Contents

Introduction
I. Miracles and Testimony 13
(a) Hume's Argument-Exposition 13
(b) Hume's Argument-Discussion 18
2. Descartes and the Idea of God 30
(a) The Argument of the Third Meditation-Exposition 30
(b) The Argument of the Third Meditation-Discussion 37
3 Ontological Arguments 41
(a) Descartes's Proof and Kant's Criticism 41
(b) Anselm's Ontological Proof and Gaunilo's Reply 49
(c) Plantinga's Ontological Proof 55
4 Berkeley's God and Immaterial Realism 64
(a) Berkeley's Theism-Exposition 64
(b) Berkeley's Theism-Discussion 71
5 Cosmological Arguments 81
(a) Contingency and Sufficient Reason 82
(b) The Regress of Causes 87
(c) Finite Past Time and Creation 92
(d) Swinburne's Inductive Cosmological Argument 95
6. Moral Arguments for the Existence of a God 102
(a) A Popular Line of Thought 102
(b) Newman: Conscience as the Creative Principle of Religion 103
(c) Kant: God as a Presupposition of Morality 106
(d) Sidgwick: The Duality of Practical Reason III
(e) God and the Objectivity of Value 114
7 The Argument from Consciousness 119
 8. Arguments for Design 133
(a) Hume's Dialogues-Exposition 133
(b) Hume's Dialogues-Discussion 137
(c) Swinburne's Restatement 146

9 The Problem of Evil 150

(a) Survey of the Problem 15 0
(b) Attempts to Sidestep the Problem 15 6
(c) The Paradox of Omnipotence 160
(d) The Free Will Defence 162
(e) Digression: the Nature of Free Will 166
(f) The Free Will Defence-continued 17 2
10. Religious Experience and Natural Histories of Religion 177
(a) The Varieties of Religious Experience 177
(b) Natural Histories of Religion 18 7
II. Belief without Reason 199
(a) Pascal's Wager 200
(b) William James and the Will to Believe 20 4
(c) Kierkegaard and the Primacy of Commitment 210
12. Religion without Belief? 21 7

13 Replacements for God 23 0

14 Conclusions and Implications 240
(a) The Challenge of Nihilism 240
(b) The Balance of Probabilities 25 1
(c) The Moral Consequences of Atheism 254
Index 26 3