The Existence of God (Clarendon Paperbacks)

Rating:
Summary: A Classic of Natural Theology
Review: Swinburne is perhaps the leading figure in contemporary natural theology and _The Existence of God_ is his most important work. In it, he employs the tools of modern confirmation theory to develop a sustained argument for theism.

Swinburne views himself as part of the long tradition of Christian evidentialism that seeks to give rational reasons for belief in God. However, unlike, say, Anselm, Aquinas, or Paley, Swinburne thinks that every deductive argument for theism rests on premises that could rationally be rejected by the skeptic. Thus his arguments are inductive; he treats theism as a large-scale explanatory theory on a par with, say, quantum theory or Newton's theory of motion. He takes several classical arguments (the cosmological and teleological arguments, the argument from religious experience, etc.) and recasts them in terms of Bayesian probability theory, arguing that each of them confirms God's existence, i.e. raises the probability that He exists.

This is, I think, a brilliant strategy: it means that Swinburne's case does not rest on the cogency of any one argument and that none of his arguments depends on such controversial grounds as the principle of sufficient reaon or the claim that existence is a "real predicate." Rather, his premises generally reflect obvious features of the world (such as its existence and complexity) together with a set of widely accepted principles of scientific reasoning. Moreover, he establishes a rational framework applicable to any inductive arguments for theism, making it easier for other philosophers of religion to offer their own inductive arguments. (I'm surprised more of them have not done so!)

Of course, the book is open to criticism. Many of Swinburne's claims are idiosyncratic, for instance, his claim that at every moment God chooses to exist at the subsequent moment. But nothing critical rests on these oddities. More vexing is the dreaded "problem of the priors" besetting Bayesian reasoning in general. His assignment of probabilities to certain propositions might be unsatisfying to the skeptic, to say the least. But here Swinburne is aided by the modesty of his goal: he merely aims to show that it is more likely that God exists than that He does not. His assigments of priors, I think, almost always errs on the side of caution.

Presuppositionalists, Wittgensteinians, fundamentalists, and other fideists will hate this book, as will knee-jerk atheists. Thinking atheists and theists who value reason will appreciate it, even when they do not accept its conclusions. All should read it.

Rating:
Summary: The Existence of God
Review: This is an excellent book on the value and strength of the theistic arguments, although I think each argument is actually stronger than Swinburne makes it to be.

I also recommend "God, Reason, and Theistic Proofs" by Stephen Davis, and "On Good and Evil" by Vincent Cheung.

Rating:
Summary: an essential volume
Review: this is by far the best collection of arguments for the existence of God put forward by one author in one volume. swinburne is absolutely fair; perhaps too fair. if anything, he understates his case. at any rate, his careful and absolutely rigorous analytic assesment of various arguments for and against the existence of God is a treat for the reader.
but the book does have a severe flaw: it gives no attention to an aesthetic appeal to the existence of God. you almost feel, after you've read this book, like saying 'okay, there is good reason to believe in God, but so what?'...almost as though the existence or non-existence of God has no existential implications. (mark wynn's GOD AND GOODNESS is helpful in this area).
yet this shouldn't detract from the overall value of the book. i simply wish for it to be noted that swinburne's arguments are more persuasive, atleast for me, when placed alongside an existential and aesthetic approach. but such an approach cannot stand without a rigorous analytic assesment of the classical issues, and it is not likely that a better such assesment can be found than in what swinburne here offers. an absolutely essential addition to any philosophy of religion bookshelf and any comprehensive argument for the existence of God, i highly recommend it to the atheist, seeker, and theist. enjoy the book.