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10Nonbelief as Support for AtheismThe Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 36 59-64. 1998.The Canadian philosopher J.L. Schellenberg has recently put forward an argument for atheism based on the idea that God is supposed to be perfectly loving and so would not permit people to be deprived of awareness of his existence. If such a deity were to exist, then, he would do something to reveal his existence clearly to people, thereby causing them to become theists. Thus, the fact that there are so many non-theists in the world becomes good reason to deny the existence of God conceived of in…Read more
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39Several Unsuccessful Formulations of the Argument from ReasonPhilosophia Christi 5 (1): 35-52. 2003.
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29Nonbelief vs. Lack of EvidencePhilo 1 (1): 105-114. 1998.Here are two atheological arguments, called the “Lack-of-evidence Argument” (LEA) and “the Argument from Nonbelief” (ANB). LEA: Probably, if God were to exist then there would be good objective evidence for that. But there is no good objective evidence for God’s existence. Therefore, probably God does not exist. ANB: Probably, if God were to exist then there would not be many nonbelievers in the world. But there are many nonbelievers in the world. Therefore, probably God does not exist. Reasons …Read more
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472This online essay puts forth and defends precise definitions of the terms "atheism," "agnosticism." and "[theological] noncognitivism."
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31The Pluralizability Objection to a New-Body AfterlifeIn Keith Augustine & Michael Martin (eds.), The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death, Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 405-408. 2015.This paper presents and defends that an afterlife in which a person receives a new body after his or her old body is destroyed (as it is on some notions of bodily resurrection) is conceptually impossible. The main idea behind this argument is that such an afterlife would conceptually require that a person be a kind of thing that could be rendered plural. But since persons are not that type of thing, such an afterlife is not conceptually possible.
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36Reply to CriticsPhilo 8 (2): 169-182. 2005.In this essay I respond to comments on my work by Stephen T. Davis and Keith Parsons.
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52McHugh’s Expectations DashedPhilo 5 (2): 242-248. 2002.In “A Refutation of Drange’s Arguments from Evil and Nonbelief” (Philo, vol. 5, no. 1), Christopher McHugh posed his so-calledExpectations Defense against versions of the Argument from Evil and Argument from Nonbelief that appear in my book Nonbelief & Evil. I here raise objections to his defense.
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39Conceptual Problems Confronting a Totally Disembodied AfterlifeIn Keith Augustine & Michael Martin (eds.), The Myth of an Afterlife, Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 329-333. 2015.This paper presents and defends an argument for the conclusion that a personal afterlife in the absence of any sort of body at all is not conceptually possible. The main idea behind the argument is that there would be no way for the identities of people in a bodiless state to be established, either by others or by themselves. The argument raises a significant challenge to explaining just how someone in a totally disembodied afterlife could ever be identified—a challenge that has yet to be met.
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128Let us consider that version of the Argument from Design which appeals to the so called "fine tuning" of the physical constants of the universe. Call it "the Fine tuning Argument." It has many advocates, both on the Internet and in print. For some of the Internet articles, see the following web site: http://www.reasons.org/resources/papers/>. One of the argument's "print" advocates is George Schlesinger, who says the following: In the last few decades a tantalizingly great number of exceedingly …Read more
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274Many have said that God is hidden. This alleged hiddenness is particularly troublesome for evangelical Christianity, much more so than generally recognized, for it would render certain facts about the world and about the Bible very hard to explain on the hypothesis that the God of evangelical Christianity exists. Those facts would be best explained by appeal to the alternate hypothesis that that deity does not exist. Three evidential, epistemic, atheological arguments emerge from this considerat…Read more
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256This essay addresses the definition of "atheism" and what it means to "defend atheism." It also shows why defending atheism is preferable to defending the separation of church and state.
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130Incompatible-Properties ArgumentsPhilo 1 (2): 49-60. 1998.Ten arguments for the nonexistence of God are formulated and discussed briefly. Each of them ascribes to God a pair of properties from the following list of divine attributes: (a) perfect, (b) immutable, (c) transcendent, (d) nonphysical, (e) omniscient, (f) omnipresent, (g) personal, (h) free, (i) all-loving, (j) all-just, (k) all-merciful, and (1) the creator of the universe. Each argument aims to demonstrate an incompatibility between the two properties ascribed. The pairs considered are: 1. …Read more
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4I argue that Pardi's criticisms of Drange's version of the argument from nonbelief (ANB) do not refute ANB, although they may or may not require peripheral corrections or clarifications on Drange's part. I focus not so much on Drange's formulation, but on what I take to be the central intuitions of ANB and on the inadequacy of Pardi's objections. I assume some familiarity with Pardi's paper and with ANB, although I present what I consider to be ANB's central claims.
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213It is shown how the title question ("Why Be Moral?") can be interpreted in six different ways. Each of the six ways is analyzed and discussed, and, for each of them, an answer to the question is proposed and defended.
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239The Argument from Non-belief: THEODORE M. DRANGEReligious Studies 29 (4): 417-432. 1993.Attempts have been made to prove God's non-existence. Often this takes the form of an appeal to the so-called Argument from Evil: if God were to exist, then he would not permit as much suffering in the world as there actually is. Hence the fact that there is so much suffering constitutes evidence for God's non-existence. In this essay I propose a variation which I shall call ‘The Argument from Non-belief’. Its basic idea is that if God were to exist, then he would not permit as much non-belief i…Read more
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17Reply to Martin on type crossingsPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 30 (1): 136-139. 1969.THIS IS A DEFENSE OF DRANGE'S BOOK "TYPE CROSSINGS"\n(MOUTON, 1966) AGAINST OBJECTIONS RAISED BY ROBERT MARTIN\nIN HIS DISCUSSION ARTICLE "DRANGE ON TYPE CROSSINGS" (SAME\nISSUE). DRANGE DEFENDS HIS ATTEMPT TO SHOW THAT TYPE\nCROSSINGS (E.G., THE SENTENCE "VIRTUE IS BLUE") ARE BOTH\n(NECESSARILY) FALSE AND (CONCEPTUALLY) MEANINGLESS. HE ALSO\nDEFENDS THE ARGUMENTS PUT FORWARD IN THE BOOK WHICH AIM AT\nREFUTING THE VIEW THAT THERE ARE TYPE=RULES IN EFFECT IN\nORDINARY LANGUAGE. FOR THE MOST PART,…Read more
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122The Canadian philosopher J.L. Schellenberg has recently put forward an argument for atheism based on the idea that God is supposed to be perfectly loving and so would not permit people to be deprived of awareness of his existence. If such a deity were to exist, then, he would do something to reveal his existence clearly to people, thereby causing them to become theists. Thus, the fact that there are so many non-theists in the world becomes good reason to deny the existence of God conceived of in…Read more
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40Critical Review: The Concept of Meaninglessness (review)Journal of Critical Analysis 6 (1): 30-32. 1975.
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20The paradox defendedPhilosophical Studies 18 (1-2). 1967.This is a defense of the article "The Paradox of the Non-communicator," which appears in Philosophical Studies 15, pp. 92-96, against objections raised by Karel Lambert and Robert W. Beard in separate articles in Philosophical Studies 17.
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62Almost all evangelical Christians believe that the writing of the Bible was divinely inspired and represents God's main revelation to humanity. They also believe that the Bible contains special features which constitute evidence of its divine inspiration. This would be a use of the Bible to prove God's existence within natural theology rather than within revealed theology, since the book's features are supposed to be evident even to (open-minded) skeptics. Furthermore, since a divinely inspired …Read more
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16Paradox regainedPhilosophical Studies 20 (4). 1969.This is a defense of the article "The Paradox of the Non-communicator," which appears in Philosophical Studies 15, pp. 92-96, against objections raised by J. Michael Dunn in his article "Drange's Paradox Lost," Philosophical Studies 18, pp. 94-95.
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92Is “God Exists” Cognitive?Philo 8 (2): 137-150. 2005.The title question is approached by distinguishing two senses of “God” and two senses of “cognitive” (or “cognitively meaningful”), producing four separate questions. Each is given an affirmative or negative answer, which is defended against possible objections. At the end, the debate between atheism and theological non-cognitivism is addressed, with the atheist side argued to have the preferable outlook.
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22A Response to Parrish on the Fine-Tuning ArgumentPhilosophia Christi 2 (1). 2000.This is response to Stephen Parrish’s article "Theodore Drange on the Fine-Tuning Argument: A Critique," ’Philosophia Christi’, Series 2, 1 (No. 2, 1999), which attacked a section of my book ’Nonbelief and Evil: Two Arguments for God’s Nonexistence’ (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998). The Fine-Tuning Argument (FTA) maintains that the physical constants of our universe exhibit evidence of "fine-tuning" by an intelligent designer. In opposition, I suggest alternate explanations which are at lea…Read more
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5Type Crossings: Sentential Meaninglessness in the Border Area of Linguistics and PhilosophyWalter de Gruyter. 1966.
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319This online essay explores how the term "miracle" is best defined and whether it is possible for scientists, as scientists, to believe in miracles.
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487Nonbelief vs. Lack of EvidencePhilo 1 (1): 105-114. 1998.After a presentation of the problem of God's hiddenness, there is discussion of two arguments for God's nonexistence related to that problem. One is the Lack-of-evidence Argument (LEA), according to which there would have been good objective evidence of God's existence if he were to exist. The other is the Argument from Nonbelief (ANB), according to which there would not be as many nonbelievers as there actually are if God were to exist. Reasons are given for assessing ANB as a stronger argum…Read more
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38Gale on OmnipotencePhilo 6 (1): 23-26. 2003.This is a brief critical assessment of Richard Gale’s treatment of arguments for God’s non-existence which make appeal to the concept of omnipotence. I mostly agree with what Gale says, but have found some additional issues worth exploring.
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21Type Crossings: Sentential Meaninglessness in the Border Area of Linguistics and PhilosophyPhilosophical Quarterly 17 (69): 366. 1967.
Morgantown, West Virginia, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Religion |