Reason and Religious Belief An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion

Reason and Religious Belief is a comprehensive introduction to the enduring classic and contemporary issues in philosophy of religion: What defines religious belief? Is faith rational? Does God exist? What are the arguments for life after death?

Preface to the Fourth Edition: ; Preface to the First Edition: ; Introduction; 1. Thinking about God: The Search for the Ultimate; Defining Religion; What is Philosophy of Religion?; The God of Theism; The Religious Ambiguity of Life; Our Task; 2. The Nature of Religion: What Are Religious Beliefs About?; Non-realism; Realism; Wittgenstein; Implications for Philosophy of Religion; 3. Religious Experience: What Does It Mean to Encounter the Divine?; Types of Religious Experience; Religious Experience as Feeling; Some Religious Experience as Perceptual Experience; Religious Experience as Interpretation Based on Religious Beliefs; Can Religious Experience Justify Religious Belief?; The Principle of Credulity; Diversity of Religious Experiences; Is There a Common Core to Religious Experience?; 4. Faith and Reason: How Are They Related?; Can Reason Be Trusted?; Strong Rationalism; Fideism; Critical Rationalism; 5. The Divine Attributes: What is God Like?; Perfect and Worthy of Worship; Necessary and Self-Existent; Personal and Free Creator; All-Powerful, All-Knowing, and Perfectly Good; God Eternal--Timeless or Everlasting; 6. Theistic Arguments: Is There Evidence for God's Existence?; Theistic Arguments as Proofs; The Ontological Argument; Contemporary Versions of the Ontological Argument; The Cosmological Argument; The Kal=am Cosmological Argument; An Atheistic Argument from the Big Bang; The Atemporal Cosmological Argument; The Analogical Teleological Argument; The Anthropic Teleological Argument; The Intelligent Design Teleological Argument; The Moral Argument; Cumulative Case Arguments and God; The God of Religion and of Philosophy; 7. Knowing God without Arguments: Does Theism Need a Basis?; Evidentialism; Critique of Evidentialism; Plantinga on Properly Basic Beliefs; Alston on Perceiving God; Plantinga on Warrant and Knowledge; 8. The Problem of Evil: The Case against God's Existence; The Logical Problem of Evil; The Evidential Problem of Evil; Defense and Theodicy; Themes in Theodicy; Some Important Global Theodicies; Horrendous Evils and the Assessment of Theism; 9. Divine Action: How Does God Relate to the World?; What Kind of Power Does God Exercise?; What Kind of Freedom Has God Given?; Does God Know What Would Have Happened?; Does God Know the Actual Future?; What If the Future Is Truly Open?; 10. Miracles: Does God Intervene in Earthly Affairs?; Miracles Defined; Miracles as Historical Events; Miracles as Unexplainable Events; 11. Life after Death: Are There Reasons for Hope?; Terminology; Concepts of Life after Death; Personal Identity and the Soul; Immortality of the Soul; Criticism of the Soul-Concept; The Self as a Psychophysical Unity; Re-creation and Spatio-Temporal Continuity; A Posteriori Arguments for Life after Death; A Priori Arguments for Life after Death; Prospects; 12. Religious Language: How Can We Speak Meaningfully of God?; Human Language and the Infinite; The Classical Theory of Analogy; Verification and Falsification Issues; The Functions of Religious Discourse; Religious Language as Symbolic; Feminism and Masculine God-Talk; Can Talk of God Be Literal?; 13. Religion and Science: Compatible or Incompatible?; Do Religion and Science Conflict?; Are Religion and Science Independent?; Is Dialogue Possible?; Attempts at Integration; Insights; 14. Religious Diversity: How Can We Understand Differences among Religions?; Religious Diversity; Exclusivism; Critique of Exclusivism; Exclusivism and Justified Belief; Pluralism; Critique of Pluralism; Pluralism as a Plurality of Salvations; Inclusivism; Critique of Inclusivism; Criteria for Assessing Religions; 15. Religious Ethics: The Relation of God to Morality; The Source of Religious Ethical Truth; The Authoritative Basis of Religious Ethical Truth; The Acquisition of Religiously Based Ethical Truth; The Significance of Religiously Based Ethical Truth; Current Issues; 16. The Continuing Quest: God and the Human Venture; The Intellectual Process; Philosophical Activity and Religious Faith; Where Do We Go from Here?; Name Index: ; General Index: