Arguing about Gods 1st Edition by Graham Oppy (PDF)

Description

In this book, Graham Oppy examines arguments for and against the existence of God. He shows that none of these arguments is powerful enough to change the minds of reasonable participants in debates on the question of the existence of God. His conclusion is supported by detailed analyses of the arguments as well as by the development of a theory about the purpose of arguments and the criteria that should be used in judging whether or not arguments are successful. Oppy discusses the work of a wide array of philosophers, including Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Kant, Hume and, more recently, Plantinga, Dembski, White, Dawkins, Bergman, Gale and Pruss.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I am a Christian theist. I believe Jesus rose bodily from the dead and that God is the best explanation of our reality. I think Oppy is fundamentally wrong.So why five stars? Why say this is an important work.Because Oppy is brilliantly wrong in this book, and I respect it, even though the book also has a fatal flaw.The fatal flaw is in how Oppy defines a “successful argument.” He sets the bar so high that his own standard is self-refuting since he does not have a successful argument for his understanding of a successful argument.Anyway, his thesis is that there are no successful arguments for *or* against God. For Oppy, none of the arguments he gives should make a theist stop believing that God exists. He also thinks theists can be rational in their belief. Oppy’s point is that both theists and atheists should simply cool their horses about claiming to have successful arguments either way.That’s interesting. For the theist, it might even be encouraging: One of the leading atheist philosophers in the world believes there is no argument that should make you give up your belief in God.But where the book really shines is how Oppy deals with so many arguments for and against God. This makes a great reference work for Christians engaged in doing apologetics. Every Christian apologist should have this book on his or her shelf and refer back to it.For Oppy is clearly brilliant and a worthy interlocutor. Some of his arguments are better than others, however. I appreciated 80 percent of what he said on various moral arguments that I consider subpar myself (though there *are* moral arguments I think are good). But some of his discussion of actual infinities and God’s attributes being infinite struck me as frankly far beneath a philosopher of Oppy’s caliber. We all have blind spots, but omnipotence certainly does not require or even suggest an actual infinite.(In fact, I came away with far greater confidence in the Kalam Cosmological Argument after reading this book.)Much of the book I did not think accomplished what Oppy hoped. Some of his arguments were simply weak. And worse, at times, it seemed like Oppy’s strategy boiled down to “Some philosophers think X, and X is not compatible with Y, so the argument for Y is not successful.” That’s perhaps an unfair characterization, but if you read the book, watch out for that sort of pattern. That sort of strategy works mainly because of Oppy’s special definition of a successful argument.Another weaknesses of the book is Oppy’s sometimes opaque writing style. Sometimes he is as clear as a bell, and other times he is much more difficult to follow–and not just because of the high-level content. But either way, Oppy’s writing is, well, nothing to write home about. He is competent, but it is clear that he is a thinker, not a writer even if he writes. There is no beauty here. Sometimes communication is lacking.This is in contrast to, say, other modern atheist philosophers like Schellenberg or Mackie who do write with some beauty and with a clarity that I appreciate.Even with its flaws, however, this is a work Christian apologists should buy and read. I do not think the book needs to be read cover to cover, however. It is sufficient to read the beginning and the end as well as the sections that interest one.Because if you can understand Oppy and where Oppy goes right and wrong on a particular argument, then you are well on your way. Buy it. Read it. Own it. Have it on your shelf. Refer back to it.One final note: This book is not like The God Delusion. It’s far better. It’s also a far harder book.

⭐In contrast with most, if not all, of the other reviewers of this book, I write my comments as a Christian theist. At this time I have browsed, not carefully read the book, so perhaps my conclusion will change later, but I purchased the book because it’s description reflected an observation I have made with increasing conviction the longer I live: that God has leveled the playing field, so that people have access to Him not on the basis of the power of their minds, but on the basis of the purity of their motives. As Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt. 5:8 NIV). It seems to me, then, that reasonable people who WANT to find justification for belief in God will do so, while those who do NOT WANT to believe in God will find convincing arguments for disbelief. That, it appears to me, is the conclusion of Graham Oppy in Arguing about Gods, though he would frame it differently. I think my fellow atheist reviewers have it wrong: Oppy, regardless of his personal worldview, is not dismantling theism and strengthening atheism’s position; that appears to be a projection of their own wishful thinking. In fact, the controlling sentence of the entire book is this one: “I think that such theists and atheists are mistaken. While they may be entirely within their rights to suppose that the arguments that they defend are sound, I do not think that they have any reason to suppose that their arguments are rationally compelling, that is, that they provide reasonable opponents with compelling internal reasons to change their views” (p. 34). As a Christian theist–and as someone who has read a fair amount about theory construction and about the philosophy and psychology of science–Oppy’s view makes sense to me. All theory and data are interdependent, and no worldview develops without untestable (and often unacknowledged) presuppositions, including worldviews heavily indebted to science, for science itself proceeds on the basis of assumptions that are not scientifically valid and falsifiable, such as faith in the regularity of nature and in the reliability of mental processes. Therefore, I accept Oppy’s demonstration that theistic arguments are not compelling, in the sense that no rational person could possibly disagree. I only wish many atheists were as even-handed as Oppy, for it seems that too many times any limitation noted in an intellectual defense of theism is interpreted as a defeat of that defense rather than simply a humbling of it. And isn’t that precisely the kind of arrogant overconfidence that Oppy is trying to dispell? Rational people, because of the internal logic of their system of thinking, can arrive at different conclusions because they begin with different presuppositions, values, and motivations. I recommend the book for thinkers who can keep their biases in check. If the reader is looking for “evidence” for his or her worldview, the value and point of the book will be lost. I also suggest some additional reading in the disciplines of theory construction, philosophy of science, and psychology of science, since knowledge about these disciplines would help address one of the noted weaknesses in this book: insufficient attention to the relative merits of competing presuppositions, known in philosophy of science as “abduction” or inference to the best explanation.

⭐Oppy provides a masterful and in depth examinations of the major arguments for and against God critiquing in depth the major arguments concerning God’s existence. While he focuses mostly on the arguments for God, including the cosmological, teleological, and ontological arguments, he also spends time criticizing the argument from evil, and tempering the conclusions that can reasonably be made from it.Given Oppy’s skilled dismantling of theistic arguments, as well as his stance of being “firmly of the belief that there are no supernatural entities of any kind,” it may come as a surprise that he still concludes that there are no arguments, either for or against the existence of God, that ought to change a rational person’s mind. But surely there must be some beginning stance that is more rational than another, and which could be the deciding factor in the rationality of theism. Arguing About Gods could have seriously benefited from an examination of the burden of proof, or what presuppositions count as rational.Even given Oppy’s measured conclusions, the book still provides plenty of resources for readers to form their own conclusions, and there are few books that provide a deeper coverage of the arguments. This book will provide much food for thought for those who are already familiar with academic philosophy, and who are looking for one of the best argued and well thought out books on philosophy of religion.

Keywords

Free Download Arguing about Gods 1st Edition in PDF format
Arguing about Gods 1st Edition PDF Free Download
Download Arguing about Gods 1st Edition 2006 PDF Free
Arguing about Gods 1st Edition 2006 PDF Free Download
Download Arguing about Gods 1st Edition PDF
Free Download Ebook Arguing about Gods 1st Edition