I am about to graduate from one of the only universities in the world that has a high concentration of high-caliber analytic philosophers who are theists. (Specifically, the University of Notre Dame, IN) So as not to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I have sent out emails asking many of them if they would like to meet and discuss their theism with me. Several of them have responded already in the affirmative; fingers crossed for the rest. I'm really looking forward to this because these people are really smart, and have spent a lot of time thinking about this, so I expect them to have interesting and insightful things to say.
Do you have suggestions for questions I could ask them? My main question will of course be "Why do you believe in God?" and variants thereof, but it would be nice if I could say e.g. "How do you avoid the problem of X which is a major argument against theism?"
Questions I've already thought of:
1-Why do you believe in God?
2-What are the main arguments in favor of theism, in your opinion?
3-What about the problem of evil? What about objective morality: how do you make sense of it, and if you don't, then how do you justify God?
4-What about divine hiddenness? Why doesn't God make himself more easily known to us? For example, he could regularly send angels to deliver philosophical proofs on stone tablets to doubters.
5-How do you explain God's necessary existence? What about the "problem of many Gods," i.e. why can't people say the same thing about a slightly different version of God?
6-In what sense is God the fundamental entity, the uncaused cause, etc.? How do you square this with God's seeming complexity? (he is intelligent, after all) If minds are in fact simple, then how is that supposed to work?
I welcome more articulate reformulations of the above, as well as completely new ideas.
It would be nice if you could do an article on their answers.
EDIT: Read my first comment and not this post because I've improved the structure of the text.
Here are some questions:
How confident are you that God exists? (anytime they say 100%, you could ask them if they would bet all human "souls" against one carrot that God exists to be 'sure' that they really mean 100%)
If someone, who is "otherwise" a very good person, is X% confident that God exists, for what minimum X are you at least 75% sure that s/he will go to paradise?
How confident are you that we live in a many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics? If more than 0% you could ask: if it is true, how confident are you that all "souls" from all universes go to (the same) paradise/hell? (if the same, it means you would encounter other versions of yourselves).
Does an evidence for the many-worlds interpretation (would be) an evidence against God? Does an evidence for alien life (would be) an evidence against God?
How confident are you that humans evolved from non-living matter?
How confident are you that chimps have souls? If low you could ask: If we bio-engineer an animal that is X% chimp and (1-X)% human, for what X are you 90% confident that the animal would have a soul and go to paradise or hell?
How confident are you that extremely severely mentally handicapped people have souls? If high, how intelligent do you think they become in paradise?
How confident are you that we can create a conscious being in silico? If an AI was created tomorrow, how would that affect your confidence that God exists?
How confident are you that there are fermions and bosons in paradise/hell? (if low: does that mean there is not concept of: temperature, light, sound, pressure? can time be meaured?)
In the "counter-factual" world were God doesn't exist, would you want to believe in it?
What are the advantages to believe in God (beside going to paradise)? What are the disadvantages?
If you could live for any amount of time, how would you want to live? If you could live for any amount of time, how long would you want to live on Earth? If more than 1 day, you could ask them why wouldn't you rather be in paradise? How confident are you that you will go to paradise? How scare are you to go to Hell?
How confident are you that we cannot feel pain in paradise?
After 3^^^3 years in paradise, how much do you think we can remember?
How confident are you that one can commit suicide in paradise if one wants to?
What do you consider as "playing God"? In what case do you think it is good to play God? How well do you think we can (possibly/physically) play God?
How confident are you that we are in a simulation?
What set of memories do you think we bring with us in paradise (the ones we have before we die? all the ones we made in our life? etc.)
How confident are you that cryonised humans keep their soul?
How sad are you sad when someone near you dies? Why?
What would be different in the world if there was no God?
PRAYERS
How confident are you that prayers can work? Even if controlled for the placebo effect?
How often do prayers work for you?
How much time should one pray versus work? (for example, on an exam)