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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)

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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