Debate - Almost Overwhelming? polkinghorne.org
are the Philosophical & Scientific Arguments for the Existence of God almost overwhelming? It's not that there are no other possibilities, it's just
that the likelihoods, under the Atheist hypothesis, is infinitessimal. We'd normally dismiss someone who
wanted to invent 10^23 un-knowable parallel universes to explain away an awkward fact....
Welcome to the debate page, at The Starcourse
You can read the letters, that made the dialog for the Nicholas Beale and Prof Colin Howson
debate - Published in Prospect Magazine, May 1998. (last updated 6 June 1998)
If you would like to join our email discussion click here Alternatively you can
look at the discussion postings and then join if you wish.
The Letters in The Times
From Mr Nicholas Beale
Sir, The philosophical and scientific arguments for the
existence of God are now almost overwhelming...
People are free to choose what they believe. But if they fail to
consider the arguments, they cannot claim to be educated,
whatever their paper qualifications.
From Professor Colin Howson
Sir, I hope that the "philosophical and
scientific" arguments that have persuaded Mr
Beale of the existence of God are better than
the one he himself presents Can't he really
think of other explanations? What about
human credulity and tolerance of low
standards of evidence?...
I might point out that I have yet to see an
argument which to my satisfaction renders the
existence of God, any god, more likely than
not; mostly they're like Mr Beale's.
What do you think?
Discussion
Jump to the emails
As for evidence, I think it's fair to say that the evidence for Christianity is "almost overwhelming". Christianity, even as a hypothesis explains far more than Atheism... It's not that there are no other possibilities, it's just
that the likelihoods, under the Atheist hypothesis, is infinitessimal. That's all you can expect in Science either - we'd normally dismiss someone who
wanted to invent 10^23 un-knowable parallel universes to explain away an awkward fact as pretty desperate. |
