Atheism Explained by Steele, David Ramsay -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Title Page Dedication Preface I - Mere Atheism

1 - One Kind of God—and a Few Alternatives

God’s Ten Qualities The God of Classical Theism and Other Gods Alternatives to Classical Theism

2 - Religion Can Do Without God

Religions Without God God and Immortality Can You Prove It? Three Types of Unbelief

II - The Arguments for God

3 - Paley’s Challenge to Atheism and Darwin’s Answer

Darwinism and Atheism Paley’s Argument Is Narrow and Specific What if Paley Were Right? Young Earth Creationism Old Earth Creationism: The Gap and Day-Age Theories Noah’s Flood Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

4 - The Objections to Darwinism

Objection #1: There Hasn’t Been Sufficient Time Objection #2: We Don’t See Evolution Occurring Today Objection #3: We Don’t See Half-Evolved Features of Living Organisms Objection #4: Dogs Don’t Turn into Cats Objection #5: New Forms Would Be Swamped Objection #6: Apes Are Still Here Objection #7: There Are Gaps in the Fossil Record Objection #8: Irreducible Complexity Cannot Arise by Gradual Stages Irreducible Complexity Is Not Paley’s Argument Getting Here from There The Designer’s Limitations Did God Create through Evolution? Where Did the First Life Come From? Is Life Just Too Improbable?

5 - Did Someone Set the Dial?

6 - Does God Explain Why Anything Exists?

The First Cause Argument The Kalam Argument Beginning Without a Cause The Argument from Contingency The Ultimate Explanation of What There Is Does Physics Change the Cosmological Argument? Why Is There Anything (Instead of Nothing at All)? From Rest to Nothingness

7 - Can We Prove God Exists by Pure Logic?

A Flaw in the Ontological Argument Could God Be the Greatest Conceivable Thing? Is the Greatest Conceivable Thing Conceivable? God Containing an Infinite Collection of Items

8 - Do We Get Our Morals from God?

The Divine Command Theory What Are God’s Commands? Is Morality Objective? Morality Is a Natural Feature of Humans The Argument from Consciousness The Dependence of Mind on Brain Doesn’t Imply Physiological Determinism An Argument from Reason

9 - Can We Know God Directly?

Is Religious Experience a Form of Perception? Delusional Interpretations of Experiences The Lesson of Nunez

10 - Faith Doesn’t Have a Prayer

Arguments from Faith Blaise’s Bad Bet Is Belief in God Self-Evident?

11 - The Holy Bible Isn’t Wholly Reliable

There’s No Reason to Suppose the Bible Is Infallible Did God Dictate the Bible Word for Word? Puzzles about Inerrantism There Are No Independent Sources for the Story of Jesus We Don’t Know Who Wrote the Gospels Attempts to Harmonize the Gospels with History Gospel Events which Never Happened A More Skeptical View The Evidence for Jesus and Socrates What If the Gospels Were Roughly Accurate? Popular and Feeble Arguments from the New Testament Evidence Biblical Prophecy Is Always Getting Left Behind

12 - Did God Compose the Quran?

God or Muhammad? The Quran and Science The Origin of the Quran Silliness in the Quran Is the Standard Story True?

III - The Arguments Against God

13 - How to Prove a Negative

Why Does God Pretend Not to Exist? The Moral Freedom Defense The Appeal to Unintelligibility

14 - Vast Evil Shows There Is No God

Evil Is an Illusion The Greater Good

15 - Can Human Free Will Explain Why God Allows Vast Evil?

Objection #1: Natural Evils Objection #2: Evil Outcomes from Non-Evil Decisions Objection #3: Free Will and a Guarantee of Goodness Objection #4: Different Characters Objection #5: Different Circumstances Objection #6: Persuasive Intervention by God Objection #7: Coercive Intervention by God Objection #8: Collectivizing Humans Are Atheists Sissies? The Biology of Evil The Free Will Defense Contradicts Religious Orthodoxy Giving Up Classical Theism

16 - Can God Be a Person?

What God’s Qualities Imply The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Is God Outside Time? Can Theists Give Up God as a Person?

17 - What God Can’t Do and What God Can’t Know

Things God Can’t Do God Must Be Subject to Natural Law Could God Limit Himself? God’s Suicide or Abdication Things God Can’t Know God’s Knowledge of the Future

18 - Is There a Spirit World?

Near-Death Experiences What Are Spirits Like? God’s Brainless Mind A Parable of Reflections Can Science Explain Everything?

IV - God or the Truth?

19 - Atheism Is Irresistible

Is There a God Gene? Disbelief in God Has Always Been Endemic Historical Traces of Grassroots Skepticism Why Does Classical Theism Rule the World?

20 - Disillusioned and Happy

Does Belief in God Make Life Better? Can God Improve Your Health? Beyond Theism and Atheism

Notes Bibliography Index Copyright Page