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Title: God, Freedom, and Evil by Alvin Plantinga ISBN: 0-8028-1731-9 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: January, 1978 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Most influential theistic philosopher currently writing
Comment: Some have called Alvin Plantinga this, and, whether you agree with him or not, the title is certainly warranted. In this book, 'God, Freedom, and Evil', Plantinga analyzes several mainline arguments of both natural theology and natural atheology. He finds all atheistic arguments wanting and most theistic arguments wanting. However, Plantinga eventually settles to the crux of the matter: the problem of evil. After showing that the problem of evil is obviously NOT a deductive problem--that is, from the existence of evil is does not necessarily follow that God doesn't exist--he utilizes the Free Will Defense to combat inductive arguments against theism. Plantinga ultimately concludes that the Free Will Defense, modified and elaborated to include considerations of possible worlds, successfully answers the problem of evil.
The arguments in this book, especially Plantinga's account of Transworld Depravity and other complex issues regarding possible worlds, are quite cumbersome. Still, if one is willing to take to work to a quiet corner and faithfully think through its contents, he will not be disappointed.
Adam Glover
Rating: 5
Summary: The Free WIll Defense Prevails
Comment: Alvin Plantinga, O'Brien Philosophy Professor at Notre Dame, shook the philosophy of religion world with this book when it was first published in 1978. His debunking of the atheistic evidential argument from evil is strictly a DEFENSE, not a THEODICY. A defense is merely a logical way out. A theodicy would attempt to give the specific reasons God allows evil. Plantinga does not claim to know the thoughts of God, so by offering a defense, he modestly shows that it is logically compatible for God to coexist with evil. His argument is NOT one by analogy (contra another reviewer), rather it is a strict application of the rules of logic.
Even though the book is more accessible to the public than most of his others, I imagine that someone without any basic training in philosophy may struggle with the read (but a struggle is not a good excuse not to read a good book!). In addition to the defense against evil, his exposition of the Ontological argument is very interesting, and worthwhile for anyone who intends to properly understand that argument. Those in the field of philosophy have almost universally accepted it as the theistic solution to the problem of evil. If you are an atheist, I challenge you to study his arguments to understand the rational case he is making. This will definitely be an exciting and fun read for the philosopher, as well as to the thinking and outspoken theist and atheist.
(By the way, if you are looking for a good THEODICY - try MAKING SENSE OUT OF SUFFERING by Peter Kreeft, philosophy professor at Boston College.)
Rating: 5
Summary: Good book
Comment: I've read this book but do not own it currently.
Probably one of the best books on the free will-type argument. I'm not so sure an explanation for evil is needed, myself. It appears to me that if God does not exist then real evil does not exist. So if God doesn't exist then the argument from evil is useless, the premise that evil exists is invalidated. But if God does exist then obviously the argument is useless. This is the only thing I think presuppositionalism has right.
The reviewer with the diatribe below misses important points and basically represents the bad argumentation of atheists perfectly. The biggest problem is that free will and determinism may, indeed, be compatible, but to program humans so they would freely choose only the non-evil choices would be to invalidate that freedom altogether. There's no real freedom in being told "Jump off the cliff or get pushed off the cliff". This basically treats human beings as a means to an end, and it would seem that that is morally inferior to REAL freedom(i.e the ability to do both good and evil). The second problem is that the Cosmological argument NEVER says ALL things need a cause. The Kalam version says that all things that have a beginning need a cause, and the contingency variations say that all wholly contingent facts need a cause, mixed contingents and necessary facts don't need a cause, necessarily. For the writer to bring up Bertrand Russel is amusing because theists put his arguments away decades ago. The great thing is that Russel's argument admits the premises, things that begin need causes. He escapes by saying that theists say God is eternal and thus doesn't need a cause. So he says, why couldn't the universe be eternal and therefore be uncaused? It sure could be eternal! But it's not! It's funny that Russel should even suggest that it could be eternal when he was one of the earliest supporters of relativity theory, which had invalidated the idea that the universe was eternal a couple decades before he wrote "Why I am not a Christian". Possibly our detracting friend could pull out the more sophisticated objections of Mackie in "The Miracle of Theism". Quite frankly Mackie is the only objector that I take seriously. It's too bad he's no longer with us. Another thing is the absolutely weird idea of calling a natural disaster "Evil". It would seem to me that evil is something that can only be actualized by a mind, something with intent. Does the universe have intentions!? It would seem not. Natural disasters, like earthquakes, hurricanes, all serve very good purposes. In fact, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc, are all elements in your standard argument from Fine-Tuning. Earthquakes sifting minerals up from the earth's crust and the ocean floor allow for more diversity of the types of extant life. So basically you can only argue against the free will argument by invalidating your premises, setting up a straw man, etc. And argue against the Cosmological Argument by setting up a straw man as well. When atheists deal with the arguments as they appear, then we can take them seriously.
On one good note, I would agree that we can't throw the blaim of evil on Satan or Demons, that would seem silly. On the one hand, Satan and Demons are never given that kind of power. Satan tempts, and that's basically the extent of his power, demons can "possess"(leaving aside the discussion of what that means, exactly) but they don't have absolute power over any individual.
In conclusion, Plantinga's book is as strong as ever, and it appears that his detractors continue to desparately twist themselves into logical pretzels to try and skirt around his answers. Which is no surprise, something that's so obvious to most people as the existence of God would be hard to argue against, it's so intuitive that it's going to take alot better arguments from atheists to shake it than are currently available. I mean, come on, more people deny that there's anything you can call truth than there are that deny there is a God.
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Title: God and Other Minds: A Study of the Rational Justification of Belief in God by Alvin Plantinga ISBN: 0801497353 Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1990 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Warranted Christian Belief by Alvin Plantinga ISBN: 0195131932 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Faith & Rationality: Reason & Belief in God by Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff ISBN: 0268009651 Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr Pub. Date: March, 1984 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview by J. P. Moreland, William Lane Craig ISBN: 0830826947 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Nature of Necessity (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy) by Alvin Plantinga ISBN: 0198244142 Publisher: Clarendon Pr Pub. Date: September, 1989 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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