Tuesday, December 08, 2009

"Theism" Defined


It's always important to define terms when making an argument. In the philosophy of religion one must define "theism." Alvin Plantinga defines it this way: "theism is the belief that there is an all-powerful, all-knowing perfectly good immaterial person who has created the world, has created human beings ‘in his own image,’ and to whom we owe worship, obedience and allegiance."

So, when arguing for the existence of the God of theism, or when claiming that belief in the God of theism can be understood to be properly basic, we are using this definition.