html)

This link contains a list of references that include replies to many of the atheist articles above, including a reply to Theodore Drange who authored the argument against God based on unbelief above.

http://www.epsociety.org/journal.htm