J.P. Moreland - Debating Christian Theism

Debating Christian Theism

EDITED BY

J. P. Moreland,
Chad Meister,

AND

Khaldoun A. Sweis

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Oxford University Press 2013

was originally published in Stephen T. David, Philosophy and Theological Discourse, 1996 Palgrave Macmillan.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Debating Christian theism / edited by J.P Moreland, Chad Meister, and Khaldoun Sweis.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 9780199755431 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 9780199755448 (alk. paper) ISBN 9780199981434 (ebook) 1. Theology, Doctrinal. 2. Apologetics. 3. Theism. 4. GodProof. I. Moreland, James Porter, 1948 editor of compilation.

BT75.3.D43 2013
230dc23
2013003700

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

WILLIAM LANE CRAIG

WES MORRISTON

ROBIN COLLINS

VICTOR J. STENGER

E. J. LOWE

GRAHAM OPPY

PAUL COPAN

LOUISE ANTONY

J. P. MORELAND

GRAHAM OPPY

NICHOLAS EVERITT

CHARLES TALIAFERRO

PATRICK GRIM

JEROME GELLMAN

RICHARD M. GALE

CHAD MEISTER

JOSEPH BULBULIA

MICHAEL J. MURRAY AND JEFFREY P. SCHLOSS

STEWART GOETZ

KEVIN CORCORAN

PAUL K. MOSER

EVAN FALES

JULIAN BAGGINI

KEITH WARD

THOMAS D. SENOR

TIMOTHY WINTER

RICHARD SWINBURNE

JOHN HICK

KATHERIN A. ROGERS

MICHAEL MARTIN

STEPHEN T. DAVIS

MARCUS BORG

STEPHEN J. PATTERSON

CRAIG A. EVANS

GARY R. HABERMAS

JAMES G. CROSSLEY

HAROLD NETLAND

PAUL F. KNITTER

JERRY L. WALLS

KEITH PARSONS

Louise Antony is professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of many articles on topics in epistemology, philosophy of the mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, and feminist theory. She is the editor of and a contributor to Philosophers Without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life. She is the coeditor (with Charlotte Witt) of A Mind of Ones Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity and (with Norbert Hornstein) of Chomsky and His Critics.

Julian Baggini is the author of several books, including Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind; Complaint; Atheism: A Very Short Introduction; and The Ego Trick. His PhD was awarded by University College London for his thesis on personal identity. He is the cofounder of The Philosophers Magazine ( http://www.philosophersmag.com ). He has also appeared as a cameo character in two Alexander McCall-Smith novels. His website is http://www.julianbaggini.com .

Marcus Borg is Canon Theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon; Hundere Chair of Religion and Culture Emeritus at Oregon State University; past president of the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars; and author of twenty books, including the best-sellers Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, The Heart of Christianity, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, Speaking Christian, and most recently The Evolution of the Word (a chronological New New Testament). His books have been translated into eleven languages.

Joseph Bulbulia teaches in the Religious Studies Programme at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is president elect of the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion ( http://www.iacsr.com ). He is a Distinguished International Fellow of the Religion Cognition and Culture Unit at Aarhus University in Denmark ( http://teo.au.dk/en/research/current/cognition /), and is a principle investigator at LEVYNA, the worlds first experimental laboratory in the study of religion ( http://www.levyna.cz ). He has authored or coauthored more than fifty peer-reviewed publications on the evolutionary study of religion.

Robin Collins is distinguished research professor of philosophy and chair of the Department of Philosophy at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He has written more than thirty-five articles and book chapters on a wide range of topics in philosophy of physics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of mind. He has become most well-known for the argument for theism based on the fine-tuning of the cosmos for life. He is currently finishing two books on the topic: one that carefully explicates the physics and cosmology behind claims of cosmic fine-tuning and one that carefully works through the potential philosophical and theological implications of the fine-tuning evidence.

Paul Copan is Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He has authored and edited more than twenty books, including (with Paul K. Moser) The Rationality of Theism, (with Chad Meister) Philosophy of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Issues, and (with Mark Linville) The Moral Argument. He has coauthored (with William Lane Craig) Creation Out of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical, and Scientific Exploration, and he has contributed essays to a number of edited books and professional journals.

Kevin Corcoran is professor of philosophy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Named by Princeton Review as one of the best 300 professors, he has authored or edited Soul, Body and Survival; Rethinking Human Nature; and Church in the Present Tense, in addition to authoring many articles for scholarly journals and edited volumes.

William Lane Craig is a research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He has authored or edited more than thirty books, including The Kalam Cosmological Argument; Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom; Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology; and God, Time, and Eternity, as well as more than a hundred articles in professional journals of philosophy and theology, including