Ebook: God, Reason and Theistic Proofs

Many years after I first read this book, I still think it is the best treatment of the subject I have seen. The author is a professor of philosophy, he is very fair-minded (he is a theist, from memory, but he does not allow that to sway his philosophical judgment), he presents the arguments in a very structured and thorough but also clear way (if it hadn't been clear, I as very much a layman, would not have understood it!) and it is easy to agree with his cautious conclusions. I have not read another book, by believer or non-believer, that I thought had all these qualities. I recommend it.

He covers a number of the classic arguments - ontological (which gets a fairer treatment than I would have given it!), cosmological, design, religious experience, moral, etc, plus he addresses interesting core issues such as religious realism, foundationalism (plus coherentism & pragmatism as alternatives) and the principle of sufficient reason, all in ways and at places where they are relevant to the main discussion and relatively easy to understand.

His conclusion? He thinks the "proofs" can show at least that theism is rational, and possibly more rational than alternatives, but he doesn't think any proof actually proves the existence of God. That is probably what we might expect, leaving the questions open for each of us to decide for ourselves.