Analysis Of On Being An Atheist By H. J. Mccloskey

Response Paper “On Being an Atheist” by H.J. McCloskey The renowned atheist H.J. McCloskey, from the 1960’s and 1970’s contended that God was nonexistent. McCloskey wrote an article in 1968 titled “On Being an Atheist,” stating reasons why he believes, “atheism is a much more comfortable belief than theism” (McCloskey, 1968). In the article McCloskey dismisses God’s existence, and “because evil exists that we believe God does not exist” (McCloskey, 1968). McCloskey argues that without defentive proof there is no God. McCloskey goes on to prove his argument against the three theistic proofs, which are the, cosomological proof, the teleological proof, and the argument from design. McCloskey who is an Australian philosopher bases his argument on proofs and “suggests they can’t definitively establish the case for God, so therefore they should be abandoned”. Foreman, in his video presentation “Approaching the Question of God’s Existence”, discusses how some believe in proofs. Mark Foreman explains in his presentation, that the
It is because evil exists that we believe God does not exist” (McCloskey, 1968). Evil has been around for many generations. Also, evil is different among many cultures. What we consider evil here in the states is not considered evil else where in the world. Because evil is looked upon differently, then it cannot have a definitive line. The teleological argument presents an outline that has order, if there was just one deviation from this order evil would be produced. Therefore, McCloskeys claims of imperferection and evil is not a justified