Problem of Evil and other worries

Why study philosophy of religion?

  • moral duties to the state
  • each other
  • our family members

???

Using term religion broadly, the roots of religion account for the earliest forms of philosophy, namely mankind’s search for wisdom and meaning in a complex world.

For instance,

Our earliest investigations into questions about

  • our moral duties to the state, each other, family, what constitutes happiness and where it can be found etc.

“From the outset, philosophers in Asia, the Near and Middle East, North Africa, and Europe reflected on the gods or God, duties to the divine, the origin and nature of the cosmos, an afterlife, the nature of happiness and obligations, whether there are sacred duties to family or rulers, and so on.” (Taliaferro, 2023, p. 3) (pdf)

–

  1. According to research, the majority of the world’s population is either part of a religion or influenced by religion

  2. It overlaps with other philosophical traditions

  3. History of philosophy primarily deals with questions of religion. In many cultures, it is difficult to distinguish philosophical from religion investigation.

???

This is probably why the philosophy of religion is one of the most vibrant areas of philosophy

Religious Epistemology

???

Epistemology (in Greek episteme, knowledge and logos, account or understanding) is the study of knowledge. Epistemologists attempt to understand what it means for a knowing agent to have cognitive success. Throughout much of the history of the literature, this was articulated as determining the necessary and sufficient conditions under which one’s belief was justified.

One way in which we study religion, is by investigating the epistemic status of propositional attitudes about religious claims.

My belief that there is a door or that God exists, is justified just in case, I either:

  1. Have evidence

  2. Reliable belief forming faculties

???

“According to the prestigious Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, religious epistemology is “a branch of philosophy that investigates the epistemic status of propositional attitudes about religious claims” (Audi 2015: 925).” (Taliaferro, 2023, p. 10) (pdf)

Evidentialialism

For a person to be justified in some belief, that person must have some awareness of the evidence for the belief.

Why believe that there is a God at all? My answer is that to suppose that there is a God explains why there is a world at all; why there are the scientific laws there are; why animals and then human beings have evolved; why humans have the opportunity to mould their characters and those of their fellow humans for good or ill and to change the environment in which we live; why we have the well-authenticated account of Christ’s life, death and resurrection; why throughout the centuries men have had the apparent experience of being in touch with and guided by God; and so much else. (Swinburne)

Divine Hiddeness

If there is plenty of evidence that God exists, then why do so many people fail to believe that God exists?

From Evidentialism to Reliabilism

According to reliabilism, a belief is justified if it came about through reliable belief forming processes.

???

Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff are important for a view of religious epistemology called Reformed Epistemology grounded on views held by the reformer John Calvin (1509–1564) who claimed that people are created with a sense of God (sensus divinitatis).

According to Plantinga and Wolterstorf, we all have the capacity to believe that God exists, though such a capacity is not always apparent.

Naturalism

Theism

Therefore:

Naturalism == Naturalism

Theism == Naturalism + Theism

Darwin’s EAAN:

Did natural selection select our mental faculties for their ability to perceive truly, or did natural selection select our mental faculties for their adaptive behavior?

P(R/N&E)

–

R == cognitive faculties are reliable

–

N == naturalism is true

–

E == we have evolved according to the suggestions of contemporary evolutionary theory

Some Options

|:—:|:—:|

|Is behavior governed by belief? | Yes | P(R/N&E) is High

                                                  | No  | is low

If behavior is not caused by belief, then belief invisible to natural selection

|Is behavior caused by belief?     |Yes |

                                                   | No |

Why should we think that it is not?

Epiphenomenalism

Behavior is not caused by beliefs. I.e., caused by neural impulses, which is caused by organic conditions, e.g., sensory stimulation

Semantic epiphenomenalism

syntax vs. semantics

  • Beliefs do cause behaviors, but not by their content.

  • they are long term patterns of neural activity, two kinds of properties:

  • neurophysiological / electrochemical

  • syntactical properties: number of neurons involved in a belief, connections between them, firing thresholds, rate and strength of firing, their change over time and in response to other neural activity.

  • semantical properties: belief that *p* for some proposition *p*,

  • beliefs have semantic and syntactic properties

  • As such, a belief will have both syntactic and semantic properties.

Conclusion

Xaringan is a nifty Rstudio add-on/package for creating HTML presentations.

  • I think I’m still more inclined toward Beamer but Xaringan has tons of flexibility.
  • Have an interactive component to your presentation (e.g. leaflet or a Shiny app)? You probably want Xaringan.

Plus, you can put GIFs into your presentation with Xaringan. That’s nifty. Maybe students will like that.

background-image: url(https://i.imgur.com/IHeUeZ9.gif) background-position: 50% 50% background-size: 100% class: center, bottom, fullscale

Questions? Hate mail? Stay out of my mentions @stevenvmiller