We live in a world that is quickly becoming a more secular and atheistic society. The Pew Research Center did a study on atheists in America, and they concluded that the number of Americans who identify as atheists has doubled in a fairly short amount of time. As Christian’s, we are confronted with the task of contending for our faith, and always having a reason to believe what we do. In H. J. McCloskey’s article “On Being an Atheist,” he explores why he believes these reasons for our belief are insufficient, delving into the cosmological, teleological and existence of evil. The atheistic worldview is not a sufficient means of meaning and joy, but the Christian worldview is the most reasonable view.
Although you can not find a proof for God’s
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McCloskey posits that the existence of the universe is not a sufficient reason to believe in a necessary being (God) to be its cause. However, this position of his can be counter argued with the argument from contingency. This basically states that if all the parts of the universe as a whole are essentially contingent upon nothing; meaning that they exist but are not necessary to exist. They could very well have never existed at all, which leads to the question of why it is they exist in the first place. If the cause of it being in existence is dependent on something else that is also contingent than you will get what McCloskey mentions a “regress of causes”. Therefore, the very existence of something that is contingent argues for something that isn’t contingent to be its cause. Evans, and Manis, in their book Philosophy of Religion, state “A necessary being is the only kind of being whose existence requires no further explanation. In short, there is an ultimate explanation for the existence of a contingent being only if there exists a necessary being.” This necessary being (God) cannot have a cause because if he did that would make him contingent. If he were contingent, he would not be God. Evans & Manis mention that “only a self-existent or necessary being can qualify for the title of “God,” and it makes no sense to ask about the cause of such a being.” McCloskey’s statement in his article that this doesn’t “postulate an all-powerful, all-perfect, uncaused cause” though is correct in some regard, in that is doesn’t sufficiently grant us all the attributes of God – it begs the curious mind to desire to learn more about the nature of