About Our Methodology

What We Do

We collect the most important arguments about God - both for and against - and judge each one on the evidence and the logic. Every argument gets a soundness score and three God probability scores, one for each definition of God we track.

The result is a single meter on the homepage that shows the best current odds that God exists. No opinions, no faith-based reasoning. Just evidence and logic.

Three God Definitions

"God" means different things to different people. To keep things precise, we track three separate definitions:

• Personal God - An all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good being who created the universe and acts in human affairs. This is what most people mean by "God" and it's the score shown on the homepage meter.
• Creator / Designer - An intelligent being that created or designed the universe, but may not be personal or step in.
• Higher Power - A supernatural force or consciousness behind reality, not necessarily a being or a designer.

Scoring System

Every theory gets two kinds of score:

Soundness (0-100)

How likely is the argument logically valid and its premises true? We weight real-world, observable evidence more than pure philosophy. A score of 80 means the premises are very likely true and the logic is solid. A score of 10 means the premises are speculative or the logic has serious holes.

God Probability (0-100, three scores per theory)

If the argument works, how likely does it make each definition of God? This score assumes the argument is true and asks what follows. Every theory gets three of these scores, one per God definition.

The Formula

The homepage meter uses a weighted average of the top 10 strongest theories:

1. Sort all theories by soundness, highest first
2. Take the top 10 (ties at the cutoff are included)
3. Calculate: P(God) = Sum(Soundness[i] * GodProb[i]) / Sum(Soundness[i])
4. Run the formula separately for each God definition

Stronger arguments count more. A theory with soundness 80 has about twice the pull of one with soundness 40. Weak theories that barely make the top 10 count less.

Bias Policy

CanGodExist.com has no religious or anti-religious agenda. Our analysis is:

• Evidence-based - Scores follow the evidence and expert consensus, not personal opinion
• Fair to all sides - Every article shows the strongest case for the argument and the strongest case against it
• Transparent - Every score is explained in detail at the bottom of each article
• Open to revision - We update scores when new evidence appears or we spot a mistake

What Counts as Evidence

We favor evidence you can test and check over pure philosophy. In practice:

• Peer-reviewed scientific findings count the most
• Established philosophical arguments backed by real-world evidence count next
• Pure logic-only arguments (like the ontological argument) get lower soundness scores because their premises can't be tested
• Personal stories and miracle claims get very low scores because they can't be repeated or verified

Sources

Every theory article links to 8-15+ trusted sources, including the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Wikipedia, academic papers, and other reputable references.

Built By

CanGodExist.com is built by Alex Chelan. Got feedback, a correction, or a theory we should add? Reach out on X.