Philosophy of Religion Class Notes

  11/25/2025 [Philosophy Club every Tuesday at 5:00pm in CAS 436 ("The Cave")] [Challenge for today: Try to think of (and possibly ask) at least one question.]   Is there anything you would say you believe only on ‘faith’?       What, exactly, is faith?   As with many concepts, there isn’t a single universally accepted answer.     The dominant view has been that faith is belief that is not evidentially or even rationally justified.     William James uses the following definition of faith as a foil: “Faith is when you believe something that you know ain't true."   The following account from the Bible is better known: "…[T]he assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1)   This appears to mean: S has faith that B iff a)    S believes B b)    S hopes that B is true c)    S is convinced that B despite...

  11/20/2025 [Philosophy Club every Tuesday at 5:00pm in CAS 436 ("The Cave")] [Challenge for today: Try to think of (and possibly ask) at least one question.]   Is there anything you think God would not command? Suppose I ask you why it would be wrong to kick a puppy. You answer that it would needlessly cause the puppy pain. I respond, “So?” There is something wrong with someone who doesn’t understand that needlessly causing pain is bad. (Would it still be wrong to kick puppies if God doesn’t exist?)   Now suppose someone makes the following argument: 1.           Experiences of pain are subjective. 2.           If anything is subjective, then it can’t be objectively wrong to cause it. 3.           Therefore, it can’t be objectively wrong to cause pain.   Premise 1 is (largely) true....

  11/18/2025 [Philosophy Club every Tuesday at 5:00pm in CAS 436 ("The Cave")] [Challenge for today: Try to think of (and possibly ask) at least one question.]   Do you think people with strong religious convictions are more likely to behave morally than people without such convictions?   What relation, if any, exists between morality and religion? Answers vary from “you can’t have one without the other” to “none to speak of.”   Here is an influential version of the former (from William Craig): 1. If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist. 2. It is false that objective moral values do not exist (objective moral values do exist). 3. Therefore, God exists.   Or alternatively:   1. If God does not exist, moral values are completely subjective. 2. Moral values are not completely subjective. 3. Therefore, God exists.   Most people (or at least ethicists) accept the 2 nd premise. ...

  11/13/2025 [Philosophy Club every Tuesday at 5:00pm in CAS 436 ("The Cave")] [Challenge for today: Try to think of (and possibly ask) at least one question.]   Would you consider yourself more “spiritual”, “religious”, or “neither”?       Roughly 1 in 4 people identify as "spiritual but not religious" (SBNR).   What is the difference?   GENERALLY:   Religious = regularly participating in activities of a formal church or organization that has a set of specific doctrines expected to be accepted by members   Spiritual = having a sense of the meaningfulness of one's life that relates (at least vaguely) to "something greater than oneself" (this may be God (or something "God-ish"), nature, nirvana, love, "transcendence", Dao, Brahman, ...)     Among those who identify as religious or who say religion is "very important" to them, very few have strong commitments to the ...

  11/11/2025 [Philosophy Club every Tuesday at 5:00pm in CAS 436 ("The Cave")] [Challenge for today: Try to think of (and possibly ask) at least one question.] Do you believe in any form of “supernormal” powers?   Daoism (Taoism) shows up in both lists of Chinese Philosophical traditions and lists of Chinese Religions. This is a function of what one chooses to emphasize.   “Dao” 道 means “way” but has multiple meanings depending on context. The primary meaning is a m ethod, way of doing, procedure, art, guide, path, or road. (= “procedural Dao”)   It can also be used as a verb: to follow or execute any of the above.   It also has an explanatory sense – that which explains why things behave as they do (the “natural order”), or why some ways of doing things are (in various senses) better than others (“this is the right way to do things”). (= “explanatory Dao”)   And it has an ontological (or “metaphysical”) s...

  11/6/2025 [Philosophy Club every Tuesday at 5:00pm in CAS 436 ("The Cave")] [Challenge for today: Try to think of (and possibly ask) at least one question.]   Ask and answer your own question.   "When I was ten or eleven years old and lived in Kamapukur, I first experienced samadhi. As I was passing through a paddy-field, I saw something and was overwhelmed. There are certain characteristics of God-vision. One sees light, feels joy, and experiences the upsurge of a great current in one's chest, like the bursting of a rocket." (Ramakrishna)   "While sitting alone in a moss field, it was like a switch had flipped and a curtain dropped and I suddenly saw everything not as I had seen it, but as it really was: like a single painting where everything was there all at once. And there was no 'I' no 'moss'. It was like my soul had left my body and was covered up by the moss. And later when it came back into my bo...