. Read the short article below labeled, “A Discourse on God.”
2. Analyze the discourse between a professor and his students, and determine the effectiveness of the argument by both parties. The following are the questions to consider as you write this response:
a. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments of the professor and the student known as Einstein? Disect each argument and expose the weakness in the terms we have been discussing these past eight weeks.
b. What makes one argument more effective than the other?
c. How could have either of the arguers done a better job at addressing their points? If you believe that neither of them could have done better make an argument that supports your claim.
d. Since the student had the last word in this piece, explain how could the professor have defended his position in light of the student’s response?
e. Was this student’s response to the professor a logical argument based on what we have learned about strong, effective arguments?(Explain your position by identifying deductive or inductive components, if any)
3. As you analyze the strength of their arguments, be sure to use at least two academic references of support your position about them.
4. As part of constructing your analysis and argument, use one of the discourse methods described in Chapter 12.
5. If there are fallacies, invalid arguments, or contradictions (either explicit or implicit) within the discourse between the professor and student, expose, analyze, and discuss them.
6. Do not create your own argument to on the topic of God. You goal here is not to argue for either position. Your goal is only to dissect this discourse and determine the logical strengths or weaknesses to what you have read here.
FORMATTING
? Your argument report should:
o Be 800 to 900 words long and written in APA format.
o Link theory and practice using references.
o Have at least two different “academic” references of support listed on the reference page.
o Use APA compliant in-text references.
o Be free from logical fallacies and invalid arguments.
o Contain and introduction with thesis, a body, and a logical conclusion.
o Use appropriate APA formatting such as headings, title page, and reference page and such.
The following is the discourse between a professor and his class that you are to analyze
A Discourse on God
A university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists?
A student bravely replied yes, he did!”
“God created everything?” The professor asked.
“Yes, sir,” the student replied.
The professor answered, “If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then God is evil.”
The student became quiet before such an answer.
The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that God was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, “Can I ask you a question professor?”
“Of course,” replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?”
What kind of question is this? Of course, it exists. Have you never been cold?” The students snickered at the young man’s question.
The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Everybody and every object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (- 460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have too little heat.
The student continued. “Professor, does darkness exist?”
The professor responded, “Of course it does”.
The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color.
You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”
Finally, the young man asked the professor. “Sir, does evil exist?”
Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course, as I have already said, we see it every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. “These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”
To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.
God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith or love, which exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”
The professor sat down.
The young man’s name — Albert Einstein
