What do religious people mean when they say that they believe in God?

When people say they believe in God they are talking about spiritual truth. They have faith that God exists and looks after them according to the teaching of their religion. These people cannot know that God exists in the way that a scientist knows that if you heat water eventually it will boil. This belief might be based on one of the arguments for the existence of God. In particular it might depend on the experience of God which the individual believer feels that they have had.

There are five main arguments used to give proof that God exists. These arguments are usually applied to Christianity.

The classical arguments

Ontological

St Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

• God can be defined as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived". Therefore God (like unicorns) exists in the mind.
• It…