Philosophy of Religion What is religion? “Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate...

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