Dr. Richard Swinburne, is Emeritus Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion, University of Oxford, Emeritus Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford and Fellow of the British Academy. Over the last 50 years Swinburne has been an influential proponent of philosophical arguments for the existence of God. His philosophical contributions are primarily in the philosophy of religion and philosophy of science. He aroused much discussion with his early work in the philosophy of religion, a trilogy of books consisting of The Coherence of Theism (1977), The Existence of God (1979), and Faith and Reason (1981). Dr. Swinburne formulated five categories into which all religious experiences fall, the public and the private with the related subcategories, while he has also coined two principles for their assessment, namely the principle of credulity and the principle of testimony. He has authored numerous books such as: Epistemic Justification, 2001, The Resurrection of God Incarnate, 2003, Free Will and Modern Science, Ed. 2011, Mind, Brain, and Free Will, 2013.

The topic of his lectures was “The existence of God and the challenge of modern atheism” and “The existence of evil and the problem of theodicy”. In Athens, Professor Swinburne delivered both lectures (May 5th, K. Palamas Building, University of Athens), while in Volos (May 6th, Thessalia Conference Center, attended by the Metropolitan of Demetrias Ignatius) only the first one.
    

In his lectures an attempt was made by Professor R. Swinburne to give his comprehensive and coherent overview on the arguments of the existence of God. In this perspective he pointed out two principles of assessing the religious experience: The Principle of Credulity (PC): ‘Believe what seems to you to be so – in the absence of counter-evidence’. The Principle of Testimony (PT): ‘Believe what anyone tells you – in the absence of counter-evidence’. While many people may believe that there is a God in virtue of PC because of their religious experience, or in virtue of PT because of their upbringing, in the modern world where there is so much counter-evidence, most people need natural theology, that is arguments from the most general features of the world (positive evidence) to the existence of God, if their belief is to be rational.
Since humans have a unique kind of goodness (the power to choose between good and evil, and thereby benefit or harm themselves and each other), it is quite probable that a good God will create them. For this purpose they need bodies, hence a physical universe; they need to know how to benefit or harm, hence simple laws of nature determining the effects of their actions; the laws need to keep their bodies in existence; and they need to be conscious in order to choose and feel effects.

But what about the sovereign counter-argument against the existence of God based on the problem of the existence of evil?
According to Professor R. Swinburne God is (by definition) omnipotent (able to do anything logically possible), omniscient (knows everything logically possible to know), and perfectly free (not subject to irrational influences on how he chooses). From this it follows that he is perfectly good. Yet he allows bad things to happen. Theodicy is the task of explaining how that is compatible with his perfect goodness.
The topic of the seminar (Athens May 9th, “En Plo” Bookstore) was “The existence of Evil and the problem of theodicy”, where Professor Swinburne summarized the basic aspects of his argument. After the brief speech of the featured speaker, the two round table participants, Dr. Stelios Virvidakis, Professor at the Department of Methodology, History of Philosophy and Science, University of Athens, Greece, and Rev. Evangellos Ganas, Theologian, Electrician Engineer, Priest of St. Meletios Parish in Athens, Greece responded by brief interventions to Professor’s argumentation.

The seminar was attended by, among others, professors of the Theological and Philosophical Faculties, scholars from other disciplines (philosophy, psychoanalysis, medicine, etc.), graduate and doctoral students, etc. The Volos Academy for Theological Studies will take care of the publication of the text in Greek and English language.

Richard Swinburne’s lectures and seminar were kindly sponsored by the Virginia H. Farah Foundation.