Knowledge of God by Alvin Plantinga (PDF)

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Is belief in God epistemically justified? That’s the question at the heart of this volume in the Great Debates in Philosophy series, with Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley each addressing this fundamental question with distinctive arguments from opposing perspectives. The first half of the book contains each philosopher’s explanation of his particular view; the second half allows them to directly respond to each other’s arguments, in a lively and engaging conversationOffers the reader a one of a kind, interactive discussionForms part of the acclaimed Great Debates in Philosophy series

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “I would recommend the book to professional philosophers of religion and philosophy graduate students for these significant contributions.” (Journal of Religion, 1 October 2010) “The book’s style is very different from other philosophy of religion texts, because it presents the issues within the context of a lively debate, capturing the excitement of philosophical argumentation and epitomizing how philosophy should be practiced.” (American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Summer 2010)”Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley here debate the question whether God’s existence is known—or, at least, justifiably believed. As expected from two such distinguished philosophers, their discussion has the originality and intellectual weight to repay careful consideration, as much by philosophers of mind and epistemologists as by philosophers of religion.” (Mind, October 2009)”The book illuminates some important issues in philosophical theology. Recommended.” (CHOICE, October 2008)”I found this book strangely compelling … .Plantinga uses an ingenious new version of the Design Argument to demonstrate ‘the epistemic probability’ that God exists; Tooley argues that ‘the fact of evil’ on our world makes the existence of a benevolent God ‘very unlikely.'” (Church Times, January 2009)”The present volume, by two heavyweight analytical philosophers, is rather different from the usual pattern.” (The Tablet)”A very fine book, presenting arguments for and against theism and naturalism by two very distinguished philosophers. I strongly recommend it for graduate level courses.” (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews) Review “Knowledge of God is a work of major significance. There is no other debate-style book in the philosophy of religion that packs the intellectual punches thrown by heavy-weights Plantinga and Tooley. Excellent.” –Thomas Senor, University of Arkansasz “A rigorous yet accessible debate on central issues in the philosophy of religion by two leading contributors to the field. When Plantinga and Tooley turn to discuss each other’s views, they shed light not only on these topics but on a whole range of further issues, including minds and materialism, propositional content, evolutionary explanation, and probabilistic reasoning. A first-rate exchange, full of philosophical insight.” –Edward Wierenga, University of Rochester From the Inside Flap Is belief in God justified? That’s the fundamental question at the heart of this volume of the Great Debates in Philosophyseries. Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley each tackle the matter with distinctive arguments fromopposing perspectives. The book opens with an explanation of the philosophers’ viewpoints, followed by a lively and engaging conversation in which each directly responds to the other’s arguments. From the Back Cover Is belief in God justified? That’s the fundamental question at the heart of this volume of the Great Debates in Philosophyseries. Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley each tackle the matter with distinctive arguments fromopposing perspectives. The book opens with an explanation of the philosophers’ viewpoints, followed by a lively and engaging conversation in which each directly responds to the other’s arguments. About the Author Alvin Plantinga is John A. O’Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is widely known for his work in epistemology and philosophy of religion, and is the author of Warranted Christian Belief (2000). He is also editor (with Matthew Davidson) of Essays in the Metaphysics of Modality (2003). Michael Tooley is Distinguished College Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is well known for his work in metaphysics and applied ethics, and is the author of Time, Tense, and Causation (1997) and editor of Metaphysics (5 volumes, 1999). Read more

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

⭐I’ve been into apologetics for the past few years now and this book is an absolute masterpiece. Alvin Plantinga (the Albus Dumbledor of apologetics) has a truly spectacular debate with Michael Tooly. Although I disagreed with most of Tooly’s conclusions, he made a truly phenomenal paper on the problem of evil, in the fact it’s probably the most unrivaled paper on the subject I ever had the pleasure of reading. I’m a Christian and I have nothing but respect for Tooly who genuinely questions Theism not out of hatred but out of skepticism rather than hatred or mockery. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say he’s a better atheist than the four horsemen of atheism combined. Even if you disagree with Tooly you should hear what he has to say. Alvin Plantinga on the other hand has perhaps the most wonderful paper against Naturalism that I’ve ever read in my whole life (no exaggeration) and this is coming from someone who isn’t the biggest epistemology fan. However I should advise that if anyone wants to hear an expanded version of Plantinga’s offense against Naturalism I suggest picking up his book “Warranted Christian Belief” as there’s only so much space he can talk about it here. This is very advanced reading and certainly not for the faint of heart. That being said I did have 2 very small nitpicks with the book. The first is during Tooly’s opening statement he has a portion of it using calculus. As someone who doesn’t understand algebra, I literally didn’t understand any of it. Lastly I simply wish the book was longer. In my opinion this masterpiece is far too short. Each had a 70 page opening statement, a 35 page response and a 15 page second response/closing statement. Really wish they each had 70 pages each in every section of the debate. Each is somebody I could read all day long, and each side gives everything they have in each section, with Tooly even sometimes challenging Plantinga. Truly I’m honored to have read this once in a lifetime debate. It reminded me of Albus Dumbledore’s duel with Voldemort (I’m not making Tooly out to be a bad guy as he is truly a excellent debater and a nice guy in real life) as these representatives are that good at what they do. In all honesty I believe that Plantinga came out on top in this debate. However I want to stress it wasn’t by much. Whether you’re an Atheist or a Christian, this book is something that is not to be missed! Bravo to both sides.

⭐”Knowledge of God” is part of a debate series. It’s difficult to locate this book, since, in the series, there is already a book entitled ”

⭐.” The difference is that this book is more focused on the rationality of theism–is it reasonable to believe in God–than the question of God’s existence (though the latter obviously informs the former). The book is divided into six sections. Both authors get a 75 page opening statement, a 35 page response, and a final 15 page rejoinder.Alvin Plantinga defends the rationality of theism. He spends a real brief period presenting his “Reformed Epistemology” that he has developed elsewhere (

⭐, and

⭐)–namely that, if theism is true, then it is rational to believe in God because God has provided us with a sensus divinitatis. He then turns the bulk of his essay to critiquing the major opponent of theism–philosophical naturalism. He levels three arguments. First, that naturalism cannot provide an acceptable model of `proper function’ and therefore cannot explain what it means to be sick, health, etc. Second, naturalism, construed as materialism regarding human persons, gives one reason to believe that the majority of one’s beliefs are false. Finally, naturalism, as materialism again, does not allow for a person to hold beliefs.Tooley begins by making many important distinctions that many atheologians do not. After many qualifications, he begin with his arguments for theism being unreasonable. First, he argues that the a priori probability of God existing is lower than (or equal to) a third, and, therefore, the default position should be atheism. Then he spends the bulk of his essay devoted to one (16 premised) argument from evil. It is a very complicated and dense one. He focuses on one particular event–the Lisbon earthquake of 1755–and argues that, probably God did not exist at that time. The reason? That earthquake exhibited certain wrong-making properties that are inconsistent with a morally perfect loving God allowing. He then generalizes to other events, using the same rough formulation. (This rough characteristic leaves out many of Tooley’s interesting and complicated points.)There are many things to like about this book. There are some very interesting responses between the authors, and each makes important distinctions and very critical and probing remarks. Tooley’s argument from evil highlights (and tries to amend) some of the problems with current formulations of inductive/probabilities accounts of the problems of evil. Despite these virtues, there are some things readers should be warned of. First, much of Plantinga’s comments (except for his critique of materialism), he has extensively treated before, and this book is, in many ways, simply a condensed version of things he has said elsewhere. Second, the book is very difficult at times. Although most advanced undergraduates should be able to tackle the majority of the text, this text is most at home in a graduate level setting. General readers ought to think about perhaps passing on this book for a little while until they are more familiar with this particular niche of philosophy. Nevertheless, this is an interesting piece of professional philosophy which highlights how amicable discussions of this sort can be.

⭐The top contemporary naturalist is pitted against the top contemporary theist in this brilliant book. Unfortunately, what I think was Plantinga’s best argument was discussed the least out of the three he presented. He presents his reformed epistemology and uses it to argue that a naturalist cannot have knowledge due to his inability to account for proper function.Tooley is a formidable opponent and actually challenges Plantinga a few times. unfortunately, in his response to Plantinga’s argument about the inability of a material object to think, he just assumes that it can(which Plantinga points out).This is a fantastic book(only the probability calculus was boring, the rest was fascinating!) and both philosophers are great!

⭐My daughter is studying philosophy – she says it’s good, but can’t say I’ve read it myself!

⭐Ordered this for my son he is a fan of the author, he really enjoyed it

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