Students have been studying various arguments for the existence of God. At the same time, students have been exposed to one argument that God cannot exist and one argument that it is impossible to know whether God exists or not.

Assignment #2 Guidelines

Objective: Students are to state and defend a position concerning whether or not God exists. The paper should be an argumentative essay, meaning that students should take a position on the matter and provide compelling reasons for why the reader should adopt that position. The position argued for does not necessary have to reflect the position of the student writing the essay. Students are free to argue for their own perspective, or students may elect to play the advocate for the opposition.

Evidence: Students have the option to argue: a.) God exists, b.) God does not exist, or c.) it is impossible to know whether or not God exists.

For whichever option students select, students must incorporate direct quotations from Aquinas, Anselm, Pascal, or Descartes into the body paragraphs of the essay as evidence for their position. A minimum of five in text direct quotations is required, and students must incorporate quotations from the works of at least two of the authors listed above. All quotations should be explained and their relevance to God’s possible existence should be clear.

Analysis and Synthesis: Student work will not be graded based upon the position the student takes. Instead, grades will be based upon the quality of argument the student produces for that position. The student will need to accurately analyze the texts and select and interpret the relevant quotations, and then the student will need to piece those bits of evidence together to form a well organized, cohesive whole.

Requirements: Papers should be typed, doubled spaced, in standard font size (11), and between 3 full pages and 5 full pages in length. A minimum of five direct quotations is required, and these quotations must come from at least two of the authors we have studied in our unit on God’s existence (Aquinas, Anselm, Pascal, and Descartes). Essays are to be in MLA format.