Fictional Theism

Analysis 75 (4):539-550 (2015)
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Abstract

Creationists believe that C. K. Chesterton created Father Brown in his detective stories. Since creating implies a creation, Father Brown exists. Atheists object that the same reasoning could prove the existence of God. But creationists such as Jonathan Schaffer insist atheists do believe that God exists. Serious metaphysics rarely concerns existence. The disagreement between the theist and the atheist is about the nature of God, not His existence. Schaffer underestimates the religious imagination. There could be a religion that explicitly regarded God as a fictional character. The tenets of this, presently hypothetical, religion are developed in a dialogue.

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Roy Sorensen
University of Texas at Austin

Citations of this work

Wherein lies the debate? Concerning whether God is a person.Ben Page - 2019 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 85 (3):297-317.
Did the Greeks believe in their myths?Alberto Voltolini - forthcoming - Philosophical Psychology.
Unicorn Atheism.Roy Sorensen - 2018 - Noûs 52 (2):373-388.

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References found in this work

Reference and Existence: The John Locke Lectures.Saul A. Kripke - 2013 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Nonexistent Objects.Terence Parsons - 1980 - Yale University Press.
The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy.William James - 1897 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt, Fredson Bowers & Ignas K. Skrupskelis.
Creatures of Fiction.Peter van Inwagen - 1977 - American Philosophical Quarterly 14 (4):299 - 308.
Cogito, ergo sum: Inference or performance?Jaakko Hintikka - 1962 - Philosophical Review 71 (1):3-32.

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