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Introduction
My major research interests are in philosophy of religion. I have worked mostly on arguments about the existence of God: ontological arguments, cosmological arguments, arguments for design, Pascal's wager, arguments from evil, and so on. Recently, I have been working on questions about the project of providing arguments for and against the existence of God: What would it take for such an argument to be successful? What are the prospects for arriving at any successful arguments int his area? Etc.
Additional affiliations
January 1993 - June 1996
July 1990 - December 1992
Education
August 1987 - December 1989
Publications
Publications (171)
Ontological arguments are arguments, for the conclusion that God exists, from premises which are supposed to derive from some source other than observation of the world — e.g., from reason alone. In other words, ontological arguments are arguments from nothing but analytic, a priori and necessary premises to the conclusion that God exists. The firs...
I defend the view that it is possible for reality to have a contingent initial state under the causal relation even though it is impossible for any other (non-overlapping) parts of reality to have no cause. I claim that, while there are good theoretical and commonsense grounds for maintaining that it is simply not possible for non-initial parts of...
The advent of formal definitions of the simplicity of a theory has important implications for model selection. But what is the best way to define simplicity? Forster and Sober ([ 1994 ]) advocate the use of Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC), a non-Bayesian formalisation of the notion of simplicity. This forms an important part of their wider att...
There has been a recent explosion of interest in the epistemology of disagreement. Much of the recent literature is concerned
with a particular range of puzzle cases (discussed in the “Cases” section of my paper). Almost all of the papers that contribute
to that recent literature make mention of questions about religious disagreement in ways that s...
Lycan and Schlesinger (You Bet Your Life: Pascal’s Wager Defended. In J. Feinberg (Ed.), Reason and Responsibility, seventh edition. Encino: Dickenson, 1988) make the following two claims (among others): (1) it is misguided to object to Pascal’s wager (Pascal Pensées (A. Krailsheimer, Trans.). Penguin, 1670/2003) on the ground that belief is not im...
There are various background issues that need to be discussed whenever the topic of conversation turns to religion and atheism. In particular, there are questions about how these terms are to be used in the course of the conversation. While it is sometimes the case that all parties to a conversation about religion and atheism have agreed what they...
This article is a response to Ed Feser's claim that his ‘Aristotelian proof’ establishes that atheists have no part in ‘the real debate’. I argue that Feser (2017) nowhere establishes that Premises 4 and 7 in his ‘Aristotelian proof’ are anything more than claims about which he and his opponents – including atheists like me – disagree. In particula...
Max Charlesworth’s Philosophy and Religion: From Plato to Postmodernism is an erudite and scholarly work, grounded in an impressive command of the history of philosophy of religion. However, despite its many virtues, the work has some serious shortcomings, due more to what it overlooks than to what it includes. In this paper, I review Charlesworth’...
This is a commissioned review of Copan, P. and Craig, W. (eds.) The Kalām Cosmological Argument Volume Two: Scientific Evidence for the Beginning of the Universe New York: Bloomsbury, US$172.50, ISBN 978-1-50-133587-7
Alvin Plantinga’s “Advice to Christian Philosophers” begins with a triumphalist narrative that forms the backdrop for the advice to Christian philosophers. In this chapter Graham Oppy argues (a) that the triumphalist narrative is over-egged, and (b) that what is of value in the advice applies to all philosophers, Christian or otherwise. Oppy’s crit...
Cambridge Core - Philosophy of Science - Pascal's Wager - edited by Paul Bartha
The chapter begins with a discussion of the nature and diversity of worldviews, and the proper ways to go about comparing and evaluating worldviews. Three stages of worldview assessment are delineated: articulation, internal evaluation, and comparative evaluation, with the latter stage consisting in the weighting of theoretical virtues. There follo...
This book is an elementary introduction to atheism and agnosticism. It begins with a careful characterisation of atheism and agnosticism, distinguishing them from many other things with which they are often conflated. After a brief discussion of the theoretical framework within which atheism and agnosticism are properly evaluated, it then turns to...
This chapter argues that naturalism is more theoretically virtuous than idealism. It begins by explaining how the author understands naturalism and idealism. It then explains the method used for determining that one philosophical position is superior to a second. The method has three main steps: (1) articulation of the competing positions to the sa...
This paper compares the doxastic credentials of the claim that nothing comes from nothing with the doxastic credentials of the claim that there is no causing without changing. I argue that comparison of these two claims supports my contention that considerations about causation do nothing to make theism more attractive than naturalism.
For many centuries philosophers have been discussing the problem of evil - one of the greatest problems of intellectual history. There are many facets to the problem, and for students and scholars unfamiliar with the vast literature on the subject, grasping the main issues can be a daunting task. This Companion provides a stimulating introduction t...
Demographic data shows that atheistic worldviews have been gaining ‘market share’ in the West for the past 250 years. That demographic data has never stopped religious apologists from arguing that atheistic worldviews are in terminal decline. (The writings of Alister McGrath and Gary Bouma provide a couple of contemporary examples.) Nonetheless, it...
These comments, on the paper by Branden Thornhill-Miller and Peter Millican 1 and on the critique of that paper by Janusz Salamon 2 , divide into four sections. In the first two sections, I briefly sketch some of the major themes from the paper by Thornhill-Miller and Millican, and then from the critique by Salamon. In the final two sections, I pro...
This chapter argues against the view that there is a particular set of worldview beliefs that is uniquely privileged when it comes to rationality and support by cogent arguments. The chapter begins with a simple model in which two competing worldviews are consistent and coherent, and neither has an advantage over the other with respect to rationali...
I think that there is much about contemporary philosophy of religion that should change. Most importantly, philosophy of religion should be philosophy of
religion
, not merely philosophy of
theism
, or philosophy of
Christianity
, or philosophy of certain
denominations
of Christianity, or the like. Here, however, I shall complain about one fairly n...
William Lane Craig's "Reflections on 'Uncaused Beginnings" is a sustained critique of my "Uncaused Beginnings." I argue that the central arguments of my essay survive that critique unscathed. When we make a fair and accurate comparison of naturalist and theist claims about global causal reality, we see that considerations about causation and the sh...
How do religious believers describe God, and what sort of attributes to they attribute to him? These are central topics in the philosophy of religion. In this book Graham Oppy undertakes a careful study of attributes which are commonly ascribed to God, including infinity, perfection, simplicity, eternity, necessity, fundamentality, omnipotence, omn...
Considerations about the existence and nature of God are given far too much weight in contemporary discussions of philosophy of religion. Against prevailing orthodoxy, this introduction to philosophy of religion urges a broader perspective that attends seriously to a wide range of religious and non-religious worldviews.
This chapter looks at philosophy in Ausatralasia in the first decade of the twenty-first century. After a brief examination of the broader state of the Higher Education sector and the Humanities, the chapter examines philosphy within and beyond the Academy, and the various mechanisms by which philosophy is supported in both areas.
I present Rowe's various evidential arguments from evil and argue that they are unsuccessful, that is, not such as ought to persuade Theists to renounce their Theism. Nonetheless, I insist that the kinds of considerations to which Rowe appeals in his arguments advert to evidence that really does favor Naturalism over Theism. Moreover, I argue that...
Many people have claimed that, on naturalistic worldviews, life is meaningless. Here, we consider six different ways in which naturalistic worldviews might be thought to entail that life is meaningless, and argue that none can be sustained. We then argue that, even if all of the six different considerations are added together, it still remains that...
We begin with a characterization of naturalism, and an explanation of why naturalism is a ‘minimal’ worldview. Having noted some competing worldviews — theism, pantheism, panentheism, panpsychism — we canvas reasons that one might have for adopting a more-than-minimal worldview. In particular, we consider whether religious experience and reports of...
In Anglo-American philosophy, proofs of the existence of God have long been taken to be the centrepiece of philosophy of religion. Against this long-standing dogma, we argue that alleged proofs of the characteristic claims of worldviews — including religious worldviews — are almost always unsuccessful (and, when they are successful, they typically...
Our main topic is the connection between religion and human flourishing. We begin with Aristotle’s account of flourishing, and consider ways in which it might be adjusted. We then argue that, while the relationship between worldview and flourishing is complicated, there are no compelling reasons for supposing that religious worldviews are more cond...
We begin with an observation of the divisive in-group/out-group structure of religion. We go on to consider some of the complex relations that hold between religious worldviews and violence, oppression, intolerance, and mistrust. Next, we consider the significance of secular government and the separation of the state and religious institutions. Fin...
One fundamental fact about religion is that religious disagreement is more or less ubiquitous. After considering a range of possible responses to the facts of religious disagreement — irreligion, pluralism, exclusivism — we consider some more unsettling questions that are raised to us by our disagreement with those who are at least as smart, well-i...
We begin with a naturalistic account of the identity conditions over time for human beings, and of the way in which mind and body are related. We then consider ways in which this naturalistic account might be challenged by proponents of religious worldviews, and the significance of these challenges for other metaphysical and ethical issues, includi...
We present some brief considerations concerning arguments about the existence of God. Drawing on the claims made in Chapter 3, we treat exemplar ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments and an exemplar logical argument from evil. We argue that, in every case, the chosen arguments are unsuccessful. The failure of these arguments tells us...
We begin with considerations about causality, chance, and determinism. Next, we turn to consider some questions about agency, freedom, responsibility and fate that are prompted by reflections upon causality, chance and determinism. Finally, we consider arguments against both compatibilism and incompatibilism. We conclude that there is considerable...
Attitudes towards the role that evidence should play in the assessment of religious belief differ widely. Some suppose that one can only be reasonable in one’s religious believing if one appropriately apportions one’s beliefs according to the evidence that one has. Others suppose that reasonable religious belief can be a matter of faith, that is of...
.... compares two theories-Naturalism and Theism-on a wide range of relevant data. It concludes that Naturalism should be preferred to Theism on that data. The central idea behind the argument is that, while Naturalism is simpler than Theism, there is no relevant data that Naturalism fails to explain at least as well as Theism does.
Among challenges to Molinism, the challenge posed by divine prophecy of human free action has received insufficient attention. We argue that this challenge is a significant addition to the array of challenges that confront Molinism.
We characterise theism and naturalism, and provide an account of the method that we use to provide a comparative assessment of them. In particular, we discuss theoretical virtues — simplicity, goodness of fit, explanatory breadth and predictive fruitfulness — and their role in the assessment of the comparative virtues of theories; and we also consi...
We provide some very brief comments on some big ideas that play a significant role in the coming argument. In particular, we consider (a) the scope of possibility and the connection between possibility and conceivability; (b) the nature of causation, and the connection between causation and chance; (c) freedom, and the relationship between freedom...
We consider the prospects of turning the results of our comparison of Naturalism and Theism on selected data into a successful argument for Naturalism. We argue that there are good reasons for thinking that those prospects are dim: there are strong reasons for thinking that any such argument will be rationally resistible. We conclude with some very...
We set out the central material of the book: a detailed comparison of the theoretical merits of Minimal Theism and Minimal Naturalism. We start with a comparison of our two theories prior to the introduction of data, and then go on to consider, in turn, global causal structure; cosmic fine-tuning; the history of the earth; the history of humanity;...
We compare expanded versions of our theories — Standard Theism and Standard Naturalism — on a further range of data. We begin by noting that Standard Theism is trumped by Standard Naturalism on the data considered in the previous chapter. We then consider, in turn: horrendous suffering, salvation, meaning and purpose, and hiddenness and non-belief....
There is a long history of philosophical reflection on connections between human flourishing, health, spirituality and religion. In this chapter, we can do no more than give a brief survey of some of the basic philosophical issues. In turn, we shall discuss human flourishing, health, disease, adverse conditions, spirituality, and religion.
Pruss (2010) argues that consideration of the motivational centrality of Theistic belief in flourishing and intellectually sophisticated lives of significant length provides reason for thinking that Theistic belief is at least possibly true. But Theistic belief is belief in a necessarily existent God. So, according to Pruss, consideration of the mo...
This article considers the following medieval philosophers-Philoponus, Anselm, Maimonides, Aquinas, and Scotus -all supposedly to have produced arguments that deserve the label "medieval arguments for the existence of God." The first part of the discussion considers arguments for the existence of God in the works of these medieval philosophers, in...
Anselmian theists claim (a) that there is a being than which none greater can be conceived; and (b) that it is knowable on purely—solely, entirely—a priori grounds that there is a being than which none greater can be conceived. In this paper, I argue that Anselmian Theism gains
traction by conflating different interpretations of the key description...
In Theism and Explanation, Tim O'Connor provides 'an argument for the existence of a transcendent necessary being as the source and basis of the ultimate explanation of contingent beings and their interconnected histories'. This chapter argues that O'Connor's argument is unsuccessful: each of the three most plausible naturalistic views concerning '...
Bruce Langtry's ‘God, the Best and Evil’ is a fine contribution to the literature. Here, I review the contents of the book, and then provide some critical remarks that, as fas as I know, have not been made elsewhere. In particular, I argue that his criticism of my formulations of logical arguments from evil (in my Arguing about Gods) is unsuccessfu...
Book Information Naturalism: A Critical Analysis. Edited by William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland. Routledge. London. 2000. Pp. xv + 286. £60.00.
In his recent book, Stephen Neale provides an extended defence of the claim that Gödel's slingshot has dramatic consequences for fact theorists (and, in particular, for fact theorists who look with favour on referential treatments of definite descriptions). I argue that the book-length treatment provides no strengthening of the case that Neale has...
Book Information The Semantics of Media. By Jeff Ross. Dordrecht, Kluwer. 1997. Pp. vii + 137. £56.75.
Book Information The Rationality of Theism. The Rationality of Theism P. Copan and P. Moser, eds., London : Routledge, 2003 xi + 292, £70 (cloth), £20.99 (paper) Edited by P. Copan; and P. Moser. Routledge. London. Pp. xi + 292. £70 (cloth:), £20.99 (paper:),
Kevin Harrelson's book commences with the following words:
This book provides a philosophical analysis of the several debates concerning the "ontological argument" from the middle of the seventeenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. My aim in writing it was twofold. First, I wished to provide a detailed and comprehensive account of the hi...
Reading Philosophy of Religion combines a diverse selection of classical and contemporary texts in philosophy of religion with insightful commentaries.
Offers a unique presentation through a combination of text and interactive commentary
Provides a mix of classic and contemporary texts, including some not anthologized elsewhere
Includes writings fr...
Some people—including the present author—have proposed and defended alternative restricted causal principles that block Robert Koons’ ‘new’ cosmological argument without undermining the intuition that causation is very close to ubiquitous. In ‘Epistemological Foundations for the Cosmological Argument’, Koons argues that any restricted causal princi...
Rowe's Evidential Argument from EvilDraper's Evidential Argument from EvilConcluding RemarksWorks cited
Graham Oppy and What I Believe;causation and transfer of physically conserved quantities – as inseparable;causal relationship - there is spatio-temporal relationship;universe constituted by distribution of physical objects and physical events;our universe - not deciding the question whether it is deterministic;no underlying meaning to existence of...
An international team of over 100 leading scholars has been brought together to provide authoritative exposition of how historys most important philosophical thinkers from antiquity to the present day- have sought to analyse the concepts and tenets central to Western religious belief, especially Christianity. Volume 5 comprises an introduction,...
The aim of this paper is to examine the difficulties that belief in a paradisiacal afterlife creates for orthodox theists. In particular, we consider the difficulties that arise when one asks whether there is freedom in Heaven, i.e., whether the denizens of Heaven have libertarian freedom of action. Our main contention is that this ‘Problem of Heav...
First, I suggest that it is possible to make some further improvements upon the Gödelian ontological arguments that Pruss develops. Then, I argue that it is possible to parody Pruss's Gödelian ontological arguments in a way that shows that they make no contribution towards ‘lowering the probability of atheism and raising the probability of theism’....
Mark Nelson thinks that Bertrand Russell's well-known criticisms of St. Thomas Aquinas turn on Russell's acceptance of a highly implausible epistemic principle (DAM), and that my previous objection to this claim depends upon the attribution to Russell of an even more implausible Insincerity Objection. While I agree that Russell's criticisms do not...
In this paper we describe a simple software system that allows students to practise their critical thinking skills by constructing argument maps of natural language arguments. As the students construct their maps of an argument, the system provides automatic, real time feedback on their progress. We outline the background and theoretical framework...
This paper discusses recent work on higher-order ontological arguments, including work on arguments due to Gödel, Maydole and Pruss. After setting out a range of these arguments, the paper seeks to highlight the principal difficulties that these kinds of arguments confront. One important aim of the paper is to cast light on Gödel's ontological argu...
This paper presents an attempt to integrate theories of causal processes—of the kind developed by Wesley Salmon and Phil Dowe—into
a theory of causal models using Bayesian networks. We suggest that arcs in causal models must correspond to possible causal
processes. Moreover, we suggest that when processes are rendered physically impossible by what...
Millican (Mind 113(451):437–476, 2004) claims to have detected ‘the one fatal flaw in Anselm’s ontological argument.’ I argue that there
is more than one important flaw in the position defended in Millican (Mind 113(451):437–476, 2004). First, Millican’s reconstruction of Anselm’s argument does serious violence to the original text.
Second, Millica...
In this chapter, I provide a chronological survey of Plantinga's changing conceptions of the project of natural theology, and of the ways in which those conceptions of the project of natural theology interact with his major philosophical concerns. In his earliest works, Plantinga has a very clear and strict conception of the project of natural theo...