
A Reasonable God
Engaging the New Face of Atheism
Gregory E. Ganssle(Author)
Baylor University Press
Published on 8. September 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
201 pages
978-1-60258-241-5 (ISBN)
Description
Calmly engaging the philosophical arguments posed by best-selling authors Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins, and to a lesser extent, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, Gregory Ganssle's A Reasonable God is a nuanced, charitable, and philosophically well-informed defense of the existence of God. Eschewing the rhetoric and provocative purposes of the New Atheists, Ganssle instead lucidly and objectively analyzes each argument on its own philosophical merits, to see how persuasive they prove to be. Surveying topics including the relationship between faith and reason, moral arguments for the existence of God, the Darwinian theories of the origin of religion, he pays particular attention to, and ultimately rejects, what he determines is the strongest logical argument against the existence of god posed by the new atheists, put forth by Dawkins: that our universe resembles more of what an atheistic universe would be like than it does with what a theistic universe would be like.
Reviews / Votes
"Short, readable, philosophically informed, and easily accessible. I highly recommend it both to interested non-philosophers and as a university-level text." --Peter van Inwagen, John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame Ganssle respectfully presents the ideas of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens and patiently and often confincingly shows where they have made serious mistakes in their arguments, doing so in a restrained and intellectually serious way. -- Tikkun Magazine For anyone teaching media and religion, communication, or popular culture and religion, this slim volume examining the leading public intellectuals who argue for atheism is a valuable resource, accessilbe for all levels of study, from beginning to advanced. -- Communication Research TrendsMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Waco
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
358 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-60258-241-5 (9781602582415)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Gregory E. Ganssle is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Senior Fellow of the Rivendell Institute at Yale University. He is the author of Thinking About God: First Steps in Philosophy and editor of God and Time: Essays on the Divine Nature (with David M. Woodruff).
Content
Introduction: The New Face of Atheism
1. Science, Philosophy and the Claim that God Exists
2. Faith, Reason and Evidence
3. Three Arguments for God
4. The Design Argument
5. Darwinian Stories of the Origin of Religion
6. Three Arguments for Atheism
7. The Fittingness Argument
A Modest Conclusion
1. Science, Philosophy and the Claim that God Exists
2. Faith, Reason and Evidence
3. Three Arguments for God
4. The Design Argument
5. Darwinian Stories of the Origin of Religion
6. Three Arguments for Atheism
7. The Fittingness Argument
A Modest Conclusion