Philosophia Christi

Volume 18, Issue 1, 2016

Ethics: Just War as Deterrence Against Terrorism?

Muslim Natural Theology Fights Back
Bolstering Christian Ramified Natural Theology against Muslim Objections

Richard Swinburne and Robert Larmer have offered different natural theological arguments for preferring Christian belief over Muslim belief. This paper argues (a) that both arguments are vulnerable to real and imagined Muslim objections and (b) that, while both can be bolstered against such objections, Larmer’s argument from miracle has much better prospects. Swinburne’s probabilistic argument suffers the lack of a strong natural theological argument for the Christian model of divine–human interaction. The argument from miracle, however, can be formulated robustly enough to withstand the challenge of the strongest reasonable Muslim miracle account.