Arguments Against Atheism

Atheism believes there is no God by faith. Their view of the beginning of the universe is totally scientific. They believe everything in universe came into existence from nothing at a point in the past. I can use an example

Theism is the belief of the existence of god as the creator of the world. Atheism, on the flip side, disagree with the argument of believing in a god as in their view there aren’t enough evidence that God actually exist. While scientists disagree with the existence of God, however, they have not been able to disproved that god does not exist. In a sense, it’s worth pointing out that both argument somehow aiming in the direction of strictly scientific view of the world. The reason for my logic is that theism utilized faith to explain everything around them which in their view are more than enough indication in explaining the existence of god. While this logic may be insufficient from atheism point of view; however, it is worth noting that the

The issue that is unjustifiable in McCloskey’s argument as proofs is he dismisses the favor of God’s existence when the standard of “one hundred percent certainty is not reached” (Forman,2012). Instead of centering one focus on proving God’s existence, you must seek an accumulative case approach to explain the best case to God’s existence, which is streams of evidence to develop a strong case (Forman,2012). Proof and certainty are not always a reliable possibility, especially when it comes to our senses or scientific beliefs (Forman,2012). According to Evans and Manis “the failure to produce a proof of God’s existence does not necessarily mean that no one has any justified beliefs about God” (Evans & Manis, 2009, p. 61). The cosmological and teleological argument provides substantial amount of expositions for God existence meanwhile McCloskey’s arguments contradict themselves on the standard of proof that he

To reply to McCloskey’s claim that there could not be a God due to the amount of evil there is I would first acknowledge this claim. At first I too agreed with this claim that how could someone so great and loving let so much evil and pain into the lives of people who do not deserve it. Simply because I did not understand how God could be so great and let evil into this world. Since then certain truths about theology have been explained to me so I can understand the good of God verses the evil found in this world.

Atheism is disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods, they reject religion as apart of not only a rejection of ignorance, but also a rejection of their religious family and association of religion itself, says Catherine L. and Caldwell-Harris who are published in the Department of Psychology for Boston University, Lesley College,University of Haifa, and Trinity College. This is a stark contrast to theism, which is the belief in god and is the case for many Americans. This demographic is about 83% of America’s population, according to the most recent census. About 16% of the population, or about 34,169,000 people are of an unaffiliated position, which would include Atheists,

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 for God’s existence and offers the problem of evil as a reason why one should not believe in God. Please note the following parameters for this paper:

Within McCloskey’s article he refers to three well known theist arguments as proofs the cosmological, teleological and argument from design. The Cosmological argument

McCloskey claims that the “mere existence of the world constitutes no reason for believing in such a being [i.e. a necessarily existing being].”

When it comes to religion a theist should be an individual who after being presented with all the facts for and against the existence of a God,subtracts these opposing groups of evidence and comes to the conclusion that their is a God. An atheist should be an individual whom after conducting the same process comes to the conclusion that their is not a

Beginning with the Cosmological Argument, McCloskey claimed that the “mere existence of the world constitutes no reason for believing in such a being [i.e., a necessarily existing being].” (McCloskey, 1968) The claim is challenged by Evan and Manis in their book Philosophy of Religion: Thinking about faith. Evan and Manis claim that is the cause of one thing something is unknown that than that something must have an explanation unless a being that requires not explanation is in existence. (Evans and Manis, 2009) However, if one was to believe McCloskey’s claim, which argues that this necessary being does not exist, than they would be required to

It is interesting that McCloskey refers to his grounds for evidence as proofs for according to Mark Foreman, who is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Liberty University, proof carries with it connotations of certainty that actually originate from the field of mathematics and is not meant to be used regarding philosophical arguments pertaining to the existence of God. Theists cannot prove the existence of God 100%; ergo, the naturalists and atheists cannot provide 100% proof that God does not exist.

In Craig’s “The Absurdity of Life without God”, he gives us multiple reasons why McCloskey’s claim is absurd. Without God there is no hope of life beyond the life we know. Man must die eventually, but without God the grave is the absolute end. This means that our life has no purpose or value (Craig, 2008). If we are all awaiting the end, then it doesn’t matter that we even existed. Mankind is no more significant than bees or snakes, creatures that do not have a soul. Our end would all be the same (Craig, 2008). We need God and immortality for our lives to be significant. Even if we lived forever, without God it would all be meaningless (Craig, 2008). Without God our life would have no value because it would not matter if we were a good person or an evil one. Assuming that the grave is the end, there would be no incentive to do good deeds or to be a good person. All morals would be pointless. Without God there also is no purpose to life (Craig, 2008). There would be no reason for our existence and we would be here by chance. We would have nothing in our future except death. We cannot be happy and consistent if we were sure that life is meaningless because there is no God (Craig, 2008). If God does exist, then life is meaningful with value, purpose, and

McCloskey states in his article “On being an Atheist” that he finds much more comfort in being an atheist than believing in an all-powerful and all-knowing God because of the presence of evil in the world. He goes on to use this evil in the world as his “proof” that there is no God that exists. He then uses arguments such as the cosmological argument, and the teleological argument to go further into his reasoning. He states that these classical arguments cannot prove that God exists. He argues that if there were an all-powerful being in the world then would he not rid the world of evil? This is why he believes there to be more comfort in atheism. Yes there is evil in our world unfortunately so how should a theist, A Christian, respond to McCloskey and his arguments?

Over the centuries, there have been many attempts by religious philosophers to prove the existence of God. Though the history of the philosophy of religion has been dominated by attempts to prove the existence of God, there also exists a number of arguments that seek to disprove theism. In philosophy, it is important to be clear about the meanings of the terms that are central to the argument. Theism is the belief that there is a deity that is distinct from and transcends the world, which it creates and intervenes in. Atheism is the opposite of Theism which is the belief that there is no such thing as a deity. The arguments for the existence of God sets out to explain each of the common philosophical arguments for theism, and so to explore

McCloskey brings up the problem of evil and he makes arguments against the concept of free will. He claims “might not God