An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy)

*My Title excludes those in academia pertaining to the subject obviously*Excellent introduction to a subject that is constantly discussed on the internet.Debates on God within academia differs greatly from what you see in internet chat rooms, Youtube videos and Facebook groups and if there was one book that I'd recommend for everyone who wants to participate on the scholarly level in the God debate, this is it. Michael Rea is an underrated philosopher, and his works on the Trinity are clear and concise, though this is just one chapter. Michael Murray is good, and his work on the Divine Hiddenness was shown here in the chapter that possessed arguments against God.God's attributes are discussed with great detail. You will not be hearing about fundy popularist definitions of omnipotence here (ie: God is omnipotent therefore he can DO ANYTHING, and I mean anything even if it logically incoherent). Omniscience and God's relation with time are also spoken about here as well. The editors of this book do their best to be fair, and I believe they do a good job with that.The arguments for God are put forth and the three types of Cosmological arguments are discussed (Leibnizian, Thomist, Kalam), the Teleological argument makes its presence known along with the Ontological argument. I'm satisfied with the amount of space that modal ontological argument gets here, however they could have gone a bit deeper. Though this is a beginners book, and one can follow the citations and further reading recommendations at the end of the chapters.Atheological arguments are obviously mentioned here as well, with a good amount of substance going towards the different versions of the problem of evil. The divine hiddenness argument is also brought up, and I enjoyed the piece that went over how skeptical Theism can be used on both atheological arguments, though not entirely in the same format.God and morality is a topic that Theist ethicists will enjoy, and of course where there is an argument for God that concerns morality the overrated Euthyphro dilemma gets brought up, which is the dilemma that was actually used by Plato against Polytheism and rightly so, since Monotheism doesn't posit multiple natures of beings it really doesn't make sense to think that if a God existed, then morality would be above God, for why not just think that the God in question doesn't have a bigger God to answer to in itself? The ontological argument (which I think is the best argument for God's existence) easily saves the moral argument here, as there is no reason to think that a maximally great being is independent of morality. Of course there are other ways to get out of the Euthyphro (A Thomist will tell you that `good' was already defined beforehand) but this is why I see the Ontological a key argument, if one wants to hold to Theism and not commit to Thomism.The philosophy of mind is another branch of philosophy in which the philosophy of religion overlaps into, and the debate here is the argument from consciousness. It is important to mention however that there are Theist Philosophers who hold to Materialism (Peter Van Inwagen, Glenn Andrew Peoples) though I highly doubt they hold to eliminative materialism.Overall this book is a great primer to use in order to get familiar with the main arguments pro and con for the existence of God, and not too hard to read, so if you are a laymen then you can definitely sneak by. My only criticism is that it didn't go enough into Thomism, and even though there are other books for that, Thomas Aquinas has made many big contributions to the Philosophy of religion, especially his talks on Divine Simplicity, which is spoken about in this book as well.If there had to be one book that I'd hope for my interlocutors to read before debating me, it would be either this or another academic introduction to the Philosophy of religion, a branch of philosophy that many people don't realize they are engaging in. This way I wouldn't have to waste time refuting terrible arguments put forth by Non-Theists who think that posting irrational one liners and meme's is enough to damage Theism. The same goes for Theists who think they are safe because no one can prove that God does not exist. Well go out and buy this book and enhance your thinking when it comes to arguing about God(s)!!!

Pleased with purchase...

Great book! I got it for my philosophy of religion class as a textbook.Even though both authors are theists, they criticized the theistic arguments where they thought was lacking, but also offered their own thoughts on others. Great as an introductory book, though some parts I thought watered down the arguments (at least compared to whole books that are devoted to defend a particular argument).Highly recommended!