Essay On Being An Atheist

Every person has their own beliefs when it comes to the existence of a supreme being and the cause of the universe. Although there are many different belief systems, there are two that are often contrasting each other; those are atheism and theism. H.J. McCloskey, an atheistic philosopher detailed his opinions on the faults of theism to give justification for his own (and many others) atheistic beliefs. In an article titled, “On Being an Atheist” McCloskey enumerates his belief that theism is not the comfortable belief system that most theists believe it to be. In this article, he addresses three common arguments, he refers to them as proofs, that theism claims as justification for its belief in God as the supreme being that created the universe. Although McCloskey attempted to disprove theism by addressing issues within the belief system, his arguments are still inconclusive and do not definitively disprove theism. There is one issue within McCloskey’s article that can benefit from some clarification before other arguments can be made. In his article, McCloskey often uses "proofs" to refer to the justification that theists use. The use of this word is misleading. When one claims to have proof for something, they are claiming that they have …show more content…
Theists use the cosmological argument to explain why the universe exists. In their opinion, God is a necessary being, an uncaused first cause, and the creator of the universe. When observing the universe, there is no reason for anything in the world to exist, yet they do exist. The existence of things that logically not exist is referred to as contingent. To give a reason for the existence of such things, theists argue that a necessary being created everything; atheists argue there is no necessary being. Logically, not believing in a necessary being, gives no reason for why things exist in the world. This belief lacks a reason for