Table of Contents
Acknowledgements Preface
PART 1. PRELIMINARIES
Chapter 1: Why Not Agnosticism?
- Proving Non-Existence The Burden of Proof Fallibilism The Common Sense View Is Atheism Itself a Metaphysical Belief? Summary
Chapter 2: Which God Are You Denying?
- Kidneys and Hearts What Is God? Magenta and Pink Tolerable Misdescriptions Life Force The Argument from Experience Our Natural Being The Point
Chapter 3: Religion without God?
- Religious Atheism Spirit The Backdoor God Conclusion
Chapter 4: Metaphor and Sacred Texts
- Inconsistencies Improbabilities Ignored Dictums Partial Literalism Metaphorical Reading Ricœur and Company
PART II. “PROOFS”
Chapter 5: Ontologic Illogic
- A Priori and A Posteriori Arguments The Ontological Argument Null Sets and Hypotheticals Barretteless and Imaginary Dolls Necessary Existence Summary
Chapter 6: Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
- The Cosmological Argument Inconsistency Infinity The Kala‾m Argument Necessary Beings Best Explanation Conclusion
Chapter 7: Design or Evolution?
- The Design Argument The Appeal The Evolutionary Account Chance and Fruit Flies Intelligent Design?
Chapter 8: Fine Tuning and Analogy
- The Design Argument (Again) Fine Tuning and Biogenesis Analogical Argument Structure Watches and Astrolabes Summary
Chapter 9: The Moral Argument
- Aquinas’s Version Kant’s Version Summary
PART III: ATTRIBUTES
Chapter 10: The Problem of Suffering
- Inscrutability Free Will Eschatological Recompense Moral Fortitude Summary
Chapter 11: Omnipotence
- The Paradox of the Stone No Impossible Powers Two Impossible Acts Are Easier Than One Mortal Comprehension
Chapter 12: Omniscience and Free Will
- The Basic Problem Weakening Knowledge Out of Time Different Necessities Other Worlds Summary
Chapter 13: Time and Immutability
- Problems with Immutability Anthropomorphizing Time Revisited Summary
Chapter 14: Is God Love?
PART IV. FAITH
Chapter 15: Faith and Reason
- God Is Special Secular Faiths Conclusion
Chapter 16: Fideism
- Kierkegaardian Fideism Wittgensteinian Fideism
Chapter 17: Ultimate Concern
- Ontological, Not Cosmological Three Ambiguities The Problem
Chapter 18: Po-Mo Theo
- A Monkey in a Box? Summary
Chapter 19: Pascal’s Wager
- Two Problems Defending Pascal
Chapter 20: Non-Falsifiability
- Flew’s Garden Not Logical Positivism Falsification and Verification Objections Replies Summary
PART V. IMPLICATIONS
Chapter 21: Mysticism
- Common Components Content Method Self-Confirming Judging by the Effects Conclusion
Chapter 22: God and Morality
- Moral Principles The Euthyphro Argument Innate Morality? Sin and Moral Intuition Strategic Interaction Conclusion
Chapter 23: The Meaning of Life
- The Problem of Nihilism Reductio Ad Absurdum The Argument from Consistency The Non Sequitur Death Rephrasing the Question
Chapter 24: Death
- Platonic Arguments Ghosts in the Machine Brain Damage Near-Death Experiences The Identity Argument Summary
Chapter 25: Error Theory
- Religion’s Success Psychological and Sociological Accounts The Evolution of Belief Conclusion?
Notes Bibliography Author Index