Debating Christian Theism

573 Pages·2013·2.43 MB·English

by  J. P. Moreland

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Debating Christian Th eism
This page intentionally left blank
Debating
Christian Th eism
EDITED BY
J. P. Moreland ,
Chad Meister,
a n d
Khaldoun A. Sweis
3
3
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Chapter 28 was originally published in Stephen T. David, Philosophy and Th eological Discourse,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Debating Christian theism / edited by J.P Moreland, Chad Meister, and Khaldoun Sweis.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978–0–19–975543–1 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–19–975544–8 (alk. paper) —
ISBN 978–0–19–998143–4 (ebook) 1. Th eology, Doctrinal. 2. Apologetics. 3. Th eism.
4. God—Proof. I. Moreland, James Porter, 1948 – editor of compilation.
BT75.3.D43 2013
230—dc23
2013003700
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
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CONTENTS
Contributors i x
Introduction 1
part one ■ Debates About God’s Existence
A Cosmological Argument
1. Th e Kalam Argument 7
William Lane Craig
2. Doubts About the Kalam Argument 20
Wes Morriston
A Teleological Argument
3. Th e Fine-Tuning Evidence is Convincing 35
Robin Collins
4. Th e Universe Shows No Evidence for Design 47
Victor J. Stenger
An Ontological Argument
5. A Modal Version of the Ontological Argument 61
E. J. Lowe
6. Lowe on “Th e Ontological Argument” 72
Graham Oppy
A Moral Argument
7. Ethics Needs God 85
Paul Copan
8. Th e Failure of Moral Arguments 101
Louise Antony
An Argument from Consciousness
9. Th e Argument from Consciousness 119
J. P. Moreland
v
vi ■ Contents
10. Consciousness, Th eism, and Naturalism 131
Graham Oppy
Th e Coherence of Th eism: Part 1
11. Problems with Omnipotence 147
Nicholas Everitt
12. Coherence of Divine Power 158
Charles Taliaferro
Th e Coherence of Th eism: Part 2
13. Problems with Omniscience 169
Patrick Grim
14. Th e Coherence of Omniscience 181
Jerome Gellman
Th e Problem of Evil
15. Evil as Evidence Against God 197
Richard M. Gale
16. God and Evil 208
Chad Meister
Evolution and Belief in God
17. Bayes and the Evolution of Religious Belief 223
Joseph Bulbulia
18. Evolutionary Accounts of Religion and the Justifi cation
of Religious Belief 242
Michael J. Murray and Jeffrey P. Schloss
Th e Nature of Human Beings
19. Human Persons are Material and Immaterial (Body and Soul) 261
Stewart Goetz
20. Human Persons are Material Only 270
Kevin Corcoran
part two ■ Debates About Specifi c Christian Beliefs
Miracles and Christian Th eism
21. Christianity and Miracles 287
Paul K. Moser
Contents ■ vii
22. It is Not Reasonable to Believe in Miracles 298
Evan Fales
Science and Christian Faith
23. Science is at Odds with Christianity 313
Julian Baggini
24. Science is not at Odds with Christianity 323
Keith Ward
Th e Doctrine of the Trinity
25. Th e Doctrine of the Trinity is Coherent 335
Thomas D. Senor
26. Th e Trinity is Incoherent 347
Timothy Winter
Th e Atonement
27. Responsibility, Atonement, and Forgiveness 361
Richard Swinburne
28. Problems with the Doctrine of Atonement 372
John Hick
Th e Incarnation
29. An Anselmian Defense of the Incarnation 393
Katherin A. Rogers
30. Th e Incarnation Doctrine is Incoherent and Unlikely 404
Michael Martin
Th e Historical Reliability of the New Testament
31. Th e Gospels Are Reliable as Historically Factual Accounts 417
Stephen T. Davis
32. Th e Gospels Are Reliable as Memory and Testimony 430
Marcus Borg
Th e Historical Jesus
33. Is the Christ of Faith also the Jesus of History? 447
Stephen J. Patt erson
34. Th e Christ of Faith is the Jesus of History 458
Craig A. Evans
viii ■ Contents
Th e Resurrection of Jesus
35. Jesus Did Rise from the Dead 471
Gary R. Habermas
36. Th e Resurrection Probably Did Not Happen 484
James G. Crossley
Only One Way to God?
37. Jesus is the Only Way to God 497
Harold Netland
38. Th ere Are Many Ways to God 509
Paul F. Knitt er
Heaven and Hell
39. It is Reasonable to Believe in Heaven and Hell 523
Jerry L. Walls
40. Heaven and Hell 534
Keith Parsons
Index 5 47
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CONTRIBUTORS
Louise Antony is professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusett s
Amherst. She is the author of many articles on topics in epistemology, philosophy
of the mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, and feminist theory.
She is the editor of and a contributor to P hilosophers Without Gods: Meditations
on Atheism and the Secular Life. She is the coeditor (with Charlott e Witt ) of A
Mind of One’s Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity and (with Norbert
Hornstein) of Chomsky and His Critics .
Julian Baggini is the author of several books, including Welcome to Everytown: A
Journey into the English Mind ; Complaint ; Atheism: A Very Short Introduction ; and
Th e Ego Trick. His PhD was awarded by University College London for his thesis
on personal identity. He is the cofounder of Th e Philosophers’ Magazine (htt p://
www.philosophersmag.com). He has also appeared as a cameo character in two
Alexander McCall-Smith novels. His website is htt p://www.julianbaggini.com.
Marcus Borg is Canon Th eologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland,
Oregon; Hundere Chair of Religion and Culture Emeritus at Oregon State
University; past president of the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars; and
author of twenty books, including the best-sellers Meeting Jesus Again for the
First Time , Th e Heart of Christianity , R eading the Bible Again for the First Time ,
Speaking Christian, and most recently Th e Evolution of the Word (a chronological
New New Testament). His books have been translated into eleven languages.
Joseph Bulbulia teaches in the Religious Studies Programme at Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is president elect of the International
Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion (htt p://www.iacsr.com). He
is a Distinguished International Fellow of the Religion Cognition and Culture
Unit at Aarhus University in Denmark (htt p://teo.au.dk/en/research/cur-
rent/cognition/), and is a principle investigator at LEVYNA, the world’s fi rst
experimental laboratory in the study of religion (htt p://www.levyna.cz). He has
authored or coauthored more than fi ft y peer-reviewed publications on the evo-
lutionary study of religion.
Robin Collins is distinguished research professor of philosophy and chair of the
Department of Philosophy at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
He has writt en more than thirty-fi ve articles and book chapters on a wide range
of topics in philosophy of physics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of
mind. He has become most well-known for the argument for theism based on
the fi ne-tuning of the cosmos for life. He is currently fi nishing two books on
ix