The Existence of GodRichard Swinburne presents a substantially rewritten and updated edition of his most celebrated book. No other work has made a more powerful case for the probability of the existence of God. Swinburne gives a rigorous and penetrating analysis of the most important arguments for theism: the cosmological argument; arguments from the existence of laws of nature and the 'fine-tuning' of the universe; from the occurrence of consciousness and moral awareness; and from miracles and religious experience. He claims that while none of these arguments are deductively valid, they do give inductive support to theism and that, even when the argument from evil is weighed against them, taken together they offer good grounds to support the probability that there is a God. The overall structure of the discussion and its conclusion have been retained for this new edition, but much has been changed in order to strengthen the argumentation and to take account of Swinburne's subsequent work on the nature of consciousness and the problem of evil, and of the latest philosophical and scientific writing, especially in respect of the laws of nature and the argument from fine-tuning. This is now the definitive version of a classic in the philosophy of religion. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 4 | |
2 The Nature of Explanation | 23 |
3 The Justification of Explanation | 52 |
4 Complete Explanation | 73 |
5 The Intrinsic Probability of Theism | 93 |
General Considerations | 110 |
7 The Cosmological Argument | 133 |
11 The Problem of Evil | 236 |
12 Arguments from History and Miracles | 273 |
13 The Argument from Religious Experience | 293 |
14 The Balance of Probability | 328 |
The Trinity | 343 |
Recent Arguments to Design from Biology | 346 |
Plantingas Argument against Evolutionary Naturalism | 350 |
Concordance | 355 |
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Common terms and phrases
able action agents allow animals apparently argued argument basic behaviour beliefs better bodies brain bring cause Chapter choice claim clearly complex connected consequence consider course create creatures depend described desires discuss effects equal evidence evil example existence expect experience explanation fact finite first follows force fundamental further give given God’s grounds happen hold human hypothesis improbable infinite initial intentions involved kind knowledge laws of nature lead less limited logically matter means mental merely moral move necessary normal objects observed occur operation particular past person personal explanation phenomena physical possible postulate predict present principle prior probability probability produce properties rational reason religious experience result scientific explanation seems sense similar simple simplicity substances suffering suggest suppose theism theory things true universe various