In order to determine a meaning for our lives, the question of the existence of God is a vitally important concern.

Thus, in this part of the course we consider whether philosophy can shed any meaningful light on the traditional arguments for the existence of God.

If no deductive proof is achieved, then, how would philosophical reasoning be relevant to determining how we ought to live?

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Links to Lecture Notes…

• The Ontological Argument

  Anselm's a priori argument based on the definition of God as a being than which no greater can be conceived is analyzed.

• The Cosmological Argument

  Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways, a posteriori proofs for God's existence, with some objections to those proofs are outlined.

• The Teleological Argument

  Will Paley's famous Watch Argument, a version of the teleological argument for God's existence, is analyzed.

• Pascal's Wager

  The argument we have everything to gain and nothing to lose by believing is offered; two well-known, substantial objections are described.

• Can God's Existence Be Proved?
  

  Søren Kierkegaard's insights that existence cannot be proved but must be assumed are discussed.

• The Problem of Evil
  

  Fyodor Dostoevsky's Ivan from the Brothers Karamazov ponders how to account for the death of an innocent child.

• Evil Can Be Allowed

  John Hick accounts for some of the questions surrounding the problems of moral and nonmoral evil.