Atheism: A Philosophical Justification

556 Pages·1992·30.657 MB·English

by  Michael Martin

A·T ·H ·E·I ·S·M
A Philosophical justification
t
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MICHAEL MARTIN
A Philosophical justification
MICHAEL MARTIN
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia

Temple University Press, Philadelphia 19122
Copyright© 1990 by Temple University. All rights reserved
Published 1990
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI z39.48-l984
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Martin, Michael, 1932 Feb. 3-
Atheism : a philosophical justification I Michael Martin.
p. em.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-87722-642-3 (alk. paper)
I. Atheism I. Title
BI.2747.3.M3313 1990
2ll'.8-dc20
89-33121
CIJ'

In memory of Louis Young

CONTENTS
PREFACE/xi
INTRODUCTION
The Scope of Nonhelief I 3
A Brief Defense of Atheism Against Some Cornman Criticisms 14
Purposel24
PART I <> NEGATIVE ATHEISM
I. The Justification of Negative Atheism: Some Preliminaries
A Presumptian of Atheism I 29
The Ethics of Belief I 30
The Evil Deman and Objectivist Epi.stemology/35
Canclusian/38
2. The Meaningfulness of Religious Language
Overoiew af the Prahlem I 40
Incoherence and Meaninglessness /43
Nielsen's Critique of God Talk /45
Swinburne's Defense I 55
The Choice of an Obseroatianal Language 162
Attempts to Shaw the Confirmability of Theological Statements 163
Conclusion I 77
3. The Ontological Argument
Anselm's Ontological Argument/79
Malcolm's Onlological Argument 185
Hartshame's Ontological Argument 188
Kardig's Ontological Argument 191
Plantinga's Ontologicc'l Argument/93
Conclusion 195
viii
Conlertl.l
4. The Cosmological Argument
Traditional Deductive Cosmological Arguments 196
Three Contemporary Defenses of the Cosmological Argumenl/101
General Concluswn I 124
5. The Teleological Argument
Background to the Teleological Argument I 125
Tennant's Cosmic Tek>ology I 128
Schlesinger's Teleological Argument I 135
Swinburne's Teleological Argument/ 139
Taylor's Teleological Argument 1146
Gmeral Conclusion I 15 J
6. The Argument from Religious Experience
Religious Experience Defined 1154
Types of Religious Experience 1155
Mystical Experience 1163
Swinburne:\ Principle of Credulity and Religiout Experience 1166
Conclusion I 186
7. The Argument from Miracles
The Argument in General/ 188
The Concept of Miracks 1189
The Probability That God Exists, Given the Existence of Miracles 1191
Naturalism versus Supernaturalism and the Existence of Miracles 1192
The Difficulty of Showing the Existence of Miracles I 194
Et,idence of Miracks in One Religion as Evidence Against Contrary Religion\ 1199
Mira.cles at Lourdes I 202
Indirect Miracles 1207
Conclusion I 208
8. Some Minor Evidential Arguments for God
The Argument from Cornmon Consent 1210
The Moral Argument I 212
The Argument from Reward I 215
The Argument from justice 1216
Arguments from Scripture I 217
The Argument from Consciousness I 217
The Argument from Providence I 221
The Argument from Cumulative Evidence 1222
9. Beneficial Arguments for God
Pt~.~>cal'~ Argument I 229
WiUiam James and the Will to Believe 1238
Conclusion I 248
10. Faith and Foundationalism
A Traditional Concept of Religious Faith 1249
Existential Faith I 251
Wittgensleinian Fidei.lm I 256
Contents
of
Are Avowal!- Religious Faith True or Falser 1262
Could an Atheist Have Faith in God? I 264
ReligimLS Belil!ft and Basic Belil!fs I 266
Conclusion I 277
PART II ¢ POSITIVE ATHEISM
11. The Justification of Positive Atheism: Some Preliminaries
The justification of Negative Atheism as a Justification for Positiv• Atht~ism 1281
The Strength of the Case Needed for A Posteriori Arguments 1284
The A Priori Arguments and the Possibility of Rebuttall285
12. Divine Attributes and Incoherence
Omniscience I 287
Divine Freedtnn I 297
Omnipotence I 302
Conclusion I J 15
13. Atheistic Teleological Arguments
Salmon's Argument/317
Expansion of the Argument/321
The Universe as a Created Object 1330
Conclwion 1333
14. The Argument from Evil
A Direct lnductit'e Argument from Evi/1335
An Indirect Inductive Argument from Evi/1341
Criticisms of a Probabilistic Argument from Evil/349
Conclusion I 361
15. The Free Will Defense
Background 1363
The Justification in General/ 3 64
The Assumption of the Importance of Freedom/ 364
Free Will and Contracausal Freedom 1368
Contracausal Freedom and Statistical Laws 1371
Compatibilism and World Preference 1372
Free Will and Evil/373
Possible Worlds and God's Ignorance 1382
The Responsibility of God I 383
!J the Free Will Defense Relevant to the Problem of Moral Evil? I 390
Conclusion 1391
16. Natural Evil
Three Contemporary Attempts to Solve the Problem of Natural Et->il! J9J
Conclusion I 412
17. Soul Making Theodicy
Some General Problems with the Soul Making Defense 1413
Hick's Soul Making Theodiry Explained 14 I 8