■ Debating Christian Th eism This page intentionally left blank Debating Christian Th eism EDITED BY J. P. Moreland , Chad Meister, a n d Khaldoun A. Sweis 3 3 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2013 Chapter 28 was originally published in Stephen T. David, Philosophy and Th eological Discourse, 1996 © Palgrave Macmillan. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitt ed, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitt ed by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. 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 978–0–19–975543–1 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–19–975544–8 (alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–19–998143–4 (ebook) 1. Th eology, Doctrinal. 2. Apologetics. 3. Th eism. 4. God—Proof. I. Moreland, James Porter, 1948 – editor of compilation. BT75.3.D43 2013 230—dc23 2013003700 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper ■ CONTENTS Contributors i x Introduction 1 part one ■ Debates About God’s Existence A Cosmological Argument 1. Th e Kalam Argument 7 William Lane Craig 2. Doubts About the Kalam Argument 20 Wes Morriston A Teleological Argument 3. Th e Fine-Tuning Evidence is Convincing 35 Robin Collins 4. Th e Universe Shows No Evidence for Design 47 Victor J. Stenger An Ontological Argument 5. A Modal Version of the Ontological Argument 61 E. J. Lowe 6. Lowe on “Th e Ontological Argument” 72 Graham Oppy A Moral Argument 7. Ethics Needs God 85 Paul Copan 8. Th e Failure of Moral Arguments 101 Louise Antony An Argument from Consciousness 9. Th e Argument from Consciousness 119 J. P. Moreland v vi ■ Contents 10. Consciousness, Th eism, and Naturalism 131 Graham Oppy Th e Coherence of Th eism: Part 1 11. Problems with Omnipotence 147 Nicholas Everitt 12. Coherence of Divine Power 158 Charles Taliaferro Th e Coherence of Th eism: Part 2 13. Problems with Omniscience 169 Patrick Grim 14. Th e Coherence of Omniscience 181 Jerome Gellman Th e Problem of Evil 15. Evil as Evidence Against God 197 Richard M. Gale 16. God and Evil 208 Chad Meister Evolution and Belief in God 17. Bayes and the Evolution of Religious Belief 223 Joseph Bulbulia 18. Evolutionary Accounts of Religion and the Justifi cation of Religious Belief 242 Michael J. Murray and Jeffrey P. Schloss Th e Nature of Human Beings 19. Human Persons are Material and Immaterial (Body and Soul) 261 Stewart Goetz 20. Human Persons are Material Only 270 Kevin Corcoran part two ■ Debates About Specifi c Christian Beliefs Miracles and Christian Th eism 21. Christianity and Miracles 287 Paul K. Moser Contents ■ vii 22. It is Not Reasonable to Believe in Miracles 298 Evan Fales Science and Christian Faith 23. Science is at Odds with Christianity 313 Julian Baggini 24. Science is not at Odds with Christianity 323 Keith Ward Th e Doctrine of the Trinity 25. Th e Doctrine of the Trinity is Coherent 335 Thomas D. Senor 26. Th e Trinity is Incoherent 347 Timothy Winter Th e Atonement 27. Responsibility, Atonement, and Forgiveness 361 Richard Swinburne 28. Problems with the Doctrine of Atonement 372 John Hick Th e Incarnation 29. An Anselmian Defense of the Incarnation 393 Katherin A. Rogers 30. Th e Incarnation Doctrine is Incoherent and Unlikely 404 Michael Martin Th e Historical Reliability of the New Testament 31. Th e Gospels Are Reliable as Historically Factual Accounts 417 Stephen T. Davis 32. Th e Gospels Are Reliable as Memory and Testimony 430 Marcus Borg Th e Historical Jesus 33. Is the Christ of Faith also the Jesus of History? 447 Stephen J. Patt erson 34. Th e Christ of Faith is the Jesus of History 458 Craig A. Evans viii ■ Contents Th e Resurrection of Jesus 35. Jesus Did Rise from the Dead 471 Gary R. Habermas 36. Th e Resurrection Probably Did Not Happen 484 James G. Crossley Only One Way to God? 37. Jesus is the Only Way to God 497 Harold Netland 38. Th ere Are Many Ways to God 509 Paul F. Knitt er Heaven and Hell 39. It is Reasonable to Believe in Heaven and Hell 523 Jerry L. Walls 40. Heaven and Hell 534 Keith Parsons Index 5 47 ■ CONTRIBUTORS Louise Antony is professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusett s 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 P hilosophers Without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life. She is the coeditor (with Charlott e Witt ) of A Mind of One’s 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 Th e Ego Trick. His PhD was awarded by University College London for his thesis on personal identity. He is the cofounder of Th e Philosophers’ Magazine (htt p:// www.philosophersmag.com). He has also appeared as a cameo character in two Alexander McCall-Smith novels. His website is htt p://www.julianbaggini.com. Marcus Borg is Canon Th eologian 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 , Th e Heart of Christianity , R eading the Bible Again for the First Time , Speaking Christian, and most recently Th e 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 (htt p://www.iacsr.com). He is a Distinguished International Fellow of the Religion Cognition and Culture Unit at Aarhus University in Denmark (htt p://teo.au.dk/en/research/cur- rent/cognition/), and is a principle investigator at LEVYNA, the world’s fi rst experimental laboratory in the study of religion (htt p://www.levyna.cz). He has authored or coauthored more than fi ft y peer-reviewed publications on the evo- lutionary 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 writt en more than thirty-fi ve 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 fi ne-tuning of the cosmos for life. He is currently fi nishing two books on ix