On Being Atheist

“On Being an Atheist”

Johanna Guzzie

Phil 201

07/04/2016

Professor Lockhart

 “On Being an Atheist”

H.J. McCloskey, article posted in February 1968 “One Being an Atheist”. McCloskey makes the argument on why God’s existence has failed. McCloskey provides how Atheist our more at ease than the Theism when it comes to God’s existence and how it came about. McCloskey choose to use the word “proof” instead of theory because he believes proof has more power in the meaning than using theory when discussing his three arguments in this article.

McCloskey has many concepts that we can perceive as the truth, but they are not proven to be true. Almost anything in life can be proven, but we have to choose whether to agree with it as the truth, known as proof according to McCloskey. McCloskey states you have to base your judgement whether or not that the concept of God’s existence is true to what we know or what we believe is to be the truth.

McCloskey states that a Christian college friend believes the importance role of proofs of the existence of God, which is the religious beliefs, whereas the theists do not believe in God and their proof comes from other reason and factors of God existence (McCloskey, 1968).

McCloskey has three arguments that he discusses in his article, The Cosmological argument, theological argument, and the problem with evil. The cosmological argument informs us that of a creator and the teleological argument involves the intelligent and the moral of one’s beliefs. He claims that the universe is the existence of the world not God.

McCloskey first argument is on the cosmological argument which is God existence. Cosmological argument is believed that the universe and cosmos has the direct approach on God’s existence. This is known as the first-cause argument, because the Atheist believe that God is the first cause in the universe. McCloskey complains that people need validation that the universe needs a cause in-order for them to believe that the universe of god existences.  The first cause needs to be explained as a being to exist, because one cannot exist (McCloskey,51).

We know we have animals that have been extent and we wonder how they became into existences and how did they first appear. Everything that usually happens is caused by something that we may not understand or how and why, which according to McCloskey the universe has a role in the cause. McCloskey believes that you do not need to believe but everything exists because earth exists.

McCloskey mentions another argument which is referred to as the Theological argument which is much like the Cosmological argument, because it also begins with the existence of the cosmos. It’s characters as a cosmos is an orderly universe which is referred to as the argument by design (Evans and Manis,77). The theological argument has an organized entity that has a purpose, that is believed to have evidence of intelligent by design but does not go into further detail to explain. McCloskey states that “we should be entitled to conclude was there a powerful, malevolent or imperfect planner or designer” (McCloskey,52) which if others believe it to be perfect he believes that nature is to be broken. Since McCloskey believes that God designed the world to continue without the need of a designer According to Evans and Manis that God is the intelligent designer even with the mechanical process God still understand the purpose of design.

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