...Shenyu Wang PHL101 Summery Essay 3 7/22/2015 I think that God does not exist. if God exists, if it is material, it should be seen. But I have never seen it before. if God is immaterial, that everyone can create their own God in their hearts; if God had not the slightest effect on the material world, he exists only in the spirit of the believer, this means that God does not exist in this world, like a young man, he does not like all the girls, and the girls fall in love with his own spirit, so the presence of the girl in the end does not exist? there is no reliable evidence that the existence God, therefore God does not exist. Evil exists, because the world is not peaceful, many people still suffer from war and disease. suffered physical pain is evidence of the existence of evil. at the same time, there is evil in the human, many of whom are followers of God, if God exists, then he should be good, he should do something to stop the war, or to prevent a war. he should go to cure people of illness, he should punish the wicked person. but we do not see God do these things. war still occur from time to time, the doctors treating the patients, the wicked persons are punished by law, majorities people make their own efforts to live better. When I finished reading, I think the same as i did before. my biggest problem of the existence is that if God exists, why is there evil? God is moral, he should avoid and stop the evil. philosophers to explain the existence of God are inadequately...
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...Hegel’s notion on the concept of right is that first, we must try to understand within ourselves human behavior as to the actions of other people. Individual, for Hegel, are aware of freedom. We express it from our own acts of our will. He said that “only as thinking intelligence, will is free will.” For according to him, there is more to “goodness” than merely obeying the laws of our countries and keeping contracts. Morality for him has to do with those acts for which human beings can be held responsible, for Hegel, the essence of morality is located within a person’s purpose. Moral responsibility, then, begins with the acts that can be designated to a free will, a will that intends the act. Also the stoic philosopher Epictetus said that moral Philosophy was a form of an act, where each person is an actor/ actress in a drama, he means that an actor does not chose a role, it is the author or the director who does the picking. In the drama of the world it is God who is the author or the director, who will pick out whom the person will be portraying and what to portray and or how he or she will be situated in the story, people have no choice because it is God who is responsible for the...
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...RESPONSE TO ATHEISM PHIL 201 D44 LUO August 18, 2011 A Response to Atheism In reading McCloskey’s article it’s obvious he is searching for definitive proof that God exists. He is unable to find proof and therefore comes to the conclusion that God must not exist. He believes that the existence of evil discredits arguments made in support of believing in God. There is not one single thing in this world that we can know definitively without looking at the evidence. You have to look at the whole picture. Just like in a criminal investigation, the crime scene investigators gather evidence they are not looking for just the bullets or just the body. They look and gather all the data before coming to any conclusions. We will discuss each of the arguments and some additional reasons McCloskey gives as reasons not to believe that God exists. Cosmological Argument When we examine the cosmological argument we find that for something to exist there has to be a cause for its existence. The universe exists and was necessary for human beings to exist. We are contingent beings; our existence relies on the existence of the universe. We exist, and therefore so does the universe exist and there must be an ultimate cause of that existence. McCloskey makes a good point when he says the cosmological argument does not prove there is an all powerful, perfect uncaused cause but it provides strong evidence that there is some necessary cause to the world we live in and instead of being...
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...Does God really exist? Is a question that brings a lot of controversy, because some people believe that God does exist and some people believe that he doesn’t exist? Based on the way that I was raised and brought up in a Baptist church I believe that God does exist. McCloskey believes differently than I do; and feels that God is not real. I suggest that you use your own reason and judgment and decide what feels true to your heart. McCloskey refers to the arguments that Christians used to defend God as being above all and the creator a lie based on the fact that evil still exist in this cruel world. God is said to be a man of peace and love but yet evil still exist in this world. “God is supposed to be omnipotent and has the power to stop evil.”(The Problem of Evil) McCloskey believes that the world exist because of evolution and not because it was created by God. The world consist of objects that has no purpose of why it exist and seems to be non compatible with anything in the physical matter that could have caused it to exist, so therefore the only explanation is the existing of a contingent being which would make it necessary for the existence of a necessary being; which is God. Indisputable means undeniable true, valid, or accurate and examples of design and purpose are not needed for proof for the existence of God because we are humans who are not always correct, because we were created to make mistakes. “The natural bodies which lack knowledge but yet act for an end,...
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...Are we really free? Free will - the idea that we, as intelligent beings, is able to choose a certain course of action, and not another, is one of the most important concepts of humanity, from its creation, to the Bible to this day. This allows us to take responsibility for our own actions and to hold others accountable for their own responsibilities. It makes us build ourselves - and sometimes down. Obviously, free will can only be applied in accordance with the laws of physics and chemistry that govern everything that exists, or, if you believe in God, it must correspond to the parameters that God has laid out. Given this, how much of these limitations really play in our ideal of Enlightenment free will? To begin to formulate the answer, we must first determine free will. There are many different degrees of free will, the most "free" being, that people, and sometimes even more intelligent animals, have complete free knowledge within the laws of physics and the least free ones that we only exist, because God or some the supernatural being allows us to. The latter is quickly debunked - if the almighty being "lets" you free will, you obviously are not really free; free will is now seen as a privilege that can be abolished, not an innate ability or an inalienable right. And...
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...Arvin D. Medlock Jr. PHIL 201-DO2 Professor R.D. Kuykendall 5 May 3, 2015 McCloskey Response Paper “On Being an Atheist” Does God Exist? That is the question we face! For many years Theists and Atheist have debated this question for many years along with their central views and beliefs that we as human being rely on as it relates to Life and God. The Point of views and debates center around the Cosmological Argument, the Teleological argument (argument from Design) and the most debated argument as it relates to this topic called the Problem with evil? When questioning wither or not God Exist these traditional arguments play significant roles in investigating and proving or discrediting someone’s view or stance on this specific Philosophical belief. As you read McCloskey article “On Being an Atheist” he argues the Theist stance who believe in the Existence of God from the perspective view of an Atheist. McCloskey in writing this Article is not trying to discredit their belief in the Existence of God, but to raise questions, doubts and uncertainties concerning their arguments on which they stand on to prove their belief by ultimately concluding that the Theist arguments are not valid and should be disregarded as evidence to prove their belief in the existence of God. The problem with McCloskey argument against the argument of Theistic View is the Theist argument is not to literally prove their belief concretely on the existence of God, but there view is design to give...
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...I believe that the existence of a supremely perfect deity, or God, is incompatible with natural and moral evil. The belief in a higher being, having control over one’s life is not believable. The belief that ‘this being’ is only good, and only does good yet there is still poverty, crime, rape and murders that occur every day is just contradicting in itself. A valid example that was used in class was the little girl from Minnesota dying of cancer and her mother not taking her to the doctor because she believes God will heal her. Having faith, means believing in something that couldn’t possibly be true. But, I’ve yet to see a headline in the news saying “Girl Cured of Cancer by God’s Hand”. Mackie addresses fallacious ‘solutions’ to the problem...
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...being and to be classified as a supreme being you must be the absolute of everything possible; such as love, knowledge, and existence. By definition a being must be omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent to be viewed as god, however if one or all of these attributes are proven impossible to achieve that must mean God does not exist if potrayed in Christian or Muslim perspective. Based on the theistic perception of God, this being cannot exist due to the countless issues that arises such as the paradox of hell, the problem of evil, the omnipotence paradox, the argument of freewill and lastly the dysteleological argument. Before claiming God in nonexistant, we must first understand what it means to exist. To claim something exist is quite hard to prove given that there are many factors that can disapprove it such as senses. A materialistic philosopher would claim that by seeing colour shapes or feeling texture proves its existence however they are mere interpretations of our brain to create a sense and would colour exist if they were no light. These simple factors that we tend to take advantage of seem complex when scrutinized, furthermore how can weight exist if there is no gravity. Additionally sound is a mere interaction of ripples of subatomic molecules that are interpreted as sound. But these molecules are made of atoms and atoms can be reduced to barely nothing and in this atom consist subatomic particles where they a can be there or interchange wave flow and when...
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...it is also a problem for Christians, who being faced with suffering and pain on account of evil, and without knowing the thoughts or intentions of God, wish to reconcile the two ideas together. In spite of Mackie’s Logical Argument of Evil proving, some would say, that it is not possible for both God and evil to exist, I believe that it is in fact possible that they exist simultaneously. My reason for believing so stems from the Free-Will Defense, coupled with a deeper understanding and more clearly defined description of the attributes of God and how they work together. I will also highlight scripture that incorporates both the existence of evil as well as the existence of God, who remedies the evil into a greater good, reiterating a point made in premise 4 of Plantinga’s Free Will Defense. In order to walk you through my thought process, I will start with a basic outline of Mackie’s Logical Argument, as well as include why this is a problem for theists. I will then define some ambiguous terms in his argument, and shed some light on the culture-saturated definitions of Christian lingo used in the argument. And finally, I will present the Free-Will Defense and show how this paired with the previous information, along with accounts of evil in scripture, work hand in hand to point us to a more clear understanding of the coexistence of God and evil. J.L. Mackie’s Logical Argument for the problem of evil is built on the foundation of its logical consistency, meaning that all the...
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...analytically assess how it is that evil weakens the traditional characteristics of God. I will attempt to explain how the existence of evil challenges the traditional characteristics of God such as omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence and Omni benevolence using Hume’s famous quote, “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then is he impotent. Is he able but not willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?” (Hume) The theological and metaphysical problem of evil was formulated in 1779 by David Hume in his work “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion” where he asked the question, if God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and omnibenevolent then why does evil exist (Sherry)? The problem of evil causes us to look at the traditional characteristics of God and to analytically assess our suppositions about evil itself. If our God is a good, all powerful and just God as many people believe, then why would such a God allow evil to exist? This problem also brings to light questions about what is considered to be evil, whether it is moral evil committed by man or natural evil such as earthquakes, hurricanes and famine (Sherry). There are several arguments that have developed in reaction to the problem of evil that was suggested by David Hume. One such argument which is known as the free will defense claims that evil is solely caused by human beings, who must have the opportunity to choose to do evil if they are to have free will (Sherry)...
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...these victims died as a result of incarceration and maltreatment . In the last months of the war, Nazi guards moved prisoners by trained or forced marches in order to avoid the Allied liberation of big numbers of prisoners. As allied forces transitioned across Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they began to experience and setting free concentration camp prisoners. On May 7,1945, the day the Geramy armed forces had surrendered unconditionally to the allied forces and the marches ended on that day too. (Holocaust Encyclopedia, 2015) In the philosophy of religion, the problem of evil is the question of how to reconcile the existence of evil with that of God who is all powerful, all knowing and all good. An argument from evil attempts to show that the co existence of God is more than unlikely and attempts to show contraction which is know as Theodicy.(Tooley, 2015). Jews views Nazi’s regime as a great evil and Adolf doesn't have the right to murders jew as they are viewed as inferior beings in the Nazi. Jews interpret these happenings are just not possible, but given their worldview which includes belief that God exist, they are...
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...Response Paper to McCloskey Article “On Being an Atheist” H.J. McCloskey, claims that “proofs” offered by theists for the existence of God simply do not provide evidence that there is one omnipotent, omniscient being. His arguments about “proofs” question why people are theists, and why theists should abandon their arguments or “proofs”. He claims that most people do not believe in God because of their lack of knowledge about evolution, but in fact most theist believe in God and consider themselves theists, because there is documented evidence that supersedes any “hypothesis” or “theory” that scientists have on the life forms on earth, and even earth itself. “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Although an atheist may make a convincing argument about there not being a God, and we are all products of evolution, there is no documented, definitive evidence that is fact. Darwin himself even labeled evolution as such, “the theory of evolution.” However, I do believe McCloskey makes a very valid point about the arguments he, as an atheist, is challenging, and he defends his ideas very well. While I can appreciate the theory that it is possible that the universe was a cluster of stars and then one day something exploded and miraculously the galaxies and solar systems were formed and, luckily for us there was one planet that was capable of sustaining life and microscopic organisms and bacteria evolved into all living things...
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...proofs. He claims that the proofs do not create a rationalization to believe that God exists. He provides 3 theist proofs, which are Cosmological argument, teleological argument, and the argument of design. He also mentions the presence of evil in the world. He focuses on the existence of evil to try to support his non belief in God. McCloskey believes that if there is evil, then there cannot be a God. Not one of these arguments can actually reach the point of certainty that God does not exist. First McCloskey argues about the Cosmological argument. McCloskey provides a dispute against the cosmological argument: “The mere existence of the world constitutes no reason for believing in such a being.” The claim of the cosmological argument is only stating that a being exist. In response, Evans and Manis talk about a non-temporal form of the cosmological argument. They break it down into three factors: “Some contingent beings exist. If any contingent beings exist, then a necessary being must exist (because contingent beings require a necessary being as their ultimate cause). Therefore, there exists a necessary being (which is the ultimate cause of the existence of contingent beings).” We all believe things exist. We may not agree on how they exist, but the point that Evans and Manis make is that a being can exist and may have no cause. McCloskey also claims that the cosmological argument “does not entitle us to...
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...truly does exist why does he allow evil to occur, why doesn’t he protect the innocent”. In the dialogue between Athea, Bea and Agnos, Bruce Russell uses the characters to tackle that exact question by focusing on the argument of the problem of Evil. Athea in this dialogue is used as the protagonist in the attack of theism, he lays the foundation of the dialogue by providing the premises on which he believes that God must not exist due to the presence of evil. Bea in this dialogue is considered the protagonist in the defense of theism, he role is to highlight the weakness in the problem of evil argument and furthermore suggesting alternative reasons for the presence of evil despite God’s existence. In this essay I shall summarize the setting of the dialogue between the two main characters, then delve into the arguments that are presented. I shall first highlight Athea’s argument against the presence of God, explaining the structure and conclusion of the problem of evil argument, as this lays the foundation for the whole dialogue. I shall then focus on Bea’s reaction to Athea’s argument, clarifying her perceived weakness of the argument and furthermore pointing out her theories on why the presence of evil exists despite Gods existence. Finally I shall present my opinion on the Problem of evil, illustrating the weakness in the premises and its inadequate consideration of the ways in which God might prevent evil without our knowledge while letting certain evils to exist that lead...
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...Omniscience and Free Will Among Christian theists, many accept that the divine nature is omniscient. One conflict and opposition of divine omniscience is the existence of a free will, for many assert that free will is incompatible with the divine knowledge. Roman philosopher Boethius directly tackles the issues between divine omniscience and free will in his work Consolation of Philosophy. Boethius argues that free will and divine omniscience are in fact compatible, even though it might not seem true at first glance. First, it is necessary to discuss what Boethius defines as the concept of being “free” or having “freedom”. Freedom is a state of being in which there is no requirement or predetermined outcome of what a...
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