Alvin Plantinga has been called "the most important philosopher of religion now writing." After taking his Ph.D. from Yale in 1958, he taught at

Transcription

1 % ,3/#,9 43, 9 ; 3!,39 3, Alvin Plantinga has been called "the most important philosopher of religion now writing." After taking his Ph.D. from Yale in 1958, he taught at Wayne State University ( ), Calvin College ( ), and has filled the John A. O'Brien Chair of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame since He was president of the Western Division of the American Philosophical Association during and president of the Society of Christian Philosophers, which he helped to found, from 1983 to He frequently directs summer seminars for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has received numerous honors, including an Award for Distinguished Teaching from the Danforth Foundation, a fellowship from the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, a fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, separate fellowships from the N.E.H., and a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Glasgow University. He has been invited to deliver more distinguished lectures series at American, Canadian, and British universities than can be listed here, except to note that he was selected to give the eminent Gifford Lectures at Aberdeen University in He was recently honored by a volume of essays bearing his name in D. Reidel's Profiles series. Widely acclaimed for his work on the metaphysics of modality, the ontological argument, the problem of evil, and the epistemology of religious belief, he is the author or editor of seven books, including God and Other Minds, The Nature of Necessity, and Faith and Rationality. Several of his articles, which have appeared in journals such as Theoria, American Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Journal of Philosophy, and so forth, have been hailed as masterpieces of the metaphysician's craft , , :.,507843,8 4/ ,3 ;, % 070, , ,2, , , ; 9,9 9 8, /472, -00;03/ /- 9 00; /03.0 9,9 24/ , ,89/4:-9:543 9,3/ , , , ,- 1, 80,1907, : , ,7 : ,9.43. :8 43 -:99, , :370,843, ,9 43, ;0 3 4/ 0;03 19,9-0 01

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3 ,..47/ ,2,7 41,7,9 43, , 3 3, ,907,88:7,3.09, : 9:543,77,39,3/,..47/ 3 94,; / :20 802, ; / :7 0,;0 1147/ 9,9/0. 4:8031, ,8,2,208., 0/ , :8 2247,,3/507,58 0; ,..059, :,;0 38: ; /03.0 Whoso would deserve well of his fellow in this matter will guard the purity of his belief with a very fanaticism of jealous care, lest at any time it should rest on an unworthy object, and catch a stain which can never be wiped away.[1] 0,//89,9 1, 3/1 3, belief has been accepted on insufficient evidence, the pleasure is a stolen one. Not only does it deceive ourselves by giving us a sense of power which we do not really possess, but it is sinful, stolen in defiance of our duty to mankind. That duty is to guard ourselves from such beliefs as from a pestilence, which may shortly master our body and spread to the rest of the town. [2] To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.[3] ,7/94/ :49, :89 4:85, ,208.70/ / 39 8; :90; / , 390/ 7,3/ ,25 0,701 4: /:9 08,3//0807;04:7 / 8,5574-,9 43,3// 8,5574;, 49 07%0708, 1470, ,8349,7 : / ,3/870;0, 0/,8, :, , , :, 4-,9 438,3/ 8 /0807; ,3/507,580;03/ ,7,.9 43

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5 :, / % :90; / , 8, :, ,9 ;0 -:98 2,7 9 0 /0,2 9-09, :90; / :3/07, :8 43, 3/41507;,8 ;0 :8 43, ,9-: 41 2,3 3/4; ,9-: :81,7, 4990/94 9% :870:/8, 70 4:8-0 01,8 : : / ,3/ ,3 3/ ( ,8,2, : ,705,7, 0/-,3/,55, 0/, , ; , , :7/ :92 3/ 088 9, ,..4:3941:8,3/4:7300/8,3// ;039, 0,;03 1, /84:70,79 1, /3088,3/ 4;0,82:., #0 43 8, 870:/ 89 0:3 ;078, , 30: :2,3 9,3/ 9 8/089 30/94/ 8,550,7 03 :2, ,73941,.070, 9, / / : 94:7 1, , /-,7,7 Religion...istheself-consciousnessandtheself-feelingofthemanwho has either not yet found himself, or else (having found himself) has lost himselfoncemore.butmanisnotanabstractbeing...manistheworld of men, the State, society. This State, this society, produce religion, produce a perverted world consciousness, because they are a perverted world...religionisthesighoftheoppressedcreature,thefeelingsofa heartless world, just as it is the spirit of unspiritual conditions. It is the opium of the people. The people cannot be really happy until it has been deprived of illusory happiness by the abolition of religion. The demand that the people should shake itself free of illusion as to its own condition is the demand that it should abandon a condition which needs illusion.[5] 4909,9,7 850, ,507;0790/ 47 / : /:.0/-, 507;0790/ 47 /% 8 8,507; , ,9:7,.43/ : 9,-4: ,3:3 0, 9,3/507;0790/84., 47/ ,7 70:/ ; : , ;0/ 81:3.9 43,.079, 3, ;0,3/ , 0, 9 0.4: /5:99 8,

6 ;08,8 0/ ,: : ;0790/30: / , , , :3 0, ;006: , : ,8 94: ;006: , 94: : /3 9-0:3/ : : / 3890,/1, /,3/4:75, ,70 0/, ,9 0,70, ,3/9,9, ,3/ ,;094-04:74 3/0; 8 3 % , ,;03949:7394,3/ ,3 9 3,1907/0,9 -:9/ 884 : / , 8.,0 $.7 ; , : / 85, 0889,34; :8,82,-4:99 0 /0,9,9 0 88: , ;0/ :3/07, /08570,/ :8 4303/ :2,3.43/ ,92489, -07, , ;0 9,3/0, /0,82:., ,7 80.:, : /02-7,.08:.,3 /0,% / ,88: ;0/ ,2, ,.9 02, / , , / ,9 0 89, : , : / ,3:3,55 :31479:3,90,3/:33,9:7,.43/ /05 47, : ,9 0 89, ; / / #42,38 : ,708: ,908 3, : :9 3:37 904: / , ; 3 4/,8.70,90/:8 9,3 8: / ,3/ /,74:3/:8, /0 9 08, / ,79841, Indeed, the perversity of the impious, who though they struggle furiously are unable to extricate themselves from the fear of God, is abundant testimony that his conviction, namely, that there is some God, is naturally inborn in all, and is fixed deep within, as it were in the very marrow.... From this we conclude that it is not a doctrine that must first be learned in school, but one of which each of us is master from his mother's womb and which nature itself permits no man to forget.[6]

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