Introduction to Philosophy of Religion

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Introduction to Philosophy of Religion

Abstract: Philosophy of religion is breifly characterized, and natural and deductive theology are defined.

From raising the initial question of Socrates, "What should be your central concern in life?," we have moved to the question of Tolstoy and Camus, "What is the meaning of Life?"
1. In order to answer this question, another question can be raised first about the existence of God, for this second question has great relevance to the first one. The second question can be put…
  1. Axiologically—Is the source of the meaning of life God?
  2. Epistemologically—Can we prove God exists?
  3. Ontologically—Does God exist? What is God?
2. Hence, we turn our attention to the arguments for the existence of God.
This task is properly in the philosophy of religion; philosophy of religion has as its main concern an epistemological task. Let us consider for a moment what this statement means. The epistemological task includes inquiring as to…
1. whether religious knowledge is a special kind of knowledge,
2. how religious knowledge is obtained, and
3. the implications of religious knowledge for conduct.
Philosophy of religion is not explicitly concerned with…
1. the history of religion,
2. comparative religions, or
3. specific religious beliefs or church doctrines…
  except insofar as these concerns illume the epistemological task.
Philosophers investigate two broad kinds of religious knowledge claims.
1. Natural Theology: the attempt to prove the existence of God, and sometimes questions about human immortality, from premisses provided by reasoning from observations of the ordinary course of nature (à posteriori proofs). Knowledge obtained by revelation from supernatural sources are ruled out.
2. Deductive Theology: the attempt to prove the existence of God from premisses known to be true by reason alone, independently of sensory experience (à priori proofs).
Revealed theology or religious knowledge-claims based on faith or revelation is generally considered to be beyond the scope of philosophy and is usually considered to be under the province of the subject of religion.
For this class, the study of philosophy of religion is used as a kind of stalking horse for elucidation of a number of philosophical concepts which have been influential in logic, mathematics, and science. It is vitally important to realize that, for example, the numerous objections to arguments for God's existence or the nature of God have not settled these issues and are not the final positions on these subjects. The arguments and objections represent a gentle way into a complex array of concepts still debated in contemporary philosophical circles. All of the objections listed in these notes have been countered in one way or another, and the philosophical terminiology has sharpened and evolved in many different directions.

Further Reading:

Ars Disputandi: Alternative Title: The Online Journal for Philosophy of Religion. Peer-reviewed online journal covers contemporary debate in the philosophy of religion, including articles on the history of the philosophy of religion, natural theology, and philosophical theology.
Natural Theology. This brief characterization of natural theology is drawn from the Internet Encyclopedial of Philosophy.

"The dominant metaphor of conceptual relativism, that of differing points of view, seems to betray an underlying paradox. Different points of view make sense, but only if there is a common co-ordinate system on which to plot them; yet the existence of a common system belies the claim of dramatic incomparability." Donald Davidson, Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation (1984).

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