Philosophy of Religion
Michael Lacewing
enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk
Two central questions
• What does it mean to talk of, or
believe in, God?
– Is talk about God talk about something
that exists independently of us? Or a way
of talking about life?
– Does ‘God exists’ state something that can
be true or false? Or express an attitude?
• Does God exist?
– Can we answer this question by argument?
THE NATURE OF RELIGIOUS
BELIEF AND LANGUAGE
Belief-that
• Standard analysis: content + attitude
• Content: what the person believes, given by
a proposition
– E.g. ‘He believes that elephants are grey.’
• Belief-that aims at truth:
– To believe that p is to believe that p is true.
• ‘I believe him’ =
– ‘I believe that what he says is true’
– ‘I believe that he is trustworthy/sincere’
Belief in
• ‘I believe in God’ = ‘I believe that God
exists’?
• ‘I believe in love’
• Not belief-that (no truth claim), but
faith, trust, commitment
Religious belief
• Does belief in God presuppose belief
that God exists?
– Yes: you can’t believe in a person if you
think they don’t exist
– No: you don’t have believe that love exists
(literally) to believe in love
• What is more basic in religious belief?
Should belief-that be analysed as
(really) belief-in or vice-versa?
Does ‘God exists’ state a
fact?
• Not tested against empirical
experience
• Not purely intellectual
• Theism not acquired by argument or
evidence
• Religious ‘belief’ is belief-in, an
attitude or commitment, towards life,
others, history, morality… a way of
living.
Objections
• Different religions can prescribe similar ways
of life while arguing for different beliefs
about God
– Orthodoxy (right belief) has been thought very
important
• What supports or justifies the attitude if not
beliefs about how things are?
• Perhaps religions distinguished by their
stories
– But stories don’t justify commitments
• This approach makes religion too subjective
Traditional belief
• ‘God exists’ is objectively true or
false.
• ‘God’ refers to a being (in some sense)
that exists independently of us, and
has certain attributes.
– Monotheism: perfect knowledge, power,
goodness, creator of the universe…
Faith
• So: can we know whether God exists?
– Belief in God = faith
• What is faith based on?
– Reason: at least reason can justify faith,
even if it doesn’t often cause it
– Revelation: scripture
– (Religious) Experience: mundane and
miraculous
Approaches
• Pope John Paul II: rational knowledge and
philosophical discourse are important for
‘the very possibility of belief in God’.
• Richard Swinburne: The Coherence of
Theism: God’s existence is probable,
considering all the evidence.
• Extreme ‘fideism’: sin has damaged our
ability to reason, so ignore reason.
• Moderate ‘fideism’: faith goes ‘beyond’
reason, but doesn’t oppose it.
Objection
• Many religious believers think that they do
have some reason to believe in God.
• But they are willing to accept that the
evidence for God’s existence is not very
strong, so they say it is a matter of faith.
• This seems inconsistent: it accepts belief in
God is a matter of evidence and argument,
but that we don’t need to justify our
conclusion by the balance of evidence.
DOES GOD EXIST?
Amazement
• Two natural phenomena often inspire
amazement in us: the night sky and life
• The first is vast, awesome
• The second is wonderful and intricate
• Philosophers can also be amazed that
we can understand the world at all
Life
• Organs serve a purpose –
heart – pump blood; eye –
seeing
– We understand parts of an
organ in relation to serving
this purpose
• A living organism requires
huge coordination of tiny
parts each functioning
well – complexity
Design
• Complexity of this kind, the way parts
work together, can indicate planning
and design – intentional purpose
• If life involves design, by definition,
there must be a designer
• But are living organisms designed?
Evolution by natural
selection
• Darwin explained how the
appearance of design is
possible without design
• Genetic alterations happen
randomly; most disappear. But
those that improve
reproduction survive and
spread in a population, altering
the species
• Such alterations are not
actually ‘selected’ – natural
forces secure their survival
Starry sky
The ‘fine tuning’ argument
• Why do we live in a universe in which
life (and evolution) is possible?
• The conditions for life are very, very
improbable. Life needs planets, and
planets need stars.
• For stars to exist, the conditions of the
Big Bang (how big, how much bang)
had to be exact to 1/1060
1 in 1060
• 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000001 percent
– As precise as hitting a one-inch target on the
other side of the universe
• That’s for stars– life is even more
improbable
• Of course, if God designed the universe to
develop life, this is not a massive
coincidence
Does the universe need
explaining?
• The lottery argument
– It’s incredibly unlikely, before the draw, that
whoever wins will win.
– But someone will win.
– With enough chances, the incredibly unlikely can
become inevitable.
• If there are lots of universes, one of them
would have the right conditions for life.
More questions
• What explains why and how the
universe – any universe – exists in the
first place?
• What is the best explanation for
religious experience and miracles?
• If God is all-powerful, all-loving, and
all-knowing, why does evil and
suffering occur?