Logic and Theism: Arguments For and Against Beliefs in God
Cambridge University Press, 6/1/2009
EAN 9780521108669, ISBN10: 0521108667
Paperback, 676 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 4.3 cm
Language: English
This is a wide-ranging 2004 book about arguments for and against beliefs in God. The arguments for the belief are analysed in the first six chapters and include ontological arguments from Anselm to Gödel, the cosmological arguments of Aquinas and Leibniz, and arguments from evidence for design and miracles. The next two chapters consider arguments against belief. The last chapter examines Pascalian arguments for and against belief in God. There are discussions of Cantorian problems for omniscience, of challenges to divine omnipotence, and of the compatibility of everlasting complete knowledge of the world with free-will. There are appendices that present formal proofs in a system for quantified modal logic, a theory of possible worlds, notes on Cantorian set theory, and remarks concerning non-standard hyperreal numbers. This book will be a valuable resource for philosophers of religion and theologians and will interest logicians and mathematicians as well.
Part I. Divinity
1. 'GOD' and 'god', and God
Part II. Arguments for the Existence of God
2. Classical ontological arguments
3. Modern modal ontological arguments
4. Kurt Gödel's ontologischer beweis
5. First causes
the second way
6. Ultimate reasons
Proofs of a contingentia mundi
7. Look 'round'
8. Clouds of witnesses - on 'of miracles'
Part III. On Parts of the Common Conception of Traditional Theology
9. Romancing the stone
10. God knows (go figure)
Part IV. Arguments against the Existence of God
11. Atheologies, demonstrative and empirical
12. The logical problem of evil
Part V. Practical Arguments for and against Theistic Beliefs
13. Pascalian wagers.
'... filled with new, interesting, and insightful observations and analyses ... a book everyone interested in philosophy of religion will want - and need - to read.' Graham Oppy, Monash University