Talking God: Philosophers on Belief

In this collection of 12 interviews that first appeared in 2014 in The Stone, the philosophy blog of the New York Times, Notre Dame philosophy professor Gutting (What Philosophy Can Do) poses a series of questions to contemporary philosophers about age-old questions: Does God exist? How can an all-powerful and all-good god exist in a world filled with evil and suffering? What’s the relationship between science and religion? Gutting prefaces each interview with a brief introduction and follows it with a brief set of “further thoughts” about the issues raised in the interview. Calvin College professor Alvin Plantinga argues against atheism because “assuming a lack of evidence either for or against God’s existence, agnosticism is a more rational position than atheism.” Louise Anthony is certain that God doesn’t exist both because she denies that supernatural beings exist outside of natural law and because she finds the argument from evil overwhelmingly persuasive. Gutting also discusses religion and deconstruction with John Caputo, soft atheism with Philip Kitcher, religion and evolution with Michael Ruse, and Hinduism with Jonardon Ganeri, among others. Gutting doesn’t cover new ground here, and adds little to the material already available online, but this book nevertheless provides a helpful introduction to anyone interested in the intersection of philosophy and religion. [em](Nov.) [/em]