Atheism Explained: From Folly to Philosophy

Table of Contents
 
Title Page
Dedication
Preface
 
I - Mere Atheism
Chapter 1 - One Kind of God—and a Few Alternatives
God’s Ten Qualities
The God of Classical Theism and Other Gods
Alternatives to Classical Theism
Chapter 2 - Religion Can Do Without God
Religions Without God
God and Immortality
Can You Prove It?
Three Types of Unbelief
 
II - The Arguments for God
Chapter 3 - Paley’s Challenge to Atheism and Darwin’s Answer
Darwinism and Atheism
Paley’s Argument Is Narrow and Specific
What if Paley Were Right?
Young Earth Creationism
Old Earth Creationism: The Gap and Day-Age Theories
Noah’s Flood
Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
Chapter 4 - The Objections to Darwinism
Objection #1: There Hasn’t Been Sufficient Time
Objection #2: We Don’t See Evolution Occurring Today
Objection #3: We Don’t See Half-Evolved Features of Living Organisms
Objection #4: Dogs Don’t Turn into Cats
Objection #5: New Forms Would Be Swamped
Objection #6: Apes Are Still Here
Objection #7: There Are Gaps in the Fossil Record
Objection #8: Irreducible Complexity Cannot Arise by Gradual Stages
Irreducible Complexity Is Not Paley’s Argument
Getting Here from There
The Designer’s Limitations
Did God Create through Evolution?
Where Did the First Life Come From?
Is Life Just Too Improbable?
Chapter 5 - Did Someone Set the Dial?
The Anthropic Coincidences
Objection #1: We Don’t Know that Our Universe Is Improbable
Objection #2: The Improbable Conditions May Not Be Independent
Objection #3: The Argument Assumes Existing Laws
Objection #4: There May Be Many Universes
Objection #5: There May Be Natural Selection of Universes
Objection #6: Dial-setting Does Not Imply God
Objection #7: Would God Choose to Create Our Universe?
Chapter 6 - Does God Explain Why Anything Exists?
The First Cause Argument
The Kalam Argument
Beginning Without a Cause
The Argument from Contingency
The Ultimate Explanation of What There Is
Does Physics Change the Cosmological Argument?
Why Is There Anything (Instead of Nothing at All)?
From Rest to Nothingness
Chapter 7 - Can We Prove God Exists by Pure Logic?
A Flaw in the Ontological Argument
Could God Be the Greatest Conceivable Thing?
Is the Greatest Conceivable Thing Conceivable?
God Containing an Infinite Collection of Items
Chapter 8 - Do We Get Our Morals from God?
The Divine Command Theory
What Are God’s Commands?
Is Morality Objective?
Morality Is a Natural Feature of Humans
The Argument from Consciousness
The Dependence of Mind on Brain Doesn’t Imply Physiological Determinism
An Argument from Reason
Chapter 9 - Can We Know God Directly?
Is Religious Experience a Form of Perception?
Delusional Interpretations of Experiences
The Lesson of Nunez
Chapter 10 - Faith Doesn’t Have a Prayer
Arguments from Faith
Blaise’s Bad Bet
Is Belief in God Self-Evident?
Chapter 11 - The Holy Bible Isn’t Wholly Reliable
There’s No Reason to Suppose the Bible Is Infallible
Did God Dictate the Bible Word for Word?
Puzzles about Inerrantism
There Are No Independent Sources for the Story of Jesus
We Don’t Know Who Wrote the Gospels
Attempts to Harmonize the Gospels with History
Gospel Events which Never Happened
A More Skeptical View
The Evidence for Jesus and Socrates
What If the Gospels Were Roughly Accurate?
Popular and Feeble Arguments from the New Testament Evidence
Biblical Prophecy Is Always Getting Left Behind
Chapter 12 - Did God Compose the Quran?
God or Muhammad?
The Quran and Science
The Origin of the Quran
Silliness in the Quran
Is the Standard Story True?
 
III - The Arguments Against God
Chapter 13 - How to Prove a Negative
Why Does God Pretend Not to Exist?
The Moral Freedom Defense
The Appeal to Unintelligibility
Chapter 14 - Vast Evil Shows There Is No God
Evil Is an Illusion
The Greater Good
Chapter 15 - Can Human Free Will Explain Why God Allows Vast Evil?
Objection #1: Natural Evils
Objection #2: Evil Outcomes from Non-Evil Decisions
Objection #3: Free Will and a Guarantee of Goodness
Objection #4: Different Characters
Objection #5: Different Circumstances
Objection #6: Persuasive Intervention by God
Objection #7: Coercive Intervention by God
Objection #8: Collectivizing Humans
Are Atheists Sissies?
The Biology of Evil
The Free Will Defense Contradicts Religious Orthodoxy
Giving Up Classical Theism
Chapter 16 - Can God Be a Person?
What God’s Qualities Imply
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Is God Outside Time?
Can Theists Give Up God as a Person?
Chapter 17 - What God Can’t Do and What God Can’t Know
Things God Can’t Do
God Must Be Subject to Natural Law
Could God Limit Himself?
God’s Suicide or Abdication
Things God Can’t Know
God’s Knowledge of the Future
Chapter 18 - Is There a Spirit World?
Near-Death Experiences
What Are Spirits Like?
God’s Brainless Mind
A Parable of Reflections
Can Science Explain Everything?
 
IV - God or the Truth?
Chapter 19 - Atheism Is Irresistible
Is There a God Gene?
Disbelief in God Has Always Been Endemic
Historical Traces of Grassroots Skepticism
Why Does Classical Theism Rule the World?
Chapter 20 - Disillusioned and Happy
Does Belief in God Make Life Better?
Can God Improve Your Health?
Beyond Theism and Atheism
 
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Copyright Page