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Perspectives on Religious Belief: Evidentialism-1
Definition: belief in God must be supported by objective evidence
Natural theology: attempt to prove existence of God using reason and experience
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Perspectives on Religious Belief: Evidentialism-2
Atheism: claim that God does not exist
Agnosticism: not enough evidence to know whether God exists
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Perspectives on Religious Belief: Nonevidentialism
Definition: basic beliefs can be held without objective, rational evidence
Fideism: religious belief must be based on faith alone
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The Cosmological Argument for God
Aquinas’ First Cause Argument Summa Theologica Principle of sufficient reason
Argument from contingency Contingent and necessary beings Taylor's Metaphysics
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The Design Argument for God
Teleological argument
Greek telos means end or goal
Based on evidence of design in the world
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William Paley: Natural Theology
Analogy: discovery of a watch on the ground
Strength of teleological argument depends on confidence in analogy
A designer is most probable explanation for universe
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Science and Cosmic Design
Charles Darwin Origin of Species (1859) Originally thought that scientific
findings confirmed divine design Hoyle Davies
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David Hume
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Objected to the argument from design
Evidence does not give us any more reason for believing in the biblical God than in other alternatives
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Evolution versus Design
Darwin: evolution by means of natural selection
F. R. Tennant: natural processes and laws are instruments of God
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The Ontological Argument for God
God is a perfect being
God's existence is derived from the very concept of God's being
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St. Anselm
Definition of God: a being than which nothing greater can be conceived
Reductio ad absurdum: Even denial of God’s existence requires the idea of God, so God exists in understanding
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Nonevidentialist Theism
Insufficiency of reason with regard to God's existence
Impossibility of the neutral standpoint
Reasonableness of subjective justifications
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Pascal’s Wager
Either God exists or He does not Either I believe in God or I do not Result could be
infinite gain infinite loss finite gain finite loss
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William James
Choices between beliefs (options)
Living or dead Forced or avoidable Momentous or trivial
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Soren Kierkegaard
Logical proofs for God's existence are problematic
Faith and leap of faith
The paradox of the absurd being transformed through faith
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The Problem of Evil
The problem of evil Existence of God Existence of suffering
Types of evil Moral Natural
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Religious Responses to the Argument from Evil
The formal argument Premises 1, 2, 3 describe God’s
goodness, knowledge, and power Premise 4: Existence of evil Premise 5: God would prevent or
eliminate evil
Theodicy: the attempt to justify God's permitting evil to occur in the world
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The Greater Goods Defense
Evil exists because it is necessary to achieve a greater good
Hick: Evil and suffering needed for “soul-making”
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The Free Will Defense God could not create creatures who
have freedom of will but are incapable of doing evil
Critiques God could cause humans to freely
choose the good God could balance free will and
moral evil
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The Natural Order Defense
In order for there to be free choices, there has to be a stable, reliable order of natural cause and effect
C. S. Lewis: The Problem of Pain
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Concepts of Hinduism-1
Maya: the many ways of seeing the world
Atman: the individual’s eternal soul and
the soul of the universe Atman is Brahman
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Concepts of Hinduism-2
Yoga: paths to spiritual fulfillment Hinduism and human destiny
Karma Reincarnation
Hinduism and the problem of evil Karma Maya
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The Buddhist View of the World
Interwoven processes, not things The self in Buddhist philosophy
Anatta--no soul Five aggregates
The problem of evil Dukkha or suffering
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Goals of Buddhism
Eliminate selfish desires
Attain detachment, nonattachment
Achieve nirvana