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
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H.J. McCloskey‚ in his article‚ “On Being an Atheist‚” presents a series of arguments to defend and justify his atheist beliefs. He debates arguments for God’s existence including the cosmological argument and the teleological argument; stating that these arguments are false and argues that without “proof‚” the idea of God should be rejected entirely. He is critical of the arguments for God’s existence and offers the problem of evil to be a major concern and reason why one should not believe in the
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-1This is a response to H.J. McCloskey’s Article‚ "On Being an Atheist". While I believe that Mr . McCloskey put a lot of thought into this article I think he made some assumptions about all theists that are not necessarily correct. Throughout his argument it seems that he focuses primarily on the existence of evil to support his non belief in God. He started off immediately in this argument by stating that because of the evil that exists in this world that if we are to say there was a creator
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McCloskey’s “On Being an Atheist” 1 2 3 I. Introduction In this paper‚ I will be making a response to a well-known writer and atheist‚ H. J. McCloskey‚ to his article entitled‚ “On
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INTRODUCTION Australian Philosopher and atheist‚ H.J. McCloskey published an article titled “On Being an Atheist” in 1968. In this article he offers arguments and what he refers to as “proofs” that a theists’ beliefs in an omnipotent‚ omniscient God should be disregarded. McCloskey bases his article on the Cosmological argument‚ the Teleological argument‚ on the problem of evil and ends his writing discussing why he claims that being an atheist offers more comfort than a theist has from a belief
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Essay on Responding to H. J. McCloskey’s On Being an Atheist by Reed Harvey Philosophy and Contemporary Ideas Instructor: C. Wayne Mayhall Due – August 17‚ 2012 Liberty University This paper seeks to clarify whether the claims and proofs presented by McCloskey’s article “On Being an Atheist” provide sufficient ammunition to dissuade people from maintaining their belief in God. It was McCloskey’s intent to systematically discredit God and show that life without God is a better
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The purpose of the paper is to answer several questions arising from an article by H. J. McCloskey entitled “On Being an Atheist”. McCloskey makes the claim that he is reminding fellow atheist why they believe there is no God. He claims that the traditional proofs have no merit. I believe the sheer magnitude and complexity of the world we live in is strong evidence of an intelligent designer and creator. Only an intelligent creator could form a world where the air that we breathe is part of
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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. Unfortunately his article is riddled with straw men and fails to address the question of God’s existence at the level that the Theist presents it. Twice in the article he makes reference to the theist’s
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heavily debated by theists and atheists. Many atheists are firm on the fact if there is a God on what proofs do you have on affirming your beliefs? One well known atheists‚ by the name of H. J. McCloskey published an article entitled‚ “On Being an Atheist‚” on February of 1968‚ in the journal Question One. In the article that McCloskey authored‚ he tries to validate his points that it is more logical to be an atheist instead of believing that there is a God. McCloskey debate this topic from an atheistic
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KayCee Schielder Response Paper Liberty University Phil The 1970’s philosopher McCloskey brings into question the three major arguments that are commonly presented against the question of God’s existence. McCloskey does so in an article entitled “On Being an Atheist.” In this article McCloskey commonly refers to these arguments as “proofs” rather than simply arguments. Furthermore‚ he argues that these “proofs” can’t be positively established and therefore one should throw said “proofs”
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