Sentiments of Reason and Aspirations of the Soul

It is a commonplace to remark on the intractability of philosophical and theological disputes; yet generations of advocates return again and again to restate their favored positions, each time hoping to have found some new persuasive argument or consideration. This combination of persistence in the face of dialectical intractability suggests that beneath the weft and warp of carefully crafted arguments there lie deeper differences of intellectual outlook and existential commitment. A few years ago, I engaged in a published exchange with philosopher J. J. C. Smart on the question of the existence of God and allied issues in the book Atheism and Theism.1 Smart, the brother of the late Ninian (himself a leading figure in religious studies), is one of the best known philosophers of his generation. Early in the book, Smart describes having once been a Christian and, thereafter, mentions more than once his feeling that there is, perhaps, a real mystery in the fact that there is anything at all. Yet he finds the theist explanation of cosmic existence no less mysterious; although he is open to the idea that there are mysteries to be