Nuclear deterrence requires objective ethical analysis. In providing it, the authors face realities - the Soviet threat, possible nuclear holocaust, strategic imperatives - but they also unmask moral evasions - deterrence cannot be bluff, pure counterforce, the lesser evil, or a step towards disarmament. They conclude that the deterrent is unjustifiable and examine the new question of conscience that this raises for everyone.

FOLLOWING A THREE CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ON FAITH AND REASON, THE AUTHOR PRESENTS, IN TWO CHAPTERS, A COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF AN UNCAUSED ENTITY. EIGHT CHAPTERS OF CRITICISM OF ALTERNATIVES FOLLOW. THREE FOUR-CHAPTERS PARTS ON THE MEANINGFULNESS OF GOD-TALK, EXISTENTIAL OBJECTIONS TO GOD, AND THE MEANINGFULNESS OF CHRISTIAN BELIEFS CONCLUDE THE WORK. (BP).

"The purpose of this book is to set out an argument for the existence of God, to show how criticism of this argument arising from modern and contemporary philosophy can be met, to explicate how language is used to talk about God, and to show that various existential and analytic attacks upon the meaningfulness of Christian faith are not cogent." "The methodology used is novel in that scholastic and rationalistic metaphysical theories are avoided and no attempt is made to construct (...) a "science" of metaphysics. However, unlike much analytic argumentation, empiricist presuppositions are excluded."--BOOK JACKET. (shrink)

Originally a contribution to a symposium on this topic, i argue that metaphysics has little relevance to contemporary unrest. the latter expression gets its meaning from patterns of behavior that involve the use of similar means for very diverse ends. the attempt to develop philosophic theories of contemporary history is likely to ignore the important differences and to make much of rather insignificant similarities.