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Theist Argument Analysis

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that there exist instances of intense suffering which an omnipotent, omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing some greater good or lesser evil.”(Rowe 370) In that case, the theists counterargument is as solid as that of the atheists’. With the G.E. Moore shift, the theists are able to argue for God’s existence without denying the premise presented by the atheists. However, the problem with those two objections is that they don’t necessarily prove God’s existence. For the objections only prove that it is difficult to assume God’s non-existence. In that argument, theists are not able to refute the argument of the atheists they are merely able to evade it. For an evasion of an argument will never make for a valid argument. …show more content…

I intend to support a form of Materialism, or as some people call it “corporealism” which assumes that “bodily continuity is an essential ingredient in personal identity.” In order for humans to survive death or continuity must not be engrained solely in our bodies, but rather in our souls. Now, we are again presented with another theistic concept that does not allow us to point to any hard proof. To our definitive knowledge, we have no souls. Furthermore the existence of souls would imply that our continuity is either engrained in a combination of our soul and body or solely our soul, supposing that we have …show more content…

And although the concept of an “unembodied being” does not coincide with our perceptual reality does not mean that the concept can not be true. In a sense, we merely refute the idea of the after-life because it does not seem logical and thus, we do not have a legitimate argument against the after life. A being wholly composed of a soul need not to move or talk, but the being may only “imagine thinking, wondering, doubting, and so on,”(Hospers 281) and all of those actions can more or less be performed without a

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515 Words | 3 Pages

In this two Christian philosophers, Richard Swinburne and Tim O'Connor, discussed the concept of neuroscience and the soul. The first philosopher, Swinburne, believed in the idea of substance dualism while O’Conner supported the argument for emergent individualism. Swinburne starts off by saying one’s physical body is simply the vehicle we interact with the world while the real essence of a person lies within their soul. When it comes to Swinburne’s belief on the soul after death I am reminded of Phaedo and how death will only bring about separation of body and soul.

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745 Words | 3 Pages

If the soul cannot possibly begin when a person does, when and where else could the event take place? However, Darrow 's argument is impaired by his incongruous application of the term soul. He mentions that the soul is popularly equated with identity, consciousness and memory, but fails to specify whether it is this notion or another that he uses. (42) Presuming, for the sake of moving forward, that it is this definition he himself adopts, it seems directly in conflict with his belief that the soul would exist outside of the physical body. (43) Darrow 's argument lacks a clear explication of his concept of the soul and, furthermore, it presents a confusing, contradictory account of the soul 's nature and

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773 Words | 4 Pages

In “A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality”, Gretchen Weirob and Sam Miller conduct a philosophical debate about the possibility of a continued existence after death. Weirob argues that she herself cannot exist after death because her identity is composed of her body, rationality, and consciousness. In Derek Parfit’s “Personal Identity” he ponders how the concept of identity works, and how the true nature of our identity affects some of the most important questions we have about our existence. I believe that Velleman did a better job of exploring the idea of identity than Weirob did.

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123 Words | 1 Pages

During the mid 1800s, the pro-slavery argument was at its strongest. The Proslavery Argument by Boundless, an online textbook, discusses the famous Mudsill Speech of James Henry Hammond which stated that the pro-slavery political argument, an ideology that defended a class-sensitive view of American antebellum society. He believed that many past societies carried the burden of the existence of a class of landless poor. Continually, other southern pro-slavery theorists felt that this class of landless poor was “inherently transient and easily manipulated, and as such often destabilized society as a whole” (Boundless). Thus, the greatest threat to democracy was seen as coming from “class warfare that destabilized a nation's economy, society and

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933 Words | 4 Pages

The question that is asked time and time again is whether or not god exists. It is evident that people hold different beliefs. It is evident that through some of the beliefs of J.L. Mackie that it could be argued that God does not actually exist. I find this argument to be more agreeable. In Mackie’s Evil and Omnipotence, he argues many points to support why it should be believed that god does not exist.

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1225 Words | 5 Pages

Could it be that rather than the soul occupying another body, that innate knowledge we posses is the by-product of ancestral knowledge that is passed down throughout the generations before? All things that are as such now have always been and will always be. This is not to say that the present is the final form of the universe, rather the universe as it reaches its final form will resemble a time before the big bang where matter is so dense the pressure will cause an explosion that will start the cycle of the universe over again composed of all the same matter as the universe

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1301 Words | 6 Pages

What is life after death? Since the beginning of time, many people have wondered what happens after death. I chose to read and provide a synopsis of the chapter “Life After Death” by William L. Rowe. There are four main parts discussed in the chapter: the varieties of immortality, the meaningfulness of immortality, the case for immortality, and the case against immortality. By the end of this synopsis, I will explain a better understanding of whether or not we can believe there is life after death.

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2349 Words | 10 Pages

This paper will discuss the problem of evil. In the first part, I will discuss Walter Sinnott-Armstrong’s atheist stance and William Lane Craig’s theist stance on the problem of evil. In the final part of this paper, I will argue that Walter Sinnott-Armstrong’s argument is stronger. The Problem of Evil

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Conclusion: The mind is substantively different from the body and indeed matter in general. Because in this conception the mind is substantively distinct from the body it becomes plausible for us to doubt the intuitive connection between mind and body. Indeed there are many aspects of the external world that do not appear to have minds and yet appear none the less real in spite of this for example mountains, sticks or lamps, given this we can begin to rationalize that perhaps minds can exist without bodies, and we only lack the capacity to perceive them.

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306 Words | 2 Pages

EVALUATION ESSAY Which two worldviews you have learned about are most at odds with one another? Why? In my opinion I feel that the two worldviews that I have learned that are most at odds with one another are Christian theism and Naturalism.

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1652 Words | 7 Pages

When people follow their own truths, they are “safe at last” meaning they are living the way they are supposed to live (Emerson 31). In other parts of his essay, Emerson says that the soul is light, that the relation of the soul to the divine spirit is pure, and that the soul “becomes.” Emerson consistently provokes a positive connotation for the word soul because your soul is the most important part that makes you who you are, as it contains your

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1444 Words | 6 Pages

There have been an innumerable amount of arguments for the existence of God for hundreds of years. Some have become much more popular due to their merit, and their ability to stay relevant through changing times. Two arguments in particular that have been discussed for a very long time are the ontological and cosmological arguments. Each were proposed in the period of the high middle ages by members of the Roman Catholic Church. They each have been used extensively by many since their introduction.

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524 Words | 3 Pages

The soul would not get affected by those choices or by the death of the

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877 Words | 4 Pages

On the other hand, theists like Swinburne, believe that evil is necessary for important reasons such as that it helps us grow and improve. In this paper I will argue that the theist is right, because the good of the evil in this specific case on problems beyond one’s control, outweighs the bad that comes from it. I will begin by stating the objection the anti-theodicist gives for why it is wrong that there is a problem of evil. (<--fix) Regarding passive evil not caused by human action, the anti-theodicist claims that there is an issue with a creator, God, allowing a world to exist where evil things happen, which are not caused by human beings (180-181).

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929 Words | 4 Pages

A lot of arguments have been known to prove or disprove the existence of God, and the Problem of Evil is one of them. The Problem of Evil argues that it is impossible to have God and evil existing in the same world. Due to ideal characteristics of God, evil should not have a chance to exist and make human suffer. In this essay, I will examine the argument for the Problem of Evil, a possible theodicy against the argument, and reply to the theodicy. First of all, to be clear, the Problem of Evil is an argument that shows that God cannot be either all- powerful, all-knowing, and/or all good.

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