The Impossibility of God

448 Pages·2003·18.559 MB·English

by  Michael Martin, Ricki Monnier

EDITED BY
MICHAEL MARTIN
&
RICKI MONNIER
THE
IMPOSSIBILITY
OF
In this anthology, Michael Martin and Ricki
Monnier bring together for the first time a com¬
prehensive collection of articles containing
arguments for the impossibility of God. The
arguments are grouped into five areas focusing
on definitional, deductive evil, doctrinal, mul¬
tiple attributes, and single attribute disproofs
of God.
Pail one, definitional disproofs, comprises
arguments for the impossibility of God based
on a contradiction within the definition of God.
Startling contradictions are found, for example,
by J. N. Findlay, when God is defined as the
adequate object of religious attitudes, and by
Douglas Walton, when God is defined as a
being than which no greater can be thought.
Deductive evil disproofs —based on.a
contradiction between the attributes of God
and the existence of evil—compose part two.
J. L. Mackie formulates and develops the
famous logical argument from evil for the im¬
possibility of an omniscient, omnipotent, and
omnibenevolent God. Several scholars, such
as Quentin Smith, explore and further develop
this argument.
Part three contains doctrinal disproofs,
each based on a contradiction between God's
attributes and a particular religious doctrine or
story. For example, Christine Overall shows that
a God with the attributes of omniscience, omni¬
potence, and omnibenevolence is inconsistent
with the doctrine of miracles. Richard Schoenig
demonstrates that this God is inconsistent with
the theistic reward/punishment doctrine re¬
garding the postmortem fate of humans.
(continued on. but

C— i 1

THE
IMPOSSIBILITY
OF
EDITED BY
MICHAEL MARTIN
&
RICKI MONNIER
IBRARY
\a
Prometheus Books
59 John Glenn Drive
Amherst, New York 14228-2197
Published 2003 by Prometheus Books
The Impossibility of God. Copyright © 2003 by Michael Martin and Ricki Monnier. All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a Web site without
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in critical articles and reviews.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The impossibility of God / edited by Michael Martin and Ricki Monnier.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-59102-120-0
1. Atheism—History. 2. God—Proof—History of doctrines. 3. Theodicty—
History of doctrines. 4. Religion—Philosophy—History. I. Martin, Michael, 1932
Feb. 3- II. Monnier, Ricki.
BL2747.3.I49 2003
212'.1—dc22
2003020943
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
To those who question and wonder.