Perspectives on Religious Belief: Evidentialism-1  Definition: belief in God must be supported by objective evidence  Natural theology: attempt to prove existence of God using reason and experience

Perspectives on Religious Belief: Evidentialism-2  Atheism: claim that God does not exist  Agnosticism: not enough evidence to know whether God exists

Perspectives on Religious Belief: Nonevidentialism  Definition: basic beliefs can be held without objective, rational evidence  Fideism: religious belief must be based on faith alone

The Cosmological Argument for God  Aquinas’ First Cause Argument Summa Theologica Principle of sufficient reason  Argument from contingency Contingent and necessary beings Taylor's Metaphysics

The Design Argument for God  Teleological argument  Greek telos means end or goal  Based on evidence of design in the world

William Paley: Natural Theology  Analogy: discovery of a watch on the ground  Strength of teleological argument depends on confidence in analogy  A designer is most probable explanation for universe

Science and Cosmic Design  Charles Darwin Origin of Species (1859) Originally thought that scientific findings confirmed divine design  Hoyle  Davies

David Hume  Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion  Objected to the argument from design  Evidence does not give us any more reason for believing in the biblical God than in other alternatives

Evolution versus Design  Darwin: evolution by means of natural selection  F. R. Tennant: natural processes and laws are instruments of God

The Ontological Argument for God  God is a perfect being  God's existence is derived from the very concept of God's being

St. Anselm  Definition of God: a being than which nothing greater can be conceived  Reductio ad absurdum: Even denial of God’s existence requires the idea of God, so God exists in understanding

Nonevidentialist Theism  Insufficiency of reason with regard to God's existence  Impossibility of the neutral standpoint  Reasonableness of subjective justifications

Pascal’s Wager  Either God exists or He does not  Either I believe in God or I do not  Result could be infinite gain infinite loss finite gain finite loss

William James  Choices between beliefs (options) Living or dead Forced or avoidable Momentous or trivial

Soren Kierkegaard  Logical proofs for God's existence are problematic  Faith and leap of faith  The paradox of the absurd being transformed through faith

The Problem of Evil  The problem of evil Existence of God Existence of suffering  Types of evil Moral Natural

Religious Responses to the Argument from Evil  The formal argument Premises 1, 2, 3 describe God’s goodness, knowledge, and power Premise 4: Existence of evil Premise 5: God would prevent or eliminate evil  Theodicy: the attempt to justify God's permitting evil to occur in the world

The Greater Goods Defense  Evil exists because it is necessary to achieve a greater good  Hick: Evil and suffering needed for “soul-making”

The Free Will Defense  God could not create creatures who have freedom of will but are incapable of doing evil  Critiques God could cause humans to freely choose the good God could balance free will and moral evil

The Natural Order Defense  In order for there to be free choices, there has to be a stable, reliable order of natural cause and effect  C. S. Lewis: The Problem of Pain

Concepts of Hinduism-1  Maya: the many ways of seeing the world  Atman: the individual’s eternal soul and the soul of the universe Atman is Brahman

Concepts of Hinduism-2  Yoga: paths to spiritual fulfillment  Hinduism and human destiny Karma Reincarnation  Hinduism and the problem of evil Karma Maya

The Buddhist View of the World  Interwoven processes, not things  The self in Buddhist philosophy Anatta--no soul Five aggregates  The problem of evil Dukkha or suffering

Goals of Buddhism  Eliminate selfish desires  Attain detachment, nonattachment  Achieve nirvana