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Atheism: A Philosophical Justification PDF

556 Pages·1992·30.657 MB·English
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A·T ·H ·E·I ·S·M A Philosophical justification t ~. 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

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