Are the arguments for the existence of God persuasive?

The best kind of essay answer directly responds to the question. This may seem obvious, however it is something most students miss and is essential to getting the best marks.

Think of the amount of time you have available to you. I would advise that 10 minutes is spent on each argument. This will enable your essay to have structure and for you to be able to provide a thorough analysis of each argument. The question is asking you to look at the arguments for the existence of God, so look at some of the key theological arguments:

a) the teleological argument (intelligent creation) - look at why this argument is persuasive, William Paley's example of the eye. Then look at some of the points that undermine this argument: evil and deficiencies in creation, animal instincts of fight or flight may align more with an evolutionary theory. You do not need to make a conclusion after every paragraph, but a sentence on whether this particular argument is persuasive in view of the criticism would be helpful. 

b) the cosmological argument (there must be a first cause and that cause must be God): explain again why this argument is perusasive (we are physical beings and the earth is a physical entity and so it must be something greater than us (not physical) who created us, this means that it must be a spiritual being who is greater than us, therefore there must be a God. You could look at arguments in favour of the Big Bang as the 'first cause' and suggest that it is entirely plausible for God to have caused the Big Bang. Science and Religion are not polar opposites at all: science is the natural way of explaining the supernatural (this is one way of analysing the argument, there are other suitable answers, of course). You could also briefly mention Aristotle's prime mover - this would evidence a force, but not the Christian God as it predates Christianity.

c) Now that you have referenced the two key arguments, include an argument that you find persuasive, this could be a number of things: spirituality in humanity (the God-shaped void argument)...