How to Think About God

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Some Representative Quotations

Mission Statement

"The one point of resemblance between Plato's and Aristotle's books about God and the books of the Old Testament lies in their monotheism.  In all other respects, they are almost totally dissimilar.  Regarded by the ancient Jews as Sacred Scripture, as writing inspired by God revealing himself to man, the books of the Old Testament do not contain man's philosophical thinking about God.  If philosophical thinking about God is theological, then the books of the Old Testament are not theological books, even though they are replete with references to God.

"I say all of this to make clear what readers can expect to find in this book — purely philosophical thinking about God, which aims to discover and to assess whatever reasons can be found for affirming that God exists, as Plato and Aristotle affirmed God's existence many centuries ago."

Samples

"Not only must an effort to talk intelligibly and persuasively about God to 20th-century pagans employ an imagery and vocabulary consonant with the cosmology and physics of our day; it must also be responsive to the critical cautions that modern philosophical thought has imposed upon any discourse that attempts to be metaphysical or theological.

"Modern philosophers from the time of David Hume and Immanuel Kant onward have pointed out difficulties encountered in thinking and talking about God.  Their predecessors did not seem to be aware of these difficulties, but they are difficulties that can no longer be disregarded.  Modern thinkers have spotted illicit steps of inference that went unnoticed in earlier centuries.  They have demanded a degree of critical acument, of subtlety, and of sophistication in the use of language not recognized by their predecesors."

"The word 'God' is . . . unique among proper names.  As in the case of certain other proper names, it designates an object the real existence of which is questionable, and which is affirmed by some and denied by others.  But in the case of 'God' the question of the real existence of the object named, or the issue between those who affirm and those who deny the real existence of that object, cannot be resolved by direct acquaintance on our part or by an appeal to the testimony of those who report having had such direct acquaintance with the object named."

"Unique, singular objects -  individuals - cannot be defined. . . .  Our notion of God cannot be stated in the form of a definition.  Rather, it must be stated in the form of a definite description of God.  When we thereby express our notion of God, that notion, like the notion of an electron or a black hole, is a theoretical construct, not an empirical concept. . . .  The notional apparatus of theology, like that of nuclear physics and 20th-century cosmology, consists mainly of theoretical constructs."

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