The Non-Existence of God

Is it possible to prove or disprove God's existence?

Arguments for the existence of God have taken many different forms over the centuries: the ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments; arguments which invoke miracles, religious experience and morality; and prudential arguments such as Pascal's Wager.

On the other hand are the arguments against theistic belief: the traditional problem of evil; the logical tensions between divine attributes such as omnipotence, omniscience and eternity; and arguments from the scale of the universe.

In The Non-Existence of God , Nicholas Everitt reconsiders all of these arguments and examines the role that reason and knowledge play in the debate over God's existence.

He draws on recent scientific disputes over neo-Darwinism, the implication of 'big bang' cosmology, and the temporal and spatial size of the universe; and discusses some of the most recent work on the subject, such as Plantinga's 'anti-naturalism' argument in favour of theism.

Everitt's controversial conclusion is that there is a sense in which God's existence is disprovable, and that even in other senses a belief in God would be irrational.