Pretty cool site showing the arguments for the existence of God from the very beginning and various comments and replies that goes with it. The author is Rebecca Goldstein. She has also made a fictionalized book based on this stuff in which you can read the first chapter and the appendix. Check it out here. I may read it, but I’m usually skeptical of fictionalized books made from philosophy. Although I have to admit it’s on my wish list.
UPDATE: 6/17/2010 Well, believe it or not, I finally read the book. In a way, it reminded me of The Chosen by Chaim Potok. It’s about an atheist who writes a bestseller about atheism and throughout the novel, it bounces from the past and the present about the main character’s experiences of people with spirituality and how they view the world. The climax of the book is the debate between the atheist and the believer at a formal debate. All in all, it wasn’t bad, but it is extremely erudite. You should be somewhat familiar with philosophy (a lot), Judaism (particularly Hasidism), Game Theory, psychology, and messianism. However, I still think the appendix is the best which you can still see from the links above.
Rebecca Goldstein is as accomplished a writer as I have ever read: in terms of her intellect, her fictional concepts, and the poetic prose. In my opinion, she should have won a Pulitzer for PROPERTIES OF LIGHT. I myself am an atheist. I don’t know if Rebecca is or not, and maybe I don’t WANT to know. It wouldn’t change my opinion of her as a writer. I might think her a bit less of an intellect and a bit less of a philosopher if she believes in a god, but not so much less that I would cease reading her work.
Why would you think less of her if she were a theist (Plantinga, Von Inwagen, Godel, Leibniz, by you claim, , must have been less intelligent than, say, Marx or the like)?
This book was on my wishlist and low and behold, I received the book. Hopefully, I’ll be able to read it quickly and give a review of it.