•  10
    Divine Language
    In Vestrucci Andrea (ed.), Beyond Babel: Religion and Linguistic Pluralism, Springer Verlag. pp. 15-24. 2023.
    This chapter is an initial survey of some philosophical questions about divine language. Could God be a language producer and language user? Could there be a divine private language? Could there be a divine language of thought? The answer to these questions that I shall tentatively defend are, respectively: Yes, No and No. (Because I use some technical terms from recent philosophy of language, there is an appendix to this chapter in which I explain my use of those terms.)
  •  72
    Validity and Soundness in the First Way
    Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 79 (1-2): 137-158. 2023.
    This article critically examines the structure and implications of the argument in ST 1, Q2, A3, associated with Aquinas’ First Way. Our central endeavor is to discern whether a certain disambiguation of point 6 (“There is something that is not moving/changing that moves/changes other things”) can be logically inferred from points 1-5. Through a three-part proof, the article establishes that under specific conditions, it can indeed be inferred. However, this interpretation notably diverges from …Read more
  •  135
    Gratitude and Resentment: A Tale of Two Weddings
    In Joshua Lee Harris, Kirk Lougheed & Neal DeRoo (eds.), Philosophical Perspectives on Existential Gratitude, . 2023.
    There is an important distinction between two different kinds of expressions of gratitude: propositional expressions of gratitude and prepositional expressions of gratitude. I argue that there is a corresponding distinction between two different kinds of expression of resentment: propositional expressions of resentment and prepositional expressions of resentment. I then argue that theists should suppose neither that propositional expressions of gratitude are prepositional expressions of gratitud…Read more
  •  184
    Agnosticism
    KİLİKYA JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY. forthcoming.
    I endorse the following claims in this paper. (1) Agnosticism is suspension of judgment on existence claims concerning gods and God. (2) Historical agnostics accepted (1) but unwisely insisted on further conditions best set aside. (3) Particular case agnosticism is less problematic than general principle-based agnosticism. (4) Agnostics should suspend judgment on—or, on occasion, reject—atomic claims of the form ‘God is F’.
  •  223
    Conceptions of Supreme Deity
    Sophia 1-11. forthcoming.
    This paper attempts to provide a high-level comparison of Eastern and Western conceptions of deity. It finds some significant similarities—involving worshipworthiness and the ideal shape of human lives—and some important differences—concerning the ultimate nature of reality, the relation of supreme deity to the rest of reality, and the relative frequency of divine incarnation.
  •  214
    Divine Language
    Sophia. forthcoming.
    This is an initial survey of some philosophical questions about divine language. Could God be a language producer and language user? Could there be a divine private language? Could there be a divine language of thought? The answer to these questions that I shall tentatively defend are, respectively: Yes, No and No. (Because I use some technical terms from recent philosophy of language, there is an appendix to this chapter in which I explain my use of those terms.)
  •  135
    The Evidential Problem of Evil
    In Charles Taliaferro, Paul Draper & Philip L. Quinn (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, Wiley‐blackwell. 2010.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Rowe's Evidential Argument from Evil Draper's Evidential Argument from Evil Concluding Remarks Works cited.
  •  18
    What I Believe
    In Russell Blackford & Udo Schüklenk (eds.), 50 Voices of Disbelief, Wiley‐blackwell. 2009.
  •  240
    Ontological arguments and belief in God
    Cambridge University Press. 1995.
    This book is a unique contribution to the philosophy of religion. It offers a comprehensive discussion of one of the most famous arguments for the existence of God: the ontological argument. The author provides and analyses a critical taxonomy of those versions of the argument that have been advanced in recent philosophical literature, as well as of those historically important versions found in the work of St Anselm, Descartes, Leibniz, Hegel and others. A central thesis of the book is that ont…Read more
  •  260
    Animism: Its Scope and Limits
    In Tiddy Smith (ed.), Animism and Philosophy of Religion, Springer Verlag. pp. 199-226. 2022.
    What should we be animists about? This chapter aims to answer that question. I begin by distinguishing between ontological and ideological formulations of animism. I suggest that plausible forms of animism will be merely ideological, and I distinguish between full-strength and less-than-full-strength animism. Next, I consider the extent to which idealism, pantheism and panpsychism might be taken to support some sort of universal animism. I conclude that there is no plausible form of full-strengt…Read more
  •  485
    Morality Does Not Depend On God
    In Problems in Value Theory: An Introduction to Contemporary Debates, Bloomsbury. pp. 105-16. 2020.
    Naturalists have many and diverse reasons for thinking that morality does not depend upon God. In this paper, I do not aim to give an exhaustive inventory of these reasons. Rather, I aim to give reason that emerge from the kind of naturalism that I accept. After explaining what I mean by "God", "morality" and "dependence", I note that, on the kind of naturalism that I accept, it is impossible that God exists. Unsurprisingly, therefore, I hold that it is impossible that morality depends on God. W…Read more
  •  141
    Naturalism and Naturalness: A Naturalist's Perspective
    In Paul Copan & Charles Taliaferro (eds.), The Naturalness of Belief: New Essays on Theism's Reasonability, Lexington Books. pp. 3-16. 2019.
    This chapter is an invited contribution to a book on the naturalness of theistic belief. I start by considering ordinary usage of the term 'natural'. I then clarify how I shall use the terms 'naturalism', 'theism', 'worldview' and 'big picture'. I consider the demographic spread of commitment to theistic big pictures and naturalistic big pictures. I consider the distribution of happiness over those committed to theistic big pictures and naturalistic big pictures. I consider the distribution of r…Read more
  •  69
    Good Argument
    NTU Philosophical Review 63 1-32. 2022.
    According to the common conception of argument, the virtues of arguments turn, in part, on the virtues of assertion of their premises. I suggest that, on plausible Gricean assumptions about cooperative conversation, the common conception yields the claim that it is never appropriate to advance arguments in cooperative conversations. But that claim is absurd! Holding on to the Gricean assumptions, I reject the common conception of argument in favour of an alternative conception, on which all that…Read more
  •  544
    Does The Universe Have A Cause?
    In Michael Peterson & Robert Van Arragon (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 1-26. 2020.
    In this paper, I set out a fairly careful argument for the claim that natural reality ("the universe') does not have--and could not have--a cause. I being with a discussion of the question whether causal reality could have a cause. I claim that it is obvious that causal reality cannot have a cause. I then turn to a discussion of natural reality. I contend that, necessarily, natural reality exhausts causal reality: necessarily, natural reality and causal reality are one and the same. Given that i…Read more
  •  236
    Analytic Philosophy of Religion
    Saudi Journal of Philosophical Studies 2 163-79. 2021.
    This paper provides an overview of 'analytic' philosophy of religion. It begins with a historical sketch. It then examines some of the kinds of questions that are investigated by 'analytic' philosophers of religion. It concludes with brief discussion of possible futures for 'analytic' philosophy of religion. There is also a very short appendix on the treatment of Islam and Arabic philosophy within 'analytic' philosophy of religion.
  •  4
    Four views on Christianity and philosophy (edited book)
    Zondervan. 2016.
    In Four Views on Christianity and Philosophy contributors argue four positions: that philosophy and the Christian faith are in conflict, that Christian beliefs trump philosophical claims, that philosophy confirms the beliefs of Christianity, and finally, that philosophy must be reconceived under the Christian faith.
  •  7
    Interreligious Philosophical Dialogues (Three Volumes)
    with Nick Trakakis
    Routledge. 2017.
    Interreligious Philosophical Dialogues provides a unique approach to the philosophy of religion, embracing a range of religious faiths and spiritualities. Each of these three volumes brings together five leading scholars and philosophers of religion, who engage in friendly but rigorous cross-cultural philosophical dialogue. Each participant in the dialogue, as a member of a particular faith tradition, is invited to explore and explain their core religious commitments, and how these commitments f…Read more
  •  339
    Anti-Naturalistic Arguments From Reason
    Roczniki Filozoficzne 70 (1): 15-35. 2022.
    This paper discusses a wide range of anti-naturalistic argument from reason due to Balfour, Haldane, Joad, Lewis, Taylor, Moreland, Plantinga, Reppert, and Hasker. I argue that none of these arguments poses a serious challenge to naturalists who are identity theorists. Further, I argue that some of these arguments do not even pose prima facie plausible challenges to naturalism. In the concluding part of my discussion, I draw attention to some distinctive differences between Hasker’s anti-natural…Read more
  •  48
    Naturalism And Religion
    Routledge. 2018.
    This book guides readers through an investigation of religion from a naturalistic perspective and explores the very meaning of the term ‘religious naturalism’. Oppy considers several widely disputed claims: that there cannot be naturalistic religion; that there is nothing in science that poses any problems for naturalism; that there is nothing in religion that poses any serious challenges to naturalism; and that there is a very strong case for thinking that naturalism defeats religion. Naturalis…Read more
  •  39
    Atheism: The Basics
    Routledge. 2018.
    Atheism: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to belief in the non-existence of deities. Atheism has long fascinated people but debate around this controversial position may seem daunting. In this lively and lucid book, Graham Oppy addresses the following important questions: • What does it mean to be an atheist? • What is the difference between atheism, agnosticism, theism and innocence? • How has atheism been distributed over time and place? • What does science tell us about athei…Read more
  •  2
    An international team of over 100 leading scholars has been brought together to provide authoritative exposition of how history's most important philosophical thinkers - fron antiquity to the present day - have sought to analyse the concepts and tenets central to Western religious belief, especially Christianity. Divided, chronologically, into five volumes, _The History of Western Philosophy of Religion_ is designed to be accessible to a wide range of readers, from the scholar looking for origin…Read more
  • The fifth of the five volumes in our History of Western Philosophy of Religion. This volume deals with Western philosophy of religion in the twentieth century. It contains chapters on: James; Bergson; Whitehead; Hartshorne; Dewey; Russell; Scheler; Buber; Maritain; Jaspers; Tillich; Barth; Wittgenstein; Heidegger; Levinas; Weil; Ayer; Alston; Hick; Daly; Derrida; Plantinga; and Swinburne.
  • This is the fourth volume in our five volume history of western philosophy of religion. It covers the nineteenth century, and includes chapters on: Fichte; Schleiermacher; Hegel; Schelling; Schopenhauer; Comte; Newman; Emerson; Feuerbach; Mill; Darwin; Kierkegaard; Marx; Engels; Dilthey; Edward Caird; Nietzche; Royce; Freud; and Durkheim.
  •  1
    This dissertation presents a semantic theory for sentences of the form "S believes that A is F"--where "S" is a singular term which denotes a person, "A" is a non-empty proper name, and "F" is an unstructured predicate--according to which these sentences express relations between the person which "S" denotes and a quadruple which consists of: the entity denoted by "A"; a mode of presentation of the entity denoted by "A" to the person denoted by "S"; the property which is denoted by "F"; and a mo…Read more
  •  379
    Craig’s Kalam Cosmology
    Philo 12 (2): 200-216. 2009.
    Hypotheses about the shape of causal reality admit of both theistic and non-theistic interpretations. I argue that, on the simplest hypotheses about the causal shape of reality—infinite regress, contingent initial boundary, necessary initial boundary—there is good reason to suppose that non-theism is always either preferable to, or at least the equal of, theism, at least insofar as we restrict our attention merely to the domain of explanation of existence. Moreover, I suggest that it is perfectl…Read more
  •  26
    The Medieval period was one of the richest eras for the philosophical study of religion. Covering the period from the 6th to the 16th century, reaching into the Renaissance, "The History of Western Philosophy of Religion 2" shows how Christian, Islamic and Jewish thinkers explicated and defended their religious faith in light of the philosophical traditions they inherited from the ancient Greeks and Romans. The enterprise of 'faith seeking understanding', as it was dubbed by the medievals themse…Read more
  •  1
    The origins of the Western philosophical tradition lie in the ancient Greco-Roman world. This volume provides a unique insight into the life and writings of a diverse group of philosophers in antiquity and presents the latest thinking on their views on God, the gods, religious belief and practice. Beginning with the 'pre-Socratics', the volume then explores the influential contributions made to the Western philosophy of religion by the three towering figures of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The…Read more
  •  138
    Defining ‘Religion’ and ‘Atheism’
    Sophia 60 (3): 517-529. 2021.
    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 mean by ‘religion’ and ‘atheism’, it is often enough the case that such conversations go poorly because the parties mean different things by ‘religion…Read more