Philosophy of religion

In today’s day and age one highly controversial topic of debate is religion. Has God become obsolete with all the scientific progress the human race has made in the past few decades? Lewis Vaughn explains in his book Philosophy: Here and Now ( pg. 64-66) St. Thomas Aquinas’s evidence for God. Aquinas’ arguments for the existence of God are known as the first-cause argument and the argument from motion. Aquinas explains that in the universe everything is moving and caused by something, for…

Dat To An Atheist Personal Philosophy “Why are you an atheistic?” That is the question I keep receiving when I tell people that I am an atheist, a person who believes in certainty that there is no god or gods. I usually give a logical, rational, and well-thought answer to them. However, it often is time consuming, wasting effort, and even hopeless sometimes. In fact, when people believe in something, they do not always need proof for their belief. They are happy with it and they say it is their…

When one examines religion, one often finds a glaring contradiction between the existence an all knowing, all powerful, all loving God, and evil. This is known as the problem of evil, and it has perplexed theists and atheists for centuries. One 20th century philosopher, J.L Mackie, used a formulation of the problem of evil in an attempt to disprove the existence of God. Over the course of his career, he sought to prove that God could not exist alongside evil. While Mackie’s argument is valid,…

Arguments against God’s existence has been a conflict for some time now in the philosophy and religion world. One of the biggest arguments is known as “the problem of evil”, which alleges an inconsistency between the existence of evil and that of an omnipotent and morally perfect God. The conception of God is said to be that God is an all-knowing, all powerful, and all good. This implies that God, an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good being would prevent any kind of evil from existing. But…

The article H. J. McCloskey wrote, On Being an Atheist, discusses how arguments presented are proof that God does not exist. As I learned from Dr. Foreman’s presentation, Arguments for God’s Existence, there is nothing that can be proven with one-hundred percent certainty. We need not use arguments, but we should use evidence, just as an attorney in building a case against or for an accused. (Foreman, Approaching the Question of God 's Existence n.d.) Evidence sometimes is circumstantial, full…

Zachary Burnham Philosophy 220 Professor: John Shea September 24, 2015 First Exam The ontological argument for existence of God was introduced by a monk named Anslem. St. Anslem explains his argument for existence of God by saying, “The fool said in his heart, ‘There is no God,’ but certainly that same fool having heard just what I said, “Something greater than which cannot be thought,” understands what he heard. What he understands is in his thought, but it cannot exist only in thought, for…

In this essay, I will defend for the existence of God. First I will present Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God on the claim that he is the greatest conceivable being, then I will present Gaunilo’s objection for the unsoundness of Anselm’s argument on the claim of which there are no set limitations for the characteristic of the greatness, which I think fails. I will show that Anselm’s ontological argument can withstand Gaunilo’s objection by emphasizing the maximal…

If God exists, he must be omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnibenevolent (all good). However, there is evil in this world. Evil is defined by suffering. Then comes the question of whether God exists and if he does, then why is there still evil and suffering in the world? If God were truly omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, then our world would not contain evil whatsoever. There is a whole range of people who experience suffering but it is best to narrow it down…

In his article “Evil and Omnipotence,” J.L. Mackie explores the various adequate and fallacious solutions to the “problem of evil,” a problem in which “God is omnipotent; God is wholly good; and yet evil exists” (p. 119). While Mackie discusses, analyzes, and criticizes many solutions, including “good cannot exist without evil” (p. 120) and “evil is necessary as a means to good” (p. 122), my paper will solely focus on Mackie’s response to the fallacious solution that “evil is due to human…

I agree with Mackie when he says “evil is inconsistent with the existence of an all-caring all-knowing and all-powerful God. God cannot be omnipotent and omnibenevolent while evil exists. Those three premises don’t correlate with each other. If God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent then evil cannot exist. And If evil exist God can’t be both omnipotent and omnibenevolent. Just as Mackie said “evil inconsistent” with a good all powerful God. Evil should not exist given an all-good, all-powerful,…