H.J. McCloskey's On Being an Atheist

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In the article “On Being an Atheist”, H. J. McCloskey tries to show that believing in God is unreasonable. McCloskey first tries to point out flaws in theism by trying to disprove the cosmological and the teleological arguments. After trying to show the flaws in the two argument he brings up the problem of evil to try to discredit theism as a self-contradictory belief. At the end of his article he tries to show his readers that atheism is comforting and that theism is not. When you go through McCloskey’s argument it shows many flaws in his reasoning as he wanted to show that it is impossible that there is a God. Throughout McCloskey’s article he refers to that theist do not a proofs that there is a God, thus they should not be used. The problem with this is that atheist and theist would have to purge of most of their arguments for the reason that most everything does not prove the argument.
McCloskey is correct that the “proofs” do not completely establish that there is a God, but they do give us a better understanding about the world and if there is a God. The cosmological and the teleological arguments are only argument, thus they do not completely prove that there is a God as Dr. Foreman says, “that these argument give us a best explanation” (Foreman). McCloskey is wrong in saying that the arguments should be abandoned for the reason that, even though that they do not completely prove that there is a God, they are “starting blocks” that need to be better refined to make a more complete argument for a necessary being, such as the God of Christianity. If you were to abandon these arguments that do not completely prove what they were trying to, you would have abandoned many other augments such as evolution.
There must be a neces...

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...’s article he wants some much to disprove there is a God that he commits many errors in his arguments. McCloskey fails to prove his points against the cosmological argument, teleological argument, and the problem of evil as has could not present strong enough argument against them. Ultimately, all he proves is that theism stronger than he had thought. It is amazing how God made such a universe that we may never know the full complexity of His universe.

References
Craig, W. L. (2008). Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics. Wheaton.IL: Crossway Books.
Evans, S. C., & Manis, Z. R. (2009). Philosophy of Religion. Downers Grove,Illinois: IVP Academic.
Foreman, M. (n.d.). Presentation: Arguments for God's Existence. Retrieved from Liberty University: http://learn.liberty.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_71518_1&content_id=_2150161_1

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