The Case Against Theism: Why the Evidence Disproves God’s Existence

Cham: Springer Verlag (2018)
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Abstract

This monograph offers a critique of arguments for the existence of a specifically Christian God advanced by prominent scholar William Lane Craig. The discussion incorporates philosophical, mathematical, scientific, historical, and sociological approaches. The author does not seek to criticize religion in general, or Christianity specifically. Rather, he examines the modern and relatively sophisticated evidential case for Christian theism. Scholars have been arguing for theism or naturalism for centuries, and there seems little to add to the discussion, especially from the theistic side. However, to assume that either theism or naturalism obtains is a false dichotomy. There are alternatives to both that merit consideration. Employing a probabilistic approach, the author advances this discussion. His work uniquely utilizes not only naturalistic hypotheses to argue against theism. It also presents supernaturalistic hypotheses. This leaves no question that theism is almost certainly false, even if some form of divine reality exists. This project seeks not to argue that Christianity or any other faith or religion is undesirable, but only to critically examine evidentialist claims posited by Christianity’s learned apologists. In fact, a major secondary aim is to consider alternative god-conceptions, such as polytheism and pantheism. This work aims to highlight that Christian theism is often granted special privileges by theistic philosophers of religion, which seems doubly inappropriate when certain alternative god-conceptions may even prove to be more plausible.

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Chapters

Craig in the Sociological Context

Here I shall examine the appeal of William Lane Craig, which ties in with the contemporary sociological phenomenon of some Christians’ desire to present a rational justification for their beliefs, via a brief social criticism. This apologetic attitude is contrasted with fideists and presuppositional... see more

The Case for Christian Theism

The focus of this part of the book will be on how Craig moves on from generic theism, or actually a generic supernaturalism, to demonstrate the truth of Christian theism. After sowing doubt about the historical sources, I then put forth a Bayesian-inspired argument for the implausibility of miraculo... see more

The Case for A-Theism

Before delving into Craig’s all-important argument for his particular Christian brand of theism, it is pertinent to consider that his case for bare theism has failed for numerous reasons, even if the unsuccessful arguments were individually considered to be mostly sound and good. It is not obvious t... see more

The Case for Theism

Here the focus will be on Craig’s arguments for the ‘generic’ god or gods. That is, it examines the arguments that supposedly demonstrate the existence of Craig’s god, without yet identifying the particular way that this god has revealed itself to humanity. Not only will the individual arguments be ... see more

Introduction and Methods

This book largely focuses on the evidentialist case for the god of classical theism presented by William Lane Craig, and argues that many alternatives to theism, both naturalistic and supernaturalistic, are more probable.

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