The Metaphysics of God: An Exercise in Practical Ontology

This book has two purposes: one philosophical, the other polemical. The philosophical purpose will reveal itself plainly in due course, but the polemical purpose is sometimes implicit - between the lines, as it were. The target of the polemic is religionism. Religionists are those who are so bound up in whatever they believe that they will not change their minds about these beliefs even when presented with the most compelling evidence, facts, or even deductive proof against these beliefs. Religionists believe that their very identity, their very being, or what some of them call their immortal soul, is inseparable from and embodied in their beliefs to the extent that, if these beliefs are ever undermined, then they themselves will be psychologically or spiritually destroyed - or at least lose their integrity. Insofar as the typical pigheadedness of religionists stifles civilization, creates unnecessary conflict, negates logic, and countermands reason, an important goal of humanity should be to make the world safe from religionism. Let me state clearly from the outset that my anti-religionism is not atheism. I am a philosophical theist in the tradition of Hegel. I shall argue below that atheism is nonsense and that it is, in effect, a religion.