Belief in god or gods occurs naturally all over the world. Ancient agricultural societies had their fertility gods; the Greeks, their pantheon; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, their one god. Histories, from the most ancient to modern, have shown that there is not one nation that did not succumb into the power of this truth. There seems to be something universal to all human experience that causes us to search for something transcendent on which to build our lives. And how so many independent cultures come to religious belief definitely requires an explanation.
People have debated about the existence of God for millennia. Can the existence of God be proven?
The first proof is the Ontological Argument, which seeks to prove the existence of God based wholly on logic or reason alone. According to this argument, there is no need to prove the physical existence of God but we can conclude that He exists just by thinking about it, for it is impossible for the mind to conceive of anything that is non-existent.
There are many claims we can conclude as false without even having to look into them to see if they really do exist. The claim that there are three-sided squares is obviously false. There's no need to waste time to search for a three-sided square to determine that there is no such thing. The ontological argument suggests that the idea that God does not exist is just as impossible as a three-sided square.
The main point of the ontological argument for God's existence may be stated in this way: "The human mind possesses the idea of an absolutely perfect Being therefore that Being must actually exist." The very conception of God definitely includes perfection, for how can God be properly called God unless He is perfect. And if perfect, it would be impossible to conceive of anything better, for there cannot be anything better than perfection. For instance, He has to be omnipotent, because that is what God should be. To call something that is not omnipotent God would be like referring to a square that does not have four sides. Therefore, the implication is, understanding what “God” means makes God's non-existence impossible.
Dr. Samuel Clarke, a nineteenth century theologian said that, "It is certain that "something" has existed from all eternity. Absolute non-entity is inconceivable. Whatever has eternally existed is self-existent, and whatever is self-existent is necessarily existent, and what is necessarily existent cannot be conceived as non-existent. The material world cannot be the "something" that has eternally existed, because we can conceive of its non-entity [or its non-existence at one time]. Therefore, the "something", which has eternally existed, is God."
Based on this argument, atheists can be considered to be quite a confused lot, because by believing that God does not exist, they would be able to think Him better than He is; and therefore would imagine Him to exist. Stated differently, to imagine God as not existing is to imagine Him as being imperfect, because a god that does not exist could be better than He is.
The ontological argument has been widely considered to be a valid argument for the existence of God. It also finds confirmation in the Scriptures, the Holy Bible. God "has put eternity into man's heart" (Ecclesiastes 3:11), that is, in Christian parlance, God has placed a God-shaped void in our hearts that only He can fill. In addition, the Divine revelation never tried to prove the existence of God but declares that He is, and that He is from "everlasting to everlasting" (Psalm 90:2). "The Lord reigns; He is robed in majesty; He has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting." (Psalm 93:1-2).
