The God Debates: A 21st Century Guide for Atheists and Believers (and Everyone in Between)

253 Pages·2010·1.52 MB·English

by  John R. Shook

THE GOD DEBATES

JOHN R. SHOOK
O
G D
THE
DEBATES
A 21st Century Guide for
Atheists and Believers
(and Everyone in Between)
Thiseditionfirstpublished2010
(cid:1)2010JohnR.Shook
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Shook,JohnR.
TheGoddebates:a21stcenturyguideforatheistsandbelievers(andeveryoneinbetween)/JohnR.Shook.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-4443-3641-2(hardback:alk.paper)–ISBN978-1-4443-3642-9(pbk.:alk.paper)1.God–Proof.
2. God(Christianity)3. Christianityandatheism.4. Faithandreason–Christianity. I.Title.
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2010016219
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Printedin
01 2010
Dedicated to my mother
whose bookshelves made me a philosopher,
where I found the life of the mind
and vowed to someday add noble thoughts

Contents
Preface ix
1 Debating Religion 1
1.1 Religion under Scrutiny 2
1.2 Debating Dogma 7
1.3 Theology and Atheology 12
1.4 Could Atheism Prove God Doesn’t Exist? 23
1.5 Could Religion Disprove Atheism? 26
2 Five Types of Theologies 30
2.1 Categorizing Theologies 31
2.2 Theology From The Scripture 35
2.3 Theology From The World 37
2.4 Theology Beyond The World 40
2.5 Theology In The Know 42
2.6 Theology Into The Myst 44
3 Theology From The Scripture 47
3.1 Scientific History 48
3.2 Scientific History and Scripture 51
3.3 The Argument from Divine Signs 65
3.4 The Argument from Apostolic Faith 70
3.5 The Argument from Divine Character 78
3.6 The Argument from Pseudo-history 80
4 Theology From The World 84
4.1 Theology and Science 85
4.2 Arguments from Nature 91
4.3 Arguments from Design 96
4.4 Arguments from Religious Experience 99
4.5 Arguments from Morality 110
4.6 Explanations for Reason 121
4.7 The Ontological Argument for God 126
4.8 The Argument from Pseudo-science 131
viii Contents
5 Theology Beyond The World 133
5.1 The Existence of Nature Argument for God 134
5.2 The Fine-tuning Argument for God 137
5.3 Why Would God Create? 144
5.4 The Problem of Evil 148
5.5 The Argument from Pseudo-cosmology 152
6 Theology In The Know 155
6.1 Arguments from Ignorance 156
6.2 Religious Epistemologies 160
6.3 Knowledge, Justification, and Truth 166
6.4 The Religious Community 171
6.5 The Arguments from Pseudo-theology 178
7 Theology Into The Myst 184
7.1 Believing in God without Knowledge of God 185
7.2 Believing in God without Concepts of God 192
7.3 Belief, Faith, and Pseudo-faith 198
7.4 The Argument from Pseudo-faith 202
8 Reason and Faith 204
8.1 Liberal Modernism and Its Rivals 205
8.2 Twelve Worldviews 211
8.3 Faith and Reason Realigned 218
References 223
Further Reading 230
Index 235