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What would you ask a Catholic philosopher about God? (#AMA with Dr. Edward Feser)

In a few days, Dr. Edward Feser will release his newest book, titled Five Proofs of the Existence of God (Ignatius Press, 2017).

You probably know Dr. Feser from his sharply reasoned posts here at Strange Notions, or from his popular blog, which mainly focuses on the philosophy of religion.

Dr. Feser is the author of several acclaimed books, including:

Dr. Feser is a Thomistic philosopher, meaning he specializes in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, and has written extensively on Aquinas' Five Ways (or five proofs) to God.

But in his new book, he examines several more arguments. Here's a brief summary:

Five Proofs of the Existence of God provides a detailed, updated exposition and defense of five of the historically most important (but in recent years largely neglected) philosophical proofs of God's existence: the Aristotelian proof, the Neo-Platonic proof, the Augustinian proof, the Thomistic proof, and the Rationalist proof.
 
This book also offers a detailed treatment of each of the key divine attributes—unity, simplicity, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, perfect goodness, and so forth—showing that they must be possessed by the God whose existence is demonstrated by the proofs. Finally, it answers at length all of the objections that have been leveled against these proofs.
 
This book offers as ambitious and complete a defense of traditional natural theology as is currently in print. Its aim is to vindicate the view of the greatest philosophers of the past—thinkers like Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Aquinas, Leibniz, and many others—that the existence of God can be established with certainty by way of purely rational arguments. It thereby serves as a refutation both of atheism and of the fideism which gives aid and comfort to atheism.

Since these are all topics we discuss and debate regularly here on Strange Notions, I reached out to Dr. Feser and asked if he'd be willing to do an #AMA (Ask Me Anything) on our site, answering whatever questions we threw at him. Thankfully, he accepted!

So just type your question below in the comment box, and over the next few days we'll select a handful. Dr. Feser will then share his answers here within the next couple weeks.

We'd especially love to hear from skeptics and atheists. So whether you doubt natural theology is even a legitimate discipline, or you think it's impossible to prove God, or whether you have a specific question about a particular proof, we want to hear from you!

What would you ask a Catholic philosopher about proofs of God?

We especially want to hear questions related to proofs for God's existence, and again we'd love to hear from skeptics or atheists. But everyone is welcome to submit questions. They don't have to be challenges or "gotcha" questions—in fact, we discourage those. We're mostly interested in sincere, curious questions.

(It should go without saying that if your question is disrespectful or snarky, it won't be chosen.)

So again, just type your question below in the comment box and we'll pick the best ones to send to Dr. Feser. (And be sure to upvote other questions you like—questions with the most upvotes will likely be chosen!)

Brandon Vogt

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Brandon Vogt is a bestselling author and the founder of StrangeNotions.com. Brandon has been featured by several media outlets including NPR, CBS, FoxNews, SiriusXM, and EWTN. He converted to Catholicism in 2008, and since then has released ten books, including The Church and New Media (Our Sunday Visitor, 2011), Saints and Social Justice (Our Sunday Visitor, 2014), and Why I Am Catholic (And You Should Be Too) (Ave Maria Press, 2017). He works as the Senior Publishing Director for Bishop Robert Barron's Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Brandon lives with his wife, Kathleen, and their seven children in Central Florida. Follow him at BrandonVogt.com.

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