Although vast and complex, the universe is orderly in many ways, and conditions at its beginning were right for the eventual evolution of life on this planet. But with life there is death, and with sentient life there is great pain and suffering, often with no apparent justification or purpose. Taking these things together, is it reasonable to conclude that the universe was brought about by God? Moreover, does the magnitude of seemingly pointless suffering square with the idea that God exists, or is it good reason to think there is no God? These questions come up for many people, not just religious believers, and are examined in this engaging and thought-provoking book.
Starting out with no pre-disposition to theism, atheism, or agnosticism, God, Evil, and Design takes up these questions in order to see where an impartial investigation leads. To achieve impartiality, the reader is invited to simulate ignorance insofar as his or her own religious preference is concerned. With this approach, God, Evil, and Design provides both a fresh look at important and controversial issues in philosophy and an excellent introduction to the contemporary debates surrounding them. Lively and non-technical, this book will be accessible to anyone with an interest in these topics.
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David O'Connor is Professor of Philosophy at Seton Hall University, and the author of three books, including Hume on Religion (2001), God and Inscrutable Evil (1998) and The Metaphysics of G.E. Moore (1982).
Although vast and complex, the universe is orderly in many ways, and conditions at its beginning were right for the eventual evolution of life on this planet. But with life there is death, and with sentient life there is great pain and suffering, often with no apparent justification or purpose. Taking these things together, is it reasonable to conclude that the universe was brought about by God? Moreover, does the magnitude of seemingly pointless suffering square with the idea that God exists, or is it good reason to think there is no God? These questions come up for many people, not just religious believers, and are examined in this engaging and thought-provoking book.
Starting out with no pre-disposition to theism, atheism, or agnosticism, God, Evil, and Design takes up these questions in order to see where an impartial investigation leads. To achieve impartiality, the reader is invited to simulate ignorance insofar as his or her own religious preference is concerned. With this approach, God, Evil, and Design provides both a fresh look at important and controversial issues in philosophy and an excellent introduction to the contemporary debates surrounding them. Lively and non-technical, this book will be accessible to anyone with an interest in these topics.
Although vast and complex, the universe is orderly in many ways, and conditions at its beginning were right for the eventual evolution of life on this planet. But with life there is death, and with sentient life there is great pain and suffering, often with no apparent justification or purpose. Taking these things together, is it reasonable to conclude that the universe was brought about by God? Moreover, does the magnitude of seemingly pointless suffering square with the idea that God exists, or is it good reason to think there is no God? These questions come up for many people, not just religious believers, and are examined in this engaging and thought-provoking book.
Starting out with no pre-disposition to theism, atheism, or agnosticism, God, Evil, and Design takes up these questions in order to see where an impartial investigation leads. To achieve impartiality, the reader is invited to simulate ignorance insofar as his or her own religious preference is concerned. With this approach, God, Evil, and Design provides both a fresh look at important and controversial issues in philosophy and an excellent introduction to the contemporary debates surrounding them. Lively and non-technical, this book will be accessible to anyone with an interest in these topics.
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Hardcover, viii + 226 pages, NOT ex-library. Clean and bright pages with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps. Minor wear to the tips of a few page corners. Boards show faint shelfworn marks, small indentations around the edges, short creases to spine ends. Published without a dust jacket. --- Although vast and complex, the universe is orderly in many ways, and conditions at its beginning were right for the eventual evolution of life on this planet. But with life there is death, and with sentient life there is great pain and suffering, often with no apparent justification or purpose. Taking these things together, is it reasonable to conclude that the universe was brought about by God? Moreover, does the magnitude of seemingly pointless suffering square with the idea that God exists, or is it good reason to think there is no God? These questions come up for many people, not just religious believers, and are examined in this engaging and thought-provoking book. Starting out with no predisposition to theism, atheism, or agnosticism, God, Evil, and Design takes up these questions in order to see where an impartial investigation leads. To achieve impartiality, the reader is invited to simulate ignorance insofar as his or her own religious preference is concerned. With this approach, God, Evil, and Design provides both a fresh look at important and controversial issues in philosophy and an excellent introduction to the contemporary debates surrounding them. Lively and non-technical, this book will be accessible to anyone with an interest in these topics. -- Contents: Preface; Part I Introduction 1 What We Are Going to Investigate, and How [Two Investigations; Veil of Ignorance; Suggested Reading] 2 Terminology [God; Evil; Problem of God and Evil; Design; Faith and Reason; Our Two Investigations; Suggested Reading]; Part II The Logic of God and Evil 3 Is the Existence of God Impossible? [Logical Possibility and Impossibility; J.L. Mackie's Argument; Interim Verdict: 'Not Proved'; Suggested Reading] 4 A Free-Will Defense of the Possibility that God Exists [To Prove a Possibility; Mackie's Response; Proving a Possibility; Logical Argument from Evil; Suggested Reading]; Part III Design and Evil 5 Natural Order, Natural Selection, and Supernatural Design (1) [Order and Evolution; Evolution and Creation; Evaluating the Rival Hypotheses; Suggested Reading] 6 Natural Order, Natural Selection, and Supernatural Design (2) [Simplicity Conjecture; Problems about Consciousness and Causation; Conditions at the Big Bang, the Design Hypothesis, and the Occurrence of Terrible Things; Verdict; Suggested Reading]; Part IV Evil and Design (1) 7 Is the Existence of God Improbable? [Problem in Focus; Draper's Indirect Argument; Rowe's Direct Argument; Suggested Reading] 8 Skeptical Defenses [How Much of a Bad Thing Is Too Much?; Unreasonable Expectations; A Third Kind of Skeptical Defense; Interim Verdict on Draper and Rowe; Suggested Reading] 9 Evaluating Skeptical Defenses [Side-Effects of Wykstra's Noseeum Defense; Verdict on Noseeum Defenses; Evaluating van Inwagen's Second Skeptical Defense; Overall Verdict on Skeptical Defenses; On to Substantive Defenses; Suggested Reading]; Part V Evil and Design (2) 10 Greater-Good Defenses [Hick and Swinburne; Moral Evil and the Free-Will Defense; Natural Disasters and other Terrible Things, and the Free-Will Defense; Suggested Reading] 11 Evaluating Greater-Good Defenses [Justified and Compensated Suffering and Death; Afterlife; A Theistic Variation on the Hypothesis of Indifference; Verdict on the Greater-Good Defense; Suggested Reading]; Part VI Taking Stock 12 Taking Stock [Two Questions; Three Verdicts; Out from behind the Veil of Ignorance]; Index. Seller Inventory # 007289
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Condition: New. A clearly written and up-to-date textbook on the profound question of how God can exist simultaneously with evil. It introduces the fundamental issues of philosophical thinking for the beginner student, while at the same time clarifying and the answering deeper philosophical questions of interest to a more advanced readership. Num Pages: 240 pages. BIC Classification: HP. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 238 x 162 x 23. Weight in Grams: 486. . 2008. . . . . Seller Inventory # V9781405157704
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Condition: New. A clearly written and up-to-date textbook on the profound question of how God can exist simultaneously with evil. It introduces the fundamental issues of philosophical thinking for the beginner student, while at the same time clarifying and the answering deeper philosophical questions of interest to a more advanced readership. Num Pages: 240 pages. BIC Classification: HP. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 238 x 162 x 23. Weight in Grams: 486. . 2008. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9781405157704
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