theism

The Sentence “God exists” – Part 5

In Part II of The Coherence of Theism (revised edition,1993), Richard Swinburne discusses the idea of a “contingent God”. The first chapter in Part II, is Chapter 7, “An Omnipresent Spirit”,which focuses on the following sentence: (3) An omnipresent spirit exists. This sentence involves two key attributes that Swinburne uses to define “God” (or “divine The Sentence “God exists” – Part 5

The Sentence “God exists” Part 3

Let’s set aside, for the moment, Richard Swinburne’s critique of Ayer’s Logical Positivist argument for the incoherence of theism, and consider Swinburne’s concept of “God”. I’m jumping ahead to the second book in Swinburne’s trilogy on theism (The Existence of God, 2nd edition). There are two kinds of explanation according to Swinburne: scientific and personal. The Sentence “God exists” Part 3

The Sentence “God exists” Part 2

This is the Logical Positivist skeptical argument, as understood by Richard Swinburne: (1) If the sentence “God exists” expresses a coherent statement, then the sentence “God exists” expresses either an analytic proposition or else it expresses a synthetic proposition.(2) The sentence “God exists” does not express an analytic proposition.(3) The sentence “God exists” does not The Sentence “God exists” Part 2

The Sentence “God Exists” Part 1

In The Coherence of Theism (original:1977, revised ed.:1993), Richard Swinburne argues that the sentence “God exists” is a meaningful indicative sentence that expresses a coherent proposition. He does this by raising objections to arguments that have been given against this view, and by also making a detailed positive case. For the negative or defensive case, The Sentence “God Exists” Part 1

Negative study on intercessory prayer

Information on the Herbert Benson-led study on the possible health benefits of intercessory prayer has begun to appear in the media. The results appear to be negative. (Disclaimer: the actual journal article appears next week. And I’m a physicist, not qualified to comment on the details of medical research anyway. And as some of the Negative study on intercessory prayer