J. L Schellenberg Livres

Progressive Atheism: How Moral Evolution Changes the God Debate introduces a new way of thinking about the existence of God, offering such a positive portrayal that you may sometimes wonder whether you're reading the thoughts of a believer. Starting with the simple idea that what it takes to be a good person changes all the time, J.L. Schellenberg looks at the qualities we pride ourselves on now and compares them to attitudes in the past. He considers how sensitivity, kindness, and nonviolence are more valued now than at any other point in history. As Schellenberg explains how our standards of goodness change, he shows how our idea of God's goodness changes too: the masculine images of God as haughty King or distant Father have been replaced by God as a paragon of nonviolence and moral goodness. But by allowing us to see how admirable God has now become, Schellenberg is able to give us compelling new reasons why God does not exist.

In this book, J. L. Schellenberg argues that humanity has developed spiritually and morally in a way that would have been reflected in Christian doctrine if that doctrine had been inspired by a good and all-knowing God, and that Christian doctrine cannot therefore be related to such a God in the way that it purports to be.

Schellenberg's argument is unique in bringing developmental ideas into contact with human religion, which is often treated as exempt from their influence; also radical is the suggestion that much of religion's development has yet to occur and that religion can and should become a human project as monumental as science.

This book offers a new challenge to belief in God. If God did exist, we should expect it to be a lot easier to know that he exists. But it's not a clear fact, and this is reason to suppose it's not a fact at all. J. L. Schellenberg presents a lucid, vigorous presentation of the argument that he himself pioneered.