The evidential problem of evil determines the degree of how much evil must be a part of the evidence of God’s existence. While on the other hand the logical problem of evil is seen through our own eyes. It bares the question whether God is a perfect because of all wrong taking place in the world. Through these two problems it is hard to even imagine that God is perfect. Through Richard Swinburne’s theodicy (theodicy - an attempt to defend God's omnibenevolence in the face of evil) , one comes to find the case that initially escapes the evidential and logical problems…
Have you ever desired for a short, reasonable response that will please both the brain and the soul? In the pursuit of basic human rights, numerous individuals have searched for this fulfillment in religion. Webster defines religious as one`s belief in God, as well as rules used to worship a God. Since the beginning of time, religion was questioned, and it`s origin; consequently, they headed toward the sea to find some answers. Although we are not able to confirm the existence of God, we can provide proof of the power of religion.…
In 1968 a philosopher named H.J. McCloskey wrote an article titled “On Being an Atheist,” which attacked the main arguments held by theists. The main arguments that he refers to as “proofs” are the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, and the ontological argument. McCloskey’s article debunks these arguments as being false and without proof. He states that theists should dismiss the idea of God entirely. He claims in his opening statements that he will show reasons why theists should be miserable just because they are theists (1).…
In this essay I first outline Pascal’s wager to the existence of God and then evaluate his argument. Pascal argues that one ought to wager “that God is” because “[i]f you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing,” and that given this, one can bring oneself to believe in God. I argue that one cannot truly bring themselves to believe in God. Pascal’s argument is set up in three parts. The first part accepts that God is infinitely incomprehensible.…
Clifford and James are two philosophers who have contradicting opinions on whether having sufficient evidence is always necessary to believe in something. Where Clifford believes you cannot believe in anything without sufficient evidence, James believes that if the evidence doesn’t point in one way or another, it is justified to believe something based on our will. I will be arguing that James’ side is indeed correct. In James’ paper, he provides concrete evidence as to why his opinion is correct.…
2.2.8 Norman Malcolm Malcolm expanded on Anselm’s second argument, where most saw the second argument as a rephrasing of the first, Malcolm saw it as an entirely different argument. He believes that Anselm’s second argument is actually an argument that it is greater to exist necessarily rather than contingently, so it becomes a part of the concept that the greatest conceivable being would exist necessarily rather than contingently. This would free the argument from one of Kant’s critiques; the critique that existence isn’t a valid predicate, using this new argument, existence actually adds something to our concept of what God is rather than just being a statement on whether he exists. The crux of the argument is whether or not there exists a unique being that must exist necessarily rather than contingently, everything we know is contingent on something else, for example, you are contingent on your parents.…
Mary Shelley strongly portrays the opinion that scientific progress in the extreme will result in suffering, when it passes beyond the bounds of what nature will allow. Humans are flawed creatures that will continue to do unnatural types of wrong and suffer for it. Everyone surrounding the criminal human will be also be negatively affected, and the society in its entirety will be subject to suffering at the hands of nature. Humans generally look for comfort in nature’s surroundings because deep down they too are of natural origin, so when a human strays too far from the right and natural they will pay for their betrayal and imperfection of person. In the novel Frankenstein, there are many examples of death and torture and disruption due to…
Introduction John Hick, the British Philosopher was born in 1922 in the United Kingdom. Hick is credited as a profound religious epistemologist, philosophical theologian, and religious pluralist (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2015). Hick contributed largely to the world of theology, writing one of his more famous works, Evil and the God of Love, where the chapter Soul-Making Theodicy is included (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2015). The attempt to explain the presence of evil, pain, and suffering has been asked and investigated throughout the centuries by philosophers, theologian, and layman alike.…
Hume’s Argument for the Belief in Uniformity of Nature Hume begins section seven of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by expanding on his definitions he introduced in previous sections. In this section, on the idea of necessary connection,…
David Hume was one of the most influential philosophers of his time and continues to be mentioned and studies to this day. Almost equally as impressive was the response that philosopher Immanuel Kant had to his Inquiry of Human Understanding. Kant attempted to respond to Hume’s ideas and in this essay, I will identify the Hume’s beliefs behind the concepts such as cause, and effect and I will later defend Kant’s response to Hume. He raises points that leave his reader with a deeper understanding of his concept and explicitly outlines his beliefs on the concepts that Hume covers in his Human Inquiry.…
“Man is by nature a social animal,” (Aristotle). Indeed, in a cognitive neuroscience investigation, Zaki et al. (2011) found people naturally desire social inclusion. This trait, perhaps originally a survival tactic, has made us especially prone to be influenced by others. Recognizing this problem, Hume wrote his controversial piece, Of Miracles, to argue that it is unreasonable for people to believe in testimony-based miracles.…
Justice is not natural because it’s existence depends on human conventions because of how necessary it is fro social life. In summary, Hume basically believes justice is a compromise and having a certain amount of respect for other people’s…
In his essays titled “On the Vanity of Existence”, “The World as Will and Representation”, and “On the sufferings of the world”, Arthur Schopenhauer discusses the inevitability of suffering in life, what causes it, and what we can do to ease it. In this case the suffering refers to our constant un-satisfaction with our lives because of our need to always have and want more. Throughout this essay I am going to be answering the questions of why suffering is inevitable and what we can do to ease our suffering. Schopenhauer states that our suffering is caused by our will as human beings, the fleeting nature of our lives, and the illusion that is our lives. He goes on to further state that we can ease the suffering of our lives through art, beauty,…
When it comes to the age old question of can we prove that God exists, Soren Kierkegaard and Sir Francis Bacon would have different answers. Kierkegaard believes that “Faith, not logic, is the basis of belief”, while Bacon believed that “nature should be interrogated”. Although both philosophers believe in God, through Kierkegaard’s methodology, one could come to the conclusion that God exists, while through Bacon’s methodology one would not be able to come to the conclusion that God exists. Kierkegaard was a practicing Christian, and believed that God’s existence could not be proven logically. Instead, he affirms what he calls a “leap of faith,” which is to be taken by an individual in order to understand and believe in God.…
In the vast study of philosophy, a particular question has baffled even the most intelligent minds. This question is, “Does God exist?” Philosophers have considered the answer to this question for centuries, each coming up with their own argument and reasons behind their thinking. A platform of debate often used is Antony Flew’s parable of the two explorers, who find a garden so beautiful, that one of the explorers is positive that there must be a gardener tending to it, even if he can’t be detected in any way. The other explorer is not so easily convinced that a gardener exists at all.…