Response Paper McCloskey Article (278.205 Kb) Having completed the unit of philosophy of religion‚ you are now ready to respond to an article written by an actual atheist. This article‚ titled “On Being an Atheist‚” was written by H. J. McCloskey in 1968 for the journal Question. McCloskey is an Australian philosopher who wrote a number of atheistic works in the 1960s and 70s including the book God and Evil (Nijhoff‚ 1974). In this article‚ McCloskey is both critical of the classical arguments
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Many philosophers make arguments to try and prove God existence‚ while many of them think they have succeeded. Just a few of the philosophers that are still taught today‚ consist of: St. Anselm‚ Gaunilo and Descartes. These three philosophers all have their own arguments for Gods existence‚ and they all differ in many ways. Philosophers even like to make arguments that refute other philosophers’ arguments. St. Anselm was born in 1033 and died in 1109. St. Anselm was a well-known philosopher in his
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The Cosmological Argument‚ also known as the First Clause Argument‚ is an a posteriori argument that attempts to prove the existence of God through the idea of there being an uncaused first cause (God) to the creation of the universe. Christina philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas is known for arguing in this manner in which he wrote‚ “The Five Ways”. From then on‚ the Cosmological Argument has become one of the most controversial and convincing arguments as to the existence of God. In what follows
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An argument from design is an argument that is close to the Teleological approach‚ which are arguments for the existence of God because of a general pattern and order in the universe‚ as opposed to arguments from providence‚ which are arguments from the provision of needs; of conscious beings. The teleological argument attempts to prove the existence of God by explaining that the world‚ in its seemingly perfect and ordered state could not have come about without the existence of a designer. The
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The Teleological Argument is the argument from a design stand point. The argument implies that a higher source of intelligence had to come up with the design in which the universe came into existence. McCloskey come up with numerous reason against this argument that suggest the Teleological Argument is not adequate in proving God exist. A design must have a designer and us as humans couldn’t create the earth ourselves even if we put all our thinking caps together‚ the creator of this world had to
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The cosmological argument is attempting to show through reason that a cosmos needs an explanation. The cosmological argument is an a posteriori argument because it is based upon empirical data which we only discovered through being on this planet. The claim is that the universe cannot account for its own existence and so this argument seeks causes that have their solutions in the existence of a God. It suggests that God is in esse and humans are in fieri. The first part of this principle is the
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‘The cosmological argument shows that it is reasonable to believe in God’ How far do you agree? - 15 Mark Aquinas’ cosmological argument is a theory that is highly credible due it to being very logical and having support from science and common human observation. His theory isn’t based on the spiritual and religious God it is based on the God of classical theism which is why more people may argue that his theory makes it reasonable to believe in God. Aquinas’ argument gives a very detailed account
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The argument from design is an analogy and works by comparing the universe to an object. An example of the comparison would be to say the world resembles a car. All cars have creators‚ therefore‚ the world has to have a creator‚ and that must be God. The argument concludes by saying by observing the world we can gather evidence that the intelligence of a human that creates a car‚ bike or some other item resembles‚ in a less perfect form‚ God. However‚ Hume thinks this argument fails. Hume does not
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The theistic argument that I think is most plausible is the Cosmological Argument. I think this because to me this is the only argument that is plausible because things do not exist without a cause. For example‚ people and animals do not exist without reproduction. People must have a first cause to be created and exist. “The cosmological argument for God’s existence goes like this: The world could not exist on its own so there must have been a first cause that brought it into being. This first
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ontological argument as presented by Anselm‚ and explain its purpose. The ontological argument is A priori argument for the existence of God. St Anselm is the name most firmly associated with the origins of the ontological argument and he was an 11 century writer and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The argument has the form of a deductive proof and it an analytical argument. He wrote two treatises (the Monologion and Proslogion) which became the foundation of the Ontological Argument. The reasoning
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