Rhetorical Analysis on “Theistic Critiques of Atheism” The argument of God’s existence is a very complicated topic that involves many different branches of study, such as Science, History, and Philosophy. Therefore, it is very important for a scholar or an author to effectively utilize rhetorical appeals in order to make their claim convincing. William Lane Craig, a Christian apologist, does this in his with his writing in the article “Theistic Critiques of Atheism”, which was published in the journal The Cambridge Companion to Atheism in 2006. Craig’s intended audience are atheists, which is apparent by the title of his article. Craig implemented strong use of rhetorical appeals, which made his article very convincing to his intended audience. …show more content…
Craig organizes his article in such a way that makes his purpose clear. He first starts off with an argument that there is no cogent arguments on behalf of Atheism. The readers most likely do not agree with this argument, so Craig starts off with this argument first. This organization style first tries to prove why the intended audience belief (Atheism) is wrong and then later explains why his belief (Theism) is correct. Craig’s style of organization is very …show more content…
In his moral argument for God existing, Craig did this by stating: “If God does not exist, then it is difficult to see any reason to think that human beings are special or that their morality is objectively valid” (2006). Craig appeals to the reader’s emotions here by questioning what the value of humans are if God doesn’t exist. Craig then reinforces pathos by saying, “Moreover, why think that we have any moral obligations to do anything? Who or what imposes any moral duties upon us?”(2006) .Craig uses this question to make the readers think about how there wouldn’t be a point of doing good if we didn’t have a God that imposes us to do well. Another instance of pathos is when Craig said: “Crudely put, on the atheistic view humans are just animals; and animals are not moral agents” (2006). Here Craig uses connotation by saying the atheistic view humans as just animals. This appeals to the reader’s emotions by making them feel not valued as humans, but as animals in the atheistic view of the