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

Perspectives on Religious Belief: Evidentialism-2

Atheism: claim that God does not exist

Agnosticism: not enough evidence to know whether God exists

Perspectives on Religious Belief: Nonevidentialism

Definition: basic beliefs can be held without objective, rational evidence

Fideism: religious belief must be based on faith alone

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

The Design Argument for God

Teleological argument

Greek telos means end or goal

Based on evidence of design in the world

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

Science and Cosmic Design

Charles Darwin Origin of Species (1859) Originally thought that scientific

findings confirmed divine design Hoyle Davies

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

Evolution versus Design

Darwin: evolution by means of natural selection

F. R. Tennant: natural processes and laws are instruments of God

The Ontological Argument for God

God is a perfect being

God's existence is derived from the very concept of God's being

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

Nonevidentialist Theism

Insufficiency of reason with regard to God's existence

Impossibility of the neutral standpoint

Reasonableness of subjective justifications

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

William James

Choices between beliefs (options)

Living or dead Forced or avoidable Momentous or trivial

Soren Kierkegaard

Logical proofs for God's existence are problematic

Faith and leap of faith

The paradox of the absurd being transformed through faith

The Problem of Evil

The problem of evil Existence of God Existence of suffering

Types of evil Moral Natural

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

The Greater Goods Defense

Evil exists because it is necessary to achieve a greater good

Hick: Evil and suffering needed for “soul-making”

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

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

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

Concepts of Hinduism-2

Yoga: paths to spiritual fulfillment Hinduism and human destiny

Karma Reincarnation

Hinduism and the problem of evil Karma Maya

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

Goals of Buddhism

Eliminate selfish desires

Attain detachment, nonattachment

Achieve nirvana