The God beyond belief : in defence of William Rowe's evidential argument from evil / by Nick Trakakis.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Trakakis, Nick.

Series:

Studies in philosophy and religion ; v. 27.

Studies in philosophy and religion ; v. 27

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rowe, William L., 1931-2015.

Rowe, William L.

Good and evil--Religious aspects.

Good and evil.

God--Attributes.

God.

Theodicy.

Genre:

Academic theses.

Physical Description:

xvii, 373 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Dordrecht : Springer, 2007.

Summary:

Why would a loving God who is all-powerful and all-knowing create a world like ours which is marred by all manner of evil, suffering and injustice? This question has come to be known as 'the problem of evil and has troubled both ordinary folk and specialist philosophers and theologians for centuries, with no answer seemingly in sight.

However, in a series of publications from the late 1970s onwards, Professor William Rowe - one of the leading philosophers of religion today - has put forward a powerful case in support of the view that the horrors littering our planet constitute strong evidence against the existence of God. In this book, the first extended study of Rowe's defense of atheism on the basis of evil, Nick Trakakis comprehensively assesses the large body of literature that has developed in response to Rowe's work, paying particular attention to two strategies employed by critics: firstly, the appeal to mystery - the idea that God may well have reasons for permitting evil that lie beyond our comprehension; and secondly, the appeal to theodicies, where this involves offering explanations as to why God allows evil to abound in his creation (free will theodicies, for example, argue that God could not prevent us from acting wrongly without at the same time curtailing or removing our free will). Trakakis unearths significant difficulties in both strategies, and concludes that - absent any evidence in support of theism - the God of theism must be judged to be "beyond belief".

Contents:

Note on gender-inclusive language xvii

1 Aims and Limitations 2

2 Methodology 4

3 What Is a Good Argument? 8

2 Background to the Problem Evil 17

1 Orthodox Theism 17

2 The Problem of Evil 23

2.1 Philosophical Background 23

2.1.1 Goods and Evils 23

2.1.2 Versions of the Problem of Evil 27

2.1.3 Ethical Theory and the Problem of Evil 30

2.2 Historical Background 33

3 Rowe's Evidential Arguments from Evil 47

1 The Early Rowe (1978-86) 47

1.1 The 1979 Argument 49

1.2 The Theological Premise 50

1.3 The Factual Premise 51

1.4 Wykstra on Rowe's Case in Support of the Factual Premise 55

2 The Middle Rowe (1988-95) 57

2.1 The Factual Premise Revisited 57

2.2 The Inference-from P to Q 58

2.3 The Structure of the Argument 61

3 The Late Rowe (1996-present) 62

3.1 Rowe's New Evidential Argument 62

3.2 Atheism or Agnosticism? 67

3.3 Rowe's Resurrection of the 'Middle' Argument from Evil 68

4 What No Eye Has Seen: The Epistemi Foundations of Wykstra's Cornea Critique 77

1 The Original Cornea 78

2 The Problem with C[subscript 1] 82

3 Cornea and the Principle of Credulity 84

4 Counterexamples to C[subscript 2]-C[subscript 4] 88

5 C[subscript 4] and Noseeum Inferences 90

5 Cornea Applied to Rowe's Evidential Argument 99

1 Applying C[subscript 4.2] to Rowe's Arguments 99

2 Rowe's Response to Cornea 101

3 Cornea and the Burden of Reasonability 101

4 Rowe on Step 2 of Wykstra's Cornea Critique 104

5 Wykstra's Argument-Rowe's Version 106

5.1 The RST-EST Distinction 108

5.2 The Inference from (5) to (6) Re-examined 109

5.3 The Prospects for EST 110

5.3.1 Appendix to 'The Prospects for EST' 115

5.4 Rowe's Restriction to RST 116

6 Wykstra's Argument - The Analogical Version 118

6.1 Analogical Reasoning 119

6.2 Rowe's Critique of Wykstra's Parent Analogy 121

6.3 Wykstra's Revised Parent Analogy 122

6.4 Rowe's Critique of the New Parent Analogy 124

6 Further Objections to Rowe's Noseeum Assumption 135

1 Howard-Snyder's Argument from Complex Goods 135

2 Durston's Argument from the Complexity of History 138

3 The Progress Argument 145

4 Alston's Analogies 154

7 In Support of the Inference from Inscrutable to Pointless Evil 163

1 The Argument from Moral Scepticism 163

2 Rowe's Case in Support of RNA 174

8 The Problem of Divine Hiddenness 189

1 What is the Problem? 189

2 Analogies in Support of RNA[subscript 4] 191

3 The Case Against RNA[subscript 4] 194

3.1 The Sceptical Theist Response 194

3.2 The Appeal to Human Freedom 197

3.2.1 Hick's Freedom in Relation to God 197

3.2.2 Swinburne's Moral Freedom 206

9 Meta-Theodicy: Adequacy Conditions for Theodicy 227

1 The Evils to be Explained 228

2 The Goods to be Invoked 233

3 The Nature of Theodical Explanation 238

10 Theodicy Proper, or Casting Light on the Ways of God: Horrendous Moral Evil 251

1 Sketch of a Theodicy 251

2 Problem I: Curtailing the Exercise of Free Will 256

3 Problem II: Necessary Evils? 261

3.1 Tierno's 'Adequacy Argument' Against Free Will Theodicies 261

3.2 The Inadequacy of Tierno's 'Adequacy Argument' 263

11 Theodicies for Natural Evil 275

1 Soul-Making and Natural Evil 276

2 Swinburne's Free Will Theodicy 279

3 Reichenbach's Natural Law Theodicy 287

12 The Compatibility of Gratuitous Evil with Theism 303

1 Van Inwagen's God of Chance 304

2 Van Inwagen's No Minimum Thesis 309

3 Taking the Sting Out of the No Minimum Thesis 314

4 Peterson's Rejection of Meticulous Providence 317

4.1 Peterson on the Defensive 318

4.2 Peterson on the Offensive 320

13 Conclusion: Is Rowe's Evidential Argument Successful? 333

1 The 'G.E. Moore Shift' 334

2 Reconceiving God 337

2.1 Rejecting God's Perfect Goodness 337

2.2 Rejecting Divine Omnipotence 338

2.3 The Worship-Worthiness of God 340.

Notes:

Revised thesis (doctoral) - Monash University, Australia, 2005.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 347-367) and index.

ISBN:

9781402051449

1402051441

OCLC:

76685714

Publisher Number:

9781402051449