Owen Anderson is tired of Christianity posing the same arguments for why people should believe in God, and believes its time for some new questions to be asked.
In his second and most recent book “The Clarity of God’s Existence: the Ethics of Belief After the Enlightenment,” that’s exactly what Anderson does, entering the fray of the philosophical debate on the existence of God.
In the book, Anderson, an assistant professor of philosophy of religion at West campus’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, addresses the weaknesses of past arguments for God.
Despite the title, Anderson is not specifically for or against believing in God in his book.
Rather, Anderson concentrates on notion of the ethics of belief.
“What that really means is, ‘What should I believe?’ or ‘What am I morally required to believe?’ ” said Anderson. “I wanted to take one step back and ask, ‘Does it matter if we believe in God?’ ”
“There is a lot of talk in philosophy about the existence of God, but there is not much work done about whether people are morally required to believe in God, or on the other side, if it’s morally wrong to believe in God,” Anderson said.
In recent years, intellectuals like Richard Dawkins at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom have argued that it is morally wrong to believe in God, while others have argued against the logic of believing in God — in essence offering excuses for not believing in God.
This is a potentially disastrous position for those who would logically argue moral implications of belief, Anderson said.
A key tenant of the Christian faith is belief in God prevents severe consequences. If it is not possible or would take unreasonable measures to believe in God, then there are serious logical issues with Christianity, he said.
“The principle of the ethics of belief is if you ought to believe in God, then you must be able to do it,” said Anderson. “There can be no excuses.”
For Anderson, that is why the notion of the clarity of God is so important.
“The Christian doctrine is based the idea that you should know God and that it is clear that God exists. That’s where I got the title of my book. Is it really clear that God exits or are there excuses?” Anderson said.
In his book, Anderson lays out the arguments that challenge the validity of God, the responses that Christians have used to refute them, and critiques them.
Anderson says that while secular philosophers and intellectuals have augmented and changed their theories, traditional Christian theologians have rehashed the same arguments over and over.
In his final chapters, Anderson presents a different argument, which he hopes makes it clear that belief in God is rational, logical and quite clear.
Anderson also encourages people to look at both sides and consider the alternatives.
Though his book was published recently, it is already garnering praise in the academic community.
Stephen Webb, a professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College in Indiana, plans to use the book in his philosophy of religion class.
“Anderson sets a pretty high bar for philosophers of religion,” Webb said. “Many books are either mired in history or jump to contemporary debates. His book has the advantage of doing both … everyone in the field will have to take this argument seriously.”
Reach the reporter at rmanus@asu.edu.
