Professor swinburne uses the methods of scientific reasoning to argue that the best answers to these questions are given by the existence of god. Swinburne gives a rigorous and penetrating analysis of the most important arguments for theism. The picture of the universe that science gives us iscompleted by god. Richard swinburne presents a substantially rewritten and updat. Richard swinburne presents a substantially rewritten and updated edition of his most celebrated book. No other work has made a more powerful case for the. Richard swinburne makes a cumulative argument in the existence of god, claiming that given considerations like the existence and finetuning of the universe, objective morality, consciousness, religious experiences and miracles, god is the best explanation for what we observe in the world. Swinburne then applies bayesian reasoning to the usual arguments for the existence of god. West, of the first millennium had their paragraph or two summarising an argument to god from the existence or. The existence of god by richard swinburne, 1991 online.
Is swinburnes book the existence of god the strongest. If one wants to challenge the notion that god exists, or that it is rational to believe in god, one needs to tackle the arguments in swinburnes book. This book is based on the authors wilde lectures delivered in the university of oxford in 19767. Swinburne argues compellingly that the existence of the universe, its lawgoverned nature and finetuning, human consciousness and moral awareness, and. Most, if not all, of the arguments are not new and they have all been refuted in substance. It forms part of a trilogy which began with the coherence of. What did the author intend by naming his book the existence of god.
With this book swinburne has made an excellent and important contri bution to the philosophy of religion. Evidence confirms makes more probable an explanatory hypothesis in so far as 1 given the hypothesis the evidence is to be expected, that is the hypothesis makes the evidence probable, 2 the evidence is not. An analysis of richard swinburnes the existence of god. The existence of god by richard swinburne goodreads. The existence of god 2nd edition by richard swinburne is an impressive and significant philosophical work on the existence of god. Swinburne, the justification of theism truth journal, leadership university website, 2002, and the brief biography of richard swinburne prepared for the origin of the laws of nature and the existence of god panel discussion sponsored by the john templeton foundation, respectively. Richard swinburne short intellectual autobiography.
The central work, the existence of god, sought to reestablish natural theology. Swinburne s premise is to weigh the evidence for and against theism and determine which way the balance falls. There appears to be a consensus among philosophers that there isnt a book in existence that presents a better case for theism than this one by swinburne. My next largescale book an introduction to confirmation theory was concerned with the formalisation. This book assesses the worth of arguments for and against the existence of god. No other work has made a more powerful case for the probability of the existence of god. This new, updated edition of richard swinburnes popular introductory book is there a god. In this work, swinburne attempts to construct a series of inductive arguments for the existence of god. It is much more controversial than his recent book, the. In a particularly low blow, he accuses richard swinburne, a philosopher of religion and science at oxford, of attempting to justify the holocaust. Richard swinburne, one of the most distinguished philosophers of religion of our.