Agnosticism And Atheism
       

          Part A: Define

1. Purport- v. To profess to be, often falsely.  n. 1.Meaning; import. 2.Intention; purpose.
2. Negative- adj. 1a.Expressing negative, refusal, or denial. b.Indicating opposition or resistance: a negative reaction.  2. medic. Not position or constructive: negative criticism. 
3. Defer- v. 1.To put off; postpone. syn.: defer, postpone, shelve, stay, suspend. 2.To submit to the opinion , wishes, or decision of another.
4. Exemplify- v. 1.To illustrate by example. 2.To serve as an example of.
5. Anthropomorphic- n. Attribution of human characteristics to animals, inanimate objects, or natural phenomena.
6. Chaotic (chaos)- n. 1.Great disorder or confusion. 2. Chaos The disordered state held to have existed before the ordered universe.
7. Verity- n. 1.The quality or condition of being true, factual, or real. 2.Something, such as a statement or belief, that is true.
8. Existentialism- n. A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual in a hostile or indifferent universe and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.
9. Pessimism- n. 1.A tendency to take the gloomiest possible view of a situation. 2.The doctrine or belief that the evil in the world outweighs the good.
10. Etiology- n. 1.The study of causes, origins, or reasons. 2.The cause or origin of a disease or disorder as determined by medical diagnosis.
11. Futile- adj. Having no useful result. syn.: futile, barren, bootless, fruitless, unavailing, useless, vain. Ant.: useful.
12. Epistemological- n. The branch of philosophy that studies the nature and theory of knowledge.
13. Fallacy- n. 1.A deceptive, misleading, or false notion, belief, etc.: That the world is flat was at one time a popular fallacy. 2.A misleading or unsound argument. 3.Deceptive, misleading, or false nature; erroneousness. 4.Logic. any of various types of erroneous reasoning that render arguments logically unsound. 5.Obsolete , deception.
14. Naïve- adj. 1.Having or showing unaffected simplicity of nature or absence of artificiality; unsophisticated; ingenuous. 2.Having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information; credulous: She's so naïve she believes everything she reads. He has a very naïve attitude toward politics. 3.Having or marked by a simple, unaffectedly direct style reflecting little or no formal training or technique: valuable naïve 19th-century American portrait paintings. 4. Not having previously been the subject of a scientific experiment, as an animal.
15. Criterion- n. A standard of judgment or criticism; a rule or principle for evaluating or testing something.

          Part C: Answer Questions

   
     1.  Who created the term "agnosticism" in the 1800s?
          - Thomas Henry Huxley
     2.  Name a famous agnostic.
          - Charles Darwin
     3.  Name a famous atheist.
          - Jean-Paul Sartre
     4-5.  Whose play is quoted regarding the "chaotic" universe? What is the title of the play? 
          - Shakespeare's Macbeth
     6.  Why do both modern theists and atheists disregard the argument that a "chaotic" world
          proves there is no God?
          - To assert that the world is meaningless is to claim that it is incapable of being interpreted by
             means of science, and that hence it would be impossible for man to derive scientific laws
             from the facts of nature.
     7-8.  What is the argument that religion was created out of fear? What is the criticism of this idea
          from logicians?
          - That fear of the unknown, fear of the uncontrollable, fear of nature, drives man to religion, to
          a God deemed capable of controlling nature so that, when danger threatens, man will be
          protected from dread objects and events.
          - It may be of interest, and definitely is of interest to at least the psychologist and the historian
            how our religious beliefs emerged and what gave them their initial impetus, but so far as proof
            of Atheism is concerned, such factors are irrelevant.
     9.  Why do deists say that evolution can fit into their belief in God?
           - It has been assumed by some that the existence of God is an unnecessary hypothesis because 
             the theory of evolution explains the generation of life and that the concept of the survival of 
             the fittest explains design in the universe.
   10.  What did Xenophanes say about our image of God?
            - "Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed; Thracians give theirs blue eyes and red
               hair. Yet if oxen and lions had hands, and could paint with their hands, and fashion images,
               as men do, they would make the pictures and images of their gods in their own likeness;
               horses would make them like horses, and oxen like oxen."
   11.  In the Etiological Argument, why is the question "Who made God?" as logically invalid as the
          question "Have you stopped beating your wife?"
            - This provocative question, however, has no logical validity, for it involves the fallacy 
               known as compound questions. Its wording implies a contradiction or logical
               dilemma.
   12.  What about modern times makes the theory of Naïve Realism invalid?
            - The major premise of Native Realism is not, however, a valid basis for such a conclusion.
               Not only does it assume what is yet to be proved (that all truths must be derived from sense
               experience) but it is also contrary to established scientific evidence. For example, as
               previously noted, sense experience would compel us to assume that a straight stick bends in
               water-even though this illusion is contradicted by experimental proof.