Response Paper Directions
Having accomplished the unit of philosophy of faith, you at the moment are prepared to reply to an article written by an precise atheist. This text titled “On Being an Atheist,” was written by H. J. McCloskey in 1968 for the journal Query. McCloskey is an Australian thinker who wrote a variety of atheistic works within the 1960s and 70s together with the e book God and Evil (Nijhoff, 1974). On this article, McCloskey is each crucial of the classical arguments for God’s existence and provides the issue of evil as a cause why one shouldn’t imagine in God. Please word the next parameters for this paper:
1. Your project is to learn McCloskey’s brief article discovered within the Studying & Research folder in Module/Week 7 and reply to every of the questions beneath. Your teacher is in search of an in depth response to every query.
2. The response paper is to be a minimal of 1,500 phrases (not together with quotes) and needs to be written as a single essay and never only a record of solutions to questions.
three. The idea on your solutions ought to primarily come from the assets supplied within the classes overlaying the philosophy of faith unit of the course (Evans and Manis, Craig, and the presentation) and these sources needs to be talked about in your paper. You aren’t merely to cite these sources as a solution to the query—reply them in your personal phrases.
four. You could use different outdoors sources as effectively, so long as you correctly doc them. Nonetheless, outdoors sources aren’t obligatory. Every of the questions might be answered from the sources supplied within the classes.
5. Whereas the usage of the Bible isn’t restricted, its use isn’t obligatory and is discouraged except you propose to clarify the context of the passage and the way that context applies to the difficulty at hand in accordance with the rules supplied earlier within the course. You aren’t to merely quote scripture passages as solutions to the questions. Keep in mind this can be a philosophical essay not a biblical or theological essay.
6. When you could quote from sources, all quotations needs to be correctly cited and quotes from sources is not going to depend in the direction of the 1,500 phrase depend of the paper.
7. You could be crucial of McCloskey, however ought to stay respectful. Any disparaging remark(s) about McCloskey will end in a big discount in grade.
eight. Please word that each one papers are to be submitted by means of SafeAssign, which is a plagiarism detection program. This system is a database of beforehand submitted papers together with copies of papers which have been positioned on the Web. As soon as submitted, your paper will change into a part of the database as effectively. This system detects not solely precise wording however comparable wording. Which means that for those who plagiarize, it is extremely possible that will probably be found. Plagiarism will end in a zero for the paper and the chance of you being dropped from the course.
Particularly, you must tackle the next questions in your paper:
1. McCloskey refers back to the arguments as “proofs” and infrequently implies that they will’t definitively set up the case for God, so due to this fact they need to be deserted. What would you say about this in mild of my feedback on the approaches to the arguments within the PointeCast presentation?
2. On the Cosmological Argument:
a. McCloskey claims that the “mere existence of the world constitutes no cause for believing in such a being [i.e., a necessarily existing being].” Utilizing Evans and Manis’ dialogue of the non-temporal type of the argument (on pp. 69–77), clarify why the reason for the universe have to be obligatory (and due to this fact uncaused).
b. McCloskey additionally claims that the cosmological argument “doesn’t entitle us to postulate an omnipotent, all-perfect, uncaused trigger.” In mild of Evans and Manis’ remaining paragraph on the cosmological argument (p. 77), how may you reply to McCloskey?
three. On the Teleological Argument:
a. McCloskey claims that “to get the proof going, real indeniable examples of design and function are wanted.” Focus on this customary of “indisputability” which he calls a “very conclusive objection.” Is it affordable?
b. Out of your studying in Evans and Manis, are you able to supply an instance of design that, whereas not essentially “indeniable,” you imagine supplies sturdy proof of a designer of the universe?
c. McCloskey implies that evolution has displaced the necessity for a designer. Assuming evolution is true, for argument’s sake, how would you reply to McCloskey (see Evans and Manis pp. 82–83)?
d. McCloskey claims that the presence of imperfection and evil on this planet argues in opposition to “the perfection of the divine design or divine function on this planet.” Remembering Evans and Manis’ feedback concerning the limitations of the cosmological argument, how may you reply to this cost by McCloskey?
four. On the Drawback of Evil:
a. McCloskey’s fundamental objection to theism is the presence of evil on this planet and he raises it a number of instances: “No being who was good might have created a world by which there was avoidable struggling or by which his creatures would (and actually might have been created in order to not) have interaction in morally evil acts, acts which fairly often end in harm to harmless individuals.” The language of this declare appears to suggest that it’s an instance of the logical type of the issue. Given this implication and utilizing Evans and Manis’ dialogue of the logical drawback (pp. 159–168, noting particularly his concluding paragraphs to this part), how may you reply to McCloskey?
b. McCloskey particularly discusses the free will argument, asking “won’t God have very simply so have organized the world and biased man to advantage that males all the time freely selected what is true?” From what you may have already realized about free will within the course, and what Evans and Manis says concerning the free will theodicy, particularly the part on Mackie and Plantinga’s response (pp. 163–166) and what he says concerning the evidential drawback (pp. 168–172), how would you reply to McCloskey’s query?
5. On Atheism as Comforting:
a. Within the remaining pages of McCloskey’s article, he claims that atheism is extra comforting than theism. Utilizing the argument offered by William Lane Craig within the article “The Absurdity of Life with out God,” (positioned in Studying & Research for Module/Week 6), reply to McCloskey’s declare.
