Alvin Plantinga
2 As one of the more contemporary philosophers we are going to look at, Plantinga s ideas are much more connected to our modern way of thinking than the others. 2He also has a heavily religious leaning to his work, which fits our overall subject matter nicely.
Who is He?
30f Dutch descent, Alvin Plantinga was born in 1932. 4He began to study philosophy in 1951 after hearing a lecture by William Harry Jellema. 5He continued his studies at Calvin College, Harvard and the University of Michigan, eventually earning a Ph.D. in the subject. 6He taught at both Calvin College and the University of Notre Dame, and has written several books.
7His field of expertise involves a combination of philosophy, Christian religion and metaphysics. 8He looks at many aspects of these themes along with epistemology, which is the study and understanding of knowledge itself.
9It should be noted that he holds a definitive Christian bias, and though he looks at many spiritual topics from a logical perspective, that bias is still evident. 1OHis body of work covers many different areas, but here are a few of his theories that would be of interest to any spiritual discussion.
Evil and Free Will
11Within philosophical circles, the concept of a wholly good God creates a logical problem with the nature of evil. 12The initial problem is that a Being that is omnipotent and all-good would not allow evil to exist in the world, and yet evil most certainly does. 13This creates a paradox.
14Plantinga s view on this involves our free will, and though it is accepted by many (not all) to resolve the logical issues of evil, it's not intended to be any kind of truth in itself. 15In other words, this is simply a theoretical possibility rather than any provable certainty.
16He speculates that the nature of free will allows for mankind to make evil choices without necessarily negating the existence of a completely good God figure. 17He feels that true moral goodness can only come from free-willed beings so it makes logical sense that God would allow evil choices to be made in the name of free will. 18In short, his theory is this:
“A world containing creatures who are significantly free (and freely perform more good than evil actions) is more valuable, all else being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all. Now God can create free creatures, but He can't cause or determine them to do only what is right. For if He does so, then they are not significantly free after all; they do not do what is right freely. To create creatures capable of moral good, therefore, He must create creatures capable of moral evil; and He can't give these creatures the freedom to perform evil and at the same time prevent them from doing so. As it turned out, some of the free creatures God created went wrong in the exercise of their freedom, and that is the source of moral evil. The fact that free creatures sometimes do go wrong, counts neither against God's omnipotence nor against His goodness, for He could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only by removing the possibility of moral good. (The Nature of Necessity, 1974)
191t s a bit of a lengthy quote but it sums up his ideas about evil nicely. 201f you find the concept of evil to go against many of the mainstream religious teachings on their deities, you should read more about his theories on this. 21They are covered in much more detail in The Nature of Necessity.
Reformed Epistemology
22Though this may not be as much a mainstream topic as the nature of evil, it is considered to be one of Plantinga s major theories and contributions to philosophy. 23Epistemology is the study of knowledge itself, and this is an offshoot of it, involving certain religious concepts. 24Reformed epistemology is not Plantinga s personal creation though. 25He is one of several philosophers who follow this school of thought.
26This line of thinking claims that the belief in God is a basic belief, which (according to epistemology) is defined as a belief that does not need to be based on other truths or proofs to be valid.
27More typical schools of thought consider the belief in God to be irrational (though not necessarily incorrect) because there is no empirical evidence to support that belief. 28A truly rational belief is one that has evidence to back it up.
290f course, many philosophers do not buy into this reformed idea, stating that if you can declare the belief in God to be a basic belief, then you can do the same for just about anything.
30Plantinga digs deeper into the subject in three of his books: Warrant: The Current Debate, Warrant and Proper Function and Warranted Christian Belief . 31All three examine a concept he calls warrant, which could be used to logically justify beliefs that exist without evidence. 32His thinking involves memories, perception, self-knowledge and probability.
Naturalism or Evolution
33Another hot-button topic in religion is evolution, and Plantinga has some unusual thoughts on this as well. 34His specific theory is known as the evolutionary argument against naturalism. 351t has not been universally accepted as a philosophical theory. 361t s not an easy concept to get your head around, though it is a very interesting idea if you are interested in our origins from any type of deity.
37The concept of naturalism involves the belief that everything around us (including ourselves) is purely natural and that there is no deity whatsoever. 38This notion is closely tied to the theory of evolution. 39But if you look at the two of them together, they supposedly form a paradox according to Plantinga.
40Evolution makes changes in organisms over many generations, based on survival of the fittest. 41When applied to humans, this would mean that the way we think is also geared toward survival, not necessarily towards ultimate truths. 42With this as our evolutionary background, Plantinga feels that our thought processes cannot be trusted because there is no guarantee that they are leading us to a true outcome. 43That means that our belief in evolution itself can be flawed simply because of the way we think. 44In other words, our beliefs cannot be trusted if you accept a naturalistic evolution theory, and that includes belief in the theory itself. 450f course, if you can t trust your thinking then all arguments become moot. 46Even so, it's an interesting idea that no one else has proposed.
His Works
47If you wish to find out more about Plantinga s views, here are some additional books on philosophy and religion beyond the ones already mentioned above:
i. God and Other Minds
ii. God, Freedom and Evil
iii. Does God have a Nature?
iv. Essays in the Metaphysics of Modality
v. Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion and Naturalism