The Impossibility of God
Michael Martin and Ricki Monnier, eds. (Prometheus Books: December 1, 2003).Since 1948, a growing number of scholars have been formulating and developing a series of arguments that the concept of God — as understood by the world’s leading theologians and major religions — is logically contradictory, and therefore God not only does not exist but, more significantly, cannot exist. In short, God is impossible. This unique anthology collects for the first time most of the important published arguments for the impossibility of God. Included are selections by J.L. Mackie, Quentin Smith, Theodore Drange, Michael Martin, and many other distinguished scholars. The editors provide a valuable general introduction and helpful summaries of the cricual issues involved. ~ Product Description
Table of Contents
-
- Preface 11
- Introduction 13
- 1 Can God’s Existence Be Disproved? 19
- 2 God’s Non-Existence: A Reply to Mr. Rainer and Mr. Hughes 27
- 3 Proving the Non-Existence of God 31
- 4 Can an Ancient Argument of Carneades on Cardinal Virtues and Divine Attributes Be Used to Disprove the Existence of God? 35
- 5 God and Moral Autonomy 45
- 6 Evil and Omnipotence 59
- 7 The Problem of Evil 61
- 8 Plantinga on the Free Will Defense 97
- 9 A Sound Logical Argument from Evil 106
- 10 Unjustified Evil and God’s Choice 116
- 11 The Paradox of Eden 127
- 12 A Moral Argument for Atheism 129
- 13 Miracles as Evidence Against the Existence of God 147
- 14 Miracles and God: A Reply to Robert A. H. Larmer 154
- 15 The Argument from Unfairness 167
- 16 Incompatible-Properties Arguments: A Survey 185
- 17 Omniscience and Immutability 198
- 18 Omniscience, Eternity, and Time 210
- 19 On the Compossibility of the Divine Attributes 220
- 20 A Disproof of the God of the Common Man 232
- 21 Conflicts between the Divine Attributes 242
- 22 Why God Cannot Think: Kant, Omnipresence, and Consciousness 258
- 23 God and the Best Possible World 274
- 24 Agency and Omniscience 282
- 25 The Incompatibility of Omniscience and Intentional Action: A Reply to David P. Hunt 300
- 26 The Paradox of Divine Agency 313
- 27 The Concept of the Supernatural 326
- 28 The Paradox of Omnipotence 330
- 29 The Paradox of Omnipotence Revisited 337
- 30 Against Omniscience: The Case from Essential Indexicals 349
- 31 Is Omniscience Possible? 379
- 32 Logic and Limits of Knowledge and Truth 381
- 33 The Being That Knew Too Much 408
- App Of the Confused and Contradictory Ideas of Theology 423