How to Think About God: A Guide for the 20th-Century Pagan

186 Pages·1991·3.62 MB·English

by  Mortimer J. Adler

€
"A remarkable treatise...deceptively simple
and wonderfully lucid."—BOOKLIST
HOWTO
TH IN K
A B O U T
GOD
A Guide for the
20th-Century Pagan
How to Think
About God

A LSO BY M O RTIM ER J. A D LER
Dialectic
What Man Has Made of Man
How to Read a Book
How to Think About War and Peace
The Capitalist Manifesto (with Louis O. Kelso)
The Idea of Freedom
The Conditions of Philosophy
The Difference of Man and the Difference It Makes
The Time of Our Lives
The Common Sense of Politics
The American Testament (with William Gorman)
Some Questions About Language
Philosopher at Large
Great Treasury of Western Thought (with Charles Van Doren)
Aristotle for Everybody
Six Great Ideas
The Angels and Us
The Paideia Proposal
How to Speak!How to Listen
Paideia Problems and Possibilities
A Vision of the Future
The Paideia Program
Ten Philosophical Mistakes
A Guidebook to Learning
We Hold These Truths
R forming Education (ed. by Geraldine Van Doren)
Intellect: Mind Over Matter
Truth in Religion
Haves Without Have-Nots
MORTIMER J. ADLER
HOW TO THINK
ABOUT GOD
A Guide for the
20th-Century Pagan*
ju One who does not worship the God of Christians,
** Jews, or Muslims; irreligious persons
COLLIER BOOKS
MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
New York
MAXWELL MACMILLAN CANADA
Toronto
MAXWELL MACMILLAN INTERNATIONAL
New York Oxford Singapore Sydney
Copyright © 1980 by Mortimer J. Adler
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechan
ical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the Publisher.
Collier Books
Macmillan Publishing Company
866 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022
Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Inc.
1200 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 200
Don Mills, Ontario M3C 3N1
Macmillan Publishing Company is part of the
Maxwell Communication Group of Companies.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Adler, Mortimer Jerome,--------
How to think about God : a guide for the 20th-century
pagan / Mortimer J. Adler.—1st Collier Books ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-02-016022-4
1. God. 2. God—Proof. I. Title.
[BT102.A33 1991]
211—dc20 91-9579 CIP
Macmillan books are available at special discounts for bulk
purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or
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Special Sales Director
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New York, NY 10022
First Collier Books Edition 1991
10 9 8 7 6 5
Printed in the United States of America
To
the memory of
ETIENNE GILSON
preceptor and friend

Contents
Part One—Prologue: About This Book and Its Author
1 For Whom This Book Is Intended 3
2 What Readers Can Expect from This Book 8
3 What Readers Should Know About the Author 18
Part Two—Errors to Be Avoided
4 World Without Beginning or End 31
5 No First Cause 40
Part Three—Setting the Stage
6 The Uniqueness of the Word “God” 49
7 Why We Must Substitute a Definite Description
for “God” 60
X Contents
8 How to Formulate a Definite Description of God:
First Step 69
9 How to Formulate a Definite Description of God:
Second Step 78
10 On Inferring Existence 94
11 On Inferring God’s Existence 101
Part Four—Why the Best Traditional Argument Fails
12 The Best Traditional Argument 111
13 The Faulty Premise 121
Part Five—From the Cosmos to God
14 A Truly Cosmological Argument 131
15 One Remaining Question 139
16 How Credible Is the Conclusion We Have Reached? 148
Part Six—Epilogue: The Chasm and the Bridge
17 To the Chasm’s Edge 153
18 Bridging the Chasm 159
19 What Lies Ahead for the Reader 169