What’s New in….Philosophy of Religion
Daniel Hill describes how the work of Alvin Plantinga has revolutionised Philosophy of Religion.
Natural religion. On the other hand, where to begin? With the watchmaker? With the human species? With the first instance of biological life? Than going back to the Big Bang. Then speculating about the possibility of an infinite number of Big Bangs in an infinite number of universes. Then going all the way back to the “design” of existence itself?
To the Designer. The one behind the curtain that minds like us are able to “design” completely out of definitions and deductions that go into “proofs” like this one?
Probability theory and God. How about probability theory and theodicy…or probability theory and conflicting goods intertwined in the probability theory of dasein.
And you can bet that the debate here never gets all that much closer to an actual demonstrable God than all of the other “proofs” above.
But that’s the beauty of proofs like this. The only condition that really counts is that somehow you are able to think yourself into believing them. And what could possibly be more comforting and consoling than that?
Especially given the fact that it can be taken all the way to the grave. And after that it can hardly be said to matter.