The God Debates E-Book

John R. Shook

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 465

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

The God Debates presents a comprehensive, non-technical survey of the quest for knowledge of God, allowing readers to participate in a debate about the existence of God and gain understanding and appreciation of religion?s conceptual foundations.

• Explains key arguments for and against God's existence in clear ways for readers at all levels
• Brings theological debates up to the present with current ideas from modernism, postmodernism, fideism, evidentialism, presuppositionalism, and mysticism
• Updates criticism of theology by dealing with the latest terms of the God debates instead of outdated caricatures of religion
• Helps nonbelievers to learn important theological standpoints while noting their shortcomings
• Encourages believers and nonbelievers to enjoy informed dialogue with each other
• Concludes with an overview of religious and nonreligious worldviews and predictions about the future of faith and reason

Leseprobe

Contents

Preface

1 Debating Religion

1.1 Religion under Scrutiny

1.2 Debating Dogma

1.3 Theology and Atheology

1.4 Could Atheism Prove God Doesn’t Exist?

1.5 Could Religion Disprove Atheism?

2 Five Types of Theologies

2.1 Categorizing Theologies

2.2 Theology From The Scripture

2.3 Theology From The World

2.4 Theology Beyond The World

2.5 Theology In The Know

2.6 Theology Into The Myst

3 Theology From The Scripture

3.1 Scientific History

3.2 Scientific History and Scripture

3.3 The Argument from Divine Signs

3.4 The Argument from Apostolic Faith

3.5 The Argument from Divine Character

3.6 The Argument from Pseudo-history

4 Theology From The World

4.1 Theology and Science

4.2 Arguments from Nature

4.3 Arguments from Design

4.4 Arguments from Religious Experience

4.5 Arguments from Morality

4.6 Explanations for Reason

4.7 The Ontological Argument for God

4.8 The Argument from Pseudo-science

5 Theology Beyond The World

5.1 The Existence of Nature Argument for God

5.2 The Fine-tuning Argument for God

5.3 Why Would God Create?

5.4 The Problem of Evil

5.5 The Argument from Pseudo-cosmology

6 Theology In The Know

6.1 Arguments from Ignorance

6.2 Religious Epistemologies

6.3 Knowledge, Justification, and Truth

6.4 The Religious Community

6.5 The Arguments from Pseudo-theology

7 Theology Into The Myst

7.1 Believing in God without Knowledge of God

7.2 Believing in God without Concepts of God

7.3 Belief, Faith, and Pseudo-faith

7.4 The Argument from Pseudo-faith

8 Reason and Faith

8.1 Liberal Modernism and Its Rivals

8.2 Twelve Worldviews

8.3 Faith and Reason Realigned

References

Further Reading

Index

This edition first published 2010

© 2010 John R. Shook

Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell's publishing program has been merged with Wile’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shook, John R.

The God debates: a 21st century guide for atheists and believers (and everyone in between)/John R. Shook.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4443-3641-2 (hardback: alk. paper) –ISBN 978-1-4443-3642-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. God–Proof. 2. God (Christianity) 3. Christianity and atheism. 4. Faith and reason–Christianity. I. Title.

BT103.S447 2010

239–dc22

2010016219

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Dedicated to my mother

whose bookshelves made me a philosopher,

where I found the life of the mind

and vowed to someday add noble thoughts

Preface

As a philosopher and a professor, and as a participant in god debates, I hope to enrich our understanding of religion and the human world. Philosophies and religions offer their learning, but I wonder how well we are learning from each other. Debating a question, like any conversation, is an opportunity for intellectual growth. Arguments and debates have winners and losers, yet judging a match only raises more debate. That's the point – the real winners are those who think about the questions, reflect on proposed answers, and come up with new questions. The winners are the learners, not those sure that they already know.

In the god debates there are many proposals about what a god may be like, and what a god is supposed to be doing. New speculations about this or that god are not foreign to religions. No religion today is precisely what it was 500 years ago, or even 100 years ago. Thinking, debating, and learning enrich religion as much as anything. Doubting and questioning, and the fresh insights aroused, are the signs of intelligence at work. Believers dismayed by religious questioning overlook nourishment for their religion's vitality.

Many kinds of gods are considered in this book, revolving around the theistic god of the Judeo-Christian traditions. Where the specific God of the Bible is discussed the upper-case ‘God’ is used, and in all other cases the lower-case ‘god’ is used. No disrespect is intended by using ‘god', quite the opposite – the diversity of conceptions of god ought to get due attention and respect. There simply is nothing that everyone means by ‘god’ any more. The conformity imposed by medieval thinking upon Western civilization has mostly dissolved, and the West has greeted the East. To avoid presumptive agreement with any single concept of god, our conversations shouldn't be about some upper-case ‘God’ as if that term means the same for everyone.

Vibrant dialogue about religion in the twenty-first century now includes both believers of many religions and nonbelievers too. Nor can we overlook, as the subtitle of this book indicates, how there are plenty of people feeling “in between.” It is easy, too easy, to sharply divide people into believers and nonbelievers. There are so many different notions of divinity available for consideration, and new ideas about god, religion, and spirituality emerge constantly. A broad spectrum of belief has brightened a complex religious landscape, now looking so different from the static black and white portrait of bygone days. What we do with all this new, light, fresh perspective and beautiful color is our responsibility.

This book is designed to prepare readers of any religious belief or no belief for participation in religious dialogue. The god question, like other perennial questions about truth, beauty, or justice, is a grand conversation. The god debates, if conducted respectfully and intelligently, can only continue to enrich and preserve what is best about civilization. If the god question instead halts thinking and stops the conversation, we lose our humanity. So let the god debates go on.

My own journey in this conversation has been assisted by fellow debaters and questioners at my lectures who are too numerous to individually thank. Colleagues at the Center for Inquiry have been especially helpful, although this book presents my own views and does not necessarily reflect those of the Center for Inquiry.

1

Debating Religion

eligion promises a rewarding relationship with the supreme reality. Religions offer views about what supreme reality is like, how best to relate to it, and why believers benefit from that relationship. Nonbelievers don’t deny that reality is impressive, but they doubt that any religion knows best about reality or how to relate to it. Nonbelievers instead use some nonreligious worldview, some account of reality and humanity’s relationship with it, that lacks any role for a god. It can seem that believers and nonbelievers, divided by such a wide chasm, would have little to talk about. But appearances can be deceiving.

Religions are also divided, yet believers meet to share and compare their religions. Ecumenical dialogue among Christian denominations is a frequent and familiar pleasure for participants. Dialogue between different religions has also grown. An Ayatollah, an Archbishop, a Pope, or a Dalai Lama are world travelers for cooperation on secular or spiritual matters, urging political reforms and joining peace councils. Less frequently, but no less importantly, theological issues can be the topic. Disagreeing over dogma sounds less promising, but dogma needn’t stand in the way of learning. Believers sharing their personal experiences and idealistic hopes can find common ground hidden behind doctrinal walls. Theological arguments for completely different gods may have common features, pointing the way towards shared perspectives.

If religions benefit from comparison and discussion, why can’t the nonreligious join the ecumenical conversation? Surely “belief in god” cannot be a prerequisite for getting a seat at the table. What god would a participant in the room have to accept first? Religions as different as Christianity and Buddhism, each dubious that the other’s god could possibly exist, would be hypocritical for closing the door to a nonbeliever’s doubt that either god exists. There are enough doubters in the world to justify full participation, too. China, Russia, and much of Europe are largely skeptical about a supernatural deity. Even in America, the fastest-growing segment, now almost 20 percent of the adult population, is composed of the “Nones.” The Nones typically say they have no particular religion, although many of the Nones still regard themselves as religious or spiritual, even if they don’t identify with any denomination or church (see Fuller 2001, Kosmin and Keysar 2008).

The Nones are evidently rethinking god. Supernaturalism isn’t the only kind of religion to consider, as well. There are non-traditional Christians, and those influenced by other religious traditions, who suspect that god and nature overlap, interpenetrate, or combine in some way. Many people find religious inspiration and connection through divine or spiritual aspects of nature. Pantheisms and spiritual naturalisms (see Levine 1994 and Stone 2009) are serious worldviews, meriting discussion in the concluding chapter after supernaturalism has been debated. If religions’ reasonings are on the agenda for open discussion, why shouldn’t outside evaluations of arguments for god carry some weight too? If religions expect their theologies to be persuasive, trying them out on non-traditional minds and nonbelieving skeptics could hardly be a waste of time.