The Evidence for God: Religious Knowledge Reexamined » (New Edition)

If God exists, where can we find adequate evidence for God's existence? In this book, Paul Moser offers a new perspective on the evidence for God that centers on a morally robust version of theism that is cognitively resilient. The resulting evidence for God is not speculative, abstract, or casual. Rather, it is morally and existentially challenging to humans, as they themselves responsively and willingly become evidence of God's reality in receiving and reflecting God's moral character for others. Moser calls this "personifying evidence of God," because it requires the evidence to be personified in an intentional agent - such as a human - and thereby to be inherent evidence of an intentional agent. Contrasting this approach with skepticism, scientific naturalism, fideism, and natural theology, Moser also grapples with the potential problems of divine hiddenness, religious diversity, and vast evil.

Preface ix

Introduction 1

1 A Wilderness Parable 2

2 Beyond Taste 16

3 The Title "God" 22

4 Bias in Inquiry 27

5 Divine Evidence 30

6 Overview 40

1 Nontheistic Naturalism 46

1 Science and Purpose 48

2 Purposive Explanation 52

3 Ontological Naturalism 63

4 Methodological Naturalism 74

5 A Dilemma for Sdentism 76

6 Theism beyond Scientism 84

2 Fideism and Faith 88

1 Faith 90

2 Philosophy and Faith 92

3 Christian Faith 104

4 Faith in Action 110

5 Whither Fideism? 119

6 Argument-Indifferent Fideism 125

3 Natural Theology and God 142

1 A Living God 143

2 Whither Natural Theology? 151

3 Natural Theology after Darwin 163

4 From Call to Kerygma 170

5 Valuing Theistic Belief 175

6 Summary Argument 182

4 Personifying Evidence of God 185

1 Skeptical Doubts 186

2 Inquirers under Scrutiny 191

3 From. Scrutiny to Rescue 195

4 Arguing for God 200

5 Volitional and Filial Knowledge209

6 Good News Gift as Power 216

5 Diversity, Evil, and Defeat 231

1 Religious Diversity and logical Exclusion 232

2 Redemptive Exclusivism 236

3 Exclusivism toward God 241

4 Inclusive Christian Exclusivism 248

5 Evil as Defeater 254

6 Conclusion 262

References 267

Index 275