On Being An Atheist By H. J Mcloskey Analysis

Improved Essays
H. J. McCloskey wrote the article “ On Being an Atheist”. This very interesting article gave his personal opinion on why he did not believe in God. In his article he gives his opinions of the cosmological, and teleological arguments. The main argument he makes in his article is about the evil and hardship in the world which is suppose to be created by a caring and loving God. Though H.j Mcloskey wanted to have proof and contrary to his opinions of the cosmological and theological arguments along with his case for the problem of evil, his article only points to the fact that the only logical explanation for the creation of the world is the existence of a great architect which is God.
Mcloskey had a habit of referring to arguments as proofs. This causes issues in which he mcclokey is very quick to disregard the arguments in favor of the existence of
…show more content…
People often describe this by exsplaing that one would not see a wonderfuly made object without a designer. Most belivers side the teleogical argument . they feel there is an inttelegent architect. Mckloskey claimes that to get the proof going, genuine indisputable examples of design and purpose are needed.” he was clearly misinformed because the teleogical argument was based solely on possibility.
It is important to ponder whether it is possible to prove “indisputability”. Dew and forman claim it is not. there are exsamples that show that there is an intelligent desiner . finding indisputable exsample proves to be a difficult task. Yet there are some that can show that indeed the world as we know it was infacted created by an intelligent designer. one such exsample is humans . when you look at the complexity of humans it is impossible to deny that there had to be an intelligent designer. when one looks at carefully designed attributes of each individual one

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Response to McCloskey’s Article Shamyra Thompson Liberty University Introduction In the short article On Being an Atheist, H.J. McCloskey discusses several arguments pertaining to the whether or no there is a God and what one believes to be evil. McCloskey also refers to the arguments as “proof” as well as implied several times that they can’t define or establish the existence of God. In the light of Foreman’s comments in regards to the question of God’s existence, I felt that he addressed the question by discussing the commonly asked question “Is there a God or if a God exist”. He also discussed what exactly is evil.…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    God is the best explanation, but not necessarily the only explanation. The second important thing to remember is that yes, these arguments are defeasible, meaning that it is possible they could be wrong. However, atheists and McCloskey have yet to provide a defeater for our arguments. We as Christians could be wrong, but someone has yet to prove us 100 percent wrong. The cumulative case approach is the idea that not one argument is the ultimate argument for proof of God’s existence.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He suggests that there will never be a case in which all evidence will be shared, making the problem obsolete. He then seems to modify the conditions to require that the evidence must be shared to the extent that is possible. He includes a scenario in which there is an argument between an atheist and a theist. Faith as a way of knowing is often deeply personal, meaning the likelihood of successfully sharing evidence regarding religion is highly improbable. This reveals a clear point of contention in which evidence cannot realistically be fully shared.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For example, Darwin studied Finches on the Gallapagos Islands to explain his theory. Within the birds, he could see small variations, but they were the same species. Then, an argument could be that maybe there is still more to discover as far as when organisms started inhabiting the Earth. Many people who argue against this idea don’t typically argue against the idea of there being a designer, but whether or not the order and complexity of the universe means that it was indeed designed. Basically, that maybe everything didn’t evolve over time, but maybe complex organism combusted randomly, without a…

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this paper I will analyze the argument of the “Fine-Tuned Universe”, describe what it means, show how an opponent would argue that intelligent design isn’t the best explanation, and also provide my own view on this argument from my theist view. Have you ever wondered how the universe got here? How everything perfectly fell into place, and how you’re here today? The Fine Tuned Universe argument may help you better understand. This argument is a version of the teleological argument, which is an argument for an intelligent creator, that basically suggests there are many very specific things that make life possible, and if any of these very specific things were to be altered, life as we know it would be highly unlikely to exist.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Like the popular Paley’s watchmaker argument and the Fine-Tuning argument which all try to support God’s existence. We can clearly use many examples of nature or things in this world that call for the need of a designer in order to exist. When you observe this…

    • 1740 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Mackie's Argument Analysis

    • 1868 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Mackie’s formulation fails to disprove the existence of God, because Mackie does not consider God’s motives to act, or not to act. Mackie begins his argument, first, by stating that philosophy is able to altogether disprove the existence…

    • 1868 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Among several criticisms to the argument, Hume argues that the existence of an intelligent designer needs explaining in and of itself (Speaks, 2006). This argument highlights a flaw in the theory of teleological arguments in that it creates an infinite loop of possibilities. How did God come to be, does he have an intelligent designer? One can follow that logic to infinity. Another criticism Hume outlines is the simple lack of evidence to support the theory.…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Philosophy has been plagued with the subject of religion since the dawn of time. Each philosopher having their own opinions, many attempts have been made to prove and disprove their opinion and the opinions of others. The existence of God, a single, supreme being who created the heavens and the earth, is a controversial topic, but even among those who believe in the existence of God, finding a way to explain such existence has been nigh impossible. An 18th century philosopher, David Hume attempted to establish his opinion on the existence of God by critiquing the widely accepted ideals set forth by Descartes.…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion” is a philosophical work written by David Hume. In this book, he proceeds to consult and provide arguments in favor of God’s existence. All of his arguments are supported with premises spoken through the philosophers in his book (this esay on Cleanthes’s argument). In his argument, Cleanthes clams that the universe is a complex machine which has a plethora of ‘natural’ machines. These machines, both human and natural, all have a mans of working towards a common end.…

    • 1772 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    William Paley’s design argument starts with the assumption that if something is designed, there must be a designer. Paley says that the universe didn’t have to be like this, and that how everything works together for a purpose indicates design, so therefore, there has to be a designer, that is God. However, the philosopher David Hume states in his work „Critique of the Design Argument“ some objections that he has against Paley’s Argument. For one, Hume criticizes that the watch analogy is weak, because the universe has no similarities to a watch and you can’t compare a man-made object to a whole universe.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    UF ID: 7193-6522 Question: 2 Introduction to Philosophy Paper 1 09/27/16 The world is full of wonders that leave us in complete awe from natural beauties to the complexity of humans. Although one could potentially deny the status of such as a wonder, it would be a weak argument as even scientists today are left speechless about many natural events. According to William Paley, the world’s wonders are evidence that can lead to the belief in the existence of God through what was later known as the design argument (Paley 40).…

    • 1633 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this assignment I am going to compare the teleological argument with evolution and see how it differs in opinion. I will also look at what seems the most realistic approach. The teleological argument is an argument in which can also be known as design arguments. The teleological argument is famously associated with ST. Thomas Aquinas who states that the design argument is one of his five ways of knowing that God is real and that he exists.…

    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Design Argument is used as argument for God’s existence. It states that the universe as we know it, is comprised of complexity, and complex things do not solely come in to being, but must have been intelligently designed. If the universe and its components are complex, there must be someone that intelligently designed them, therefore, there must be a designer and that must be God. The design argument can be understood as being an argument for the existence of God and it achieves this by being an inductive argument from analogy. We make an analogy between how things exist with intricate details in nature and that complex composition along with intelligent design are required for the Design Argument for God.…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Antony Flew also looks at integrated complexity and it was the reason he converted from atheism and theism. About DNA, Flew mentioned that the meeting of these two parts at the right time by chance is simply minute. It is all a matter of the enormous complexity by which the results were achieved, which looked to me like the work of intelligence. Even though there are arguments that agree with Paley there are criticisms.…

    • 1587 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays