The strongest arguments for and against theism, with premises and counterarguments.
The existence of gratuitous suffering is incompatible with (or strong evidence against) an omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly good God.
The fundamental constants of physics are precisely calibrated to permit life. This is vastly more probable under theism than under naturalism.
Natural disasters, diseases, and animal suffering predate humans and cannot be blamed on human free will. A good God could prevent them.
Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore, the universe has a cause — which must be a timeless, spaceless, immaterial, powerful personal being.
Objective moral values and duties exist. They are best explained by a transcendent moral lawgiver (God).
If a loving God existed, there would be no nonresistant nonbelievers. Yet many sincere seekers do not find God. Therefore, a perfectly loving God likely does not exist.
The existence of subjective conscious experience (qualia) is deeply puzzling under naturalism but expected under theism or idealism.
The existence of many incompatible religions, each claiming truth, suggests none has a monopoly on it — or perhaps all are culturally constructed.
Contingent things depend on something else for their existence. The chain must terminate in a necessary being — which is God.
Billions of people across all cultures report experiences of the divine. The best explanation is that these experiences are (at least partially) veridical.
If naturalism is true, our cognitive faculties evolved for survival, not truth. This undermines our ability to trust reason itself — including the reasoning that led to naturalism.
The historical evidence surrounding Jesus' death, empty tomb, and post-mortem appearances is best explained by an actual resurrection.
If naturalism and evolution are both true, we have no reason to trust our cognitive faculties — making naturalism self-defeating.
God is defined as the greatest conceivable being. If such a being is possible, it must exist in reality (since existence is greater than non-existence).
The vast, mostly lifeless expanse of the universe seems more consistent with purposeless nature than with a God focused on humanity.
The external physical reality is a mathematical structure. Our universe is one mathematical object among many, which explains why math describes physics so well.