Does God Exist? Considering the Philosophy of Ernest Nagel from a First Person

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.

On the topic of the existence of God, Ernest Nagel and Richard Swinburne have construct arguments that challenge one another. In Nagel’s article, “Does God Exist?” he argues that if God is all-powerful, omniscient, and benevolent; he would know when evil occurs and has the power to prevent it. Because evil occurs, God does not exist. This is the problem of evil. Challenging Nagel, the article by Swinburne, “Why God Allows Evil,” argues that God has the right to allow moral and natural evils to occur because those evils reap greater goods that make the lives of human-beings meaningful. He extends his argument to the idea that God seeks to provide human beings with goods such as freewill and responsibility of not only ourselves, but of the world and others. While Nagel utilizes the problem of evil as an objection to the existence of God, Swinburne employs it to show that God allows evil to occur to provide human beings with goods that go beyond moments of pleasure and joys of happiness.

ABSTRACT: Charles S. Peirce sketches "a nest of three arguments for the Reality of God" in his article "A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God." I provide careful analysis and explication of Peirce's argument, along with consideration of some objections. I argue that (1) there are significant differences between Peirce's neglected argument and the traditional arguments for God's existence; (2) Peirce's analysis of the neglected argument into three arguments is misleading; (3) there are two distinct levels of argument that Peirce does not recognize; and (4) it is doubtful whether the argument meets all the criteria set by Peirce himself.

Among the most famous proofs for God’s existence is Anselm’s “Ontological Argument”. Although this widely read philosophical discourse has its fair share of critics, it is a sound and valid argument for the existence of God with true premises and a true conclusion. This paper will present Anselm’s argument, discussing both premises and conclusion, and defend it against the retort made by Anselm’s contemporary, Gaunilo, using the logic of Anselm’s rejoinder. Anselm’s argument can be summarized by the following points: 1.

Since there is no visible proof of God, it is hard for people to believe. There are atheists, agnostics, skeptics, freethinkers, and many other types of non-believers. In contrast to these views, I will argue that there is a God. In fact, Thomas Aquinas tries to explain the existence of God through five arguments. My paper will argue this view by appealing to the five arguments that Thomas Aquinas has discussed in his Summa Theologiae.

The existence of God is a much debated philosophical argument that has mystified philosophers since the age of the ‘Enlightenment.’ Many of the different arguments put forth and analysed though, have not adequately proven God’s existence. Although in order to move forward, failed arguments must be studied to ensure that mistakes are not repeated. One such argument is the Ontological Argument.

In this first objection of Case for Faith by Lee Strobel, it was very interesting to see the detailed contrast in a Christian view verses an Atheist’s. This whole chapter was very intriguing, the way the discussions played out and what each point leaded to. Out of all of it, I really caught onto when Keeft stated the three attributes of God; God is all powerful, God is all knowing, and God is all good. Throughout the chapter, Keeft made it very clear that he was defending the fact that there is a God. He used numerous different ways of explaining his point of the matter. I noticed that while doing that, revealing the attributes of who God is, really tied it all together.

Other critics of the strong version of the ontological argument point out that though it is possible to understand the definition of god in the argument, it is inconceivable to conceive of something of which nothing greater can be conceived. However, Stroll [1] pointed out that it is not possible to prove his proposition against the ontological argument and same can be said about other critiques of this argument as well. Hence the issue of existence of God is still undecided based on the ontological argument.

In the following paper, I will attempt to argue for the existence of God and that God is the cause of existence because God is existence and nothing exists separate from God.

In the article, “On Being an Atheist”, H.J. McCloskey discusses the reasons of why he believes being an atheist is a more acceptable than Christianity. McCloskey believes that atheism is a more rational belief versus having a God who allows people to suffer so he can have the glory. He believes to live in this world, you must be comfortable. The introduction of his article, he implements an overview of arguments given by the theist, which he introduces as proofs. He claims that the proofs do not create a rationalization to believe that God exists. He provides 3 theist proofs, which are Cosmological argument, teleological argument, and the argument of design. He also mentions the presence of evil in the world. He focuses on the existence

Regarding religion within philosophy, everything is up for debate and everything needs and has an argument proving the existence of a theistic God. According to many philosophers, it is crucial for sacred beliefs to be examined and backed up with evidence. This leads me to addressing the many arguments that philosophers have addressed to whether a theistic God even exists, along with forming my own personal opinions and arguments.In recent history, many of the studied arguments for the existence of God has been very controversial. Many Christians believe that there is a God through faith alone. Yet, numerous philosophers disagree with the existence of a theistic God and attribute that faith alone isn’t viable because by definition faith is unprovable. I find it important to acknowledge the objections and challenges as to why there is a theistic God! Over the course of this essay, I’m going to unfold what past philosophers have claimed concerning how to prove God's

What is God? Simply we can say that god is our creator, he is the one that created this universe and all the living beings. He is almighty and has knowledge of everything. But for decades, there has been different arguments for explaining the theory of god’s existence. Although different religions might see god in different perspectives, the main concept of god is almost the same in every religion. God is a fragment of our belief (Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-). We are a very curious species. We want to define everything by logic. It's not just this decade, mankind has been looking for logical explanations of various events since its dawn. Therefore, the biggest mystery or question that comes to our mind is "who created this world and all the living beings in it?" Thus, emerged the concept of God. People started believing that we were created by a superior being, and different religions were built around this concept. In this paper, we will discuss various arguments surrounding the existence of God.

H. J. McCloskey is the author of the short article “On Being an Atheist”. He has also written many more books on the support of atheism. For this essay we will be looking at his article “On Being an Atheist”. In his article, McCloskey examines many Christian arguments for the existence of God. McCloskey not only says that Christians are wrong in using these arguments but he critically analyzes them from the view point of a devout atheist. While H. J. McCloskey gives his strong beliefs on the existence of God and reason behind evil being in the world, a Christian can still stand firm in their beliefs because of supporting evidence.

The essay topic above raises two main areas of attention in need of address. These two areas being; the ontological argument and what it is, and secondly, whether or not this argument is successful in arriving at the conclusion of god’s existence. To do the latter, I must first state the argument and what it is.

The main argument we are presented with is whether God exists or not. One argues that there is no evidence to prove its existence while the other one argues that we aren’t capable enough to understand the “philosophical mysteries of the universe.” One point of view we see is an atheist. Atheists argue that “there is absolutely no scientific evidence for his existence” and from what they have heard the “definition of God” is “a logical impossibility in this known universe” therefore, God does not exists. To Atheist, the explanation behind