Abstract This research explores arguments and counterarguments regarding the existence of God. According to the paper, atheists live in a material world and deny the existence of anything that cannot be seen, felt, or touched. The paper further reports that the key atheist argument is that God does not exist because the essence of God cannot be experienced on earth.
Outline:
Does God Exist?
The Atheist Viewpoint
The Deist Answer
From the Paper "If we simply live and then die, our actions do not matter. The future does not matter; therefore, humankind must have some higher purpose. Atheists argue that our higher purpose is in service to man and the future inhabitants of earth. Deism does not undermine man's need to serve the future generations of humankind; it simply recognizes and embraces man's higher purpose. If one is dedicated to God and the higher purpose of improving humankind, then one does no have to justify their reason for existence through actions. Both deists and atheists have their sights on the future, the difference is that Atheists must justify their existence through actions. However, they have no investiture in the outcomes of their actions."
Abstract This paper discusses the debate between creationism and evolution and explains that it is not a clear-cut matter, since not all creationists dismiss evolution and some evolutionists can also be deists. The writer describes how the argument began as soon as evolutionary theory took shape and how the antagonism between faith and science is to be found in politics as well as society. Furthermore, the writer explains how the debate goes from literal to philosophical questions and then describes those in the middle who believe that evolutionary theory and God can co-exist.
From the Paper "This statement reveals in its tone an atmosphere where there can be a scientific world wherein atheists and non-atheists can conduct themselves as usual without interfering with each other. But the real ramifications of this debate are not about physicists of different outlooks getting along well. The real matter is political; it is the question of how a nation shall be governed and the presumptions underlying the rights and obligations of its citizenry. Because of issues like the fundamental schism between dictated morality verses common sense morality (to which I will return), the way this issue polarizes people can be fundamental to ideology in theory, but also it attacks the power of a faith's institutions, if its judgments are taken from holy texts, that science keeps proving questionable."
Abstract The following paper suggests that certain sacred stories such as Black Elk Speaks, for instance, cannot be understood in isolation, as merely a tale. The writer claims that it is both a cultural artifact as well as a piece of literature. In this paper the cultural production of the text is considered as well as one's personal religious affiliation, thus the writer contends that this culture is flexible and evolves and changes over time, as stories and notions of the sacred evolve and change over time.
From the paper:
?This does not mean one can simply discount the text Black Elk Speaks simply because it is a scholarly product of ethnography as well as a Native American artifact. It is still an interview, a living piece of history. ?If you could imagine that somehow someone had gone to interview Jesus late in his life and had kept notes from that interview then these notes would be to the New Testament what The Sixth Grandfather is to Black Elk Speaks.?
Abstract This paper is an in-depth examination of people's belief or non-belief in God. The author attempts to show some of the areas of conflict between believers and non-believers, including does God exist, do we have to believe in God to live a full life, and exactly how important is God in our every day life. The author looks at how different religions, authors, philosophers and theorists have attempted to answer these questions since the beginning of time.
From the Paper "The Intelligent Designer theory has gotten more sophisticated. Some of its proponents are Dr. Michael Behe- who proposed ordered creationism at the molecular level, and Philip E. Johnson, the self-styled leader of the Intelligence Designer movement. These theorists aver that the complexities of living beings, the mechanisms within even a single living cell, the balance of everything in nature, are unfathomable when looked at from a perspectives of evolutionists?the number of random permutations that had to occur before it all fell into place. In other words, the natural order of things we see around and within us had to have been pre-designed. The Intelligent Designer theory from a standpoint of astronomy is known as the ?anthropic principle.? Astronomer Sir Edward Hoyle and Mathematician Chandra Singh, both avowed atheists, calculated the odds that the world as we see it occurring by chance are 1 in 1040,000"truly, a number unfathomable even by astronomical standards. South African Astronomer David Block has observed that the Universe is expanding at the right rate and balance that sustains life on planet. There is an inbuilt design factor that cares for the universe"God the Intelligent Designer."
Abstract This paper explains that Thomas Paine dedicated his life to three great causes: the American Revolution, the rights of man and the reform of religion. The author points out that Paine's writings "Common Sense" and "The American Crisis" made him a hero of the American Revolution; however, his attack on the religion of his day in "The Age of Reason" caused him to be ostracized. The paper relates that, as one of the America Revolution's chief pamphleteers, Paine's "plain" style of language helped him explain to the masses his passionate demands for political reform based on his republican views.
From the Paper "Thomas Paine was born on January 29, 1737 in Thetford, England. His father, Joseph Paine, was a maker of ladies corsets. His mother was Frances Cocke. He was a well-educated child, and stayed in school until the age of thirteen. His parents, both being Quakers were not supporters of poetry, but along with Paine were very enthusiastic about his talent. After leaving school, Paine worked at his father's trade until age eighteen. In 1757, he left for London where he found a job as a corset maker to pay for his studies. There he bought a pair of globes to study astronomy and physics."
Abstract This paper examines several prominent enlightenment thinkers and attempts to prove that deism in the 18th century was not a coherent religious ideology but rather a loose system of beliefs. The writer provides the historical and intellectual background for the shifts in Enlightenment theology, as well as a contemporary definition of deism. Examples are given of 18th-century deism showing its broad range from the ideas of the skeptic philosopher David Hume to Isaac Newton's belief in a hands-on God. Between these two poles the paper also examines the ideas of other great deist thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
From the Paper "Established, ancient religions rely on a foundation comprising static texts of primary or secondary sources. These accounts remain relatively unchanged throughout the history of a particular religion. Furthermore, there is generally a recognized priestly order to dictate appropriate dogma. When an individual identifies with an orthodox religion, he has a strict set of guidelines to follow that connects him to his fellow believers and that creates a coherent group. Deists, on the other hand, use human reason to come to their own individual religious truths. Because, by definition, deism requires introspective reasoning, the philosophical conclusions of deists are as diffuse as their membership."
