1. The Religious Point of View

2. We will be looking at how religions try to justify the existence of God.
How people see the natural world from different perspectives.
Also: how religious people perceive knowledge of God to be the truth.
To look at the role of reason in the religious point of view.

3. Seeing and Seeing as.
Sense and Sesibilia (1962) Austin makes the distinction between seeing and seeing as.
A star:
1) A distant star which is bigger than earth itself Or
2) A silvery black speck no bigger than a 5p piece?
Which is seeing and which is seeing as?

4. Seeing as is formed by our knowledge of space and rational thought
Seeing as is formed by our knowledge of space and rational thought. In seeing we record what we actually see
Even when we see as in the same way, we can never always agree on what it is we have seen.
Austin: “There is no right weay of saying what we have seen.”

5. What can you see?

8. We see what we want to see or what we are trained to see.
Based on our expectations and past experiences.

9. The religious point of view is a way of “seeing as”
The religious point of view is a way of “seeing as”. It presets a perspective of the data we receive. It takes what we “see” and interprets in with evidence of intelligent design.
The evolutionists point of view is also a way of “seeing as”. It has a different perspective on the data we receive.
These contrasting ways of seeing as are also different ways of using language, and are sometimes referred to as different “language games.”

10. Language Games
Bogie
Birdie
Eagle.

11. If you want to learn to play golf, you must 1st learn the terms
If you want to learn to play golf, you must 1st learn the terms. Birdie, Bogie and Eagle would mean very different things if you did not learn them in relation to golf.
Mastering language opens up a whole new world, (e.g. the competition of golf.)

12. The same applies to religion
The same applies to religion. To “play” the religious game, you learn the language, rites and rituals and will see the new world that is opened up to you.
Your values and the way of looking at the natural world is altered.
Evil is explicable
Religious conviction is so strong that even reason and argument can become irrelevant.

13. Since Plato, knowledge can be defined as what is justified and true
Since Plato, knowledge can be defined as what is justified and true. A blind man who is walking down the road which he believes is the true road but he cannot justify this. Therefore his claim is not very convincing.
Religious explanations for the existence of God must therefore be true and justified.

14. Rate the EVIDENCE of these beliefs
My tooth hurts – I can really feel it.
Through her powers of extra- sensory perception, she detected a presence in the room.
The whole crowd though the referee was wrong.
According to the Bible, God listens to our prayers.
Every time I wear white socks, England looses.
According to a Doctor, a foetus can be born prior to 24 weeks.

15. Factors making a good assessment will have included the following:
Who wrote it?
The method used to acquire the evidence.
The background belief.
Scale of the research
Hume: A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.