Questions tagged [philosophy-of-religion]
Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy concerned with questions regarding religion, including the nature and existence of God, the examination of religious experience, analysis of religious vocabulary and texts, and the relationship of religion and science. Note that term is somewhat ambiguous as questions regarding atheism, secular humanism and agnosticism is included in the discipline.
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Is there a demarcation problem for religions?
So far, all of the philosophy of religion I have read focuses on the questions of God's existence and on the problem of evil. It seems to me that just as important would be the question of what a ...
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In what sense is atheism scientific?
I have been reading a bit of Dawkins and the like and they all seem to hold a very strong viewpoint on atheism and its associated ideology. I have not found a direct citation for this but he ...
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Are omniscience and omnipotence mutually inconsistent?
I see this in The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins:
If God is omniscient, he must already know how he is going to intervene to change the course of history using his omnipotence. But
that means ...
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How do theologians and apologists justify the exclusiveness of their specific belief system w/r to similar but distinct belief systems?
There are several arguments for the existence of God. Whether you agree with them or not, all of these arguments argue only for the existence of a supreme being/first cause. None of them provide ...
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How does Plantinga's free will defense of God's benevolence work?
The purpose of the defense is to show that omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God is consistent with the existence of evil in creation. The most popular version of the defense is due to Alvin ...
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What are the origins and evolution of mythology/religions?
Hegel in his famous book "Phenomenology of the Spirit" describes the evolution of the human mind. I am wondering if any philosophers have described the evolution of religions and where the idea come ...
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What is the difference between philosophy and religion?
How do you make the distinction between philosophy and religion? Are there some philosophies/religions that are hard to categorize as being one or the other?
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What is god for religious people?
In order to discuss with religious friends about god, I would like to know if there's some accepted objective definitions of God for main religions, even if belief is subjective.
For example, is he "...
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Fundamental idea on proving God's existence with science
I think that proving God's existence or any deity from any culture with the rigors of science is fundamentally absurd.
The popular arguments usually involve space-time and the big bang theory. (I ...
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Is God subject to logic?
If someone claims that God is beyond logic then how do we know he is beyond logic ? (as we lose all the methods to know whether the claim is true or not?)
Logic is the use and study of valid reasoning,...
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On Atheists who are sympathetic to religion?
Most Atheists I have encountered fall into 2 categories:
New Atheists: People who don't believe in God and see religion as an evil to be eradicated given the harm it has caused humanity (i.e. ...
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Can belief in science be considered a form of theism?
Based on the problem of induction, nobody can assert with absolute certainty that the laws of science (i.e. physics, chemistry, etc,...) will hold all the time, in every part of the universe. ...
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How could Occam's razor possibly be used metaphysically?
Occam's razor, or the law of parsimony, states that the simplest explanation for any given data is most likely the correct one.
Some have attempted to use Occam's razor in a metaphysical sense, to ...
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Nietzsche on balancing service to the creation of (or becoming) the Overman and living a life of ones own choosing?
So, I have been looking into Nietzsche.
To be honest, I have thought a lot about Nietzsche for the past 2 years, and I am unsure of what to make of the nature of this need to become the Overman. My ...
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What fallacy in Pascal's Wager allows replacing God with the devil?
I wanted to know the name of the fallacy or fallacies the Pascal's Wager in the sense that it can be applied to motivate one's belief in many things. A similar argument to the original Wager can be ...
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What does Kant mean by "Existence is not a predicate"?
What does Kant mean by "Existence is not a predicate"?
How does that invalidate the ontological arguments? and how can he show that it's not a predicate?
By predicate, I think he means a "property"...
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Why are there so many religions and gods? [closed]
Why are there so many religions and gods all over the world? Come to think of it, when the idea spread, why did people develop different gods and beliefs rather than follow the same one?
If the idea ...
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How does Plantinga's defense of free will align with omniscience
I've been reading about Plantinga's defense of free will and I can see how omnipotence is aligned with the existence of evil. What evades me, is how he resolves the conflict between foreknowledge and ...
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Does omniscience negate free will?
If a tri-omni being knows what you're exactly going to do, then you can't do anything other than what he already knows you'll do. Further, if a tri-omni being created this reality in which things ...
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Why is the emergence of Monotheism a cultural milestone in the development of mankind?
In the cultural development of humanity the emergence of Monotheism is often mentioned to be a milestone comparable to the ability to control fire or write.
Of course it is true, that Monotheism ...
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Why is faith seen as a sign of weakness, instead of an unexplored land/opportunity?
Hope this is the right place to put this question!
I am a person of faith (more specific, a Christian) and most of the time people consider me somehow inferior for my belief. I am not antisocial, not ...
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Are there any counter arguments to the claim God does not exist because there is evil in the world?
It's been argued that God doesn't exist because there is so much evil in the world. For example, suppose a person is violently murdered - an innocent child say. They argue, God could have prevented ...
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What is the difference between philosophy, religion, and science?
If philosophy is the rational investigation of truth, how is it different from science or mathematics? Is philosophy based at some level on a subjective feeling? If so, how is it different from ...
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How can theists respond to the argument that God is "unfalsifiable"?
In this short essay, "Theology and Falsification", Anthony Flew argues that the idea of God is unfalsifiable.
Flew gives the following example: A person of faith asserts that God loves his children. ...
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Does culture bias weaken the argument that modern science and a religious world view are compatible?
A typical argument between an atheist and a theist goes along the following lines:
ATH: "Modern science and reason are incompatible with a religious world view."
TH: "That's not true, many scientists,...
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What are some philosophical defenses of the existence of God?
What are some philosophical defenses of the existence of God?
Specifically, I'd be interested in any philosophers who have provided a thorough and rigorous defense of the existence of a Judeo-...
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Is atheism or agnosticism more rational?
While there is still widespread disagreement regarding the existing definition of atheism, it is normally considered as the "Rejection of belief in the existence of deities".
One accepted definition ...
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Does Plantinga view God as knowing precisely what a human being will choose to do?
This question has been bothering me since I attempted an answer to Dmitry Ornatsky’s question about God’s omniscience: How does Plantinga's defense of free will align with omniscience
I think ...
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What is the difference between atheism and agnosticism? [closed]
(Apologies for the crazy length question)
Whenever the thorny issue of theism vs. atheism comes up -- especially on the
internet -- a further issue always seems to arise concerning what these
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Does the word "absurd" have specialized meaning in philosophical discourse?
This is essentially about William Lane Craig's publications on (his version of) the Kalam cosmological argument. Craig is constantly talking about "absurdities" that result from considering infinite ...
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What can suffice as a scientific proof for God? to what domain can such a proof belong to? [closed]
"Scientific" theories require proof, and there are certain guidelines and standards for the proofs to be acceptable to the "scientific" community in that domain (Algebra, Computer Science, etc.). ...
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Why is the 'problem of evil' considered so difficult?
If one believes in the 'supernatural' and some Supreme Being affecting our lives in various ways; if you believe we have free will and free choice and this Being allows us to have and use this 'free ...
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The Ethics of Finding Comfort in Religion: Balancing Personal Benefits and Societal Harm
Is it morally justifiable for individuals to continue practicing a religion solely for the psychological comfort it provides, while turning a blind eye to the potential dangers of the religion's power ...
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How can one rebut the argument that atheism is inherently immoral?
It not uncommon to see religious people arguing that without the moral center of a religious text, true ethics are impossible.
The reasoning goes that, without a fixed moral center, atheists are ...
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Isn't the existence of Hell inherently evil, and isn't God therefore evil in allowing Hell to exist?
In many religions, for example, the Abrahamic ones, there exists a place of eternal punishment for those who live in violation of God's commandments.
Assuming an infinitely-long afterlife, in which "...
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Theories of Everything as a hold over from monotheism?
In his book "A Tear at the Edge of Creation", physicist Mario Gleiser argues that results from cosmology and particle physics make it unlikely that we will ever find an elegant unified theory of ...
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Are we all ‘atheist’ or 'agnostic in a pandemic'? [closed]
Saudi Arabia is a deeply religious country. Most of the people in the Persian Gulf nation pray five times a day, 35 times a week, 140 times a month and 1,680 times a year. But they banned pilgrimages (...
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Is there an advantage of a theistic account in terms of being able to define goodness?
I have been watching some debates about the existence of god, such as Peter Singer vs. Dinesh D'Souza, or Christopher Hitchens vs. John Lennox. On the religious side, one argument comes up ...
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Could Anselm's argument also "prove" that a perfectly evil god must exist?
As far as I know, Anselm's argument for the existence of god goes like this:
Let's imagine the most perfect being possible. If we imagine it being most perfect but not existing, it would be even more ...
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Is it inconsistent to praise God for apparent action while claiming that apparent inaction is a mystery?
Finally the site is open! I've been waiting to ask this for a week or so. I have been pondering typical responses concerning intercession and resultant positive/negative outcomes and am hoping someone ...
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Is Christianity testable?
In a debate between John Lennox and Peter Atkins on the topic "Can science explain everything?", at minute 44:47 John Lennox claims:
Lennox: "And the major reason why I believe that ...
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Does the notion of an all-powerful God conflict with the idea of free will?
In Abrahamic religions, God is often believed to be wholly omnipotent. People also seem to believe that humans have "free will", especially insofar that they feel they are in control of their own ...
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What makes a basic belief a properly basic belief?
I'm currently looking into Plantinga's reformed epistemology and I'm trying to wrap my head around what makes a basic belief a properly basic belief.
I understand what a basic belief is, in that it ...
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What are the fundamental differences between the belief system of science and religious belief systems?
While most religious belief systems affirm the existence of certain things, the belief system of (natural) science tends to deny the existence of certain "not-reproducible" things.
Let's look at two ...
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Why should atheists bother debating theists?
I am currently digging into atheism/agnosticism (I will use atheism for terms of simplicity). Before, I was not religious, I really did not give the subject much thought. I am reading Richard Dawkins ...
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Could there ever be evidence for an infinite being?
The God of Anselm is understood as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived." From this definition, God can be presumed to be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, perfectly free, uncaused, ...
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Is Kant a Christian Philosopher, not merely a Philosopher who happens to be Christian?
Kant categorical imperative simply seems to me a rational founding for a Christian ethic. As this is the centre-piece of his moral philosophy, it seems to me he is at least morally a Christian ...
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Are miracles compatible with our belief in empirical predictions?
I read the SEP entry on miracles a while ago and plan to take a shot at Hume's Of Miracles soon.
Before I get started - I cannot understand how miracles even make sense. Here's my thinking so far:
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Where can one find the most fully developed version of EAAN with the four-part defense of premise 1?
Having just completed Alvin Plantinga's book Where the Conflict Really Lies, I was a bit surprised to learn that he now takes a different approach to defending premise 1 of the Evolutionary Argument ...
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Are religious assertions as authentic as scientific ones? [closed]
If we're made to believe that water is composed of billions of molecules actually, but we've never saw it or observed it, still that scientific fact establishes a conceptual notion that yes, things ...