The question of the existence of God plagues humanity. For centuries, philosophers debated the question of this existence. One philosopher, H. J. McCloskey, wrote an article in February 1968 entitled "On Being an Atheist." In his article McCloskey argues against the three common arguments for the existence of God. The arguments, or proofs as McCloskey refers to them, are the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, and the argument from design. While most scholars see the last two arguments as being the same, McCloskey addresses each as separate arguments. In addition, McCloskey refers to the presence of evil in the world as another indicator that the atheist worldview is the more correct, more comforting worldview.
According to the cosmological argument, the universe had a definite beginning and something caused that starting of the universe to happen. The argument also believes that there is an equal chance that the world could not have existed. The argument itself does not assume that the initial cause of the universe was God, it just assumes that there was some uncaused cause which started the universe. Theists attribute that uncaused cause to God. The cosmological argument states that contingent beings comprise the cosmos. Additionally, the argument implicitly asserts that all contingent beings require a necessary being…show more content… These evils include things like pain and suffering, specifically from disease and natural disasters. McCloskey implies that because evils exist there cannot be a God. However, McCloskey assumes that all pain and suffering "is God's way of reminding men of his existence and of warning them to mend their ways" (McColskey 1968, 66). The cosmological argument does not assume that the universe which some being created is perfect. For example, storms to not strike an area to kill sinners. Storms as a natural occurrence which happen to cause damage in their
