H.J. Mc Closkey's On Being An Atheist

1761 words - 7 pages

Response to McCloskey

Introduction
In his article “On Being an Atheist”, H.J. McCloskey, an Australian philosopher took a serious stance on arguments against the existence of God. He offered numerous reasons for the stance he took including, the problem with evil to suggest that one should not believe in God. McCloskey believes that atheism is a much more comfortable and understandable belief as opposed to believing in God who allows the suffering of innocent people just to get the glory out of their lives and achieve the ultimate good. He moves on to say that in the end, to live in this world, a person must seek comfort wherever you can find it. Since atheism was adopted by a thoughtful and sensitive person, it leads to a spirit of self-reliance, and on to a self-respect, which causes a person to comfort and help those in need of support. In doing so, it will decrease the blows of fate. McCloskey is saying that it is better to help each other than to believe in a God that could not be perfect himself. He states this because he feels that since the world is imperfect than God cannot possibly be perfect. If he were perfect, then the world would be perfect. However, because evil exist, God cannot exist, therefore we must live in this world as it is, and except the ludicrousness of life. His arguments are not logical or are they sound, and it will be complicated and interesting to argue against him and his views.

“Proofs”
Throughout his article, McCloskey, uses the word “proof” when discussing his arguments he believes, cannot definitively establish a case for the existence of God. We must understand that no single argument can get to the point of certainty pertaining to the existence of God. According to McCloskey, theists us cosmological, teleological, and the argument from design, as proofs to support their claims. However, theists use coherence in their argument, the beliefs that relate mutually together to support their argument for the existence of God.
To theists, coherence is an important piece because their beliefs cohere together to form knowledge of the belief in God. If a proposal is true because it coheres with another, then this forms a basis for truth. In areas that facts may not be known, coherence helps establish truth. In particular, Christians, do not take a single argument and try to establish truth; Christians gather evidence, both subjective and objective, and base an understanding on it.
McCloskey had a much closed-minded way of thinking when it comes to the existence of God in my opinion. Most theists do not just use their proof or non-existence of proof to come to the existence of God. Many times, there are other reasons for one’s belief in God. Even without having knowledge or insight about creation or evolution, the universe itself shows proof of an intelligent and all-powerful designer. McCloskey believes theists are more concerned with the cause of the creation theory; there must be a first cause, a...

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