Theism versus Atheism

Theism versus Atheism

Introduction

The question of existence of a God and uncertainties related to it has been a debatable issue since ancient times, in many different forms and the mankind have discussed, questioned, argued and waged war over it. Majority of the world's population answer this question with an echoing “YES”. Those, who do not believe in this perception, deny the presence of God and find the concept of theism incoherent and are referred to as atheist. Atheists, also known as freethinkers or humanists, even in the liberal atmosphere of the present era are considered somewhat unacceptable in a theist's point of view, the one who believe in the presence of God.

Discussion

This paper discusses the arguments provided by McCloskey in his article “On Being an Atheist” and provides counter-arguments in the light of the supporting facts to theism. According to McCloskey, believe of theists in the presence of God is attributed and is not based on facts and proofs. He believes that this believe is attributed, and theists accept their religion due to external factors. He holds that an ordinary theist needs three proofs: cosmological, teleological and design arguments to believe in the presence of God. However, it is important to realize and recognize the fact that there are no such things as the arguments, responsible for a theist belief in the presence of God. Various versions of these arguments have been proposed, and some versions contradict others.

The most probable explanation of existence of God is the existence of moral obligations in the human society. Evans and Manis explains the relation of the presence of a God and the existence of moral obligations. According to the beliefs of atheists the moral obligations followed by a human being are because of their self interest, natural instinct or result from evolution. Considering atheist's point of self interest, morality does not always benefit the follower. Furthermore, a person following morality for self benefits should escape his moral obligations whenever he/she has the chance but that is not commonly observed. The second view point of atheist is that morality exist in the world due to natural instincts, but instincts are difficult to classify as they can either be good or bad and morality often require people to neglect their strongest instincts. Morality fails to relate to the theory of evolution as evolution of human being is unable to explain the fact that they are actually morally obligated. Theists hold that the existence of moral obligations in this world is due to the presence of a God, and without God there will not be any moral obligations.

Cosmological argument states that the universe exists because of a cause ,and this cause is referred to as God by theists. According to Evans and Manis, the cosmological argument's conclusion is rather limited than completely justified, this argument merely points out few points of a theist's concept of God and cannot provide complete knowledge about the presence of God and the person submitting to the cosmological argument requires further ...