1 / 5

The Rationality of Religious Belief

The Rationality of Religious Belief. What reasons are there to believe that God or some supernatural force exists? Miracles The very definition of God The existence and order of the universe Meaningfulness in our lives. Why Miracles Cannot Justify Religious Belief: David Hume (1711-76).

philyra
Download Presentation

The Rationality of Religious Belief

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Rationality of Religious Belief • What reasons are there to believe that God or some supernatural force exists? • Miracles • The very definition of God • The existence and order of the universe • Meaningfulness in our lives

  2. Why Miracles Cannot Justify Religious Belief:David Hume (1711-76) We should proportion our beliefs to what we experience. Testimony of others should be doubted as improbable if witnesses: • are few in number, contradict one another, have an interest in persuading us, are either hesitant or zealous, or contradict our normal experience

  3. Hume: Religion Is Based on Faith, not Irrational Belief in Miracles • Miracles are violations of laws of nature • Belief in miracles requires that we believe it more reasonable to think that the order of the universe has been violated than that we are (pleasantly) mistaken or have been deceived by (well-intentioned) enthusiasts • Reports of miracles are more common among the primitive cultures

  4. Religion is our “opium” for dealing with socio-political alienation:Karl Marx (1818-83) • God is really the idealization of humanity as alienated, unconscious of itself • Such alienation is caused by thinking of humanity and nature as abstractions rather than as products of real activity and labor • Real life is not atheistic, for even denying that God exists depends on thinking abstractly

  5. “God is Dead”:Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) • God once served as a fixed point of reference, but now nothing—not even science or truth—is absolute • People refuse to acknowledge the death of God because it requires that they affirm their responsibility for their lives and values

More Related