Can you answer

Once you have completed the unit on philosophy of religion, you will be ready to respond to an article written by an actual?atheist in a research paper.  This article, titled “On Being an?Atheist,” was written by H. J. McCloskey in 1968 for the journal Question.  In this article, McCloskey is both critical of the classical arguments for?God’s existence and offers the problem of evil as a reason why one should not?believe in God.

Your?assignment is to read McCloskey’s short article and respond to each of the?questions below. The basis for your?answers should primarily come from the resources provided in the lessons?covering the Philosophy of Religion unit of the course — Evans, Craig, Dr. Foreman’s two video?PointeCast presentations “Arguments for God’s Existence” and “Approaching the Question of God’s Existence,” which is the material that is covered in the Study Guide’s for Lessons 17 & 18.  Included in this material from Dr. Foreman is the very important article from Dr. William Lane Craig on “The Absurdity of Life Without God,” which can be found in the Reading and Study section ofWeek/Module 6 in Course Content.

Below I have provided five (5) questions that you must answer within your paper to properly respond to McCloskey.  I have also directed you to exactly where you can find the correct answers in our course materials.  I have literally even provided the exact page numbers and the two PointeCast Presentations & Study Guides (17 & 18)in the course materials to save you time and eliminate frustration.  I want you to be able to do your very best on this paper by focusing all your energies on thinking, analyzing, and writing.

The five (5) questions serve to provide you with an outline to organize your paper around.  Your answers to them will provide the material that will serve as?the body of your paper.  You are not merely to quote these sources as an?answer to the question(s) – answer in your own words. When it is essential to?confirm and support your argument with a quote, of course you must do so.  Although you are allowed?to appeal to outside sources, you ONLY need to quote from the course materials.  Frankly most plagiarism occurs when students use the Internet rather than just sticking to the course materials, which is all you need if you use them properly.

All quotes and paraphrases?must be properly documented, using? Turabian or Chicago Manual of Style  preferred.  But you may use APA  or  MLA  style formatting, just use them properly.  There must be quotes from the course materials to properly support your arguments, and don’t forget to quote McCloskey and reference him as well.  All of the course materials MUST be included in a Bibliography  or  Works Cited  page that comes as a separate page at the end of your paper.

Note?that we take plagiarism very seriously! All papers are automatically run?through  SafeAssign  to detect plagiarism. Any violations are awarded a grade?of F, or 0 points and could result in failing the class.

Remember, this Response?Paper is to be a minimum of 1500 words (approximately six pages of 250 words each), and should?be written as a single essay and  not just a list of answers to?questions .

You may be critical of McCloskey, but you must remain?respectful.  The purpose of this paper is to provide a philosophical response to McCloskey, NOT a theological or Biblical one.  The best papers are written in third person and directed to McCloskey, who as an atheist will not accept the theological and Biblical positions that most of us would listen to.  So, since you are writing to answer an atheist philosophically (and this class is a philosophy course), if you include theology, the Bible, or person testimony you will not do well.  I love the Bible and theology and I love personal testimony—but this is NOT the place for it.  This paper is for you to demonstrate that you have understood the course materials and can integrate the relevant ideas into a well reasoned argument in response to a well known atheist.

If you want to properly answer McCloskey and do well on this paper you will need to provide a detailed response to?each of the five (5) questions below.  Remember, I have also directed you to exactly where you will find the correct answers to these five (5) questions from within the course materials so that you can properly provide a detailed response to each question.

Again, this assignment isn’t designed to see if you are capable of independent philosophical thought and come up with answers on your own or from the Bible.  This assignment is designed to see if you can assimilate and integrate philosophical concepts into a cogent and coherent response to important philosophical questions posed by McCloskey.  Your written response should be properly formatted as a university level research paper following the writing style of Turabian/CMS, which is the proper style (but I will allow APA or MLA) for philosophy papers.

In your paper,?you should address the following five (5) questions:

1. McCloskey refers to the arguments as?“proofs” and often implies that they can’t definitively establish the case?for God, so therefore they should be abandoned. What would you say about this in light of?the comments on the approaches to the arguments in the video presentations “Arguments for God’s Existence” and “Approaching the Question of God’s Existence,” and the material that is covered in the Study Guide’s for Lessons 17 & 18?  The video “Arguments for God’s Existence” presents the Best Explanation Approach, the Cumulative Case Approach, and the Minimalistic Concept of God approach.  These approaches are crucial to organizing all the information in this paper.  The video “Approaching the Question of God’s Existence” details and expands on the Best Explanation Approach and is incredibly helpful and will help you understand how to answer McCloskey’s arguments.