Arguing the Existence of God: From the World to Its Maker

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1 University Press Scholarship Online You are looking at 1-10 of 40 items for: keywords : existence of God Arguing the Existence of God: From the World to Its Maker Francis X. Clooney in Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries Between Religions Published in print: 2001 Published Online: November 2003 ISBN: eisbn: Explores the nature of the demonstration of God's existence in representative theological writings from the Hindu and Christian traditions. Does God s Existence Need Proof? Richard Messer Published in print: 1997 Published Online: ISBN: eisbn: Item type: book acprof:oso/ The possibility of proving the existence of God has fascinated thinkers and believers throughout the centuries. For those like Richard Swinburne, such a project is both worthwhile and successful. For others, like D. Z. Phillips, it is wholly inappropriate. Most critics have simply taken sides at this point; but this book argues a way forward, showing that the disparity between Swinburne and Phillips goes deeper questioning the fundamental nature of God, the meaning of religious language, and the proper task of philosophy. The author of this book argues that behind each thinker's work, and their attitudes towards proving the existence of God, lies fundamental trust. A positive discussion of relativism leads to a fresh analysis of the arguments for God's existence, particularly the ontological argument: the author shows that these are worthwhile although not for the traditional reasons. Page 1 of 6

2 Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries Between Religions Francis X. Clooney Published in print: 2001 Published Online: November 2003 ISBN: eisbn: Item type: book Hindu God, Christian God, an exercise in comparative theology, proposes that theology today is an interreligious discipline and illustrates this with reference to Christianity and Hinduism. Thinkers in many religious traditions share similar theological questions and problems in their quest to understand their faith, and so too use comparable methods for seeking right answers. However, much traditions emphasize their uniqueness and the necessity of faith, their thinkers usually teach, and often such teachings are recorded and become available as books that can be read and understood, and even translated. Religions are partially intelligible to outsiders; reasoning inquirers, in beginning to understand various beliefs and practices, cross even the most firmly fixed religious boundaries. In the process, they learn from the new tradition and also see their own tradition anew, by a comparative reading process. The best theology is therefore not only interreligious but also comparative, well versed in how different traditions have dealt with the same concerns. It is also dialogical, since authors must explain their ideas in ways that at least make sense to thinkers in the other traditions being discussed; they also need to be willing to learn from the critiques and responses of those other thinkers. Lastly, the discovery of common ground and shared concerns does not mean agreement; believers can still disagree and continue to hold views at odds with what others believe. Apologetics remains an issue. Hindu God, Christian God argues these points by bringing into conversation Christian theological beliefs exemplified by the writings of Richard Swinburne, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Karl Rahner, and Karl Barth and beliefs from some major Hindu traditions, including Nyaya [Logic], Vaisnavism [devotion to Visnu], and Saivism [devotion to Siva], as expressed in classic Sanskrit and Tamil language texts. Issues discussed include Hindu and Christian views of God's nature; proofs for God's existence; the true religion; incarnation or divine embodiment; revelation as offering definitive knowledge of religious truth. Page 2 of 6

3 Berkeley, God, and Explanation Douglas M. Jesseph in Early Modern Philosophy: Mind, Matter, and Metaphysics Published in print: 2005 Published Online: July 2005 ISBN: eisbn: This chapter is divided into three sections. The first summarizes the three supposedly different arguments Berkeley used to show the existence of God and gives a brief overview of the interpretive puzzles posed by this classification. The second section considers Berkeley's requirement that any proof of God's existence must show that God is immediately present in the world; this section also makes the case for seeing all three of Berkeley's arguments as instances of a common strategy of inference to the best explanation. The final section explores some difficulties that arise for this sort of argument, particularly in connection with Berkeley's account of causation and explanation. The Concept, Knowledge, and Worship of God Peter C. Hodgson in Hegel and Christian Theology: A Reading of the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion Published in print: 2005 Published Online: April 2005 ISBN: eisbn: God is the absolute truth and substance of all things, the universal in which everything subsists. As such God is also absolute subjectivity, or spirit. The concrete development of this idea of God yields the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. But Hegel first reflects on the concept of God in a more abstract philosophical sense, where he is at pains to distinguish an authentic panentheism (all things have their being in God) from a spurious pantheism (everything is God). The analysis then shifts from the being to the knowledge of God, of which, according to Hegel, there are four basic forms: immediate knowledge (faith), feeling, representation (Vorstellung), and thought. Each is valid, but each is also superseded by the next form. Thinking about God appears in the various religions as proofs of the existence of God (cosmological, teleological, ontological). If knowledge of God is the theoretical form of the religious relationship, the worship of God is the practical form indeed the form in which the Page 3 of 6

4 relationship is consummated by the participation of the believer in God through cultic acts such as devotion, sacrifice, and sacraments. The Ontological Argument Brian Leftow in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion Published in print: 2005 Published Online: April 2005 ISBN: eisbn: This chapter presents and critically discusses the main historical variants of the ontological argument, a form of a priori argument for the existence of God pioneered by Anselm of Canterbury. I assess the contributions of Anselm, Descartes, Leibniz, and Gödel, and criticisms by Gaunilo, Kant, and Oppy among others. God DAVID R. LAW in Kierkegaard as Negative Theologian Published in print: 1993 Published Online: ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This chapter examines Søren Kierkegaard's doctrine of God. It discusses Kierkegaard's definition of the term God and his treatment of the arguments for the existence of God. It analyses how human beings acquire knowledge of God and highlights the apophaticism implicit in Kierkegaard's thoughts. This chapter concludes that Kierkegaard believed that all arguments for the existence of God are inadequate and invalid. This is because God is transcendent of both the world and man's reasoning faculties and as such arguments for the existence of God would only be viable if man is above God and able to treat him as an object. Causes, Existence, and Ideas Thomas C. Vinci in Cartesian Truth Published in print: 1998 Published Online: November 2003 ISBN: eisbn: Page 4 of 6

5 There are two main formulations of a key causal principle in the Cartesian a priori philosophical system: one, present in Meditation III, says that the cause of the representational content ( objective reality ) of an idea must be situated at the same or higher level in ontology than the level at which the object represented is situated (the levels formulation ), the other, present in the axioms section of the Second Replies, says that the cause must contain ( formally or eminently) the same property ( reality ) as is represented by the idea (the same property formulation). This central chapter defends four main contentions. (1) The same property formulation is basic in Descartes's system. (2) The notion of causality in the basic causal principle does not represent a spatio temporally extended natural process but a form of intentional explanation. (3) When point (2) is combined with the interpretation of the rule of truth offered in Ch. 2, the rule of truth and the basic causal principle prove to be equivalent. Finally, (4) in light of (3), there is one main pattern of inference in Cartesian epistemology taking the rule of truth/causal principle as its major premise and underlying all of Descartes arguments from my ideas to the existence of things outside my ideas, including the proof of my own existence (the cogito), the proof of the existence of God in Meditations III and V and the proof of the existence of the external world in Meditation VI and the Principles of Philosophy II,1. Introduction Richard Messer in Does God s Existence Need Proof? Published in print: 1997 Published Online: ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about the need or the possibility of rationally proving the existence of God. It reveals a relativity of attitudes towards the Proofs engendered by a relativity of attitudes towards central philosophical and theological issues. The differing views on philosophical faiths involve one school having faith in philosophy as rational justification and another having faith in philosophy as grammatical clarification. This book explores the relativity of fundamental philosophical and theological presuppositions and the interaction between the two conflicting philosophical schools. Page 5 of 6

6 The Proper Role of Philosophy Richard Messer in Does God s Existence Need Proof? Published in print: 1997 Published Online: ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This chapter examines the proper role of philosophy on the issue of the existence of God and the traditional philosophical acceptance and rejection of the principle of rationality. This principle proposes that the issue of the existence of God is susceptible to philosophical justification or refutation and that reason can be usefully applied to discussion of God's existence. This chapter shows that the Wittgensteinian school of philosophy stands in a long tradition of rejection of the principle of rationality and discusses the appropriateness of the Proofs. Page 6 of 6