Logic and Theism
Arguments for and against Beliefs in God

This is a wide-ranging 2004 book about arguments for and against beliefs in God.

Jordan Howard Sobel (Author)

9780521826075, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 November 2003

674 pages, 3 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 4.1 cm, 1.15 kg

'This book is a rich resource for those interested in the traditional arguments for and against belief in God's existence … the book is valuable not so much for the author's own conclusions in each chapter, as it is for the rich resource it constitutes … the author has done a great service by assembling different versions of arguments for and against God's existence, by discussing the arguments intelligently and critically … I suspect that many philosophers of religion, both theists and sceptics, will be responding to the particular arguments of this book for some time to come.' Ars Disputandi

This is a wide-ranging 2004 book about arguments for and against beliefs in God. The arguments for the belief are analysed in the first six chapters and include ontological arguments from Anselm to Gödel, the cosmological arguments of Aquinas and Leibniz, and arguments from evidence for design and miracles. The next two chapters consider arguments against belief. The last chapter examines Pascalian arguments for and against belief in God. There are discussions of Cantorian problems for omniscience, of challenges to divine omnipotence, and of the compatibility of everlasting complete knowledge of the world with free-will. There are appendices that present formal proofs in a system for quantified modal logic, a theory of possible worlds, notes on Cantorian set theory, and remarks concerning non-standard hyperreal numbers. This book will be a valuable resource for philosophers of religion and theologians and will interest logicians and mathematicians as well.

Part I. Divinity: 1. 'GOD' and 'god', and God
Part II. Arguments for the Existence of God: 2. Classical ontological arguments
3. Modern modal ontological arguments
4. Kurt Gödel's ontologischer beweis
5. First causes: the second way
6. Ultimate reasons: Proofs of a contingentia mundi
7. Look 'round'
8. Clouds of witnesses - on 'of miracles'
Part III. On Parts of the Common Conception of Traditional Theology: 9. Romancing the stone
10. God knows (go figure)
Part IV. Arguments against the Existence of God: 11. Atheologies, demonstrative and empirical
12. The logical problem of evil
Part V. Practical Arguments for and against Theistic Beliefs: 13. Pascalian wagers.

Subject Areas: Religion & beliefs [HR], Archaeology [HD]