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Plantinga is an intellectual heavyweight in the philosophy of religion, and those who want to keep abreast of the best work in this area would be well advised to read this long-awaited contribution. (The Tablet )
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This book is a long-awaited major statement by a pre-eminent analytic philosopher, Alvin Plantinga, on one of our biggest debates -- the compatibility of science and religion. The last twenty years has seen a cottage industry of books on this divide, but with little consensus emerging. Plantinga, as a top philosopher but also a proponent of the rationality of religious belief, has a unique contribution to make. His theme in this short book is that the conflict between science and theistic religion is actually superficial, and that at a deeper level they are in concord. Plantinga examines where this conflict is supposed to exist -- evolution, evolutionary psychology, analysis of scripture, scientific study of religion -- as well as claims by Dan Dennett, Richard Dawkins, and Philip Kitcher that evolution and theistic belief cannot co-exist. Plantinga makes a case that their arguments are not only inconclusive but that the supposed conflicts themselves are superficial, due to the methodological naturalism used by science. On the other hand, science can actually offer support to theistic doctrines, and Plantinga uses the notion of biological and cosmological "fine-tuning" in support of this idea. Plantinga argues that we might think about arguments in science and religion in a new way -- as different forms of discourse that try to persuade people to look at questions from a perspective such that they can see that something is true. In this way, there is a deep and massive consonance between theism and the scientific enterprise.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is heavy going with some of the mathematical and philosophical comments requiring some hard work in terms of thinking. Of course reviews will generally be prejudiced - some Christians will struggle with Plantinga's acceptance of evolution, whereas the New Fundamentalist Atheists will dismiss the book before they even read it with their usual circular reasoning. Personally I found this book to be well written, intellectually coherent and in parts a brilliant debunking of naturalism as a scientific philosophy. For Plantinga naturalism and science are incompatible. He explains why. It looks to be a knock dead argument and I would like to see a reliable refutation. One suspects though that the emotional need of naturalists to believe their faith will mean that they are impervious to the kind of rigourous reasoning that Plantinga demonstrates. For anyone else with a genuine interest in the discussion this book is a must!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
It has been clear to me for some time that the New Atheists offer us a false dichotomy between science and religion. Plantinga recognises this too. My degree is in physics and I see no conflict between science and theism. In fact science in my lifetime has become more God friendly; for example the Big Bang theory (which was only generally accepted in 1965), which showed that the universe had a beginning and the Anthropic principle, a word coined by Brandon Carter in 1974. Plantinga discusses the fine-tuning arguments in Chap 7.
Plantinga's argument is that "there is superficial conflict but deep concord between science and theistic religion, but superficial concord and deep conflict between science and naturalism". I think that his thesis is correct. The interaction between science and religion has been well documented in recent books by Alister McGrath, John Lennox and Ian Barbour. Plantinga, as a respected philosopher, has added a much needed contribution to this literature. Chapter headings are:
1. Evolution and Christian belief (1)
2. Evolution and Christian belief (2)
3. Divine action in the world: The Old picture.
4. The New Picture.
5. Evolutionary Psychology and scripture scholarship
6. Defeaters?
7. Fine-tuning (The Anthropic Principle)
8. Design Discourse
9. Deep Concord: Christian Theism and the Deep Roots of science
10. The evolutionary Argument against Naturalism.
Personally, I would have liked him to spend more time on the physics rather than biology/evolution. Robert J Spitzer does this better in his book "New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy"
Plantinga's argument is that "there is superficial conflict but deep concord between science and theistic religion, but superficial concord and deep conflict between science and naturalism". I think that his thesis is correct. The interaction between science and religion has been well documented in recent books by Alister McGrath, John Lennox and Ian Barbour. Plantinga, as a respected philosopher, has added a much needed contribution to this literature. Chapter headings are:
1. Evolution and Christian belief (1)
2. Evolution and Christian belief (2)
3. Divine action in the world: The Old picture.
4. The New Picture.
5. Evolutionary Psychology and scripture scholarship
6. Defeaters?
7. Fine-tuning (The Anthropic Principle)
8. Design Discourse
9. Deep Concord: Christian Theism and the Deep Roots of science
10. The evolutionary Argument against Naturalism.
Personally, I would have liked him to spend more time on the physics rather than biology/evolution. Robert J Spitzer does this better in his book "New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy"
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was not an easy book to read, but having got the bit between my teeth, I am very glad that I did so. On the basis of a first careful reading, my conclusion is that David Robertson did actually read the same book, whereas Mr Van Berg appears to have been reading something else - or perhaps skipped to the bits he wanted to disagree with. Plantinga is, for instance, quite careful to define what he means by 'random' when he describes natural selection, and he frequently cites key evolutionary scientists when he does so.
Having dabbled a little in the past with Plantinga's writings, and found them pretty challenging, I did find that the approach he has adopted here was extremely helpful. The inclusion of more technical material, more apposite for those with some background in the discipline of philosophy, but identified by means of a distinct typeface, was very helpful. This enabled me to make decisions about whether I should skip material or not (actually, 'not' became more frequent as one worked through the book) - and reinforced the fact that the book is appropriate for both novices and the more capable.
Plantinga's style of writing does encourage engagement with his subject, and he systematically advances his case (that theism and science are not in conflict, but that theism and science ARE in conflict with naturalism) by steady increments. His examination of the somewhat tenuous arguments employed by Messrs Dawkins and Dennett was particularly helpful - mainly because Plantinga's analysis helps to bring clarity to help one to see through the kinds of crassly dogmatic claims advanced by such individuals in pursuit of an anti-theistic worldview.
This kind of steady, systematic building of a case is very much Plantinga's hallmark. I can now understand that readers who jump in with 'Warranted Christian Belief' would struggle with it, given all the foundational work that he had constructed in the previous two volumes. This (for Plantinga) relatively brief work shows the care and rigour which he brings to his subject - unlike Dennett and Dawkins, and their acolytes, he takes great care to ensure that the groundwork is in place before he starts to build the upper stories of his case.
Another strength with this book is its structure. The 'Contents' section shows an utterly methodical breakdown of sections and subsections - and in the preface, he takes care to outline what it is that he is going to show his reader. I would like to think that this level of rigour would appeal to theists and atheists alike, and would hope that we would not see too much of the ritual shooting down of the great man - but I'm not going to hold my breath!
I would recommend this to any Christian wishing to work through issues relating to the interaction between 'faith' and 'science'. You will find that Plantinga's clarity and rigour will help clear many of the red-herrings out of the way, and reduce the arguments to their key components. An enlightening exercise, where so much else that goes on is an exercise in refined obfuscation!
Having dabbled a little in the past with Plantinga's writings, and found them pretty challenging, I did find that the approach he has adopted here was extremely helpful. The inclusion of more technical material, more apposite for those with some background in the discipline of philosophy, but identified by means of a distinct typeface, was very helpful. This enabled me to make decisions about whether I should skip material or not (actually, 'not' became more frequent as one worked through the book) - and reinforced the fact that the book is appropriate for both novices and the more capable.
Plantinga's style of writing does encourage engagement with his subject, and he systematically advances his case (that theism and science are not in conflict, but that theism and science ARE in conflict with naturalism) by steady increments. His examination of the somewhat tenuous arguments employed by Messrs Dawkins and Dennett was particularly helpful - mainly because Plantinga's analysis helps to bring clarity to help one to see through the kinds of crassly dogmatic claims advanced by such individuals in pursuit of an anti-theistic worldview.
This kind of steady, systematic building of a case is very much Plantinga's hallmark. I can now understand that readers who jump in with 'Warranted Christian Belief' would struggle with it, given all the foundational work that he had constructed in the previous two volumes. This (for Plantinga) relatively brief work shows the care and rigour which he brings to his subject - unlike Dennett and Dawkins, and their acolytes, he takes great care to ensure that the groundwork is in place before he starts to build the upper stories of his case.
Another strength with this book is its structure. The 'Contents' section shows an utterly methodical breakdown of sections and subsections - and in the preface, he takes care to outline what it is that he is going to show his reader. I would like to think that this level of rigour would appeal to theists and atheists alike, and would hope that we would not see too much of the ritual shooting down of the great man - but I'm not going to hold my breath!
I would recommend this to any Christian wishing to work through issues relating to the interaction between 'faith' and 'science'. You will find that Plantinga's clarity and rigour will help clear many of the red-herrings out of the way, and reduce the arguments to their key components. An enlightening exercise, where so much else that goes on is an exercise in refined obfuscation!
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