THE PROBLEM OF GOD: A SHORT INTRODUCTION
There is one significant figure who is either at center stage or else not far from it throughout the book. This is Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the first theologian to attempt a systematic defense of a belief in God using Aristotelian logic. It was Aquinas who formulated most of the “classic” rationalizations for God’s existence which have come down to us, with various modifications, down to the present day.
Angeles systematically exposes these rationalizations. Among the issues he discusses are the concept of god as the Creator Ex Nihilo who created everything out of nothing, God as the necessary cause for existence, and God as the great cosmic mind. Each of issues is systematically analyzed and intelligently refuted, quite an accomplishment in a book of only 156 pages.
The self-contradictory nature of theistic rationalizations for a deity’s existence are made manifestly obvious from the beginning of the book. Chapter one takes the concept of God as being “completely perfect” and turns it inside out. Since the argument merely assumes what it sets out to prove (begging the question), one can just as easily assume a contrary position to prove God as being “completely imperfect.” By the logic of his own argument, the theist must allow for this possibility assuming of course he is interested in being intellectually honest. In other words, to be logically consistent, such a theist must argue for the existence of at least two gods.
Angeles also discusses the fallacy inherent in the first cause rationalization, which states that since everything in the universe requires a cause, the universe itself must have a cause, therefore God. This is the fallacy of composition, of assuming that because something applies to a component part, it myst be applied to the whole itself. To use the author’s example, if an Eskimo kills a mountie, we may, by this line of reasoning, assume that all Eskimos are murderers.
The final chapter brilliantly discusses the moral implications of theistic belief. The problem of evil has vexed theistic defenders since time immemorial. Simply put, an all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful God would never allow evil to exist, much less prosper.
Theists are thus defeated by their own assumptions. Moreover, as Angeles rightly points out, God-believers are also defeated by their notion that humans are innately “sinful.” He asks, “Why did an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God create man with a fatal flaw toward an irresistible evil?” (pg. 147)
Philosophy has been battered and abused for centuries by theists seeking non-existent proofs of their god’s existence. The Problem of Evil is a welcome book that more than does its part to set the record straight.
Categories: Book Reviews