Concluding Remarks

I have emphasized several propositions in this book. First, even though theism is bizarre compared to what we uncontroversially know about the universe, this in itself is not a reason to be wary of theism since we also know that the universe is flled with the bizarre. That’s a point in favor of theism. Second, there is an impressive testimonial case for both theism and the separate idea that some people perceive God. But third, we should adjust our religious beliefs to the evidence. This latter claim has been implicit throughout the book: I have focused on the question “What does the evidence show about this matter?” over and over again, under the assumption that we should take it into account when fguring out what to think about religion. Fourth, the publically available nontestimonial evidence for theism is not good. Fifth, the publically available nontestimonial evidence against theism is not good. Sixth, many claims made in the ser- vice of agnosticism are false or at least dubious. I want to wrap things up by repeating what I said near the beginning of Chap. 1: Despite the marketing-friendly title, this book’s purpose is not to argue for agnosticism, in whole or part. I realize that the plethora of arguments point in that direction. Instead, it has two purposes. The primary purpose is to explain, mainly to atheists, why many people who are relatively unbiased when it comes to religion, have signifcant scien- tifc knowledge, have little respect for the traditional arguments for theism,

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 151 Switzerland AG 2021 B. Frances, An Agnostic Defends God, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73331-5 152 CONCLUDING REMARKS and are skeptical about the deliverances of the so-called spiritual experiences are often not atheists but agnostics. Atheists often think no such people exist. They are wrong about that. The secondary purpose is to explain, mainly to theists, why philoso- phers are so skeptical of the strength of the traditional theistic arguments, the strength of the origins of religious testimony, and the deliverances of the so-called spiritual experiences. Theists are often unaware of the bases of such skepticism. Hence, I’ve attempted to show that the philosophy of religion is sur- prising in an interesting way: many atheists and many theists are wrong in some of their key assessments. Further Readings

There are many books and articles that include an epistemological investi- gation of central religious claims. In recent years I’ve published several works on the topic, available at bryanfrances.weebly.com. The best places to go for advanced work regarding the strength of evidence pro and con regarding theism are probably the works of Alvin Plantinga (pro) and Graham Oppy (con). For about a million works on the topic, conveniently organized by subtopics, go here: http://philpa- pers.org/browse/philosophy-of-religion. For an introduction to many interesting topics in the philosophy of religion, see these works: Robin Le Poidevin’s Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press (2010). Graham Oppy’s Atheism and Agnosticism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2018). William Rowe’s Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction, Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning (2001). Here are two collections of sophisticated essays that examine most of the issues investigated in this book: Trent Dougherty and Jerry Walls, eds. Two Dozen (or so) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project, New York: Oxford University Press (2018). Trent Dougherty and Justin McBrayer, eds. Skeptical Theism: New Essays, New York: Oxford University Press (2014).

Index1

A C Afterlife, 10, 38, 87, 118, 119, 126, Calm experiences, 34, 36, 130 127, 143 Cause and effect, 71–73 Agnosticism, 1, 4, 5, 111, 123, Cognitive science, 10, 145, 146, 149 124, 151 Color, 107, 108, 118 Amateur arguments, 31 Consequence Premise, 81, 82, Argument from Outrageousness, 76, 87–91, 93 112, 113, 119–120 Cosmological Argument, 2, 21, 31, Arguments for theism, 4, 7, 26, 43, 44, 46, 56, 65, 67, 71, 73 130, 151 Creationism, 50 Atheism, 2, 5, 103, 111, 123, 138, 140, 142, 146, 147 Awareness of religious D disagreement, 103–105 Dawkins, Richard, 15, 29, 75, 76 Debunking arguments, 146–148 Delusion, 33, 35, 85, 92, 107, B 108, 131 Big Bang, 2, 15, 21, 24, 43, 66–71, Dennett, Daniel, 75 66n1, 115 Design Argument, 2, 15, 21, Biology, 2, 3, 10, 45, 50–52, 114 31, 32, 45, 47–52, 55, Blame, 25, 26, 141 65, 73, 114

1 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

Disagreement, 5–7, 23, 35, 76, I 99–109, 118, 128 Ignorance, 1, 22–26, 33, 86 Divine Hiddenness, 93, 97, 98 Infnite and infnity, 65, 69, 71–73 Intensity of suffering, 85, 86 Irrational sustaining causes, 30–31 E Electron, 5, 26, 53, 57, 66, 103, 114, 116, 117 K Empty cold space objection, 60 Kripke, Saul, 76 Epistemology, 3, 8–10, 15, 29, 42 Evidence against God, 1 Evidence for God, 1, 13, 71, 126, 130 L Evil, 80, 82, 85–87, 89, 144 Laws of nature, 47–63, 68, 73, 114, Evolution, 19, 50–52 116, 120 Experience Argument, 21, 31, 123–135 Experts, 10, 17, 18, 25, 26, 35, M 44–46, 52, 54, 57, 70, 90, 100, Mathematics, 1–3, 10, 35, 58, 69, 114 101, 107, 108, 112, 131–135, Meditation experiences, 21, 34, 125, 139, 142, 147 130, 131, 148 Mental illness, 30, 33, 92, 144 Mind-blowing experiences, 36 F Miracles, 24, 38, 43, 44n1, 143 Faith, 7, 10, 73, 101, 104, 105, 123 Myers, Paul Zachary, 29 Fine-Tuning Argument, 52, 54–56, 56n1, 58, 60, 62, 63, 73 4-Part conception, 81, 82, 88 O Omnipotence, 75 Omniscience, 75 G Outweighing goods, 39, 80, God, 1–11, 13, 15–27, 43–47, 65, 82–85, 87, 88 75–76, 78, 99, 112, 123–135, Overall experiences, 37–38 137, 151 Gratuitous Premise, 81–87, 89–91, 93 Groupthink, 30, 92 P Philosophical arguments, 8, 32, 44, 113, 145 H Philosophy, 1, 3, 4, 7, 19, 21, 22, 29, Harris, Sam, 29, 75 32, 39, 56, 63, 70, 75, 82, 86, Hitchens, Christopher, 29, 75 111–120, 123, 137, 145, Holocaust, 78, 85, 98 149, 152 INDEX 157

Physics, 1–3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 22, 24, 25, Suffering, 7, 23, 25, 39–41, 76–98, 48, 50–52, 56, 57, 59, 67, 68, 120, 140–142 70, 71, 73, 131 Problem of Gratuitous Suffering, 76, 81–82, 84, 89, 91–93, 97, 98, T 140, 142 Testimony, 4, 17–19, 22, 23, 25–27, Professional arguments, 32 30, 32, 33, 35–37, 41, 90, 92, Psychology, 3, 22, 36, 37, 132, 133, 149 100, 103, 104, 111, 113, 123, 125, 127, 129, 130, 145, 152 Q Testimony’s origin, 4, 26, 103, 152 Quantum mechanics (QM), Theism, 1, 22, 31, 75, 84, 106, 112, 67–69, 86, 114 123, 138

R U Rational belief in God, 15–27 Universes, 2, 3, 15, 21–24, 31, 39, 43, Relativity, 52, 67n2, 113, 114 47–62, 65–73, 81, 84, 87, Religious belief, 3, 7, 11, 13, 15–20, 113–115, 117–120, 144, 151 22–27, 29–34, 40–42, 100–105, 108, 109, 125–127, 140, 145, 146, 149, 151 V Religious experience, 23, 132, 135, Volcano gods, 144, 145 140, 142, 145, 146, 148, 149

W S Weirdness of philosophy, 115–118 Spiritual experiences, 4, 11, 33–38, Weirdness of science, 69, 113–115 40, 92, 106–109, 120, 124, 125, Wishful thinking, 30, 31, 33, 92, 94, 130–135, 148, 152 102, 126