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On Being An Atheist J Mccloskey Summary

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Atheist H.J McCloskey, author of a profound piece of literature called, “On Being an Atheist” displayed a strong personal belief on why he believes that there is no God. In McCloskey article, he attempts to persuade his readers on the idea that any religion that believes in a supreme being is foolish and that the best way to interpret our world is through the concept of Atheism. Ultimately, McCloskey believes that those who base their thinking on rationale tangible evidence will strive to greater achievements than those who base their thinking on moral belief. Though the opinions of McCloskey and myself differentiate, he provides solid evidence, which challenges myself as a Christian reader to not only dig deeper in my faith but also provide …show more content…

The example that comes to mind when talking about order in creation is the analogy provided in last week’s lesson on the “watchmaker analogy”. This analogy stated that if an individual was walking on a beach and found a watch on the ground, they would automatically stop and know that at one point this watch had a designer that created it with articulate detail. No individual would be irrational enough to come to the conclusion that the watch just came into existence on the beach. Though the individual could not prove the watch was made from a designer, they could give a strong argument towards the idea that a designer created the watch rather than random chance selecting and combining all the pieces together. The extent of creation is a little more profound, however, the same standard applies. Due to the mere order within the complexity of the universe, the teleological argument would prove this to be more than satisfactory in proving the existence of God. In McCloskey’s argument, he mentions that “indisputable” examples need to be given to start proofing the existence of God. The standard of indisputability would be the idea that examples must be completely true without any disqualifiers. Thus, for Christians to prove the existence of God, their belief must be backed up by examples that cannot be proven wrong ultimately establishing a “very conclusive objection” towards their belief. Personally, I do not believe the idea of “indisputability” is very reasonable. Just because an individual cannot prove indisputable evidence does not make their argument irrational or any less valid. There will always be aspects of an argument missing in which humans can’t explain. If we were to look back on the watch maker analogy we would find out that if an individual found a watch on the beach then the belief that a designer built the watch would be an

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Through these perspectives, Whitmarsh emphasizes the significance of atheism in classical history, with a clear intention of opposing the frequent neglect atheists and atheist history receive from influential historians and educators. To this end, Whitmarsh aims to disprove the misconception that religion is inherently natural in humans, thus recognizing and acknowledging atheist history as equally significant to religious history. Such a platform is consistent

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The ontological argument states that perfection is a part of the concept of God, and that perfection entails existence, and so the concept of God entails God’s existence. However, it can be argued that if God is an infinite goodness, then its contrary, evil, should not exist. Alas, there is evil in the world, and, therefore, God cannot exist. The ontological argument also seeks to demonstrate that God exists on the basis of concept alone. Pascal’s Wager attempts to justify the belief in God with an

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McCloskey differs from the belief of the teleological argument and claims “to get the proof going, genuine indisputable examples of design and purpose are needed” (McCloskey pg. 65). The argument shows that the universe exhibits an order of design and infers that its cause, therefore, must have a Creator. (Evans & Manis pg. 77) The cosmos is in a precise order and it has reason to why the earth came into existence the way it is.

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Response Paper Liberty University Online Kaitlin Camden Rose October 12, 2017   In February of 1968, H.J. McCloskey published an article titled “On Being an Atheist” This short article skims the surface on the viewpoints of atheists and their beliefs that God does not exist. In this article McCloskey shares his opinions in which he believes that he has a strong response and defense against Christians by stating that Christians are unable to provide any solid evidence or any arguments that there is, in fact, a God. He goes on to judge and tears apart the Christian’s cosmological and teleological theories. McCloskey debates that the opinions, beliefs and faith of Christians are all erroneous and he powerfully approaches his arguments

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One’s beliefs are unique to them and each individual can learn more about the world and other people through valuing others beliefs and analyzing why people believe particular things (pg.175). Reflection Fergusson argues throughout the course of his book that both atheists and religious believers have powerful arguments with significant support to back up their beliefs. As a result, one cannot simply reject the ideas of the other without consideration. By acknowledging the diversity of thought surrounding religion, Fergusson challenges the reader to explore the beliefs of both parties so as to develop a more nuanced understanding of the world as well as ponder an extremely controversial topic. Although in theory this approach sounds rational, the act of pondering another view from an unbiased perspective is extremely difficult.

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I accept as true with Dawkins statements and do not forget them legitimate criticisms because a number of the notions in God have to do with blind faith without proof and medical evidence. In truth according to logician William L. Rowe, " within the popular experience, an agnostic is a person who neither believes nor disbelieves in God, while an atheist disbelieves in God. Within the strict experience, however, agnosticism is the view that human motive is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the notion that God exists or the notion that God does not exist. Up to now as one holds that our ideals are rational best if they may be sufficiently supported by using human motive, the person who accepts the philosophical role of agnosticism will keep that neither the notion that God exists nor the notion that God does not exist is rational '' (Rowe,1998). This grievance of christianity and the blind faith in the back of it as implied by using Dawkins and Rowe do keep

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The blind watch maker analogy that was presented is brilliant. Creationists, use their own version of the watchmaker argument saying if you were walking down a beach and you found a watch you could assume there was a designer. But when it comes to talking about existence, physical reality, and life, It’s a little different. The analogy at first glance seems to work but then you realize that even metaphorically speaking it’s an equivocation fallacy.

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But even the most secular parochial historians admit that Jesus’ existence is undeniable. So much for making assertions based on “the evidence.” How can a self-proclaimed, so-called world class scientist boldly assert that, based on the evidence,

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Now at this point it is important to understand that McCloskey did at least consider these arguments as reasons that move ordinary theist to theism. (McCloskey 1968). This is not always the case with people and by actually considering these proofs as reasons that move ordinary theist to theism he contradicted the previous statement he made where he claimed that all theists do not hold to these proofs. So it would seem that any attempt to try and debate or use these arguments as reasons to not believe in God would simply be a waste of time.

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The argument is very simple and can be summarized as, God by His very definition must exist. Part of the definition of God is that He is perfect and all-powerful. Existence is an indispensable part of perfection and being all powerful, therefore, God must exist. Another version of this argument asserts that it is more Godly to exist that it is not to exist. If God is benevolent, perfect, and all-powerful, and the greatest of beings that can be thought of, then He must exist because a being that is benevolent, perfect, all-powerful, and existent is greater than a being that is benevolent, perfect, all-powerful, and nonexistent.

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The appeal of religion is generally based off of assumption, trust, and human hope, but as the world is progressing in evidenced science, technology, and information, atheism tends to line up with this type of thinking and become more appealing. The main tenet of atheism is that no god exists, and this conclusion stems from the following logic: “the burden of proof is not on the atheist to give grounds for believing that there is no reality of that order. Rather, the burden of proof is on the believer to give some evidence for a god’s existence—i.e., that there is such a reality” (Nielsen). As the default is the observable world around us, which does not display concrete, evidenced signs of a god, the argument follows that any other reality must have evidence to back it up, and thus gods do not exist. Of the options of a god existing versus not existing, the latter is the observed reality and is more rational in logic.

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Even if this were proven through science, it does still not make the existence of God truer or more plausible, than if it were not a necessity to

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Despite the agreement among agnostics that there is no definite knowledge of God’s existence, the belief of God’s existence is what sets individual agnostics apart into two sub-groupings: theistic agnostics and atheistic agnostics. There is no such thing as a pure agnostic. Atheism and theism deal with belief, agnosticism deals with knowledge, and when these two things are combined, a different religious experience is created. Belief and disbelief without knowledge can be both criticized and lauded, however their existence as the only forms of agnosticism is not a matter of either. While theistic and atheistic agnosticism connect logically to human nature and experiences, pure agnosticism does not, though this is not always clear due to preconceived

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In Atheism: a very short introduction, Julian Baggini (2003) tries to provide a positive view of atheism, in contrast with the negative view of atheism that is presented by the general public. Julian believes that Atheists can be indifferent to religion, instead of hostile towards it as well as “more sensitive to aesthetic experience, more moral, more attuned to natural beauty than many theists.” There is a notion that without God, people cannot be moral, find meaning in life or experience human goodness. This negative reception of atheists in the general public has had significant social consequences, with atheist’s only recently feeling that they could come out about their beliefs as explained by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Kristen Schultz (2011) in Atheists and Agnostics Negotiate Religion and Family. Howard and Schultz examine the changes in religious involvement that occur at different stages in life.

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I discovered the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins when I began to reconsider the conventional answers I’d been given about the divine Nature and Existence of the Creator and his creation. I refused to accept the so-called ‘norms’ on the mystery of our existence without question or concern, I only became concerned when I noticed the foundation of evidence upon which science is based upon, and how religion incorporates a mixture of Primary and third-party evidence to justify and stabilise its various beliefs and Ideologies. The idea of truth on an evidential basis has always held a real fascination for me, in particular how Religion holds such a vast impact and power in the lives of people through the absence of any solid empirical evidence.

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