God Matters: Readings in the Philosophy of Religion

Each selection begins with “Reading Questions” and concludes with “Questions for Further Reflection” and “Suggestions for Further Reading.”

Preface.

Introduction.

I: THE NATURE OF GOD.

Omnipotence.

1. God Is All Powerful, Thomas Aquinas.

2. Some Puzzles Concerning Omnipotence, George I. Mavrodes.

Box: Harry G. Frankfurt, "The Paradox of the Stone."

Omniscience.

3. God's Knowledge, Thomas Aquinas (from Summa Theologica Part 1, Q. 14).

4. Divine Knowledge and Human Freedom, Scott Davison.

Box: Augustine, "God's Foreknowledge Does Not Rule out Free Will."

Box: Jonathan Edwards, "God's Foreknowledge Rules out Libertarian Freedom."

God and Time.

5. God Is Outside of Time, Boethius.

6. Eternity, Eleanor Stump and Norman Kretzmann.

Box: William Lane Craig, "Time: The Familiar Stranger."

Box: William J. Wainwright, "God's Compassion."

7. Conceptualizing God Through Negation, Moses Miamonidies.

II: ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

The Ontological Argument.

8. The Ontological Argument, Anselm and Gaunilo.

Box: Rene Descartes, "It Is Impossible to Think of God as Not Existing."

9. Critique of the Ontological Argument, Immanuel Kant.

Box: William Rowe, "Anselm Begs the Question."

Box: Stephen Davis, "Existence Is a Predicate."

10. Anselm's Ontological Arguments, Norman Malcolm.

Box: Alvin Plantinga, "The Hartshorne-Malcolm Version of the Ontological Argument."

The Cosmological Argument.

11. The Five Ways, Thomas Aquinas.

Box: Frederick Copleston, "A Hierarchy of Causes."

12. The Cosmological Argument, David Yandell and Keith Yandell.

Box: Gottfried Leibniz, "Proving God."

Box: Bertrand Russell and Frederick Copleston, "The Russell-Copleston Debate."

13. Criticisms of Cosmological Arguments, J.L. Mackie.

Box: Elliot Sober, "The Birthday Fallacy."

Box: William Rowe, "An Argument Against the Principle of Sufficient Reason."

14. The Kalam Cosmological Argument, William Lane Craig.

Box: Paul Davies, "Is the Universe a Free Lunch?"

Box: John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, "The Anthropic Principle."

15. A Critical Examination of the Kalam Cosmological Argument, Wes Morriston.

The Design Argument.

16. The Watch and the Watchmaker, William Paley.

Box: Michael Denton, "Self-Duplication as Evidence of Design."

Box: Walter Bradley, "Complex Living Systems Are Evidence of Design."

17. Critique of the Design Argument, David Hume.

Box: George Smith, "Who Designed the Designer?"

Box: Robin Le Poidevin, "Evolution Explains Apparent Design."

18. God, Design, and Fine-Turing, Robin Collins.

Box: Richard Dawkins, "Atheism Before Darwin?"

The Moral Argument.

19. The Moral Argument for the Existence of God, C.S. Lewis.

20. Critique of the Moral Argument, J.L. Mackie.

III. FAITH AND REASON.

The Evidential Challenge.

21. The Presumption of Atheism, Antony Flew.

Box: Michael Scriven, "Santa Claus and the Belief in God."

22. A Pascalian Rejoinder to the Presumption of Atheism, Doug Geivett.

23. Response to Geivett, Antony Flew.

24. It Is Wrong to Believe Without Evidence, William Clifford

25. What Should We Expect from Theistic Proofs?, George I. Mavrodes.

26. Meta-Atheism: A Debate, George Rey and Christopher Bernard.

27. Theology and Falsification, A. Flew, R.M. Hare and B. Mitchell.

Belief Without Evidence: A Defense.

28. Pascal's Wagner, Blaise Pascal.

Box: William Lycan and George Schlesinger, "You Bet Your Life."

29. The Will to Believe, William James.

30. Religious Belief Requires a Leap of Faith, Soren Kierkegaard.

31. Kierkegaard's Leap of Faith, Robert Merrihew Adams.

32. Reformed Epistemology and the Rationality of Theistic Belief, James Sennett.

Box: Alvin Plantinga, "The Aquinas/Calvin Model."

33. Reformed Epistemology: An Atheist Perspective, Keith Parsons.

Box: Michael Martin, "Son of a Great Pumpkin."

34. Religious Belief for the Rest of Us: Reflections on Reformed Epistemology, Thomas Sullivan and Sandra Menssen.

Reason and Revelation.

35. Reason and Revelations Compliment Each Other, Thomas Aquinas.

36. The Harmony of Philosophy and the Qur'an, Ibn Rushd.

IV. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL.

37. Evil and the Existence of God, David Hume.

Box: An Author of Genesis, "Abraham and Isaac."

38. Soul-Making Theodicy, John Hick.

Box: Edward Madden and Peter Hare, "The Torturing Headmaster."

Box: Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, "Karma and Freedom."

39. Evil Is the Absence of Good, Saint Augustine.

40. This Is the Best of All Possible Worlds, Gottfried Leibniz.

41. Must God Create the Best?, Robert M. Adams.

Box: Tan Tai Wei, "Morality and the God of Love."

42. The Logical Problem of Evil, John L. Mackie.

43. The Free Will Defense, Alvin Plantinga.

Box: Richard Gale, "The Causal Compatibilist Objection."

Box: Richard Swinburne, "Free to Be Responsible for Others."

44. The Evidential Argument from Evil, Michael Martin.

Box: William Rowe, "The Inductive Argument from Evil."

Box: Paul Draper, "The Abductive Argument from Evil."

45. Induction, Abduction, and the Argument from Evil, Christopher Bernard.

V. RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE.

46. Varieties of Religious Experience, William James.

Box: Shankara, "The Mind."

Box: Laozi, "Dao De Jing."

47. The Idea of the Holy, Rudolf Otto.

Box: Walpola Rahula, "Nirvana."

48. Is Numinous Experience Evidence that God Exists?, Keith Yandell.

49. Perceiving God, William P. Alston.

50. Critque of Religious Experience, Wallace Matson.

VI. MIRACLES.

51. Of Miracles, David Hume.

52. In Defense of Miracles, Daniel Howard-Snyder.

Box: C.S. Lewis, "Hume Begs the Question."

53. Historians on Miracles, Raymond Martin.

Box: Morton Smith, "Historical Method and the Study of Religion."

Box: Nancy Murphy, "The Historian as Philosopher."

VII. EVOLUTION.

54. Science Refutes Religion, Richard Dawkins.

Box: Daniel Dennett, "Darwin's Dangerous Idea."

55. Darwinist Religion, Phillip E. Johnson.

Box: Alvin Plantigna, "The Grand Evolutionary Myth."

56. Evolution is not a Threat to Religion, Phillip Kitcher.

VIII. SURVIVAL OF BODILY DEATH.

57.The Self is Immaterial, Plato.

Box: Sri Aurobindo, "The Nature of the Self."

Box: Shunryu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind."

58. Exploring the Case for Life After Death, J.P. Moreland.

Box: Peter van Inwagen, "Resurrection."

Box: Thomas Nagel, "Death."

59. Survival of Bodily Death, Raymond Martin.

Box: C.J. Ducasse, "Remembrances of Past Lives."

IX. RELIGION, ETHICS, AND THE MEANING OF LIFE.

60. The Euthyphro Dilemma, Plato.

Box: Jiddu Krishnamurti, "Religion and Spirituality."

61. Is God the Source of Morality? Harry Gensler and Sharon Kaye.

62. My Confession, Leo Tolstoy.

Box: Adrienne Rich, "The Liar fears the Void."

63. The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus.

Box: Robert Nozick, "Why Are Traces Important?"

X. RELIGIOUS PLURALISM.

64. Religious Pluralism, John Hick.

Box: Nancy Hartsock, "Feminist Revolution."

Box: Jiddu Krishnamurti, "Revolution."

65. Pluralism: A Defense of Religious Exclusivism, Alvin Plantinga.

66. Exlusivism, Pluralism, and Anarchy, Kevin Meeker.

Box: Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Choices."

67. Religious Diversity and Religious Belief, Allen Stairs.

Box: Jane Flax, "Patriarchy."

Box: Naomi Goldenberg, "Women Priests."

68. Religion from an African-American Perspective, Kwasi Wiredu.