Education
He was educated at Ampleforth College. His undergraduate work was at the Balliol College, Oxford, in mathematics, and he gained a Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics from Harvard. After moving to Australia he gained an Master of Arts in philosophy at the University of Tasmania, then in 1984 a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney, where he was influenced by philosophers David Stove and David Armstrong.
Career
He was Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England from 1987 to 2010. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Views
In the philosophy of religion, Forrest"s books God Without the Supernatural and Developmental Theism defend a speculative view of God which resembles traditional theism in regarding God as an entity beyond the world, having creative powers, but also takes God not to violate natural laws and to develop from a state of pure power to a state of pure love. In the philosophy of time, Forrest defends the growing block theory, according to which the present and the past are real, but not the future.