Christianity succeeds where atheism fails, atheism is ultimately death an exercise in futility. God’s existence enables us to live happy lives with a hope for things yet to come . These arguments, defenses, and theodicies all serve as ways for a person to understand in part, none by themselves offer indisputable proof of God’s existence. They do however make the existence of a necessary being, a first cause, probable. Building on this this first cause, the God of theism, becomes more evident, this finally gives the suggestion of the God of Christianity, the God of the Bible. This God who reveals Himself in the Bible, as one who created, sustains, loves, and died for His creation. The problem of evidence evaporates for the one who accepts this God, the true God. He reveals Himself to those who seek Him in faith, ones who truly believe. Craig rightly quotes Francis Schaeffer “If God is dead, then man is dead too.” The atheist must live the noble lie to find any meaning to life, this often fails…
In Townes argument, he is telling us that science is based on facts and logic conclusions while religion is based on faith alone. Townes said that science was used to discover order and to help us understand the world and ourselves. He believed that science was needed to help explain things in their simplest forms. On the other hand, Townes explained that religion was a way of acceptance through believing. It was a way for people to explain how they fit into the universe and how to give meaning to life. I believe that people have as much faith in science as they do in religion. It takes a large amount of faith to believe that our entire existence was created from the chaos of the universe. I believe that it is more plausible to have faith in…
He solely bases his beliefs on the quantity of evidence held by each side, using scientific evidence when regarding evolution and biblical literalism when regarding creationism. Dawkins from his statement concludes that based on his studies, all the evidence points towards evolution, implying that the Bible or any other religious book or testament is not a sufficient amount of data to conclude that the belief that life was created by a divine being is legitimate. Furthermore, Dawkins’ argument is captivating by distinctly claiming that he believes in one side over the other, averting from flaw of the “Integration” model, where science and religion can be basically unified as if they were in the same field of study. Additionally, Dawkins mentions the lack of evidence creationism has which can be compared to a film in which a character had the same problem,…
In February of 1968, H. J. McCloskey’s published an article called, “On Being an Atheist.” In this, he argues that atheism is a more comfortable, logical and realistic than theism. He mentions the evil that is in the world and how it doesn’t make any sense to find comfort in a God that purposely causes pain, disease and natural disasters. McCloskey also mentions it is unreasonable to live by faith in this world. In this article, he argues the three theistic proofs including, the argument for design, the teleological argument and the cosmological argument.…
Religion is affecting Schools, courts, politics, and communities. It is influencing the way people live their life in many ways. It spreads and is introduce in many forms. For centuries, many people have found comfort in Religion. However, I believe that in terms of comfort secularism and science has more to offer because religion is viral and harmful.…
Dawkins wrote a book called the The God Delusion, where he explains his many arguments against faith. Dawkins believes that religion is unnecessary, and at times dangerous, and that science is the only realm that people should be concerned with. Much of what Dawkins argues in his book is that although the world seems to have some natural order, that can all be attributed to evolution through natural selection. He believes that the critical flaw in religious people’s views is that they perceive a natural order in the world and attribute this to God. Dawkins writes in his book that “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is the belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.” “Faith can be very very dangerous, and deliberately to implant it into the vulnerable mind of an innocent child is a grievous wrong.” Essentially Dawkins argues that faith is a way of avoiding the difficult and complex questions in life. Dawkins also believes that teaching children faith is dangerous and unfair, as children do not have the ability or knowledge to dispute religion at a young age. This results in children believing religion as fact, without giving them the opportunity to decide what they believe in for themselves. Dawkins provides his logic on why God does not exist, he states “The temptation [to attribute the…
Atheism is thought to be an immoral practice by many a religious folk. “Rational atheism values the truths of science and the power of reason, but the principle of freedom stands above both science and religion” (Shermer, 2007). Humanity is bound by the control of organized and man-made religion, and this is a fact that remains present throughout the history of civilization. Countless wars, confrontations, hostilities and bloodshed in historical times can be rerouted or directly attributed to the acquisition of power and control by the region’s governing religion. True religion should be one based on human morals and ethics, and should be upheld for the good of humanity; not for an omniscient being that isn’t proven to even exist.…
In his article “On Being an Atheist,” H. J. McCloskey makes an entertaining, but in the end inadequate, explanation as to why the arguments for God’s existence fail (limiting himself to the only two he cared to deal with), and why Atheism provides more comfort to the hurting person than Theism.…
Darwin and his theory of Natural Selection provides all the reason you need for order in the world. Just because the conditions necessary for life have occurred does not mean they cannot have occurred by chance. There is too much suffering in the natural world for it to have been made by a kind and loving God, so God is an ‘optional extra’. Dawkins argues that the impressive system of natural selection creates an ‘illusion’ of design which theists have misinterpreted as actual evidence of design. He argues that we can feel awe and wonder…
Atheism is contrasted with theism and on a broader sense opposes the existence of any form of deity. For most of their existence, Atheists have not been aggressively outspoken about their opposing beliefs against religion. However, over the last couple of decades, Christianity, along with religion in general, has received a massive amount public criticism stemming from the emergence of a group called the New Atheists.…
1. How do theist beliefs define atheist beliefs? Compare and contrast the two. Theist and atheism are positions of belief/disbelief. Theists beliefs include the following: a-…
The purpose of the paper is to answer several questions arising from an article by H. J. McCloskey entitled “On Being an Atheist”.…
Religion and spirituality are two very different things that people often mistakenly categorize as the same, but to learn to understand the two you first must know the meaning behind them both.…
Last fall, we went on tour debating the topic "Is Religion Good For The World?" Our arguments were captured on film for a new documentary, Collison. Are our morals dictated to us by a supreme entity or do discoveries made by science and reason, make Atheism a natural conclusion? You decide.…
The relationship between Science and Religion can be explained from two discrete points of view. Some would argue that scientific explanations are the only means of explaining our existence, while others would argue that religion and the story of creation provide a sufficient amount of the world's conception. Religion and science both have the same basis, which are truth and understanding. It is this similarity that allows a direct link between science and religion. I believe that there is sufficient evidence to prove that science and religion are compatible. Albert Einstein had the same opinion when he presented the idea of the nature of light that was argued for hundreds of years. Scientology is also a proven example of compatibility between religion and science. Also, when looking at the two from a more general point of view, it would be obvious to say that they can both work together to give us a better understanding of the universe.…