1. Welcome to: Philosophy of Religion

2. Alex Rodriguez's wife, Cynthia, to file for divorce According to the New York Daily News, Gossip Section, Cynthia Rodriguez, 34, has told friends she believes Madonna, 49, has used mystical Jewish religion of kabbalah to brainwash her husband.

3. Philosophy of Religion What is Philosophy? What is Philosophy of Religion?

4. What is Philosophy?

8. Philosophy philos (love) sophia (wisdom) Love of Wisdom To Love Wisdom

11. Ways of Knowing How Do We Make Sense of the World? With the help of Stories? With the help of Revelation? With the help of Reason? Mythology Religion Phi losophy

12. Philosophy Philosophy can therefore be understood as an exploration of the fundamental questions about human existence, knowledge, and reality by using reason and argument. We begin to philosophize when we present arguments in defense of our claims about reality and how we know it.

13. Philosophy, You, and Us You, as a student, come into class with a profoundly unique background. Your participation allows other students, as well as the instructor, to be exposed to a different set of views. In short, you are also a teacher. As a student, as a human being, welcome differences and conflict. Use these as an opportunity to genuinely attempt to understand another’s ideas, arguments, and beliefs. Intellectual honesty ought to be one’s goal… or as Plato tells us, “ Know Thyself .”

14. 3 Key Elements of Philosophical Reflection 1. In order to philosophize we need to know how to construct and evaluate arguments. 2. Philosophy naturally emerges as a response to persistent questioning and a critical state of mind. A satisfied and incurious condition generally does not yield philosophical thought. 3. Philosophy has a tendency to lead to a plurality of different answers and perspectives. For most complex questions, there are several perspectives supported by reason. In this sense, equally reasonable people may not agree.

16. Bertrand Russell, “The Value of Philosophy” “ Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom. Thus, while diminishing our feeling of certainty as to what things are, it greatly increases our knowledge as to what they might be; it removes the . . . arrogant dogmatism of those who have never traveled into the region of liberating doubt…”

17. What is Philosophy? Philosophy is like a table. Philosophy helps us lay out issues and examines them in an orderly and thorough manner. It helps us determine what is at stake with certain ideas, assumptions, and what are the implications that follow from those – notice the concern with clarity and the lack of equal concern for answers.

18. God said it, I believe it, that settles it.

21. Short Essay #1 John Hick notes that “It is also necessary, in the “one world” of today, to face the problem of apparently conflicting truth claims of the various religions.” p. 4 Philosophy of Religion , 1990 John J. Hick Two of the main branches of philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology, deal with this “problem” noted above. Discuss why this problem is an epistemological and metaphysical one.

22. What is Philosophy of Religion? Not religious philosophizing – the philosophical defense of religious convictions and to demonstrate rationally the existence of God, thus preparing the way for claims of revelation. Philosophy of Religion , 1990 John J. Hick Revelation – “the communication of some truth by God to a rational creature through means which are beyond the ordinary course of nature.” p. 56

23. What is Philosophy of Religion? “ [Philosophy of Religion] is not an organ of religious teaching…” p. 1 Philosophy of Religion , 1990 John J. Hick

24. What is Philosophy of Religion? “ [Philosophy of Religion] studies the concepts and belief systems of religion as well as the prior phenomena of religious experience and the activities of worship and meditation on which these belief systems rest and out of which they have arisen.” p. 1 Philosophy of Religion , 1990 John J. Hick

25. What is Philosophy of Religion? “ [Philosophy of Religion] seeks to analyze concepts such as God, dharma, Brahman, salvation, worship, creation, sacrifice, nirvana, eternal life, etc., and to determine the nature of religious utterances in comparison with those of everyday life, scientific discovery, morality, and the imaginative expression of the arts.” p. 2 Philosophy of Religion , 1990 John J. Hick

26. Marjoe Gotner started his show biz career as a child evangelist in the 1950s, forced into that mold by a domineering mother. By the time Marjoe was sixteen his family had amassed maybe three million dollars; shortly after his sixteenth birthday, his father ran away with the money, and disillusioned he left his mother for San Francisco. In the late 1960s, Marjoe suffered a crisis of conscience, so he took a film crew behind the scenes of the “revival meeting” business to expose his own hypocrisy. In the documentary, Marjoe exposed himself and other preachers as spiritual frauds who would whip crowds of believers into a frenzy for the purposes of increasing the size of their “offerings” which he would divide up according to an agreed upon “split.” View two clips from the documentary here and here . 1972 Academy Award Winner Category: Documentary

27. On the one hand, Marjoe Gotner gave thousands of believers profound and meaningful spiritual experiences (e.g. laying on of hands, speaking in tongues). On the other hand, even through Marjoe’s own admission, he was a fraud. What can we say about these spiritual experiences? Note that the point here is not that preachers are frauds, the question is: what can we say about these individual subjective religious experiences in terms of their being a result of metaphysical realities? Are subjective experiences good evidence? 1972 Academy Award Winner Category: Documentary

28. Evidence based on individual psychology Evidence of Experience X Individual psychological experiences, then, cannot be reliable “evidence” for metaphysical realities.