Title: On the existence and relevance of God
First published: 1996
Description: Chapter 1 presents and defends some versions of the ontological argument for the existence of God. Chapters 2 and 3 discuss the question of whether the existence of widespread suffering in the world is evidence that God does not, after all, exist. Chapter 3 concludes that it is not. This conclusion is based on the consideration, first expounded in Chapter 1, that if God exists then his non-existence is logically impossible.

The author argues at length that empirical premises, such as the statement that suffering exists, are epistemically irrelevant to the question of whether a logically necessary being exists. In this connection, the author offers a novel interpretation of the Christian doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Vicarious Atonement.

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In Chapters 4 and 5 the author argues that God is the foundation of morality. In Chapter 4 the author argues that only God can account for the overriding importance of morality, and in Chapter 5 he presents a theistic version of the Ideal Observer Theory. Chapter 6 is entitled "How to Apply the Ideal Observer Theory: The Controversy over Artificial Contraception and Abortion".

In Chapters 7, 8 and an Appendix it is argued at length that God relates to the empirical universe much in the way that the eighteenth-century Irish philosopher, Berkeley, thought that he did. In this connection the author argues that only theistic phenomenalism can provide a satisfactory alternative to perceptual skepticism.
Subjects: Ethics, God, Ontological Proof, Phenomenalism, Proof, Ontological, Theism, God (Christianity)
LC classification: BT102 .D669 1996