Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion

Another example of this is the fact that not only did the Jewish people suffer at the hand of God, those around them had to suffer as well. This is similar to the wasp that Jacques mentions in the film; it lays its eggs inside a caterpillar and then eats its way out, which kills the caterpillar. Sometimes in nature, in order for one to survive, another must die. In his article “The Bible and the Legitimation of Violence,” Collins says, that the book of Deuteronomy “repeatedly tells the Israelites to be compassionate to slaves and aliens, and to remember that they were slaves in the land of Egypt.” Therefore, God’s inclination towards violence does not make sense. God wanted all of humanity to be good and preach goodness, despite whatever hardships they had faced. In His eyes, everyone was deserving of love and no one should be forced to have faith in Him. The reason for this was quite simple, if one has to be forced by threat of violence to believe and trust in a higher power, then they are not being faithful for their own sake but only out of fear. God

God is depicted in the Old Testament with a very bad reputation. David Lamb is an old testament professor and he addresses some of the reasons for this bad reputation. In Lamb’s book, God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist? In his book, there are seven specific citations addressed that provide proof and evidence for those who would believe “God behaves badly.” The examples that Professor Lamb chose are: angry or loving, sexist or affirming, racist or hospitable, violent or peaceful, legalistic or gracious, rigid or flexible, and distant or near. With each chapter that Lamb writes, it provides multiple biblical narrative accounts and establishes a basis for the particular argument aimed against God.

The essay “God, Science, and Imagination” by Wendell Berry discusses fundamentalists, specifically ones of science and religion, and their need to humiliate their opponents through evangelism and conversion. He also criticizes Professor Steven Weinberg’s essay and his opinion on God and religion. Weinberg is in fact a fundamentalist of science who questions the existence of God. But, Berry argues that “If in fact the fundamentalist scientists were as smart as they think they are, and if the religious fundamentalists were as secure in their belief as they claim to be, then they would leave one another in peace… these camps keep pestering each other because they need each other” (25).The same could be said for the contestants in James Fallows’

Omnipotent (meaning God has unlimited control/power) despite; Premise 3. The presence of evil (implying the opposite of what’s good) Conclusion. God does not exist (p. 200) Evils that exist in the World, meaning diseases, violence, and murders oppose one of God’s characteristics – wholly goodness. If he were truly wholly good, all evil would cease to exist but I will argue why this statement is false.

Dr. Mark Walker discusses possible objections to his argument in his journal article “The Anthropic Argument Against the Existence of God”. If one of these objections hold true it would contradict his conclusion by dismissing one of his premises. The first objection he discusses is the possibility of two omnipotent gods coexisting. Richard Swinburne argued that two all-powerful gods existing together is impossible because the first omnipotent god would be more powerful than the second and the second omnipotent god would be more powerful than the first god. Dr. Mark Walker responds by discussing, if God created other gods then he would be giving up a little of his powers each time.

Car jackings, house fires, break-ins, weather and climate changes, and mass shootings. One viewing of the nightly news and it is no wonder that religion, faith, and belief in God has come into question. Right in Milwaukee(as in the world), a city with wide divides politically, racially, and economically, religion specifically Christianity has been called into question. How can a just God let people become victims of violence and natural disasters? The answer from Christianity is that faith (trust) in God and his revealed plan brought to end through Jesus Christ. A outspoken biologist, atheist, lecturer, and writer, Dr. Richard Dawkins believes that faith is nothing more than superstition and feeling, with little support to reinforce the belief

This direct quote appeared in chapter twelve at the point where the author tries to explain how some of the creatures such as Babel fish are among the oldest creatures in the world even though is extremely small. However, some of the creatures that are currently extinct were known to be powerful, Babel fish is significantly small but still existing. The theme of religion is revealed in this quote. This quote means that the some individual does not believe in the existence of God. The author uses powerful vocabularies to express his perception about the issue of faith in regards to human beings perception of the existence of god. The quote is expressed in a manner that reveals an individual’s perception of religion. Apparently, the author wants to challenge his readers to rethink about issues that prove the existence of God because to him the evolution of some objects or creatures such as the Babel fish is a proof of the non-existence of God.

The belief in Gods has always existed throughout human’s recored history. Whether it be the Greek Gods: Apollo, and Zeus, or the Judeo-Christian God, believed by Christians in modern day society. The belief of God has always existed among humans, however, assuming God does not exist, what explains the cultural evolution of such a false belief, namely religion? I shall argue that the reason this false belief is successful is because it manipulates human nature better than any other belief by these three points: an avoidance of death (the soul), a sense of worth (knowledge), and a sense, or need of belief (faith).

In the movie God on Trial, director Andy de Emmony has the actors in the setting of the concentration camp, Auschwitz, where they have to face the challenging and controversial issue of God’s goodness. The characters hold a trial to judge God, the room is full of tension and division where some of the prisoners defend God and the others accuse God with murder and evil. Those who come to God’s defense restate numerous biblical stories which are full of miracles and beautiful natural stories full of hope. On the other hand, the others accuse God with devastating personal experiences and horrendous biblical stories. The movie is not the only time people tried to defend or question God’s goodness. In the article, “ Did God Command Genocide?”

People believe that if evil exists then so does God, and vice versa. It is also a common belief that this perfect being is the creator of everything and everyone. From atom to atom and from molecule to molecule, he designed all of it. It is also believed that this God has no flaws and is indeed a perfect being. However, some people will tend to disagree. Ernest Nagel, an American philosopher, proposed a series of counterarguments to many classic arguments on behalf of God’s existence. He dismisses arguments such as the cosmological argument, the ontological argument, and the argument of design, by quickly pointing out their flaws. But just as there are people who discredit God’s existence, there are people who argue that he does exist. Richard Swinburne, a British philosopher, provides his own series of arguments on why God exists. Moreover, his arguments are centralized around the problem of evil. In “Why God Allows Evil”, Swinburne discusses rationale behind God allowing evil to exist. To keep it short and sweet, Swinburne believes that there are two types of evils, moral and natural, and that they exist for a reason.

a) Christians believe many different things about God’s nature; due to the huge spectrum of Christians that there are. However, as a general rule they perceive God as being one of the following four things:

that if one asserts something then one must deny something. He then goes on by

Whether god exists or not has been in discussion for thousands of years, and an important discussion. Whether it is rational to believe in god or not is another story, like believing in god itself, this topic has brought many discussions. It is one thing to discuss whether god is real or not and it is a complete other to discuss whether it is rational to believe in god or not. I believe that while there may not be any convincing evidence or arguments that God does exist, I do still believe that it is still rational to believe that god does exist. I think this because, believing in God is not simply just believing that he exists, but believing that it can bring good to our lives, we otherwise would not have. It teaches us to have a moral

Hitchens arguments begin strongly at the start of chapter two. The themes of this chapter and that of chapter four deal with how religion is effective at ending lives. The discussion in the second chapter revolves around the political situation in which violent outbreaks have been caused by religious people. A good number of pages in this section deal with a response to a question he was given. The question in Hitchens’s words is “I was to imagine myself in a strange city as the evening was coming on. Toward me I was to imagine that I saw a large group of men approaching. Now- would I feel safer, or less safe, if I was to learn that they were just coming from a prayer meeting?” (18). The answer from Hitchens is that he would be scared and the reason he gives is due to his experiences from various places that have had struggles with politics that stem from religious causes. His view on these conflicts leads him many times to the statement that “religion poisons everything” (22).

In Uys’ (1980) film, The God’s Must Be Crazy, a tribal community of South African Bushmen who live independently away from any contact with the outside world. When a Coke bottle is dropped from a plane, this “beautiful” and “useful” thing becomes a tool that is adopted into a variety of uses by the family (Uys, 1980). When the family begins to fight over the bottle, Xi, decides that although the bottle has been given to them by the gods, this now “evil thing” must be thrown off the edge of the world (Uys, 1980). The film then captures Xi’s experiences and interactions with other people and modern society as he sought to accomplish his task.