Case for the Existence of God

Dean L. Overman is former senior partner of the international law firm Winston & Strawn. A former Templeton scholar at Oxford University in the fields of information theory, physics, and religion, he has also studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University. He is the author of A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization.

• ForewordPrefaceAcknowledgmentsChapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: The question of God's existence: the radical contingency of the universe points toward a necessary beingChapter 3: Many generations of philosophers have made the mistake of assuming Hume and Kant's objections disposed of the cosmological argumentChapter 4: A universe with an infinite past would still require a necessary being to sustain its existenceChapter 5: Because the universe (or multiverse) had a beginning, it is contingent and has a cause for its coming into existenceChapter 6: The philosophy of nature set forth in this book emphasizes the intelligibility of the universe noted in Einstein's statement: "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." A significant issue in examining the "something" that exists is Why is it intelligible?Chapter 7: Evolution is not dispositive of the question of why there is something rather than nothing and why the universe is rational and intelligibleChapter 8: The mystery of information challenges a strict materialismChapter 9: The existence of God gives an absolute that is consistent with the real existence of right and wrongChapter 10: Evidential force of religious experience: If God is a person, God can be known to only a very limited extent by abstract reasoning and is more fully known by personal acquaintance in an I-Thou relationship with the Wholly OtherChapter 11: Recorded experiences of encounters with the divine bear witness to a way of knowing that includes Kierkegaard's Kendskab, Buber's I-Thou, Otto's Wholly Other, and Marcel's MysteryChapter 12: These nine witnesses testify to another way of knowing that is compatible with the empirical and the metaphysical rational ways of knowing, but is beyond the describable and requires personal participation, commitment, and personal transformationChapter 13: Concluding reflections and summary: Theism requires a leap of faith, but it is a leap into the light, not into the dark; theism explains more than Atheism, which also requires a leap of faithAfterwordAppendix A: The new mathematics of algorithmic information theory is relevant to theories concerning the formation of the first living matterAppendix B: The limits of mathematics and the limits of reason: Why everyone will always live by faith rather than certaintyAppendix C: The evidence from contemporary physics supports the concepts of personal responsibility and free willNotesSelected BibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Drawing on modern cosmology and information theory, Overman exposes fallacies that infested skeptics' thinking since Hume and Kant. . . . A book for readers who are willing to wrestle with the largest questions.