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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. Other publications include Paul Tillich’s Philosophy of Art (1984), the six-volume Paul Tillich: Hauptwerke/Main Works (ed., 1990), Freud and Jung on Religion (Routledge, 1997) and Moral Problems in Medicine (1999). THE QUESTION OF GOD An introduction and sourcebook Michael Palmer London and New York First published 2001 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York,NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. © 2001 Michael Palmer All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,mechanical or other means,now known or hereafter invented,including photocopying and recording,or in any information storage or retrieval system,without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Palmer,Michael F.,1945– The question of God :an introduction and sourcebook / Michael Palmer. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.God—Proof.I.Title. BT103 .P35 2001 212′.1—dc2100–065304 ISBN 0–415–22386–5 hbk 0–415–22387–3 pbk ISBN 0-203-20864-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-20876-5 (Glassbook Format) For John Heywood Thomas CONTENTS List of illustrations xiii Preface xv Using the Internet xvii CHAPTER 1 THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT 1 COMMENTARY Introduction: a priori and a posteriori arguments 2 Anselm’s argument: stage 1 4 Anselm’s argument: stage 2 7 Descartes’ ontological argument 9 The two stages of the argument: a summary 11 Kant’s criticism of the ontological argument (first stage) 11 Kant’s criticism of the ontological argument (second stage) 16 The ontological argument revisited: Findlay and Malcolm 19 Karl Barth: a theological interpretation 25 Conclusion 30 QUESTIONS 30 SOURCES 1 Anselm: The ontological argument 31 2 Haight: An ontological argument for the Devil 33 3 Descartes: The supremely perfect being 35 4 Kant: The impossibility of an ontological proof 36 5 Findlay: Disproof of God’s existence 38 6 Malcolm: Anselm’s second ontological proof 40 7 Hick: Necessary being 42 KEY TEXTS 45 BIBLIOGRAPHY 45 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER 2 THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT 48 COMMENTARY Introduction: the argument as an a posteriori proof 49 St Thomas Aquinas: the arguments from motion and cause 50 A problem of interpretation: temporal or ontological cause? 52 St Thomas Aquinas: the argument from contingency 55 Criticism (1): the principle of sufficient reason 58 Criticism (2): the argument from causality 64 Criticism (3): the concept of necessary being 72 QUESTIONS 75 SOURCES 1 Aquinas: The five proofs of God’s existence 75 2 Taylor: The principle of sufficient reason 77 3 Hume: Objections to the cosmological argument 83 4 Hume: The relation of cause and effect 84 5 Kant: The impossibility of a cosmological proof 87 KEY TEXTS 90 BIBLIOGRAPHY 90 CHAPTER 3 THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN 92 COMMENTARY Introduction 93 The argument stated (1) 93 The argument (2): induction and analogy 97 The argument (3): its analogical form 100 Hume’s critique of the design argument 104 Darwin’s critique of the design argument 117 Post-Darwinian theories of design 129 The anthropic teleological argument 133 Swinburne’s design argument 137 Conclusion 143 QUESTIONS 144 CONTENTS ix SOURCES 1 Paley: The watch and the watchmaker 145 2 Hume: The design argument 146 3 Darwin: The existence of a personal God 153 4 Dawkins: God’s utility function 156 5 Ward: Darwin’s gloomy view 161 KEY TEXTS 166 BIBLIOGRAPHY 166 CHAPTER 4 THE ARGUMENT FROM MIRACLES 170 COMMENTARY Introduction 171 David Hume: ‘Of Miracles’ 172 Extending Hume’s argument: McKinnon and Flew 183 Criticism of Hume (1): laws of nature 187 Criticism of Hume (2): historical evidence for miracles: Flew and Swinburne 188 Criticism of Hume (3): evidence of God’s activity 195 Criticism of Hume (4): the contingency definition of miracles: Holland and Tillich 198 Conclusion 203 QUESTIONS 203 SOURCES 1 Hume: ‘Of Miracles’ 204 2 Hambourger: The principle of relative likelihood 212 3 Coleman: Miracles and lotteries 213 4 Flew: Miracles and repeatability 216 5 Swinburne: Evidence of miracles 219 6 Diamond: Miracles and scientific autonomy 221 KEY TEXTS 224 BIBLIOGRAPHY 224 x CONTENTS CHAPTER 5 THE MORAL ARGUMENT 227 COMMENTARY Introduction: objective and relative moral values 228 The moral argument outlined 230 The Euthyphro dilemma 232 Kant’s moral argument (1): autonomy and categorical duty 235 Kant’s moral argument (2): God as the postulate of moral action 241 Criticisms of Kant’s moral argument 246 Post-Kantian moral arguments: divine command theory 250 Conclusion: absolute moral laws without God 259 QUESTIONS 261 SOURCES 1 Plato: The Euthyphro dilemma 262 2 Lewis: The Law of Nature 264 3 Kant: The existence of God as a postulate of pure practical reason 268 4 Rachels: God and autonomy 272 5 Martin: Atheism, Christian theism, and rape 276 6 Nielsen: Morals without God 279 KEY TEXTS 281 BIBLIOGRAPHY 282 CHAPTER 6 THE PRAGMATIC ARGUMENT 285 COMMENTARY Introduction 286 Pascal’s pragmatic argument: the Wager 286 Criticisms of Pascal’s Wager 293 James’ pragmatic argument: the will to believe 302 Summary of James’ theory of belief 317 Criticisms of William James 317 Concluding remarks 324 QUESTIONS 325 CONTENTS xi SOURCES 1 Pascal: The Wager 326 2 Gracely: The Devil’s offer 328 3 Stich: Recombinant DNA and Pascalian wagering 329 4 Penelhum: Criticism of Pascal’s Wager 330 5 James: The will to believe 332 6 Moore: James’ pragmatism 338 KEY TEXTS 340 BIBLIOGRAPHY 340 Acknowledgements: illustrations 344 Acknowledgements: sources 346 Appendix: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online and The Question of God 348 Index of names 354 Index of subjects 356 PLATES CHAPTER 1: St Anselm 4 THE ONTOLOGICAL René Descartes 10 ARGUMENT Immanuel Kant 12 Bertrand Russell 14 John Hick 23 Karl Barth 25 Manuscript page from Barth’s fides quaerens intellectum 27 CHAPTER 2: St Thomas Aquinas 50 THE COSMOLOGICAL Aristotle 51 ARGUMENT Frederick Copleston, SJ 54 David Hume 65 Critique of Pure Reason, title page, first edition 71 Immanuel Kant: the Königsberg statue 73 CHAPTER 3: William Paley 96 THE ARGUMENT Manuscript page from Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion 105 FROM DESIGN Epicurus 112 Charles Darwin 118 HMS Beagle 118 Sir Charles Lyell 119 Thomas Malthus 120 Malthus requests population information for the United States 121 Darwin acknowledges his debt to Malthus 124 Conclusion page of Darwin’s Origin of Species, 3rd edn, p. 514 129 Frederick Temple 130 CHAPTER 4: Hume’s Of Miracles, first edition 173 THE ARGUMENT Bishop Joseph Butler 177 FROM MIRACLES Antony Flew 185 Richard Swinburne 191 Paul Tillich 199 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS CHAPTER 5: C. S. Lewis 231 THE MORAL Plato 232 ARGUMENT Kant: a contemporary silhouette 234 Manuscript page from Kant’s Opus Postumum 235 Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, title page, first edition 238 Critique of Practical Reason, title page, first edition 242 Kant’s house in Königsberg 246 John Henry Newman 252 CHAPTER 6: Blaise Pascal 287 THE PRAGMATIC Pensées, title page, first edition 289 ARGUMENT Sigmund Freud 300 William James 303 Manuscript page from James’ ‘The Will to Believe’ 312 G. E. Moore 323 PREFACE There are many arguments for and against the existence of God, and this book is not intended to be a compendium of them. Rather it offers a critical assessment of what are, beyond dispute, six of the most important arguments for God within the Western theological tradition, and couples that analysis with an anthology of some of the primary texts associated with them. There are, however, two classes of reader for whom this work is specifically designed. First, there are those who have just started a programme of study in this area, either at school or university level; and second, there are those more general readers who, lacking professional support, wish by themselves to gain some idea of the momentous debates and great literature that this area covers.
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