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Introduction to Philosophical Inquiry
ReadMe 2
Abstract: Study for Philosophy of Religion is briefly discussed
Welcome to Philosophy of Religion!
Your first assignment in this part of the course is to …
- read a short introduction to our next topic of study, the Philosophy
of Religion. Notice that the study philosophy of religion is quite distinctly
different from the study of religion.
- For some students, this part of the course will be the most difficult
part of the course because you are asked to put your own religious
beliefs aside and consider whether some specific fundamental religious beliefs can be
proved from a philosophical point of view.
- On good way to approach this topic is by the principle of charity. You are asked to suspend
your own beliefs and consider whether reasons, grounds, and
evidence can show that some religious beliefs can be proved. So, in a sense,
this part of the course might be approached as a "thought experiment."
- It's important to understand that philosophy and religion as studied in
this course are two completely different fields of interest.
- On the one hand, we have defined philosophy as an inquiry into
the basic assumptions of any field of endeavor. Essentially, philosophy
is based on reasoning—i.e., the attempt to demonstrate
by logical argumentation the truth of specific statements. So the field
of philosophy of religion is mostly involved with investigating and
understanding the existence of God, the nature of God, and consequent
religious concepts from a logical point of view.
- Religion, on the other hand, is based on faith and revelation, rather
than any sort of rational or logical proof. That's what faith
is all about. Since religion is a set of beliefs, rituals, and traditions
concerning the divine, transcendent, and sacred, those beliefs are held
to be true regardless of whether or not they can be rationally or
scientifically proven. So to have faith is essentially to believe or
to have faith regardless of logic or reasons.
- Continute to post to the mwforum
Discussion Board at least the minimum number of critical comments
on the reading assignments as stated in the syllabus
- You might be surprised as to what can be known through philosophical
inquiry. Very few of the constructs of religious thought can be proved
with any sort of philosophical certainty. Consequently, when we come to the next
part of the course, we will not try to base ethics on religion, but, instead,
we will try to justify it on the basis of providing good reasons for acting
in certain ways regardless of one's personal religious beliefs.
Try not to fret too much over the Anselm reading. Anselm worked on this argument
with so many revisions, that it's practically unreadable the first time you look
at it. It might be best to study the tutorial before wading through his
Ontological Argument. Fortunately, the remainder of the readings are much more
straightforward.
Again, please permit me to remind you that students who study daily, do
well; students who study only on weekends,
or study only just before tests, historically do not do well.
As stated in a previous Readme,
anyone can do well in this course if he
or she approaches the course
in the same way as one approaches playing a sport, playing a musical instrument, or
learning a language. Just as it is difficult to "cram" the night before a soccer game,
a tennis match, or a recital, so likewise it is difficult to "cram" the day before
a philosophy test. Both kinds of activites required spaced, intermittent
practice.
If you have personal questions about this section of the course, email
me at larchie@philosophy.lander.edu
and I'll be glad to help you. If your questions are likely to be shared by other
members of the class, please post to the message board.
Further Reading:
- The
Philosophy of Religion. A
quick, short overview of the philosophy of religion
organized in terms of main questions, nature of God, evaluation of
beliefs, and major philosophers from the Wikipedia.
- Philosophy
of Religion.info. A useful well organized introduction to the philosophy
of religion complementing the approach in this course with
essays on arguments for God's existence together with additional
topics by Tim Holt.
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This page last updated 12/20/09
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