ABSTRACT
It is generally assumed that existential and axiological issues question about whether God exists and questions about the value of God’s existence, can be kept apart in the debate that is the catalyst. The different realities believed by practitioners to be at the heart of Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist practice certainly appear to be regarded as ‘more’ in all three of these ways. It is the cultural evolution of the past few centuries that has brought to the foreground the concerns that animate anti-theism. The concerns make someone think that it would be worse for them or for the world if there were a personal God than it would be if naturalism itself boosted by the successes of science, which belong to cultural evolution, were true. Rowan Williams wrote recently that the paradox of our era in the modern North Atlantic world is that while securing against the casual daily risk of violence than our ancestors.
