Description: Is God a necessary being? Infinite yet simple? Creator of a world that seems equally able to explain itself? In this volume, prize-winning philosopher Lenn Goodman probes key religious questions against the backdrop of sacred texts and philosophical classics. In dialogue with a range of philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to Philo, Maimonides, Spinoza, Hume, and Kant, he examines the relationship between truth and the idea of God. Exploring the nexus between theism and logic, he probes ontological and design arguments, the anthropic principle, the problem of evil, the nature of justice and fairness, and the purpose and meaning of art. Goodman provocatively asks what science would look like if scientists allowed themselves to voice religious responses to their discoveries, as Einstein did. Finally, he probes the insights and examples of the morally virtuous, such as Moses, Albert Schweitzer, and Mahatma Gandhi.
Brief description: Lenn E. Goodman is Professor of Philosophy and Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Vanderbilt University and recipient of the American Philosophical Association's Baumgardt Prize.