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 for God’s existence and offers the problem of evil as a reason why one should not believe in God. Your assignment is to read his short article‚ attached above‚ and respond to each of the questions below. The basis for your answers should primarily
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ontological argument for the existence of God while restating and critically examining Aquinas’s first argument for the existence of God. After I finish with that topic I will then take on Paley and his argument and whether or not it thoroughly proves the existence of God conceived as a supremely perfect being and why or why not this is. During this topic I will bring in Dawkins’ and Hume’s criticisms of the argument also I will try to differentiate between Aquinas’ fifth cosmological argument from the
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account. b) Explain what you take to be the strongest objection to that account. c) Explain why the objection does or does not succeed. 2) Choose either the teleological or the cosmological argument for the existence of God. a) Explain that argument. b) Explain what you take to be the strongest objection to that argument. c) Explain why the objection does or does not succeed. The paper is due on Thursday‚ July 24‚ by 9am (i.e.‚ by the start of class on that day). Please submit the paper via
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by the book. Chapter I. State of the argument. Paley makes his analogical argument for the existence of a deity. The analogy is implicit until Chapter III‚ where Paley makes it explicit. The watch is supposed to be analogous to an organism (or perhaps to an organ‚ such as the human eye or the human heart). Since we would infer the existence of a “maker” in the case of the watch‚ we should do the same in the case of the organism/organ. Having sketched the argument‚ Paley states and replies to various
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exists. The design from argument theory suggests that everything is relevant and was produced by something greater than us. The Argument from Design tries to prove the existence of God by asserting the claim that in order for a design to exist there must have been a designer (God). The idea that everything has a purpose and is determined fails because it doesn’t prove that the living organisms have only one designer. Hume reflects upon Paleys argument and develops a counter argument which he suggests disproves
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One of the most recognized critiques of Aquinas is David Hume‚ who addressed the argument from design in his work Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Hume began by summarizing Aquinas’ logic‚ and the many alterations that followed. Essentially‚ Hume argued that attributing design in the natural universe to an intelligent creator is flawed in two ways. First‚ he uses to analogy of a house to discredit Aquinas’ inferences. If we see a house‚ we conclude‚ with the greatest certainty‚ that it had
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Outline Descartes’ Ontological Argument and explain the key objections that may be used against it. Descartes took the Ontological Argument as presented by Anselm and developed it in a different form. Descartes saw the argument in terms of necessary existence. For Descartes‚ the idea of God necessarily entails his existence. He established that our thoughts are evidence of our own existence (‘I think therefore I am’)‚ and so wanted to see what else he could prove exists. He used the example of a
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Explain Anselm’s ontological argument. The ontological argument was put forth at first as a prayer by the eleventh century monk and philosopher Anselm of Canterbury. In his Proslogion‚ which means discourse‚ he presented this argument as a prayer for believers to substantiate their belief in god. Anselm uses ‘a priori’ (which means before experience) reasoning‚ which conveys that it does not rely or depend on experience and so an argument of this sort is more plausible and likely to intrigue and
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One of the most interesting arguments for the Existence of God comes from Anselm and the Ontological argument. According to the Ontological argument‚ there is no reason to go out and look for physical evidence of God’s existence. The ontological argument is based completely on reason and comes from the concept of a “being than which no greater can be conceived.” Anselm suggested that if such a “being” does not truly exist then a greater being can be conceived. But how does this make any sense? Nothing
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Paley’s argument cannot be used to show there is an “impersonal‚ accidental forces because of its complexity. Thus‚ stumbling upon such an object provides good reason to conclude that there is a personal agent who designed it.” DePoe explains that Paley’s watch example suffered a major set back by the introduction of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Evolution offered a naturalistic explanation as to how life could possess the intricacy of “parts that have been adapted to perform their specific functions
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