Dawkins and Aquinas: Theology Whether it’s argumentative or sentimental, an author always aims to get a significant truth across to the reader. In the novel “The God Delusion,” Richard Dawkins analyzes many theories that theologians have developed about the existence of God and essentially squanders them. Through his unique sense of humor and his idea of “logic”, he gives reasons of why the theories of Thomas Aquinas, and other theories as well, are not well developed and are incorrect. Although he does raise some interesting points in his arguments, he does not address enough issues to completely reject the theories of God’s existence. God has a very broad meaning and the meaning varies from person to person.
He argues that there are no real reasons to believe in God and takes the approach of dissecting several arguments used by both sides of the spectrum. Though McCloskey sees some serious issues with the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, the existence of evil, and the discomfort that is experienced with theism he does not slow down long enough to consider what these arguments are actually stating. In our version we will discuss the same issues as McCloskey and offer a view of what it is to be a
Is there millennial generation myth? Critique essay In “The Myth of the Millennials” Edward W. Koc very eloquently raises the question: are the behaviors associated with this generation a myth? In reading this article, it is evident that Koc is critical of the theories raised by other researchers. He methodically points out many of the myths and effectively uses transitions to systematically analyze and debunk the characterizations that lead to those myths. This article clearly tends to make the reader consider non-traditional explanations of Millennials attitudes.
The CE/BCE notation has been adopted by numerous authors and publishers wishing to be neutral or sensitive to non-Christians[9][10][11] because it does not explicitly make use of religious titles for Jesus, such as "Christ" and Domin- ("Lord"), which are used in the BC/AD notation, nor does it give implicit expression to the Christian creed that Jesus was the Christ. [9][12][13][14][15] Among the reasons given by those who oppose the use of Common Era notation is that it is selective as other aspects of the Western calendar have origins in various belief systems (e.g., January is named for Janus),[16] and claims that its propagation is the result of secularization, anti-supernaturalism, religious pluralism,
Biblical critics argue that the story, told in the Bible, should not be taken literally. In fact, to my knowledge, there is an approach, which advocates the study of the Bible on 3 levels: literal, historical, and spiritual. Somehow, what the critics say is that the historical sequence of events might be
Explain key criticisms of the Cosmological Argument Although with each of his ‘ways’ in the Cosmological argument Thomas Aquinas gave what he believed to be evidence to back his points up, the argument was still open to criticism and did receive it. One of the first criticisms of the argument was around the ideology of infinite regress. Aquinas believed that the idea of infinite regress was not possible – the cause and effect chain had to have a beginning, which would have been caused by God (the first cause.) William Lane Craig (1949-) agreed with this idea, stating that infinite regress cannot exist in actuality. For example, if a library was to house an infinite number of books and a book was taken off the shelf, or the library was completely emptied, it would still have to contain an infinite number of books, which therefore shows that infinite regress cannot exist within our living universe.
OVERCOMING MCCLOSKEY’S OBJECTIONS TO THEISM AND PROVIDING A CONCLUSIVE ARGUMENT FOR THEISM H. J. McCloskey is a passionate atheist who has strong beliefs against theism and Christians. McCloskey wrote several books promoting his thoughts and claims against the belief of God. One of his articles written in 1968, “On Being an Atheist,” makes an effort to dissect and dismantle the foundation of Christian beliefs and provides additional declarations as to why he feels that God does not exist. McCloskey’s arguments do not have substantial support for several reasons. The Case for the Cosmological Argument One of the shortcomings of McCloskey’s case against theism is his accusation that the cosmological and teleological arguments cannot definitively establish the proof of God.
Assess the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Cosmological argument. The cosmological is an argument that aims to prove the existence of a God and in many cases a Judeo Christian God. It has many different forms along with many different strengths and weaknesses. Firstly there are a number of strengths some stronger then others. One strength is that it is an a posteriori argument meaning it is based on empirical evidence and experience, this is quite a powerful strength as due to there it being based on evidence and experience it is very difficult to argue things that can be seen to be fact as there is evidence.
Many people who do not believe in what the bible teaches do not read the bible. The problem with that statement is that a lot of writings from Shakespeare, and even today, quote the bible as a reference and those who do not believe in the bible and yet read those stories, become bewildered at what the author is trying to say and the reference becomes unnoticed. Furthermore, people come to see that the bible instructs us much more than just a religious way of teaching, but as a great source of good literature. There are many examples of authors who repeatedly put the bible in their stories. Shakespeare was a man of religion and in almost all of his stories there are references to the bible.
According to Elmer Towns, “The Bible is unique in its call to repentance, in its convicting power to unsettle those who sin, and in its power to convert and transform those who accept its message. (p. 6) The transformation in the life of those who receive the message of the Bible is another proof that it is a message of God.” Without this ability, the Bible would be just another book that sits on a dusty bookshelf; and like all others, there would be the absence of a redemptive message. Towns states that, “There is the changed life that proves to the person whose life is changed, and to those outside who see the transformed life, that what the Bible promises it delivers.” (p.7) A truly converted and changed life can only come from the power of Christ. Paul’s message in Romans gives a reminder that the Jews have the form of knowledge and truth in the law, yet are blind and in darkness (Rom. 2:19-20).