Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Summarise The Most Powerful And Persuasive Argument For Atheism That Y

Summarise The Most Powerful And Persuasive Argument For Atheism That You Have Read. What Is Your Response? A person who believes in the existence of God, does so not because there is concrete fact to suggest that God does exist, but because they have a feeling, or a need to believe. Their faith can neither be proven correct nor incorrect. It is therefore difficult to persuade a believer not to believe, typically no argument can ever sway the opinion of someone who has unquestionable faith in the existence of God. As an atheist I feel just as strongly about my own beliefs. I cannot believe in something/ someone who to my mind has never physically appeared. It might be argued that Christ was God, but Jesus himself only claimed to be the Son of God. So for me the greatest argument for the non-existence of God is the lack of his physical presence or even any evidence that he exists. I favour this argument not because it is strong, or even particularly well thought out, but because I firmly believe that there is no Deity. I believe this based on the same gut feeling that most religious people would base their faith. People who believe in the existence of God have many proofs, ranging from the proof by design (it is too much of a coincidence that the world is perfect), to the miracles of Jesus. Equally I have many arguments for the non-existence of God. A good example being: God is considered to be immutable, unchanging, equally God transcends time and space. If we accept these factors to be true then how is it that the world was created. For creation to have taken place then God would have to have changed from a non-creator, to a creator, thus there is a contradiction. My most favoured argument for atheism however, concerns the pr esence of evil. There is one further point that I would like to make before discussing the argument in hand. For many years scholars have debated the question of the existence of God, offering proofs for and against his being. However, the whole concept seems floored. For if we are to understand God as being the supreme being then we must surely see him as being above the rationality of mortals, and yet we discuss things that he may or may not have done, and should and shouldn't do, justifying them using our own codes of morality, rationality and ethics. By definition God's actions cannot be rationalised as we rationalise our own. The analogy that immediately springs to mind is that of a court minus the defendant. It would seem foolish to us for a lawyer to defend a man, never having met him, or had a chance to discuss his MO. Applying one's own rational to another is foolish, because typically another person will justify their actions differently, i.e. they will have another motive for doing someth ing due to the fact that people think independently, and not as a group. Our actions and reasons are personal, perhaps influenced, but unique ? a benefit of free will. So, it is not only arrogant, but foolish to try and argue for or against the existence of God based on nature, natural events, emotions, states of being, circumstance or situation. Therefore the existence of God can neither be proven nor disproved and the result is that belief comes down to a simple choice, you either do or you don't ? and your reason can be no more than a feeling, and cannot be based on physical evidence. The Presence of Evil In it's most basic form the problem is: 1. God is perfectly good and so does not wish suffering to take place. 2. God is omnipotent. 3. God is omniscient. 4. Evil exists. This poses a clear contradiction, for if God is all the things that we listed above, then evil could not exist. If God is omniscient, God must know that there are instances of evil in the world; if God is omnipotent then God must be able to prevent these instances from occurring ; if God is perfectly good, then God must want to prevent occurrences of evil. But there are instances of evil in the world,