Philosophy of Religion E-Book

Richard E. Creel

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 407

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Philosophy of Religion: The Basics offers a concise introduction to philosophy of religion, distilling key discussions and concepts of the subject to their succinct essence, providing a truly accessible entry into the subject.

• A truly accessible introduction to philosophy of religion for beginners
• Takes a topical approach, starting with the nature of religion and moving the reader through the major concepts, explaining how topics connect and point to one another
• Offers a thorough and full treatment of diverse conceptions of God, the ontological argument, and divine attributes and dilemmas
• A genuinely concise introduction, this text can be used alongside other resources without overtaxing students
• Represents 30 years of experience teaching to undergraduates
• Includes a free downloadable file with key excerpts and additions to help students study

Leseprobe

Contents

Preface for Teachers

Acknowledgments

Introduction

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 1: What Is Religion?

1.1 Creed

1.2 Code

1.3 Cult

1.4 Community

1.5 Toward a Definition of Religion

1.6 Ze, Zer, Mer

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 2: Six Conceptions of God

2.1 Experiential Sources of Concepts of God

2.2 Six Conceptions of God

2.3 Religious Naturalism

2.4 Pantheism

2.5 Panentheism (Process Theism)

2.6 Deism

2.7 Classical Biblical Theism is based on divine revelation

2.8 Classical Philosophical Theism

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 3: Divine Attributes and Dilemmas

3.1 What Is a Dilemma?

3.2 Ways to Respond to a Dilemma

3.3 Divine Attribute Dilemmas

3.4 Proposed Solutions to the Preceding Dilemmas

3.5 Open Theism

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 4: Human Language and Talk about God

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 5: Arguments about the Existence of God

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 6: The Ontological Argument

6.1 Is Anselm’s Argument Decisive?

6.2 A Version of Duns Scotus’ Ontological Argument

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 7: The Cosmological Arguments

7.1 The First Three of “The Five Ways” of Thomas Aquinas

7.2 Paul Edwards’ Infinite Regress Argument against the Cosmological Argument

7.3 The Oscillatory Theory

7.4 The Kalam Cosmological Argument

For Reflection, Review, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 8: The Teleological or Design Arguments

8.1 The Anthropic Principle

8.2 The Multiverse

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 9: God and Morality

9.1 Two Arguments from Morality for Belief in the Existence of God

9.2 The Relation of Morality to God

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 10: Religious Experience and Belief in God

10.1 The Principle of Credulity and the Rationality of Belief in God

10.2 Religious Experience as Evidence for the Existence of God

10.3 Toward a Cumulative Argument for God

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 11: Arguments against Belief in the Existence of God

11.1 Evidentialism and the Burden of Proof

11.2 Conceptual Arguments: Analysis of the Concept of God

11.3 Arguments from Science

11.4 The Problem of Divine Hiddenness

11.5 The Problem of Many Religions

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 12: The Problem of Evil

12.1 G.W. Leibniz (1646–1716)

12.2 The Logical Argument from Evil: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860)

12.3 The Evidential Argument from Evil: Edward Madden, Peter Hare, William Rowe

12.4 Charles Hartshorne’s Panentheist or Process Theodicy

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 13: God and Life after Death

13.1 Cessationism

13.2 Immortalism

13.3 Resurrectionism

13.4 Personal Identity and Continuity

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 14: Miracles, Revelation, and Prayer

14.1 Miracles

14.2 Revelation

14.3 Prayer

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Chapter 15: Rationality without Evidence

15.1 Pascal’s Wager

15.2 Evidentialism vs. the Right to Believe

15.3 Fideism

15.4 Agathism, Agatheism, and Religious Hope

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

For Further Reading

Glossary

Biographical Notes

Index

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Creel, Richard E., 1940–Philosophy of religion : the basics / Richard E. Creel. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-61957-5 (cloth) – ISBN 978-1-118-61943-8 (pbk.)

1. Religion–Philosophy. 2. Christianity. I. Title. BL51.C693 2013 210–dc23

2013016695

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Time for Reflection. © Lou Wall/CorbisCover design by Simon Levy Associates.

Dedicated

with deep appreciation for encouragement and support

to

William P. Alston, Philosopher

Jeffrey T. Dean, Editor

Sharon T. LaRose, Physician

Preface for Teachers

A fellow teacher once asked me, “If I use your text, what does that leave for me to do in class?” What this book freed me to do was have more discussion in class of the issues in the book, and it freed up time for me to take in short primary source handouts for study and discussion. To help guide review and evoke discussion, I have provided at the end of each chapter a section titled “For Review, Reflection, and Discussion.” Then follows a section “For Further Reading.” In the latter section, I make many recommendations from the first two books mentioned next, citing the relevant sections for the chapter just ended. It would be excellent for students to have a copy of the Zagzebski/Miller Readings or some other volume of readings (or at least have such available on reserve), and it will be helpful if Taliaferro’s Companion and Eshleman’s East Meets West are on reserve for students. In addition, I recommend highly that students be informed of Stanford University’s online philosophical encyclopedia: http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html. Here are references for the texts just mentioned:

Zagzebski, Linda, and Miller, Timothy, eds., Readings in Philosophy of Religion: Ancient to Contemporary (Wiley-Blackwell: 2009).

Taliaferro, Charles, Draper, Paul, et al., eds., A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell: 2010).

For students who want to read more about Asian philosophy of religion, I recommend Readings in the Philosophy of Religion: East Meets West, edited by Andrew Eshleman (Wiley-Blackwell: 2008).

Finally, at the end of this volume students will find a glossary and biographical notes. In the glossary, I alphabetize and summarize many of the distinctions and conceptual tools that I introduce to help students become more perceptive and analytic. Some of this material, and more, is available online for mobile access by your students.

Acknowledgments

For valuable criticisms, corrections, and suggestions regarding my original manuscript, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers whom Wiley-Blackwell secured.

In addition, I extend special thanks to James Keller, Emeritus Professor at Wofford College, for splendid supererogatory help.

Introduction

When most people graduate from high school, they are already familiar with history, literature, mathematics, science, and social studies, but it is rare for philosophy to be taught in high school, so most people’s first exposure to philosophy is in college. Or perhaps you graduated from college without taking a philosophy course or reading a philosophy book but have decided it’s time to do so. Good for you! Or perhaps you are a bright high school student! In all of these cases, I think you will appreciate it if I spend a little time answering the question “What is philosophy?” before we plunge into “philosophy of religion.”

Philosophy is an activity that goes all the way back to 600 BC in ancient Greece. It includes in its foundations such brilliant thinkers as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Over the centuries we must add giants such as St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, René Descartes, Benedict Spinoza, G.W. Leibniz, John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, John Stuart Mill, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and many others. (No – you do not have to memorize all those names!) As I mentioned, philosophy is an activity, not a static thing, so we have to ask, “What have philosophers been doing over the last 2600 years, right up to the present moment?” Most basically they have been trying to understand the nature of reality, the nature of the human situation, good and evil, right and wrong. Additional concerns are spin-offs of those basic concerns. For example, the issue about the nature and existence of God is one facet of the question of the nature of reality; the question of the meaning of life is one aspect of the philosophical attempt to understand the human situation; the issue of the morality of abortion pertains to the question of right and wrong. For a brief but useful definition of philosophy consider the following: we humans are passionate and meticulous in our pursuit of answers to the preceding kinds of issues, so philosophy is the passionate, systematic pursuit of knowledge of the real and the good. Such pursuit certainly involves solitary reflection, but ultimately philosophy is not a solitary pursuit. Philosophy proceeds most fruitfully in ­dialogue, when people communicate with one another, whether by face to face discussion or by reading and responding to one another’s ­writings. One thing I have learned for certain over the decades is that we are smarter than I am! So formulate your own thoughts, then discuss them with others.

Now that we know a little of what philosophy is, let’s ask what a ­philosophy of something is? A philosophy of something is an effort to identify and explore the basic concepts, positions, issues, and controversies in a field of activity. For example, there is philosophy of art, philosophy of history, philosophy of law, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of science, and more. Philosophy itself is a first-order activity (it has its own unique concerns, such as metaphysics and ethics), but philosophy of something is a second-order activity (in it philosophy focuses on something other than philosophy), and there can be a philosophy of (a philosophical study of) anything! In addition, to the “philosophies of” mentioned earlier there are books on philosophy of sport, philosophy of architecture, philosophy of love and sex, and much more. Pick a topic of interest and you will almost ­certainly find a philosophy book on it.

A philosophy of something is always an attempt to identify the central concepts, concerns, issues, and positions in a field. To that extent it is an attempt to be objective and simply set things forth the way things are in some field. Sometimes, however, a philosopher of something wants to add his or her personal insights, conclusions, and convictions about some issue in the field; that is perfectly fine, but readers should be sensitive to when a writer is setting forth material and when he or she is critiquing some position or trying to add something new to the field. In this volume, I will try to present an objective, balanced treatment of various positions, but no doubt some of my preferences will bleed through – and that’s okay. This book is not a compendium of truths for you to accept. It is a tool to help you develop your own thoughts whether they agree with mine or not.

Now, that we know what a philosophy of something is, what is ­philosophy of religion? Philosophy of religion consists of identifying some of the most basic concepts, positions, issues, and controversies in or about religion. A “comparative philosophy of religion” would examine such things in all the great world religions, not just Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but also Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, etc. But alas, that would make this book too long for its intended purpose and it would push me beyond my current levels of expertise regarding Asian religions. Consequently, in this volume we will focus on philosophical issues in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, with a few references to other religions – though I encourage you to study Asian religions (one good reason to do that is because they are no longer confined to Asia – there is a Buddhist temple in my small southern hometown!).

It is important to note that philosophy of religion is not the same thing as comparative religion or a study of world religions. The fields of world religions and comparative religion examine the history of a religion, its founders and formative figures, its rituals, symbols, dress, architecture, geographical distribution, etc. Our focus will be limited to philosophical issues. What those issues are you will find out soon. Meanwhile, keep in mind also that philosophy is not the same thing as theology. Theology is the clarification of the beliefs of a specific religion, plus a defense of those beliefs; it is conducted by specially trained intellectuals within that religion. Moreover, theology is usually based on some purported source of divine revelation, such as the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, or the Vedas of Hinduism – a source that is taken as authoritative within that religion. Philosophy of religion, by contrast, does not require that one belong to the religion being examined, nor does philosophy appeal to divine revelation for authority. Philosophy is limited to using the tools of reason and experience that are common to everyone.

Speaking of experience, obviously someone is going to be better prepared to be a “philosopher of” something if he or she, in addition to studying philosophy, is intimately familiar with the area of activity to be examined. A philosopher of art, for example, will have a richer, more sensitive background for doing philosophy of art if he or she has been an artist or studied art history. As a philosopher of religion I, in addition to a Ph.D. in philosophy from Southern Illinois University, have a Master of Divinity degree in ministerial studies from Yale Divinity School, served full-time in the ministry before going to graduate school in philosophy, taught basic religion courses, as well as basic and advanced philosophy courses, have remained involved with religion in various ways over the decades, and philosophy of religion has been my specialty for forty years.

Now, in our “passionate, systematic pursuit of knowledge of the real and the good,” let’s begin to identify and explore some of the philosophical concepts, positions, issues, and controversies in western religion. We will pursue this objective by means of the various chapters that follow. Let’s take a quick look at their contents before we begin.

In chapter 1, we will examine features that are common to nearly all religions; then we will formulate from our observations a working definition of religion to keep in mind as we proceed through the rest of the book. Having gotten a deeper sense of what religion is about, we will in Chapter 2 explore six conceptions of God that have been influential in western, and to some extent, eastern, religions. We will culminate this survey with a widely influential philosophical conception of God. In chapter 3, we will examine a wide range of characteristics or attributes that are typically ascribed to God – and we will discover that some of these attributes are controversial, even contradictory, and lead to puzzling questions about the nature of God. Having in Chapters 2 and 3 gotten a rather sophisticated grasp of the nature of God, in Chapter 4 we will ask how (and even whether) it is possible for human language to describe God. After all, human language developed to describe the things of this world – physical things and subjective experiences – so we can’t ignore questions as to how our language can possibly describe anything other than the physical world and its contents.

Next we will examine arguments for and against the existence of God – which is what most students want to get to without all the pre­liminaries! First, though, in Chapter 5, we need to think carefully about what an argument is and how, for example, it is different from a discussion or a quarrel. Then in Chapters 6–10 we finally explore some of the most influential arguments for the existence of God, including the ontological argument, the cosmological argument, the teleological argument (with a side look at the relation of God to morality), and the argument from religious experience. Criticisms of those arguments will also be examined. In Chapters 11 and 12, we will examine arguments against the existence of God, including the most influential argument against the existence of God, namely, the argument from the existence of evil. Again, we will see what some critics of those arguments have to say. In Chapter 13, we will examine the issue of life after death and ask what bearing God has on that possibility. In Chapter 14, we will explore miracles, revelation, and prayer. Finally, in Chapter 15, we will examine whether evidence and arguments are necessary for belief in God to be rational. Perhaps faith and hope are viable foundations of religious life? Given all that you will be exposed to in the course of our time together, I suspect you will conclude with me that whatever conclusion we arrive at, it should be held with thoughtful, open-minded humility.

In closing this introduction, I mention that in addition to teaching many new concepts and positions to you, I want to equip you with valuable distinctions and new tools of thought that are useful outside of philosophy as well as in it, so from our study please try to take away a good grasp of these: the nature of a dilemma; the differences between univocal, equivocal, and analogical uses of language; the differences between a discussion, a quarrel, an argument, and a debate; the differences between possibility, plausibility, probability, and proof; the ­differ­ences between necessary and sufficient conditions; Ockham’s Razor; the principle of credulity; running out permutations; the principle of evidentialism; the differences between knowledge, belief, faith, and hope; and more. Now let’s begin!

For Review, Reflection, and Discussion

1. What is philosophy? How is it different from what you thought it would be?

2. What is “philosophy of” something?

3. What is the something that you would most like to read a philo­sophy of?

For Further Reading

For an introduction to the basics of philosophy see Creel, Richard E., Thinking Philosophically: An Introduction to Critical Reflection and Rational Dialogue (Blackwell Publishers: 2006).

Chapter 1

What Is Religion?

The two main concerns of philosophy of religion are God and religion. In this chapter, we will focus on the nature of religion. Before we attempt to formulate a definition of religion, let’s look at four of its major ­facets: creed, code, cult, and community. Notice the mneumonic device: 4 C’s! (a mneumonic device is a strategy for helping you remember something). These four characteristics can be found in nearly everything that is identified as a religion. Ask yourself how well they fit with the religion with which you are most familiar. (I was alerted to these features by Peter Slater, who says in his that a religion is “a personal way of life informed by traditional elements of creed, code, and cult and directed toward the realization of some transcendent end.” He adds that “A personal way of life is both individual and communal” (Harper & Row, 1978, 6–7)).