There are four preliminary topics that I wish to take up in this first chapter. The first topic is the question of how best to provide a taxonomy of arguments about the existence of orthodoxly conceived monotheistic gods. Here, I am happy to follow the more or less ad hoc system of classification that has grown up around Kant's classification of theoretical arguments into the ontological, the cosmological, and the teleological. Since I think that each argument should be treated on its merits, I don't care how the arguments are grouped together; what really matters is that no arguments should be neglected.

The second topic is the question of how best to think about the virtues of arguments. When should we say that an argument for a given conclusion is a successful argument? I defend the view that, in circumstances in which it is well known that there has been perennial controversy about a given claim, a successful argument on behalf of that claim has to be one that ought to persuade all of those who have hitherto failed to accept that claim to change their minds. While this view sets the bar very high, there are, I think, good reasons for preferring it to views that would have one saying that there are successful arguments for conclusions that one does not oneself accept.

The third topic is the question of the tenability of agnosticism.