William L. Rowe - Wikipedia William L. Rowe From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search William Rowe Born (1931-07-26)July 26, 1931 Detroit, Michigan Died August 22, 2015(2015-08-22) (aged 84) Lafayette, Indiana Nationality American Alma mater University of Michigan Era Contemporary philosophy Region Western philosophy School Analytic philosophy Main interests Philosophy of religion Notable ideas Evidential problem of evil Influenced Paul Draper, Michael Bergmann William Leonard Rowe (/roʊ/ July 26, 1931 – August 22, 2015) was a professor emeritus of philosophy at Purdue University who specialized in the philosophy of religion. His work played a leading role in the "remarkable revival of analytic philosophy of religion since the 1970s".[1] He was noted for his formulation of the evidential argument from evil.[2] Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Friendly atheism 2 Works 2.1 Influential papers 2.2 Books 2.3 About his work 3 See also 4 Notes and references Biography[edit] William Leonard Rowe was born on July 26, 1931.[3] According to Rowe, he became an evangelical Christian during his teenage years and planned to become a minister, eventually enrolling at the Detroit Bible Institute for his collegiate education. He reported in personal conversation that he became disgruntled there over the firing of one professor for theological views not held by the administration. Thinking it too political for him, he decided to change course and find a close major to theology, namely, philosophy. He then transferred to Wayne State University. From there his plan was to go to Fuller Theological Seminary as a springboard to entering ministry, possibly teaching ministry. He never made it to Fuller. While at Wayne State he reported that one particular professor, whose father was a minister but himself an atheist, had remarkable influence on Rowe. After his graduation from Wayne State, Rowe began his post-graduate education at the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS). He reported that it was at this time he began to take a more critical look at the Bible, learn about its origins and meet theologians who, unlike himself, did not have a fundamentalist perspective. The result was that his own fundamentalism began to wane. He received a Master of Divinity degree from CTS, and then went on to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan. He completed his doctorate in 1962, taught briefly at the University of Illinois and later that year, joined the faculty of Purdue University. Rowe described his conversion from Christian fundamentalist to, ultimately, an atheist as a gradual process, resulting from "the lack of experiences and evidence sufficient to sustain my religious life and my religious convictions." He said that his examination of the origins of the Bible caused him to doubt its being divine in nature, and that he then began to look and pray for signs of the existence of God. "But in the end, I had no more sense of the presence of God than I had before my [evangelical] conversion experience. So, it was the absence of religious experiences of the appropriate kind that . . . left me free to seriously explore the grounds for disbelief," Rowe said.[4] On August 22, 2015, Rowe died at the age of 84.[5] Friendly atheism[edit] Rowe introduced the concept of a "friendly atheist" in his classic paper on the argument from evil. A friendly atheist is a person who accepts that some theists have rationales for their belief in God, even if it is the case that God doesn't exist. One consequence of Rowe's philosophical friendliness was his adherence to the principle of charity.[6] He published in defense of theistic arguments, and was even considered a supporter of the cosmological argument.[7] Works[edit] Influential papers[edit] Rowe, William L. (1979). "The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism". American Philosophical Quarterly. 16: 335–41. Reprinted in Howard-Snyder, Daniel, ed. (1996). The Evidential Argument from Evil. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ——— (1996). "The Evidential Argument from Evil: A Second Look.". In Howard-Snyder, Daniel (ed.). The Evidential Argument from Evil. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Books[edit] ——— (1975). The Cosmological Argument. B: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-8232-1885-6. ——— (1978). Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction. Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN 0-495-00725-0. ——— (1991). Thomas Reid on Freedom and Morality. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-2557-3. ——— (2004). Can God Be Free?. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-920412-8. About his work[edit] Trakakis, Nick (2007). The God Beyond Belief: In Defence of William Rowe's Evidential Argument from Evil. Springer. ISBN 978-1-4020-5144-9. See also[edit] American philosophy List of American philosophers Notes and references[edit] ^ Trakakis, Nick (2005). "ROWE, William Leonard". In John R. Shook (ed.). Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers. Thoemmes Press. ISBN 1-84371-037-4. ^ Trakakis, Nick (2006). "The Evidential Problem of Evil". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2007-04-20. ^ Rowe, William L. (2007). Trakakis, Nick (ed.). William L. Rowe on philosophy of religion. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. p. xiii. ISBN 0-7546-5558-X. ^ "Purdue philosophy professor a gentle atheist". Terre Haute Tribune-Star. April 1, 2005.. ^ "In Memoriam: William L. Rowe (1931-2015)". prosblogion. Archived from the original on 24 August 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015. ^ Burgess-Jackson, Keith. "Book Review". Philosophy @ UTA blog. Retrieved 2007-04-20.[dead link] ^ Taliaferro, Charles. "Philosophy of Religion". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2007-04-20. v t e Philosophy of religion Concepts in religion Afterlife Euthyphro dilemma Faith Intelligent design Miracle Problem of evil Religious belief Soul Spirit Theodicy Theological veto Conceptions of God Aristotelian view Brahman Demiurge Divine simplicity Egoism Holy Spirit Misotheism Pandeism Personal god Process theology Supreme Being Unmoved mover God in Abrahamic religions Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Islam Jainism Judaism Mormonism Sikhism Baháʼí Faith Wicca Existence of God For Beauty Christological Consciousness Cosmological Kalam Contingency Degree Desire Experience Fine-tuning of the universe Love Miracles Morality Necessary existent Ontological Pascal's wager Proper basis Reason Teleological Natural law Watchmaker analogy Transcendental Against 747 gambit Atheist's Wager Evil Free will Hell Inconsistent revelations Nonbelief Noncognitivism Occam's razor Omnipotence Poor design Russell's teapot Theology Acosmism Agnosticism Animism Antireligion Atheism Creationism Dharmism Deism Demonology Divine command theory Dualism Esotericism Exclusivism Existentialism Christian Agnostic Atheistic Feminist theology Thealogy Womanist theology Fideism Fundamentalism Gnosticism Henotheism Humanism Religious Secular Christian Inclusivism Theories about religions Monism Monotheism Mysticism Naturalism Metaphysical Religious Humanistic New Age Nondualism Nontheism Pandeism Panentheism Pantheism Perennialism Polytheism Possibilianism Process theology Religious skepticism Spiritualism Shamanism Taoic Theism Transcendentalism more... Religious language Eschatological verification Language game Logical positivism Apophatic theology Verificationism Problem of evil Augustinian theodicy Best of all possible worlds Euthyphro dilemma Inconsistent triad Irenaean theodicy Natural evil Theodicy Philosophers of religion (by date active) Ancient and medieval Anselm of Canterbury Augustine of Hippo Avicenna Averroes Boethius Erasmus Gaunilo of Marmoutiers Pico della Mirandola Heraclitus King James VI and I Marcion of Sinope Thomas Aquinas Maimonides Early modern Augustin Calmet René Descartes Blaise Pascal Baruch Spinoza Nicolas Malebranche Gottfried W Leibniz William Wollaston Thomas Chubb David Hume Baron d'Holbach Immanuel Kant Johann G Herder 1800 1850 Friedrich Schleiermacher Karl C F Krause Georg W F Hegel William Whewell Ludwig Feuerbach Søren Kierkegaard Karl Marx Albrecht Ritschl Afrikan Spir 1880 1900 Ernst Haeckel W K Clifford Friedrich Nietzsche Harald Høffding William James Vladimir Solovyov Ernst Troeltsch Rudolf Otto Lev Shestov Sergei Bulgakov Pavel Florensky Ernst Cassirer Joseph Maréchal 1920 postwar George Santayana Bertrand Russell Martin Buber René Guénon Paul Tillich Karl Barth Emil Brunner Rudolf Bultmann Gabriel Marcel Reinhold Niebuhr Charles Hartshorne Mircea Eliade Frithjof Schuon J L Mackie Walter Kaufmann Martin Lings Peter Geach George I Mavrodes William Alston Antony Flew 1970 1990 2010 William L Rowe Dewi Z Phillips Alvin Plantinga Anthony Kenny Nicholas Wolterstorff Richard Swinburne Robert Merrihew Adams Ravi Zacharias Peter van Inwagen Daniel Dennett Loyal Rue Jean-Luc Marion William Lane Craig Ali Akbar Rashad Alexander Pruss Related topics Criticism of religion Desacralization of knowledge Ethics in religion Exegesis History of religion Religion Religious language Religious philosophy Relationship between religion and science Faith and rationality more... Portal Category Authority control BIBSYS: 90403406 BNF: cb12172752q (data) GND: 132452529 ISNI: 0000 0001 0936 0764 LCCN: n50022314 LNB: 000100226 NKC: xx0109815 NLA: 35760025 NLI: 000405145 NLP: A31168656 NSK: 000328168 NTA: 070845352 PLWABN: 9810683196005606 SNAC: w65d9r6q SUDOC: 030276756 Trove: 1074853 VIAF: 111896401 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n50022314 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_L._Rowe&oldid=992585503" Categories: American philosophers Analytic philosophers William Tyndale College alumni Wayne State University alumni American atheists 1931 births 2015 deaths University of Michigan alumni Atheist philosophers Chicago Theological Seminary alumni Hidden categories: All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from October 2010 Articles with hCards Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLP identifiers Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version Languages العربية Deutsch Ελληνικά Español فارسی Bahasa Indonesia Italiano مصرى Português Edit links This page was last edited on 6 December 2020, at 01:41 (UTC). 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