philosophy of religion
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What is religion?. “Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of a meaning of our life.”. Philosophy of Religion. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Philosophy of Religion• What is religion?• “Religion is the state of being grasped by
an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of a meaning of our life.”
Philosophy of Religion• Evidentialism: Belief in God
must be supported by objective evidence
Evidentialism• Atheism: Claim that God
does not exist
Evidentialism• Agnosticism: Not enough
evidence to know whether God exists
Nonevidentialism• Basic beliefs can be held
without objective, rational evidence
Nonevidentialism• Fideism:
religious belief must be based on faith alone
Evidentialism• Natural Theology:
The project of attempting to provide proofs for God based on reason and experience alone
• The Cosmological Argument for God
The Cosmological Argument• St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Aquinas’ First Cause Argument
• Everything in this world is dependant upon some cause• There cannot be an infinite regress of causes• There must be an uncaused first cause• An uncaused first cause is what we mean by God
The Cosmological Argument
• Principle of Sufficient Reason -Everything that exists must have a reason that explains why it exists and why it has the properties that it does
The Cosmological Argument• Argument from
Contingency –
• Contingent Beings – a beings whose existence is dependant upon something outside itself
• Necessary Beings – a being who contains the reason for its existence in its own nature
The Design Argument
• Teleological Argument: The argument for God’s existence based on evidence of design in the world
The Design Argument
• William Paley: Natural Theology
• Analogy: discovery of a watch on the ground
The Ontological Argument• Argument based solely on an a priori
analysis of the concept of the being of God.
• God's existence is derived from the very concept of God's being
The Ontological Argument• St. Anselm (1033-1109)• Definition of God: a being than
which nothing greater can be conceived
The Ontological Argument• God is the greatest conceivable being
• Existence is greater than non-existence
• Therefore God necessarily exists
Science and Religion• Adversarial Model: Science and Religion
attempt to answer the same questions about reality but give conflicting answers
Science and Religion• Territorial Model: Science and Religion
cannot conflict because they deal with different realms (or territories) of reality
Science and Religion• Perspective Model: Science and Religion
cannot conflict because they describe reality in different ways
Science and Religion• Harmony Model: Findings of Science and
Religion are consistent.
• Truths of Science make plausible claims of Religion
The Problem of Evil• The difficulty of reconciling the
existence of suffering and other evils in the world with the existence of God
The Problem of Evil• 1. God is all powerful /knowing• 2. God is good• 3. Evil exists
The Problem of Evil• Moral Evil: Bad actions
and their unfortunate results for which humans are morally responsible
• Natural Evil: The suffering resulting from natural causes such as genetic defects, diseases and natural disasters
The Problem of Evil• Religious
Responses to the Problem of Evil
• Theodicy: the attempt to justify God's permitting evil to occur in the world
The Greater Goods Defense• God allows evil to
exists because it is necessary to achieve a greater good
The Greater Goods Defense• 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
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
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