Swinburne’s Cosmological and Teleological Arguments – Part 4
Richard Swinburne presents his inductive cosmological argument in Chapter 7 of his book The Existence of God (second edition, hereafter: EOG). I plan to start at the beginning of the chapter and go paragraph by paragraph, stopping to comment on each paragraph that includes either support for, or defense of, some part of the cosmological … Swinburne’s Cosmological and Teleological Arguments – Part 4
Swinburne’s Cosmological and Teleological Arguments – Part 3
I am exploring a concern about, or potential objection to, Swinburne’s inductive cosmological and teleological arguments for the existence of God. The objection I have in mind is something like this, for the cosmological argument: Although the one factual premise of Swinburne’s cosmological argument is supposed to be the ONLY contingent factual claim or assumption … Swinburne’s Cosmological and Teleological Arguments – Part 3
Erik Wielenberg’s argument re sceptical theism defended and developed – forthcoming in Religious Studies
(revised 9 April 2014) Sceptical theism and a lying God – Wielenberg’s argument defended and developed Stephen Law Department of Philosophy, Heythrop College, University of London, Kensington Square, London W5 8HX UK s.law@heythrop.ac.uk Abstract: Sceptical theists attempt to block the evidential argument from evil by arguing that a key premise of that … Erik Wielenberg’s argument re sceptical theism defended and developed – forthcoming in Religious Studies
Swinburne’s Cosmological and Teleological Arguments – Part 2
Like many other liberals, I’m delighted and mesmerized by Bridgegate and various other Chris Christie scandals from the fine state of New Jersey. I cannot wait for my daily dose of Rachel Maddow dishing the latest dirt on Christie and his idiotic crowd of corrupt New Jersey hooligans. What does this have to do with … Swinburne’s Cosmological and Teleological Arguments – Part 2
Swinburne’s Cosmological & Teleological Arguments
I’m not going to try to fully explain and evaluate Swinburne’s Cosmological and Teleological arguments for God here. That would be way too much to tackle in one or two blog posts. There are just a couple of doubts or concerns about these arguments that I would like to express and explore. Swinburne’s inductive cosmological … Swinburne’s Cosmological & Teleological Arguments
Slicing Up the Metaphysical Pie
One basic question in metaphysics is this: How many gods exist? Atheism can be defined as the view that there are 0 gods. Monotheism is the view that there is just 1 god. Polytheism is the view that there are 2 or more gods. Thus all of the various answers to the metaphysical question above … Slicing Up the Metaphysical Pie
Best of All Possible Persons
Now this supreme wisdom, united to a goodness that is no less infinite, cannot but have chosen the best… If there were not the best among all possible worlds, God would not have produced any. (Gottfried Leibniz, Theodicy, translated by E.M. Huggard, 1951, p.128) According to Anselm, God is the being than which none greater … Best of All Possible Persons
One Man’s Modus Ponens…Part 6
In Chapter 3 of Handbook of Christian Apologetics (hereafter: HOCA), Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli present twenty arguments for the existence of God. The very first argument is one of the Five Ways of Aquinas. This is not surprising, since Kreeft is a Catholic: The universe is the sum total of all these moving things, … One Man’s Modus Ponens…Part 6
One Man’s Modus Ponens…Part 5
Here is a creationist argument for the existence of God: 1. If God exists, then it is very likely that the basic kinds of plants and animals all began to exist at the same time. 2. If there is no God, then it is very unlikely that the basic kinds of plants and animals all … One Man’s Modus Ponens…Part 5
One Man’s Modus Ponens…Part 4
In A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, there is an article by Jeffrey Jordan on “Pragmatic Arguments”, that covers Pascal’s Wager. According to Jordan, there are at least three versions of Pascal’s Wager. In this post I will examine one of the three versions, which goes something like this: 1. Either God exists or it … One Man’s Modus Ponens…Part 4