Philosophy of Religion : Philosophy of Religion
An Introduction : An Introduction
Chapter 1: History : Chapter 1: History
What is Religion? : What is Religion? Religion (from Latin religio, "reverence for the gods", "piety", possibly related to religare, "to bind") is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or more in general a set of beliefs explaining the existence of and giving meaning to the universe, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
What is Spirituality? : What is Spirituality? Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.”
What is a Philosophy of Religion? : What is a Philosophy of Religion? Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy that asks questions about religion. As with all philosophies, the topics at hand are generated by those who participate. In the philosophy of religion, these may include, but are not limited to, the nature and existence of God, religious language, miracles, prayer, the problem of evil, and how religion and other belief systems, such as ethics, interrelate.
Xenophanes : Xenophanes
Xenophanes: : Xenophanes: “But if cattle and horses and lions had hands
or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do, horses like horses and cattle like cattle also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies of such a sort as the form they themselves have.”
Thales : Thales
Thales: : Thales: "Thales", says Cicero, "assures that water is the principle of all things; and that God is that Mind which shaped and created all things from water."
Plato : Plato
Aristotle : Aristotle
Origen : Origen
Origen: (Wikipedia) : Origen: (Wikipedia) God is a perfect unity, invisible and incorporeal, transcending all things material, and therefore inconceivable and incomprehensible. He is likewise unchangeable, and transcends space and time. But his power is limited by his goodness, justice, and wisdom; and, though entirely free from necessity, his goodness and omnipotence constrained him to reveal himself.
Tertullian : Tertullian
Tertullian: : Tertullian: “These three are one substance, not one person; and it is said, 'I and my Father are one' in respect not of the singularity of number but the unity of the substance.”
Constantin 1 : Constantin 1
Anselm of Canterbury : Anselm of Canterbury
Anselm: first proof : Anselm: first proof In the first proof, Anselm relies on the ordinary grounds of realism, which coincide to some extent with the theory of Augustine. He argues that "things" are called "good" in a variety of ways and degrees, which would be impossible were there not some absolute standard and some good in itself, in which all relative goods participate. The same applies to adjectives like "great" and "just", whereby things involve a certain greatness and justice. Anselm uses this thought process to state that the very existence of things is impossible without some one Being, by whom they come to exist. This absolute Being, this goodness, justice and greatness, is God.
Anselm's second proof: : Anselm's second proof: Anselm defined his belief in the existence of God using the phrase "that than which nothing greater can be conceived". He reasoned that, if "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" existed only in the intellect, it would not be "that than which nothing greater can be conceived", since it can be thought to exist in reality, which is greater. It follows, according to Anselm, that "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" must exist in reality.
Thomas Aquinas : Thomas Aquinas
Thomas: the fivefold argument : Thomas: the fivefold argument The Quinque viae, Five Ways, or Five Proofs are five arguments for the existence of God summarized by the 13th century Roman Catholic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas in his book, Summa Theologica. The five ways are; the argument of the unmoved mover, the argument of the first cause, the argument from contingency, the argument from degree and the teleological argument.
Baruch de Spinoza : Baruch de Spinoza
Spinoza: the Infinite Substance : Spinoza: the Infinite Substance The world is not God, but it is, in a strong sense, "in" God. Not only do finite things have God as their cause; they cannot be conceived without God
1. God is transcendent because He has infinite attributes.
2. God is immanent because of Thought and Extension
Thomas Hobbes : Thomas Hobbes
David Hume : David Hume
Hume on Religion : Hume on Religion “Examine the religious principles, which have, in fact, prevailed in the world. You will scarcely be persuaded, that they are anything but sick men's dreams.”
Immanuel Kant : Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant on God: : Immanuel Kant on God: “One cannot provide objective reality for any theoretical idea, or prove it, except for the idea of freedom, because this is the condition of the moral law, whose reality is an axiom. The reality of the idea of God can only be proved by means of this idea, and hence only with a practical purpose, i.e., to act as though (als ob) there is a God, and hence only for this purpose.”
Georg W. F. Hegel : Georg W. F. Hegel
Hegel on God : Hegel on God "God is not an abstraction but a concrete God. God, considered in terms of his eternal Idea, has to generate the Son, has to distinguish himself from himself; he is the process of differentiating, namely, love and Spirit".
Friedrich Nietzsche : Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche: : Nietzsche: “If God as the suprasensory ground and goal of all reality is dead, if the suprasensory world of the Ideas has suffered the loss of its obligatory and above it its vitalizing and upbuilding power, then nothing more remains to which man can cling and by which he can orient himself.”
Charles Darwin : Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud : Sigmund Freud
Karl Marx : Karl Marx
John D. Caputo : John D. Caputo
Caputo: back to scriptures : Caputo: back to scriptures Who or what comes after the God of onto-theology? Among the many answers to that question, which in one way or another has captured the imagination of a whole host of contemporary philosophers working in the continental tradition, one answer certainly is the God of the Scriptures. Having come before metaphysics, or at least in a milieu that was innocent of metaphysics, the Scriptures are in a way older than metaphysics and so they are not faced with the challenge of overcoming onto-theology.
Slavoj Zizek : Slavoj Zizek
Z izek on religion (wikipedia) : Z izek on religion (wikipedia) Žižek is a strong atheist. He supports the demolition of religion and said "Churches should be turned into grain silos or palaces of culture." However, this may also be taken as an example of his customary humour. He also said his views verge on Maoist lines. He believes the universalist aspect of Christianity should be secularized into militant egalitarianism, against "pagan notion of destiny".
Coming up: chapter 2The Proofs for the Existence of God : Coming up: chapter 2The Proofs for the Existence of God Anselm of Canterbury and the Ontological Proof of God
Coming soon!
Robbert Veen © 2010