Description
“Arguments and counterarguments flow effortlessly, allowing ready access to reasonable and thoughtful presentations of philosophical inquiry into all facets of religion.” — Phillip Lioi, Polk State College
“I consider this to be the best introductory text on the subject. Thank you for reprinting it and especially for making it affordable for students.” — William Settles, Harry S. Truman College
“Pojman’s style is conversational, very accessible . . . , deeply serious but not without plenty of humor. One is moved by his account of his intimate personal odyssey through the minefields of religious belief.” — Theodore Guleserian, Arizona State University
The Role of Religion in Human History / Rationality
2. Cosmological Arguments
Traditional Arguments for the Existence of God / The Cosmological Argument / The Argument from Contingency
3. Teleological Arguments
Paley’s Argument / Hume’s Critique / The Darwinian Objection
4. Ontological Arguments
An Analysis of Anselm’s Argument / The Modal Version of the Ontological Argument
5. The Argument from Religious Experience
Encounters with God / An Analysis of Religious Experience / A Critique of the Strong-Justification Thesis / Religious Experience Is Amorphous and Varied / The Argument from Religious Experience Is Circular / Religious Experience Cannot Be Confirmed
6. The Problem of Evil
The Mystery of Evil / The Argument from Evil / The Free-Will Defense / The Theodicy Defense / Problems with the Theodicy Defense / Evolution and Evil
7. Miracles
What Are Miracles? / Hume’s Critique of Miracles / Replies to Hume
8. Personal Identity and Immortality
Part One: Personal Identity / What Is It to Be a Person? / What Is Identity? / What Is Personal Identity? / Part Two: Is There Life After Death? / Life After Death / Reincarnation
9. Faith and Reason
The Classic Positions / Pragmatic Justification of Religious Belief / Fideism: Faith Without/Against Reason / Reformed Epistemology: Alvin Plantinga / Critique of Plantinga’s Reformed Epistemology
10. Faith, Hope, and Doubt
Is Belief a Necessary Condition for Saving Faith? / The Phenomenology of Belief / The Ethics of Belief / Hope as the Proper Religious Propositional Attitude for Doubters
11. Religion and Ethics
Does Morality Depend on Religion? / Are Religious Ethics Essentially Different from Secular Ethics? / Is Religion Irrelevant or Even Inimical to Morality? / Does Religion Enhance the Moral Life?
Conclusion
Glossary




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