Book 3

Atheism and Theism

by J. J. C. Smart and John Haldane

Published 23 September 1996
The issue of whether or not there is a God is one of the oldest and most widely disputed philosophical questions. "Where did the universe come from?", "what explains the apparent order of nature?" These and other puzzles have led to the development of two kinds of metaphysics: on the one hand that which posits an ultimate creative cause beyond the material universe; and on the other that which seeks for explanations within nature and denies that there is the need for, or even the possibility of, a supernatural order. The debate between atheism and theism spreads far across the range of philosophical questions about the status of science, the nature of mind, the character of good and evil and the epistemology of experience and testimony. In this book two philosophers each committed to unambiguous versions of belief and disbelief debate the central issues of atheism and theism.