This House believes that God exists

This House believes that God exists

The question of God’s existence forms a fundamental part of theology, philosophy, and life generally. Religion is one of the most profound and pervasive institutions, appearing in virtually every culture and in every time. Serious questioning of the existence of God has only become part of common discourse in the past three centuries, however, as state-sponsored religion and religious crimes have faded from the Western world. Increasing scientific knowledge has also led people to question belief in the existence of God. Since there are many arguments on both sides of the debate about God’s existence, it is necessary to limit the focus of this discussion. This debate will therefore take place largely within the parameters of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and will focus on the arguments for and against the Abrahamic conception of God.

Bibliography

Proposition:
Adams, Robert M. 1987. "Moral Arguments for Theistic Belief". The Virtue of Faith and Other Essays in Philosophical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Behe, Michael. 1996. Darwin’s Black Box. Glencoe: Free Press.

 

Clack, Beverley and Clack, Brian R. 2008. The Philosophy of Religion: a Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Craig, William Lane. 1979. The Kalam Cosmological Argument. London: MacMillan.

Craig, William Lane. Articles on the existence of God. http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/menus/existence.html.

Davies, Brian. 2004. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Davies, Paul. 2003. "How Bio-Friendly is the Universe?" International Journal of Astrobiology 2(2).

Eshleman, Andrew (ed.). 2008. Readings in Philosophy of Religion: East Meets West. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Guessoum, Nidhal. “The Design Argument in the Islamic Tradition”. Science and Religion in Islam. Available: http://science-islam.net./article.php3?id_article=914&lang=en.

Fakhry, Majid. 1986. “‘The Ontological Argument in the Arabic Tradition: The Case of al-Fārābi”. Studia Islamica 64.

Fakhry, Majid. “The Classical Islamic Arguments for the Existence of God”.  http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/pg1.htm.

Hare, John. 1996. The Moral Gap: Kantian Ethics, Human Limits, and God's Assistance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hare, John. 2010. “Religion and Morality”. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-morality/.

Mackie, J. L. 1982. The Miracle of Theism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Malcolm, N. 1960. "Anselm's Ontological Arguments". Philosophical Review 69.

McGinn, C. 1979. “Evolution, Animals, and the Basis of Morality”. Inquiry 22.

Meister, Chad. 2009. Introducing Philosophy of Religion. Abingdon: Routledge.

Meister, Chad (ed.). 2008. The Philosophy of Religion Reader. Abingdon: Routledge.

Miller, Kenneth. 2004. “The Flagellum Unspun: The Collapse of ‘Irreducible Complexity’” in Ruse, Michael and William Dembski (ed.). Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Joad, C. 1944. Guide to the Philosophy of Morals and Politics. London: Victor Gollancz.

Peterson, Michael; Hasker, William; Reichenbach, Bruce and Basinger, David (eds). 2007. Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ratzsch, Del. 2009. "Teleological Arguments for God's Existence". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/.

Swinburne, Richard. 1997. Is there a God? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Yaran, Cafer S. 2003. Islamic Thought on the Existence of God: Contributions and Contrasts with Contemporary Western Philosophy of Religion. Washington: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy.

Zagzebski, Linda Trinkaus. 2007. Philosophy of Religion: An Historical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

 

Opposition:

 

 

Borne, Étienne. 1961. Atheism. New York: Hawthorn Books.

 

Boyer, Pascal. 2001. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York: Basic Books.

Dawkins, Richard. 2006. The God Delusion. London: Bantam Press.  

Drange, Theodore. 1998. "Nonbelief as Support for Atheism". Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy.

Kekes, John. 1990. Facing Evil. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Law, Stephen. 2010. “The Evil God Challenge”. Religious Studies 46.

Maitzen, Stephen. 2006. "Divine Hiddenness and the Demographics of Theism". Religious Studies 42.

Martin, Michael and Monnier, Ricki. 2006. The Improbability of God. New York: Prometheus Books.

McGrath, Alister, and McGrath, Joanna Collicutt. 2007. The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine. London: SPCK.

Peterson, Michael L. 1998. God and Evil: an Introduction to the Issues. Boulder, Colorado; Oxford: Westview Press.

Polkinghorne, John. 2003. Belief in God in an Age of Science. New Haven: Yale Nota Bene.

Russell, Bertrand. 1952. “Is There a God?”. Campaign for Philosophical Freedom. http://www.cfpf.org.uk/articles/religion/br/br_god.html.

Russell, Bertrand. 1927. “Why I Am Not a Christian”. http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/russell0.htm.

Savage, C. 1967. "The Paradox of the Stone". Philosophical Review 76(1).

Schellenberg, John. 2005. "The Hiddenness Argument Revisited". Religious Studies 41.

Smart, J.J.C. and Haldane, J.J.  1996. Atheism and Theism. Oxford: Blackwell.

Tooley, Michael. 2009. “The Problem of Evil”. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evil/.

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