Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism

Bibliography 255
The problem of evil has been widely discussed and there are chapters on it in the
various introductions mentioned above. For a collection of important contemporary
essays see M.M. and R.M. Adams (eds), The Problem of Evil (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1990). The atheistic potential of the problem is explored in H.J. McCloskey,
God and Evil (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974); while a vigorous defence of
traditional Christian theism in the face of evil is presented in P.T. Geach, Providence
and Evil (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).
The ‘free will response’ to the problem posed by moral evil raises a number of
questions about action, freedom and determinism. For an indication of current
approaches to these issues see the essays in Gary Watson (ed.), Free Will (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1982). The topic of freedom and determinism is itself the
subject of a volume in the ‘Great Debates in Philosophy’ series, viz. Antony Flew and
Godfrey Vesey, Agency and Necessity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987). The nature of free
action is related to challenges to theism in Alvin Plantinga, God, Freedom and Evil
(London: Allen and Unwin, 1975) and Robert Young, Freedom, Responsibility and God
(London: Macmillan, 1975).
The issue of the bearing of contemporary science upon the question of theism has
been the subject of a number of studies. See A.R. Peacocke, Creation and the World of
Science (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979) and Peacocke (ed.), The Sciences and Theology
in the Twentieth Century (London: Oriel Press, 1981); John Leslie (ed.), Physical
Cosmology and Philosophy (New York: Macmillan, 1989); and John Polkinghorne,
Reason and Reality: The Relationship between Science and Theology (London: SPCK,
1991). The need or possibility of an explanation of the physical cosmos is the subject
of a short article by Derek Parfit entitled ‘The Puzzle of Reality: Why Does the
Universe Exist?’, Times Literary Supplement, No. 4657, 3 July 1992.
Not all philosophers take the view of the present authors that theism involves
metaphysical theses concerning the nature of reality. Famously, some of those influenced
by Wittgenstein seem to regard religion as a social practice that is not in the
business of making ontological claims. The best known proponent of something like
this view is D.Z. Phillips. He has authored many works including The Concept
of Prayer (London: Routledge, 1968), Death and Immortality (London: Macmillan,
1970) and Faith after Foundationalism (London: Routledge, 1988). At first sight a somewhat
similar ‘fideistic’ approach seems to be taken by Fergus Kerr OP, in Theology
After Wittgenstein (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986) but in fact most of what Kerr writes
is compatible with traditional Thomistic theism.
A fideistic approach is sometimes argued for on the basis of religious pluralism.
For comparisons between the various world religions see Ninian Smart, A Dialogue
of Religions (London: SCM Press, 1960) and The Religious Experience of Mankind,
2nd edition (New York: Scribners, 1976). One rather striking form of pluralism is
that arising from the idea that there might be several divine incarnations, including
extra-terrestrial ones. For discussion of this possibility see John Hick, The Metaphor of
God Incarnate (London: SCM Press, 1993).
The issue of the status of scripture, in particular that of the New Testament, has
traditionally been the preserve of biblical scholars but there is growing interest among
theistically inclined philosophers in the epistemology and methodology of scriptural