The Non-existence of GodIs it possible to prove or disprove God's existence? Arguments for the existence of God have taken many different forms over the centuries: in The Non-Existence of God, Nicholas Everitt considers all of the arguments and examines the role that reason and knowledge play in the debate over God's existence. He draws on recent scientific disputes over neo-Darwinism, the implication of 'big bang' cosmology, and the temporal and spatial size of the universe; and discusses some of the most recent work on the subject, leading to a controversial conclusion. |
Contents
Reasoning about God | 1 |
The need to appeal to reason | 2 |
The claim that it is wrong to appeal to reason | 3 |
The claim that there are no relevant reasons | 7 |
The claim that reasons are inconclusive | 8 |
Whether someone has good reasons v whether there are good reasons | 10 |
The variety of reasons | 13 |
Theism and its more specific varieties atheism agnosticism | 14 |
Alstons appeal to mystical perceptual practice | 165 |
Assessment of Alston | 167 |
The oddity of experiencing God | 172 |
A more liberal conception of experience? | 176 |
Further reading | 177 |
Naturalism evolution and rationality | 178 |
Assessment of the argument | 185 |
Further reading | 190 |
Further reading | 16 |
Reformed Epistemology | 17 |
Classical foundationalism | 18 |
Plantingas attack on classical foundationalism | 20 |
The alternative view proposed by Reformed Epistemology | 22 |
Assessment | 26 |
Further reading | 30 |
Ontological arguments | 31 |
Anselms version | 32 |
Descartes and the ontological argument | 37 |
Plantinga and the ontological argument | 41 |
The MalcolmAnselm version | 45 |
Hartshornes version | 47 |
Where ontological arguments go wrong | 50 |
Can the ontological argument survive? | 55 |
Further reading | 57 |
Cosmological arguments | 59 |
The First Cause argument | 60 |
Can there be an infinity of past events? | 63 |
Can there be an infinity of past causes? | 66 |
Does the Big Bang theory help the First Cause argument? | 68 |
The Argument from Contingency | 73 |
Assessment of the Argument from Contingency | 74 |
Swinburnes argument | 76 |
Can there be an explanation of the existence of the universe? | 79 |
Has science discovered why the universe exists? | 82 |
Further reading | 84 |
Teleological arguments | 85 |
The argument from order as such | 86 |
the argument from the kind of order | 91 |
flora and fauna | 96 |
Humean criticisms of the argument to design | 98 |
The relevance of Darwin | 101 |
Criticisms of Darwin | 104 |
Modern defences of the argument to design | 106 |
Further reading | 110 |
Arguments to and from miracles | 112 |
Assessment of Humes argument | 117 |
Two arguments for saying that violation miracles are impossible | 118 |
Assessment of these arguments | 122 |
Inexplicable miracles | 123 |
Coincidence miracles | 124 |
Conclusion | 126 |
God and morality | 128 |
God as our creator | 129 |
the Euthyphro dilemma | 131 |
The Kantian argument | 135 |
Wards account | 139 |
Trethowan and apprehending morality as apprehending God | 142 |
The supervenience of the moral | 143 |
What does morality rest on? | 147 |
Further reading | 149 |
Religious experience | 150 |
an alternative to argument? | 151 |
Perceptual v nonperceptual experience | 154 |
Religious perception | 156 |
Swinburnes additions | 160 |
Should the Principle of Credulity be accepted? | 163 |
Can there be privately perceivable objects? | 164 |
Prudential arguments | 191 |
Pascals Wager | 193 |
William James and The Will to Believe | 198 |
The argument from solace | 204 |
Assessing the argument from solace | 206 |
Combining consequential and epistemic rationality | 210 |
Further reading | 212 |
Arguments from scale | 213 |
The argument from scale | 215 |
modern science is fallible | 218 |
theism is not committed to what science has disproved | 220 |
there is a divine purpose in the scale of things | 221 |
science uses the wrong criterion of significance | 222 |
God is inscrutable | 223 |
Conclusion | 225 |
Further reading | 226 |
Problems about evil | 227 |
The logical problem | 229 |
Evil as a causal presupposition of good | 232 |
Evil as logically presupposed by good | 234 |
Must God create the best possible world? | 237 |
Must God create a perfect world? | 243 |
The free will defence | 245 |
Assessment of the free will defence | 246 |
Conclusion | 253 |
Further reading | 254 |
Omnipotence | 255 |
Divine power | 256 |
The concept of omnipotence | 258 |
Some possible replies | 259 |
Can God sin? | 261 |
Gods lack of a body | 262 |
Can God destroy himself? | 263 |
Omnipotence relativised to God | 264 |
Conclusion | 268 |
Eternity and omnipresence | 269 |
The temporal conception of eternity | 270 |
The temporal conception infinite time and creation | 271 |
The timeless conception of eternity | 274 |
Could a timeless God be a creator? | 276 |
Could a timeless God be a person? | 279 |
Could we combine the two views of Gods eternity? | 281 |
B Omnipresence | 282 |
Omnipresence and omniscience | 284 |
Conclusion | 285 |
Omniscience | 286 |
Omniscience | 287 |
Can God foreknow future free actions? | 289 |
Can God know the truth of indexicals? | 292 |
An objection to the argument from indexicals | 294 |
An extension of the argument from indexicals | 297 |
A revised definition of omniscience | 299 |
Conclusion | 300 |
Conclusion | 301 |
Further reading | 306 |
Notes | 307 |
| 313 | |
| 321 | |
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Common terms and phrases
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