Essay 1:  A Proof of the Existence of God - Handout for Part 3
 

Part 3:  An outline of your essay.  (5%)

Due Date:   Monday, March 14
 

Part 4:  The completed essay, of about 1200-1500 words in length.  (15%)

Due Date:   Wednesday, March 30
 

Instructions - Part 3

        The goal of this first essay-writing exercise is to enable you to acquire a good understanding of what is involved in critically evaluating an argument.  The argument on which you are focusing is the argument in support of the existence of God that you considered in Parts 1 and 2.  In those first two parts of this essay-writing exercise, the task was, first, to get clear about the logical structure of the argument, and then, secondly, to identify some possible weaknesses in the argument.  Part 3 of the exercise now involves writing a short outline for your essay as a whole.

    Your outline should consist of the following sections:
 

Section 1

        In this first section, you should describe, in a single, short paragraph, how your essay will be divided up into sections.

Section 2

        In this section, you should state the basic thesis that you will be defending.  This should require only a sentence or two.

Section 3

       In arguing for your thesis in the case of the present essay, you are going to have to defend some sub-theses, concerned with what you take to be two or three sound objections to the argument for the existence of God that was set out in Part 2.  In this section, you should briefly set out those sub-theses.  It should only require about two or three sentences to describe each of your sub-theses, but in your description you should, in each case, do the following things:

(1) You should state which specific sub-argument your objection is directed against.

(2) You should indicate whether you will be claiming that the sub-argument is fallacious, or, instead, that a premise is implausible.  (Remember that the premise must be an independent one, and not a conclusion of an earlier sub-argument.)

(3) Finally, if you are claiming that an independent premise is implausible, indicate what that premise says.
 

Section 4

        In this final section, you should describe, very briefly, the general lines along which you will attempt to argue in support of each of your sub-theses.  Aim for a short paragraph in each case.