Nontraditional arguments for theism

Abstract

I propose a taxonomy of arguments for the existence of God and survey those categories of arguments I identify as nontraditional. I conclude with two general observations about theistic arguments, followed by suggestions for going forward.

Recent Work on Traditional Arguments for Theism I

“…1 The seven categories of traditional theistic arguments surveyed are based on the taxonomy of theistic arguments I proposed earlier (McIntosh, 2019), where I survey an additional seven categories of nontraditional theistic arguments: metaphysical, nomological, axiological, noological, linguistic, anthropological, and meta-arguments. I choose to speak of "theistic arguments" instead of "natural theology."…”

“…1 1 The seven categories of traditional theistic arguments surveyed are based on the taxonomy of theistic arguments I proposed earlier (McIntosh, 2019), where I survey an additional seven categories of nontraditional theistic arguments: metaphysical, nomological, axiological, noological, linguistic, anthropological, and meta‐arguments. I choose to speak of “theistic arguments” instead of “natural theology.” The latter term is a holdover from a time when theology and philosophy were happily married, and it had a more restricted meaning that would exclude some contemporary theistic arguments, such as arguments from miracles and religious experience.…”

Recent work on traditional arguments for theism II

“…1 1 The seven categories of traditional theistic arguments surveyed are based on the taxonomy of theistic arguments I proposed earlier (McIntosh, 2019), where I survey an additional seven categories of nontraditional theistic arguments: metaphysical, nomological, axiological, noological, linguistic, anthropological, and meta‐arguments. I choose to speak of “theistic arguments” instead of “natural theology.” The latter term is a holdover from a time when theology and philosophy were happily married, and it had a more restricted meaning that would exclude some contemporary theistic arguments, such as arguments from miracles and religious experience.…”