Tell Me All Your Thoughts On God

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

There is some serious theological unpacking that needs to be done with that statement.

First, "I believe in God" is really a statement about my belief in the existence of a supreme being. How do I know God exists? This is a question that any thinking person needs to answer before making the claim for belief in God.

There are a number of ways to go about examining God's existence from a rational perspective:

The teleological argument looks at the order and design of everything observable and says along with one great thinker that: “All things that were to be, all things that were but are not now, all things that are now or that shall be. Mind arranged them all.”

The anthropological argument looks at human consiousness, nature and social experience and determines that there must be a creator

The cosmological argument looks at issues like motion, change and contingency. This argument posits an original Mover, an original Cause and states that "the existence of contingent beings requires that we admit the existence of some necessary Being."

The moral, aesthetic and pragmatic arguments look to natural moral tendencies, beauty and practical notions to argue for the existence of God.

The ontological argument says that simply based upon the fact that we have a notion or thought about God neccessitates the existence of God. One great thinker spoke of “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.”

This doesn't even begin to scratch the surface concerning the theological depth of this one simple statement. We would need to look closely at the idea of God as "Father;" wrestle with the word "Almighty" (which immediately leads us down the path of providence, sovereignty, election and several other cans that I will not attempt to open now); and then discuss the issue of this God's creative potential as it relates to the formation of "heaven (where is that exactly?) and earth."

Although I realize this is rather weighty, I wonder if you have any thoughts on God. Do you have any additions to the "arguments" list above: any other methods that you think are useful for examining the existence of God?