In his article “On Being an Atheist‚” H. J. McCloskey makes an entertaining‚ but in the end inadequate‚ explanation as to why the arguments for God’s existence fail (limiting himself to the only two he cared to deal with)‚ and why Atheism provides more comfort to the hurting person than Theism. Unfortunately his article is riddled with straw men and fails to address the question of God’s existence at the level that the Theist presents it. Twice in the article he makes reference to the theist’s
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KayCee Schielder Response Paper Liberty University Phil The 1970’s philosopher McCloskey brings into question the three major arguments that are commonly presented against the question of God’s existence. McCloskey does so in an article entitled “On Being an Atheist.” In this article McCloskey commonly refers to these arguments as “proofs” rather than simply arguments. Furthermore‚ he argues that these “proofs” can’t be positively established and therefore one should throw said “proofs”
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Response to McCloskey’s “On Being and Atheist” I respect individual worldviews‚ as I desire people to respect mine. At the same time‚ I do have the freedom of agreeing or disagreeing with ones that are deviate in nature from my own. One prime example is the worldview of H. J. McCloskey. Although I respect his worldview‚ and understand his reasoning behind it‚ I also disagree with it as well. McCloskey’s views are one of an Atheist. I am a Christian‚ and consider myself a theist who believes in
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The purpose of the paper is to answer several questions arising from an article by H. J. McCloskey entitled “On Being an Atheist”. McCloskey makes the claim that he is reminding fellow atheist why they believe there is no God. He claims that the traditional proofs have no merit. I believe the sheer magnitude and complexity of the world we live in is strong evidence of an intelligent designer and creator. Only an intelligent creator could form a world where the air that we breathe is part of
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Response to “On Being an Atheist” By: Casandra Privette In his article‚ On Being an Atheist‚ H.J. McCloskey tried to show that atheism is a more reasonable and comfortable belief than that of Christianity. McCloskey argued against the three theistic proofs‚ which are the cosmological argument‚ the teleological argument and the argument from design. He pointed out the existence of evil in the world that God made. He also pointed out that it is irrational to live by faith. In my response
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In his 1968 article‚ On Being an Atheist‚ H.J. McCloskey attempts to refute the arguments of God’s existence and explain how “atheism is a much more comfortable belief than theism.” (McCloskey 1968) He first attempts to discredit the Cosmological and Teleological arguments for God’s existence‚ then he turns to the existence of evil as “proof” that God does not exist‚ and finally closes his article back where he began- claiming that atheism is a more comforting belief than theism. Here I intend to
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My response to McCloskey’s "On Being an Atheist." The paper written by McCloskey is nothing more than an Atheists attempt to justify his atheistic ideas and at no time should ever be taken by any other person as anything more than one man’s opinions which are based completely upon speculative ideas. Throughout this paper‚ I read statements like‚ “theists feel…”‚” Most theists believe…”‚ “They do not think…”‚ and “Most theists conclude…”; however‚ the person giving these tidbits is
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In his article‚ On Being an Atheist‚ H.J. McCloskey tried to show that atheism is a more reasonable and comfortable belief than that of Christianity. McCloskey argued against the three theistic proofs‚ which are the cosmological argument‚ the teleological argument and the argument from design. He pointed out the existence of evil in the world that God made. He also pointed out that it is irrational to live by faith. According to McCloskey‚ proofs do not necessarily play a vital role in the
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Response Paper McCloskey Article (278.205 Kb) Having completed the unit of philosophy of religion‚ you are now ready to respond to an article written by an actual atheist. This article‚ titled “On Being an Atheist‚” was written by H. J. McCloskey in 1968 for the journal Question. McCloskey is an Australian philosopher who wrote a number of atheistic works in the 1960s and 70s including the book God and Evil (Nijhoff‚ 1974). In this article‚ McCloskey is both critical of the classical arguments
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-1This is a response to H.J. McCloskey’s Article‚ "On Being an Atheist". While I believe that Mr . McCloskey put a lot of thought into this article I think he made some assumptions about all theists that are not necessarily correct. Throughout his argument it seems that he focuses primarily on the existence of evil to support his non belief in God. He started off immediately in this argument by stating that because of the evil that exists in this world that if we are to say there was a creator
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