First of all, in all fairness to those who believe that
either reason or our senses reveal that God Exists, the onus
of proof has been and still is on the shoulders of the theists.
Proof without a doubt that God exists has never been revealed
to human beings by either reason or the senses. The most that we can do is to indicate the conclusions which have been brought forth by philosophers and others in an attempt to prove the existence of God. In fact, some schools of thought have been led to the opinion that it is logically false to even ask the
question concerning the existence of God.
Paul Tillich came to the conclusion that it is not proper to even say that God exists, since this would be a limiting Statement about him. God is infinite and unlimited, which
makes any attempt to draw conclusions concerning his existence
a complete exercise in futility. As Tillich pointed out:
Thus the question of the existence of God can be
neither asked nor answered. If asked, it is a
question about that which by its very nature is
above existence, and therefore the answer --
whether negative or affirmative -- implicitly denies
the nature of God. It is as atheistic to affirm
the existence of God as it is to deny it. God is
being itself, not a being (Tillich, 1951, p. 237).
It is certainly a paradox for a theologian to arrive at the
conclusion that God does not exist. However, what this really
means is that a finite deity does not exist. God is not a
being, for to be such would be a finite condition. Instead,
God is being-itself and infinite as a consequence. Tillich is restricting the term "exists" to the finite and created realm. Being-itself is a condition beyond mere existence, because existence is a characteristic of the created universe, which is really a becoming. Finite objects are always in flux and in a state of becoming, while God is beyond mere existence in the fini...