Unbelievable? 13 Nov 2010 - Alvin Plantinga on the Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism

Richard Dawkins has said that "the theory of evolution made it possible to be an intellecually fulfilled atheist". But what if belief in evolution becomes irrational on atheist naturalism?

Alvin Plantinga is one of the foremost Christian philosophers in the world and is leading a resurgence of Christian philosophy in North America. He has formulated the "Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism" which proposes that if evolution is true then it provides a defeater for rational belief on a naturalistic framework. Can we trust our beliefs to be true if they have been produced by minds that are themselves the products of unguided evolution - a process that is geared towards producing beliefs for survival, not necessarily for truth?

?

He explains the force of the argument and debates its implications with Stephen Law, atheist and Senior lecturer in philosophy at Heythrop college, University of London. Stephen is also Provost of the Centre for Inquiry UK.

Plantinga also states where he stands on Intelligent Design, the problem of evil and a few other things besides.

For Alvin Plantinga see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Plantinga for more links to Plantinga's work see http://philofreligion.homestead.com/plantingapage.html

For Stephen Law see http://stephenlaw.blogspot.com/ or http://www.cfilondon.org/

For more discussions visit http://www.premier.org.uk/unbelievable or get the podcast or Via Itunes

If you enjoyed this discussion you may also want to hear:

Unbelievable? 1 May 2010 Test of Faith: Do we need God, now that we have science? Christian Denis Alexander vs Atheist Stephen Law

Unbelievable? 26 Jul 2008 American Masters of Apologetics Pt 3: Alvin Plantinga

Join the debate at the "Unbelievable?" group of the Premier Community http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable