DOCSLIB.ORG

Philosophy of Religion Spring 2019 12:30-2:00 Pm Waggener Hall, 308

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Philosophy of Religion Spring 2019 12:30-2:00 Pm Waggener Hall, 308 Philosophy of Religion Spring 2019 12:30-2:00 p.m. Waggener Hall, 308 Instructor: James “J.P.” Andrew Email: [email protected] Office: Waggener 410A Office Hours: T/Th 2:00-3:00 and by appointment Course Description: Philosophy of religion is the philosophical study of fundamental religious ​ concepts and ideas. In this course, we will survey some of the perennial questions and issues in philosophy of religion, focusing particularly (but not exclusively) on those pertinent to the great monotheistic traditions. Of particular interest will be: (a) classical arguments for the existence of God, (b) the problem of evil (can the existence of evil be reconciled with the existence of God?), (c) the relationship between faith and reason (is religious faith rationally justifiable?), and (d) miracles (what is a miracle? Is it ever reasonable to believe that a miracle has occurred?). ​ ​ Learning Objectives: Ideally, three objectives will be met in this course. First, you will ​ familiarize yourself with some perennial problems and topics in the philosophy of religion. Second, you will improve your analytical skills as you critically evaluate arguments and develop your own ideas. Finally, you will improve your written communication skills by generating thoughtful prose about challenging material. Required Text: Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology (7th Edition), by Louis Pojman and ​ ​ Michael Rea. The few readings not found in the text will be made available on Canvas. Evaluation: There are a total of 1000 points possible for this course. Your final score will be ​ based upon the cumulative score you receive on ten response papers (worth 40 points each), one term paper (worth 400 points), and a final exam (worth 200 points). Grading will be done on the ​ university's +/- scale, as specified below: lowest A: 93%, lowest A-: 90%, lowest B+: 87%, lowest B: 83%, lowest B-: 80%, lowest C+: 77%, lowest C: 73%, lowest C-: 70%, lowest D+: 67%, lowest D: 63%, F: less than 63% **Note**: I do not round. So, for example, even an average of 89.99 is a B+. Bear this in mind ​ ​ from the outset. A Word of Warning: We will be critically examining ideas in this course that many people hold ​ sacred. While our inquiry will be conducted respectfully and at purely intellectual level (and while I have no personal agenda beyond the learning objectives stated above), just make sure that thinking critically about the existence of God and the rationality of religious belief is something that you’re up for. It’s my goal to represent both sides fairly, as it were, so regardless of your own religious commitments (or lack thereof), you should expect to feel (intellectually) challenged at various points throughout the term. Term Paper: You will be required to write one term paper, 5-7 pages in length (given standard ​ formatting). Prompts will be posted on Canvas early in the semester. You will also have the option of writing your own prompt, but you must submit it for my approval no later than Late papers will not be accepted except in extenuating circumstances (e.g., severe illness or family emergency), of which I should be made aware at the earliest date possible. Final Exam: There will be a cumulative final exam on the evening of Wednesday, May 13th, ​ from 7:00-10:00 p.m. (I have no control over the time of the final!). You must take the exam at the scheduled time (bear this in mind when booking your flight home). Information about final exam policies may be found here https://catalog.utexas.edu/general-information/academic-policies-and-procedures/examinations/. ​ You will need to bring a blue book. I will provide you with a study guide (consisting of key ​ points to focus on) and will host a review session during study days, provided sufficient student interest. Short Response Papers: You will write ten short (1 page) response papers over the course of ​ the term. A response paper should consist of a brief summary of one of the assigned readings, of ​ ​ a particular section of an assigned reading and an objection or a (developed) critical question. ​ ​ It’s up to you the readings for which you write a response paper, but you must submit five before ​ ​ Spring Break and five after Spring Break. You should bring me a hard copy of your response ​ ​ ​ paper in class on the day we are scheduled to discuss the reading in question. You may not ​ submit a response paper for a reading that has already been covered. You are free to submit ​ more than ten response papers (so, you can keep going until you receive the average response paper grade you want). Attendance: There is no attendance portion of your grade per se; thus, you are not required to ​ ​ ​ come to class insofar as sanctions will not be imposed upon you for failing to do so. However, ​ ​ we will be discussing ideas and arguments in class that are not in the readings, and you will be held accountable for these ideas and arguments in your work. So, it is really not feasible to do well in this course if you do not plan on being in attendance consistently. Classroom Conduct: You are expected to be respectful of others at all times in the classroom. ​ This not only means being courteous during classroom discussions but also refraining from such disruptive behaviors as talking to others, texting, preparing for other classes, and leaving class early without notifying me beforehand. Inappropriate classroom conduct may result in points being deducted from your final grade, without your being notified. Cell phones should be silenced and out-of-sight at all times during class. You may take notes on a laptop if you have a strong preference for doing so, but please try to sit toward the back of the classroom, if you do, so that others are not distracted by your screen. You may not use a recording device in class unless you’ve provided me with documentation of a disability necessitating that you do so. In such a case, the recording may be used only for your personal study needs. This is to respect the privacy of your peers. University Policies Policy on Scholastic Dishonesty: Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty ​ are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Since such dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced. For further information, please visit the Student Judicial Services website: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs. Plagiarism: If you use words or ideas that are not your own you must cite your sources. ​ Otherwise, you will be guilty of plagiarism. To learn more, go to the following URL: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/scholdis_plagiarism.php. Religious Holidays: By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least ​ fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence. Students with Disabilities: Any student with a documented disability (physical or cognitive) ​ who requires academic accommodations, should contact the Services for Students with ) Disabilities area of the Office of the Dean of Students at 512-471-6259 (voice) or 512-471-4641 (TTY for users who are deaf or hard of hearing), as soon as possible to request an official letter outlining authorized accommodations. Course Schedule Notes: (1) This schedule is tentative and subject to change. (2) The readings associated with each session should be done prior to class. ​ ​ Introduction 1/21 Syllabus; Course Introduction The Cosmological Argument 1/23 The Classical Cosmological Argument”, Thomas Aquinas; Samuel Clarke, “The Argument From Contingency” 1/28 William Rowe, “An Examination of the Cosmological Argument”; William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland, “The Kalam Cosmological Argument” 1/30 Paul Draper, “A Critique of the Kalam Cosmological Argument” The Teleological Argument 2/4 William Paley, “The Watch and the Watchmaker”; David Hume, “A Critique of the Design Argument” 2/6 Richard Swinburne, “Arguments From Design”; Robin Collins, “A Scientific Argument For the Existence of God” The Moral Argument 2/11 Plato, “The Euthyphro”; Robert M. Adams, “Moral Arguments For Theistic Belief” The Ontological Argument 2/13 St. Anselm, “The Ontological Argument”; Gaunilo, “The Argument From Parody”; Immanuel Kant, “A Critique of the Ontological Argument” The Problem of Evil 2/18 David Hume, “The Argument From Evil” 2/20 Gottfried Leibniz, “Theodicy” 2/27 J.L. Mackie, “Evil and Omnipotence” 3/3 William Rowe, “The Inductive Argument From Evil against the Existence of God” 3/5 Paul Draper, “Evolution and the Problem of Evil” 3/10 Grace M. Jantzen, “Whose Problem Is the Problem of Evil”; J.L. Schelleberg, “Divine Hiddenness Justifies Atheism” 3/12 Alvin Plantinga, “The Free Will Defense” 3/17 Spring Break 3/19 Spring Break 3/24 John Hick, “Evil and Soul-Making” 3/26 Daniel Howard Snyder, “Epistemic Humility, Arguments From Evil, and Moral Skepticism”; Eleanor Stump, “The Problem of Evil and the Desires of the Heart” 3/31 Laura Waddell Ekstrom, “Suffering as Religious Experience” 4/2 Michael Murray, “Deus Absonditis”; Michael Rea, “Divine Hiddenness, Divine Silence” Miracles and Testimony 4/7 David Hume, “Against Miracles 4/9 J.L. Mackie, “Miracles and Testimony” 4/14 Peter van Inwagen, “Of ‘Of Miracles’”; Daniel Bonevac, “The Argument From Miracles” Faith and Reason 4/16 Richard Swinburne, “The Nature of Faith” Lara Buchak, “Can It Be Rational to Have Faith?” 4/21 Blaise Pascal, “The Wager” 4/23 William Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief” 4/28 William James, “The Will to Believe” TBD 4/30 Open 5/5 Open 5/7 Open 5/13 **Final Exam** (7:00-10:00 p.m.) ​ ​ .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 0 It Comes from the Outside
    How valid are visions? 0 They happen to an individual person 0 It comes from the outside 0 It isn't usually looked for by the person receiving it 0 A vision is startling and memorable 0 The "receiver" will want to tell others about it 0 Visions are hard to put into words 0 They only have meaning if they convey a deeper message 0 Visions could be the result of an overactive imagination - or drug or alcohol induced Find an example of a religious vision and explain what the vision was and why it is important Assessment question. "Visions are only important for the person who receives them." Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer, showing that you have thought about more than one point of view. I 25 Dreams are a series of thoughts, images and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep. Many people forget their dreams. However there are some dreams which can make a deep impression on the person dreaming and, as with visions, they might give the dreamer new insights into reality and into God. Such dreams can give new direction to a person's life. For these dreams to be valid, they have to be free from any artificial stimulus, e.g. drugs! You are going to research 2 dreams and explain their meaning by answering the following questions: hlow valid are dreams? Name of Jacob's dream at Bethel Pharaoh's dream the dream Explain this dream How did God use this dream What affect did it have on the person 26 0 Dreams happen when a person is asleep 0 Most people forget their dreams but some leave a deep impression 0 Dreams might give new insights into reality and into God 0 People don't have control over their dreams 0 For dreams to be valid they have to be free from artificial stimulus Special Revelation: Enlightenment! Obiectives: Understand how enlightenment can help a believer deal with life and its pressures Evaluate the importance of enlightenment for believers and their faith ^ Task 1: Enlightenment is.
    [Show full text]
  • Summary the Purpose of the Dissertation Is to Present The
    Summary The purpose of the dissertation is to present the abductive argument of Richard Swinburne in favor of theism. Richard Swinburne was born on December 26, 1934. He is a British philosopher, a retired professor of the University of Oxford, where he held the position of Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion (Oriel College). He has devoted all his philosophical activity to the justification of the Christian faith – he has intended to show that it is rational to believe in God. The main thesis of the dissertation is that Swinburne’s concept of theism does not remain consistent with the assumption that God is perfectly good. This inconsistence comes from the fact that human experience of suffering cannot be reconciled with God’s perfect goodness, especially assuming that God allows or causes the suffering. The structure of the work corresponds to the logical construction of Swinburne’s line of reasoning. The first chapter – Methodology of Philosophy – describes the main philosophical methods Swinburne uses in presenting his arguments. It is divided into two parts: the first one (Theory of Explanation) primarily presents the Swinburne’s construction of the concept of coherence, which is a prerequisite for considering any theory as probable or true. Moreover, this part discusses Swinburne’s dual explanatory theory, according to which two types of explanation are possible: (1) scientific, based on the analysis of unintentional causation, and (2) personal, based on the analysis of intentional causation. At the same time, Swinburne tries to show that it is not possible to explain certain phenomena in the world only by means of scientific explanation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Argument from Miracles: a Cumulative Case for the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth
    The Argument from Miracles: A Cumulative Case for the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth Introduction It is a curiosity of the history of ideas that the argument from miracles is today better known as the object of a famous attack than as a piece of reasoning in its own right. It was not always so. From Paul’s defense before Agrippa to the polemics of the orthodox against the deists at the heart of the Enlightenment, the argument from miracles was central to the discussion of the reasonableness of Christian belief, often supplemented by other considerations but rarely omitted by any responsible writer. But in the contemporary literature on the philosophy of religion it is not at all uncommon to find entire works that mention the positive argument from miracles only in passing or ignore it altogether. Part of the explanation for this dramatic change in emphasis is a shift that has taken place in the conception of philosophy and, in consequence, in the conception of the project of natural theology. What makes an argument distinctively philosophical under the new rubric is that it is substantially a priori, relying at most on facts that are common knowledge. This is not to say that such arguments must be crude. The level of technical sophistication required to work through some contemporary versions of the cosmological and teleological arguments is daunting. But their factual premises are not numerous and are often commonplaces that an educated nonspecialist can readily grasp – that something exists, that the universe had a beginning in time, that life as we know it could flourish only in an environment very much like our own, that some things that are not human artifacts have an appearance of having been designed.
    [Show full text]
  • THE QUESTION of GOD: an Introduction and Sourcebook
    THE QUESTION OF GOD This important new text by a well-known author provides a lively and approachable introduction to the six great arguments for the existence of God. Requiring no specialist knowledge of philosophy, an important feature of The Question of God is the inclusion of a wealth of primary sources drawn from both classic and contemporary texts. With its combination of critical analysis and extensive extracts, this book will be particularly attractive to students and teachers of philosophy, religious studies and theology, at school or university level, who are looking for a text that offers a detailed and authoritative account of these famous arguments. • The Ontological Argument (sources: Anselm, Haight, Descartes, Kant, Findlay, Malcolm, Hick) • The Cosmological Argument (sources: Aquinas, Taylor, Hume, Kant) • The Argument from Design (sources: Paley, Hume, Darwin, Dawkins, Ward) • The Argument from Miracles (sources: Hume, Hambourger, Coleman, Flew, Swinburne, Diamond) • The Moral Argument (sources: Plato, Lewis, Kant, Rachels, Martin, Nielsen) • The Pragmatic Argument (sources: Pascal, Gracely, Stich, Penelhum, James, Moore). This user-friendly books also offers: • Revision questions to aid comprehension • Key reading for each chapter and an extensive bibliography • Illustrated biographies of key thinkers and their works • Marginal notes and summaries of arguments. Dr Michael Palmer was formerly a Teaching Fellow at McMaster University and Humbodlt Fellow at Marburg University. He has also taught at Marlborough College and Bristol University, and was for many years Head of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at The Manchester Grammar School. A widely read author, his Moral Problems (1991) has already established itself as a core text in schools and colleges.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Pennsylvania Press
    University of Pennsylvania Press Newtonian Science, Miracles, and the Laws of Nature Author(s): Peter Harrison Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 531-553 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2709991 Accessed: 30-10-2015 01:34 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the History of Ideas. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.102.42.98 on Fri, 30 Oct 2015 01:34:15 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions NewtonianScience, Miracles, andthe Laws ofNature PeterHarrison Introduction "Newton,"writes Richard Westfall, "both believed in and did not believe in miracles."It can onlybe concluded,Westfall continues, that the greatscientist, unwilling to relinquishhis beliefin a providentialand inter- posingDeity, "abandoned himself to ambiguitiesand inconsistencies,which gave theappearance of divine participation in nature,but not the substance."' Newton'sapparent ambivalence
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Education Year 11 Themes Homework Pack
    f?^. ^ Religious Education Year 11 Themes Homework Pack 1 AQA Religious Studies homework for Paper 2 Themes > The Existence of God and Revelation > Religion and Life Each section is worth 24 marks + 3 SPaG Each section contains five questions and all must be answered 0.1=1 mark take 1 minute 02=2 marks take 2 minutes Q3 = 4 marks take 4 minutes Q4 = 5 marks take 5 minutes Q5 = 12 marks take 12 minutes Use additional minutes for planning and checking All questions are knowledge based and question 5 requires evaluation. Homework Programme Exam Questions found at the back of the booklet Answer different questions each week. Tick of those completed. Homework I Existence of God and Revelation hlomework Religion and Life Week One 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, Week Seven 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, 2xl2m 2xl2m Week Two 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, Week Eight 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, 2xl2m 2xl2m Week Three 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, Week Nine 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, 2xl2m 2xl2m Week Four 2x2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, Week Ten 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, 2xl2m 2xl2m Week Five 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, Week Eleven 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, 2xl2m 2xl2m Week Six 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, Week Twelve 2x 2m lx4m lx4m (CBS), lx5m, 2xl2m 2xl2m KEY: m=marks CBS = contemporary British society Use your flashcards for quotes. Find existence of God quotes and other reference to scripture: https://quizlet.com/Rb/405393776/the-existence-Qf-god-and-revelation-kev-Quotes-aQa-Rcse-flash- cards/ 2 Theme C: The existence of God and revelation Students should study religious teachings, and religious and philosophical arguments, relating to the issues that follow, and their impact and influence in the modern world.
    [Show full text]
  • Miracles and the Natural Order in Nahmanides*
    Miracles and the Natural Order in Nahmanides* MMIRACLESIRACLES ANDAND THETHE NATURALNATURAL ORDERORDER IINN NNAHMANIDESAHMANIDES* From: Rabbi Moses Nahmanides (Ramban): Explorations in his Religious and Literary Virtuosity, ed. by Isadore Twersky (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1983), pp. 107-128. The centrality of miracles in Nahmanides’ theology cannot escape the attention of even the most casual observer, and his doctrine of the hidden miracle exercised a particularly profound and abiding influence on subsequent Jewish thought. Nevertheless, his repeated emphasis on the miraculous—and particularly the unrestrained rhetoric of a few key passages—has served to obscure and distort his true position, which was far more moderate, nuanced and complex than both medieval and modern scholars have been led to believe. I To Nahmanides, miracles serve as the ultimate validation of all three central dogmas of Judaism: creation ex nihilo, divine knowledge, and providence (hiddush, yedi‘ah, hashgahah).1 In establishing the relationship between miracles and his first dogma, Nahmanides applies a philosophical argument in a particularly striking way. “According to the believer in the eternity of the world,” he writes, “if God wished to shorten the wing of * Some of the issues analyzed in this article were discussed in a more rudimentary form in chapters one, three, and four of my master’s essay, “Nahmanides’ Attitude Toward Secular Learning and its Bearing upon his Stance in the Maimonidean Controversy” (Columbia University, 1965), which was directed by Prof. Gerson D. Cohen. 1 Torat HaShem Temimah (henceforth THT), in Kitvei Ramban, ed. by Ch. Chavel I (Jerusalem, 1963), p. 150. On Nahmanides’ dogmas and their connection with miracles, see S.
    [Show full text]
  • GCSE Revision the Existence of God and Revelation Revision Guide
    Use the following checklist to make sure you have revised everything. Philosophical arguments for and against the existence of God √ The Design argument including its strengths and weaknesses. The First Cause argument including its strengths and weaknesses The argument from miracles including its strengths and weaknesses and one example of a miracle. Evil and suffering as an argument against the existence of God. Arguments based on science against the existence of God. The nature of the divine and revelation Special revelation as a source of knowledge about the divine (God gods or ultimate reality) including visions and one example of a vision. Enlightenment as a source of knowledge about the divine. General revelation: nature and scripture as a way of understanding the divine. Different ideas about the divine that come from these sources: - omnipotent and omniscient - personal and impersonal - immanent and transcendent. The value of general and special revelation and enlightenment as sources of knowledge about the divine including: - the problems of different ideas about the divine arising from these experiences - alternative explanations for the experiences and the possibility that the people who claimed to have them were lying or mistaken Agnostic: Belief that there is insufficient evidence to say whether God exists or not. All-compassionate: Characteristic of God; all-loving, omnibenevolent. All-merciful: Characteristic of God; always forgiving and never vindictive. Atheism: Belief that there is no God. Benevolent: Characteristic of God; all-loving. Conscience: Sense of right and wrong; seen as the voice of God within our mind by many religious believers. Design argument: Also known as teleological argument.
    [Show full text]
  • Craig, William Lane and Mcgrew, Timothy and Lydia
    11 The Argument from Miracles: A Cumulative Case for the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth TIMOTHY MCGREW AND LYDIA MCGREW Introduction It is a curiosity of the history of ideas that the argument from miracles is today better known as the object of a famous attack than as a piece of reasoning in its own right. It was not always so. From Paul’s defense before Agrippa to the polemics of the orthodox against the deists at the heart of the Enlightenment, the argument from miracles was central to the discussion of the reasonableness of Christian belief, often supplemented by other con- siderations but rarely omitted by any responsible writer. But in the contemporary literature on the philosophy of religion it is not at all uncommon to fi nd entire works that mention the positive argument from miracles only in passing or ignore it altogether. Part of the explanation for this dramatic change in emphasis is a shift that has taken place in the conception of philosophy and, in consequence, in the conception of the project of natural theology. What makes an argument distinctively philosophical under the new rubric is that it is substantially a priori, relying at most on facts that are common knowl- edge. This is not to say that such arguments must be crude. The level of technical sophis- tication required to work through some contemporary versions of the cosmological and teleological arguments is daunting. But their factual premises are not numerous and are often commonplaces that an educated nonspecialist can readily grasp – that something exists, that the universe had a beginning in time, that life as we know it could fl ourish only in an environment very much like our own, that some things that are not human artifacts have an appearance of having been designed.
    [Show full text]
  • AQA Religious Studies C – Existence of God and Revelation
    AQA Religious Studies C – Existence of God and Revelation Design argument Key terms The Design Argument argues that God must exist because the world around us is so intricate and well-designed that there must be an intelligent creator behind it. Atheist Someone who does not William Paley puts this forward in his Watchmaker’s Argument that says if you found a watch in the grass you would not assume its intricate believe a God exists Theist Someone who believes mechanism had come about by accident, you would assume someone had created it. The same applies for the world around us. in a God or Gods Atheists argue that nature and science are responsible for the world around us and that much of the so-called design is the result of chance Benevolent God’s nature as all- and natural selection. loving and all-good First Cause The First Cause Argument was put forward by Thomas Aquinas and it argues that there has to be an uncaused cause that made everything Omnipotent God’s nature as argument else happen and that must be God. It argues that nothing moves without first being pushed and that God is the only possible being that can all-powerful exist with no cause as God is eternal (never beginning, never ending) Omniscient God’s nature as all- knowing and aware of all that Atheists argue that by this logic God must have a cause or that if God is eternal then the universe itself could be eternal as well. has happened past, present, Argument from The Argument from Miracles argues that miracles (a remarkable event seemingly only explained by God’s actions) prove that God exists.
    [Show full text]
  • The Resurrection of Christ: a Bayesian Analysis of Explanatory
    LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY The Resurrection of Christ: A Bayesian Analysis of Explanatory Hypotheses Submitted to Dr. Ronnie Campbell in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of THES 689 – D01 Master Thesis by Nicola Jérôme Liebi December 20, 2019 THESIS APPROVAL SHEET RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY ___________________________________ GRADE ___________________________________ THESIS MENTOR ___________________________________ READER ___________________________________ ii Deo Optimo Maximo Copyright © 2019 by Nicola J. Liebi All Rights Reserved iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis committee, Dr. Ronnie Campbell and Dr. Leo Percer, for their support on this project. They have provided crucial comments and insights that helped strengthen the arguments in this thesis. Furthermore, I wish to express my thanks to Johannes Nussbaum, Dr. Peter Trüb, Philip Zurbuchen and Luca Liebi for their valuable and encouraging remarks, especially related to mathematical aspects of the methodology and the historical implementation thereof. Moreover, I would like to extend my gratitude to Sarah Zurbuchen for proofreading earlier versions of this manuscript. Over the years and even more so during the past few months, Sarah and her husband Andreas have become examples to me in the way they live for Christ. I am grateful for their friendship and prayers. Lastly, I could not accomplish this task without the encouragement and support of my loving wife and true help meet, Lydia Joy. iv Abstract The goal of this thesis is to determine under which circumstances a supernatural hypothesis should be preferred over the most probable natural hypothesis to explain a set of historical facts. The supernatural hypotheses include the objective vision hypothesis and the resurrection hypothesis, while the subjective vision hypothesis is taken to be the most probable natural hypothesis.
    [Show full text]
  • The Non-Existence of God
    THE NON-EXISTENCE OF GOD Is it possible to prove or disprove God’s existence? Arguments for the existence of God have taken many different forms over the centuries: the ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments; arguments which invoke miracles, religious experience and morality; and prudential arguments such as Pascal’s Wager. On the other hand are the arguments against theistic belief: the traditional problem of evil; the logical tensions between divine attributes such as omnipotence, omniscience and eternity; and arguments from the scale of the universe. In The Non-existence of God, Nicholas Everitt introduces and critically assesses these arguments and examines the role that reason and knowledge play in the debate over God’s existence. He draws on recent scientific disputes over neo-Darwinism, the implications of ‘big bang’ cosmology, and the temporal and spatial size of the universe; and discusses some of the most recent work on the subject, such as the writings of Reformed Episte- mologists, and Plantinga’s ‘anti-naturalism’ argument in favour of theism. Everitt’s controversial conclusion is that there is a sense in which God’s existence is disprovable, and that even in other senses a belief in God would be irrational. Contents: 1. Reasoning about God 2. Reformed Epistemology 3. Onto- logical arguments 4. Cosmological arguments 5. Teleological arguments 6. Arguments to and from miracles 7. God and morality 8. Religious experi- ence 9. Naturalism, evolution and rationality 10. Prudential arguments 11. Arguments from scale 12. Problems about evil 13. Omnipotence 14. Eternity and omnipresence 15. Omniscience 16. Conclusion. Nicholas Everitt is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, UK.
    [Show full text]