Atheism & Philosophy
PHIL 3310-001
Dr. James P. Oliver
Our fellow classmates in case you did not receive the handout, here is the complete list and Skye and Don focused on three reasons - # 37, 41,& 44. You are welcome to select others for any comments or discussions, but their quiz will be taken from those three and any part of their presentation. Quiz questions will be presented in a separate post.
For their mid-term report they addressed in a
modified debate format a presentation on the question of the existence of God.
Don will represent the affirmative and will present an
argument from one or more of the reasons below that people give for believing
in god, modified or expanded at his discretion.
Skye will represent the negative and present a rebuttal to his argument.
They chose Guy P. Harrison’s book, 50 reasons people give for believing in a god.
1.
My god is obvious.
2.
Almost everybody on Earth is religious.
3.
Faith is a good thing.
4.
Archaeological discoveries prove that my god
exists.
5.
Only my god can make me feel significant.
6.
Atheism is just another religion.
7.
Evolution is bad.
8.
Our world is too beautiful to be an accident.
9.
My god created the universe.
10.
Believing in my god make me happy.
11.
Better safe than sorry.
12.
A sacred book proves my god is real.
13.
Divine justice proves my god is real.
14.
My god answers prayers.
15.
I would rather worship my god than the devil.
16.
My god heals sick people.
17.
Anything is better than being an atheist.
18.
My god made the human body.
19.
My god sacrificed his only son for me.
20.
Atheists are jerks who think they know
everything.
21.
I don’t lose anything by believing in my god.
22.
I didn’t come from a monkey.
23.
I don’t want to go to hell.
24.
I feel my god when I pray.
25.
I need my god to protect me.
26.
I want eternal life.
27.
Without my god we would have no sense of right
and wrong.
28.
My god makes me feel like I am part of something
bigger than myself.
29.
My religion makes more sense than all the
others.
30.
My god changes lives.
31.
Intelligent design proves my god is real.
32.
Millions of people can’t be wrong about my
religion.
33.
Miracles prove my god is real.
34.
Religion is beautiful.
35.
Some very smart people believe in god.
36.
Ancient prophecies prove my god exists.
37.
No one has ever disproved the existence of my
god.
38.
People have gone to heaven and returned.
39.
Religion brings people together.
40.
My god inspires people.
41.
Science can’t explain everything.
42.
Society would fall apart without religion.
43.
My religion is so old, it must be true.
44.
Someone I trust told me that my god is real.
45.
Atheism is a negative and empty philosophy.
46.
Believing in a god doesn’t hurt anyone.
47.
The earth is perfectly tuned to support life.
48.
Believing is natural so my god must be real.
49.
The end is near.
50.
I am afraid of not believing.
Your task will be to write a short essay to objectively
evaluate both the affirmative and negative arguments indicating parts that you
believe were strong and those that were weak and comment on whether you gained
any additional knowledge that you can use in future discussions in or beyond the
classroom.
Devin Syke Irish
Don Enss
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