On Being an Atheist

In February, 1968, H. J. McCloskey wrote and published an article entitled, “On Being an Atheist.” In this article he gives several reasons why people should reject theism and embrace atheism. The purpose of this essay is to analyze several of his arguments and determine if there is any validity to his claims, one of which is that “atheism is a much more comfortable belief than theism, and theists should be miserable just because they are theists.”

PROOF TO ESTABLISH A CASE FOR GOD

In his article, 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. But, there is no argument or proof on its own that will establish 100% the case for God. We have three aspects available that help when we approach the question of God’s existence. The first is the Best Explanations approach which states that the best explanation we have for the effects we observe in the universe is that there is a God. The second is the Cumulative Case approach which states that no one argument gets us to the existence of God; but when put together, the case for God is very strong. The approach uses the concept of concurrence to take evidence from several areas and put it together to make a case. And the third in the Minimalistic Concept of God which argues for a personal, moral, intelligent creator of the universe, but does not argue for every attribute of God.

Science uses the Best Explanation approach all the time in their research to explain things that they cannot see, but determine must be there. The magnetic field and black holes are two examples. They believe in these two things because they have observed the effects of them on our universe. They did not abandon their research and study because they were unable to acquire 100% eye-witness proof.

Using the Cumulative Case approach, we are able to bring together three arguments to establish a case for God. The Cosmological...