Arguing for Atheism: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion

by
Format: Hardcover
Pub. Date: 1996-09-20
Publisher(s): Routledge
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Summary

Arguing for Atheismintroduces a wide range of topics in the philosophy of religion and metaphysics. Robin Le Poidevin does not simply defend a denial of God's existence; he presents instead a way of intepreting religious discourse which allows us to make sense of the role of religion in our spiritual and moral lives. Ideal as a textbook for university courses in the philosophy of religion and metaphysics,Arguing for Atheismis also designed to be accessible, in its style and its numerous explanations, to the general reader.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations
x
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction xvii
Part I The limits of theistic explanation
Must the universe have a cause?
3(14)
The mysteries of existence
3(1)
A first cause?
4(1)
The temporal and modal cosmological arguments
5(4)
Problems with the first premise
9(5)
Summary
14(1)
Further reading
15(2)
Is God necessary?
17(16)
Possible worlds
17(2)
The ontological argument
19(5)
The modal ontological argument
24(3)
God and modal realism
27(4)
Summary
31(1)
Further reading
32(1)
Could the universe have an explanation?
33(11)
A trivial explanation
33(2)
Causes and causal explanations
35(3)
Personal explanation
38(2)
A necessary cause?
40(1)
Summary
41(1)
Further reading
42(2)
Are we the outcome of chance or design?
44(15)
Analogy and the teleological argument
44(2)
Probability and the teleological argument
46(3)
The concept of chance
49(5)
The weak anthropic principle
54(3)
Summary
57(1)
Further reading
57(2)
Does the universe have a purpose?
59(14)
The strong anthropic principle
59(2)
Teleology and causal reductionism: the selfish gene hypothesis
61(5)
Teleology without causal reductionism
66(2)
Summary
68(1)
Further reading
69(4)
Part II Moral arguments for atheism
Are God and ethics inseparable or incompatible?
73(15)
Plato's dilemma
73(3)
Descriptive versus prescriptive morality
76(3)
Moral realism and moral subjectivism
79(3)
Pluralism and autonomy
82(3)
Summary
85(1)
Further reading
86(2)
Is there a problem of evil?
88(19)
Disaster, depravity, deity and design
88(3)
Determinism and human nature
91(4)
Human freedom from the divine perspective
95(4)
Can the theist refuse to answer the problem of evil?
99(4)
Summary
103(1)
Further reading
104(3)
Part III Religion without God
Is God a fiction?
107(17)
Realism, positivism and instrumentalism
107(4)
Radical theology
111(3)
Fiction and the emotions
114(4)
Atheism and religious practice
118(4)
Summary
122(1)
Further reading
123(1)
Is `Does God exist?'' a real question?
124(11)
The deflationist argument
124(4)
The argument applied to theism
128(2)
Deflationism deflated?
130(3)
Summary
133(1)
Further reading
134(1)
Should the atheist fear death?
135(12)
Riddles of mortality
135(1)
The river of time and the sea of ice
136(4)
Death in the mirror
140(3)
Immortality: real and vicarious
143(2)
Summary
145(1)
Further reading
146(1)
Glossary 147(5)
Bibliography 152(3)
Index 155

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