The Non-Existence of God

Cover
Title
Epigraph
Contents
Preface
1. Reasoning about God
	The central role of the existence of God
	The need to appeal to reason
	The claim that it is wrong to appeal to reason
	The claim that there are no relevant reasons
	The claim that reasons are inconclusive
	Whether someone has good reasons v. whether there are good reasons
	The variety of reasons
	Theism (and its more specific varieties), atheism, agnosticism
	How the term ‘God’ is to be understood
	Further reading
2. Reformed Epistemology
	Introduction
	Classical foundationalism
	Plantinga’s attack on classical foundationalism
	The alternative view proposed by Reformed Epistemology
	Assessment
	Further reading
3. Ontological arguments
	Introduction
	Anselm’s version
	Descartes and the ontological argument
	Plantinga and the ontological argument
	The Malcolm/Anselm version
	Hartshorne’s version
	Where ontological arguments go wrong
		(i) Existence is not a property
		(ii) Existential statements are second order statements
			(a) Statements of number are statements about concepts not about objects
			(b) Existential statements are statements of number
			(c) Existential statements are statements about concepts
		(iii) No existential statements can be logically necessary
	Can the ontological argument survive?
	Further reading
4. Cosmological arguments
	Introduction
	The First Cause argument
	Clarifying the concept of infinity
	Can there be an infinity of past events?
	Can there be an infinity of past causes?
	Does the Big Bang theory help the First Cause argument?
	The Argument from Contingency
	Assessment of the Argument from Contingency
	Swinburne’s argument
	Can there be an explanation of the existence of the universe?
	Has science discovered why the universe exists?
	Further reading
5. Teleological arguments
	Introduction
	The argument from order as such
	The Anthropic Principle: the argument from the kind of order
	The argument to design: flora and fauna
	Humean criticisms of the argument to design
	The relevance of Darwin
	Criticisms of Darwin
	Modern defences of the argument to design
	Further reading
6. Arguments to and from miracles
	Introduction
	Hume on violation miracles
	Assessment of Hume’s argument
	Two arguments for saying that violation miracles are impossible
		(a) Argument 1
		(b) Argument 2
	Assessment of these arguments
	Directly willed miracles
	Inexplicable miracles
	Coincidence miracles
	Conclusion
	Further reading
7. God and morality
	Introduction
	God as our creator
	God as moral expert: the Euthyphro dilemma
	The Kantian argument
	Ward’s account
	Trethowan and ‘apprehending morality as apprehending God’
	The supervenience of the moral
	What does morality rest on?
	Further reading
8. Religious experience
	Introduction
	Experience: an alternative to argument?
	Perceptual v. non-perceptual experience
	Religious perception
	Swinburne’s additions
	Should the Principle of Credulity be accepted?
	Can there be privately perceivable objects?
	Alston’s appeal to ‘mystical perceptual practice’
	Assessment of Alston
	The oddity of experiencing God
	A more liberal conception of experience?
	Further reading
9. Naturalism, evolution and rationality
	Introduction
	The argument against naturalism
	Assessment of the argument
	Further reading
10. Prudential arguments
	Introduction
	Pascal’s Wager
	William James and ‘The Will to Believe’
	The argument from solace
	Assessing the argument from solace
	Combining consequential and epistemic rationality
	Further reading
11. Arguments from scale
	Introduction
	The argument from scale
	Reply 1: modern science is fallible
	Reply 2: theism is not committed to what science has disproved
	Reply 3: there is a divine purpose in the scale of things
	Reply 4: science uses the wrong criterion of significance
	Reply 5: God is inscrutable
	Conclusion
	Further reading
12. Problems about evil
	Introduction
	The logical problem
	Evil as a causal presupposition of good
	Evil as logically presupposed by good
	Must God create the best possible world?
	Must God create a perfect world?
	The free will defence
	Assessment of the free will defence
	Conclusion
	Further reading
13. Omnipotence
	Introduction
	Divine power
	The concept of omnipotence
	A range of problem cases
	Some possible replies
	Can God sin?
	God’s lack of a body
	Can God destroy himself?
	Omnipotence relativised to God
	Conclusion
	Further reading
14. Eternity and omnipresence
	Introduction
	A. Eternity
		The temporal conception of eternity
		The temporal conception, infinite time and creation
		The timeless conception of eternity
		Could a timeless God be a creator?
		Could a timeless God be a person?
		Could we combine the two views of God’s eternity?
	B. Omnipresence
		God as non-spatial
		God as spatial
		Omnipresence and omniscience
	Conclusion
	Further reading
15. Omniscience
	Introduction
	Divine knowledge
	Omniscience
	Can God foreknow future free actions?
	Can God know the truth of indexicals?
	An objection to the argument from indexicals
	An extension of the argument from indexicals
	A revised definition of omniscience
	Conclusion
	Further reading
16. Conclusion
	Further reading
Notes
	1 Reasoning about God
	4 Cosmological arguments
	5 Teleological arguments
	6 Arguments to and from miracles
	7 God and morality
	8 Religious experience
	9 Naturalism, evolution and rationality
	10 Prudential arguments
	12 Problems about evil
	13 Omnipotence
	14 Eternity and omnipresence
	15 Omniscience
	16 Conclusion
Bibliography
Index