This is Philosophy of Religion

NEIL A. MANSON is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Mississippi. His central research interests concern the intersection of philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and metaphysics. He is the editor of God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science.

• Acknowledgments viiiAn Introduction to This is Philosophy of Religion ix1 What is Philosophy? What is Religion? 11.1 What Philosophy is 11.2 Basic Tools of Philosophy: Logic and Analysis 21.3 What Religion is 121.4 What Philosophy of Religion is 14Annotated Bibliography 162 The Concept of God 172.1 Logical Consistency Problems for Theism 172.2 Voluntarism 192.3 Omnipotence 242.4 Omniscience, Eternality, and Freedom 272.5 Omnibenevolence 392.6 Concluding Thoughts on the Concept of God 43Annotated Bibliography 433 The Ontological and Cosmological Arguments for the Existence of God 453.1 Natural Theology 453.2 The Ontological Argument 463.3 Necessary Existence 523.4 The Cosmological Argument 543.5 Concluding Thoughts on the Ontological and Cosmological Arguments 66Annotated Bibliography 664 The Design Argument for the Existence of God 684.1 The Basic Idea Behind the Design Argument 684.2 William Paley’s Analogical Version of the Design Argument 704.3 David Hume’s Criticisms of the Analogical Version of the Design Argument 724.4 The Theory of Evolution 744.5 Evolution and Belief in God 774.6 Modern Versions of the Design Argument: Preliminaries 794.7 The Fine-Tuning Argument 854.8 Miracles and the Fine-Tuning Argument 874.9 Criticisms of the Fine-Tuning Argument 914.10 Concluding Thoughts on Arguments for the Existence of God 95Annotated Bibliography 955 Atheism, the Problem of Evil, and the Problem of Religious Diversity 975.1 Two Kinds of Atheism 975.2 Philosophical Underpinnings for Atheism 985.3 The Logical Problem of Evil 1035.4 Responses to the Logical Problem of Evil 1085.5 The Problem of Religious Diversity 1175.6 Concluding Thoughts on Arguments Concerning God’s Existence 129Annotated Bibliography 1296 Epistemology and Religious Belief 1316.1 Theists and Atheists in a Stalemate 1316.2 The Classical View: Faith and Reason in Harmony 1336.3 Pascal’s Wager: Faith in God as a Reasonable Risk 1366.4 The Clifford–James Debate: is Believing Without Sufficient Evidence Permissible? 1486.5 Concluding Thoughts on Faith and Reason 156Annotated Bibliography 1577 Naturalistic Explanations of Religion 1587.1 What a Naturalistic Explanation is 1587.2 Three Classic Approaches to Explaining Religion Naturalistically 1617.3 Two Evolutionary Approaches to Explaining Religion 1697.4 Neuroscience and Religious Experience 1787.5 Evaluating the Naturalistic Explanations of Religion 181Annotated Bibliography 191Postscript: Buddhism and the Enduring Mystery of Religion 193Glossary 200Index 209

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