6 INTRODUCTIONnot. Evil is genuinely tragic only if persons have great worth. If human
persons are created in the image of God then they have this worth. If it less
clear that they have this worth on nonmonotheistic views,^5 then perhaps at
least part of the apparent force of the problem of evil rests on monotheism
being true after all.
Various features of the world have been explained by reference to God:
Fact 1: There are things that do exist that might not have existed. In
fact, everything around us might not have existed. It is
logically possible, for example, that nothing material exists.
Plainly, material things do exist. It is logically possible that
finite minds do not exist. But they do.
Fact 2: The world is orderly in a manner accessible to our
intelligence. Lots of worlds that might have existed would
not have had this feature. In them, neither science nor
successful planning could occur.
Fact 3: There are moral standards, criteria for good and evil that were
not invented by us. There are actions and persons which are
appropriately assessed by reference to these standards. This
might not have been so.
If God exists, this explains these facts. Arguments for God’s existence
typically appeal to these facts. Further, experiences occur in different ages
and cultures which their subjects take to be experiences of God. These
experiences are often said to provide evidence that God exists. We consider
both the considerations against and those for monotheism.
In Part IV, we consider nonmonotheistic traditions. Appeals to argument
and appeals to experience are made in defense of the Advaita Vedanta
claims that only qualityless Brahman exists and that each person is
identical to qualityless Brahman. The main consideration typically
presented on its behalf is the occurrence of an esoteric religious
experience.^6 The Jain thesis that self-conscious, enduring minds enjoy
independent existence entails that persons are at least enduring and self-
conscious. This claim is defended by both specific Jain arguments and by
appeal to everyday experience and Jain enlightenment. Similarly, the
Buddhist doctrine that everything is impermanent and co-dependent
entails that a person at a time is one collection of momentary elements and
over time a person is a series of such collections. This claim is defended by
argument and appeal to Buddhist enlightenment experience. We discuss
these appeals to argument and experience in some detail.
In Part V, we turn to religion and morality, and faith and reason.
Religion and morality are related in different ways. Particularly significant
is whether the ultimate religious values include moral values. This is