Religion and TOK
Source: The Enterprise of Knowledge by John L. Tomkinson, Leader Books, Athens, 1999.
1.
Religion and Reason
(note the language of logic being used in this reading)
What is Religious Belief?
 “Polytheists” believe in many gods , “monotheists” believe in one god and “atheists” don’t believe there
is a god. “Agnostics” believe we can never be sure one way or the other.
 Belief in God is not like belief in science because in science “we know that our beliefs are provisional and
always liable to be overturned by new experimental evidence.”
 Religion is a form of “ideology”: it begins with the assumption of its truth. Believers filter their
understanding of their experience to support that belief.
 Believers use propaganda to persuade others of the “unique rightness” of their beliefs.
 In some countries, rational discussion of religious issues is impossible or dangerous.
2.
Religious Ways of Knowing
Faith
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Believers claim to hold this special form of “knowledge” open to only a few who agree
There is no reason to accept one claim on this basis more than any other.
Religious Experience
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“It is not by the eyes that he enters for he is without form or colour that they can discern: not by the ears,
for his coming is without sound; nor by nostrils, for it is not with the air but with the mind that he is
blended”. Saint Bernard, medieval scholar and monk.
“Mysticism” is the word given to the belief that people can have a direct experience with god.
Problem: by its nature as a private experience, there is no way to check its authenticity.
Revelation
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Sacred Speech – glossolalia is a practice that goes back to the ancient Greeks and the Oracle of Delphi.
People utter what sounds like nonsense with an interpretation to follow. The message is believed to
come directly from god.
Sacred Books – when a religion formed during a time when literacy was common, it will possess a body of
sacred writings which represent a special revelation of truth from god.
Extremists (fundamentalists) believe that their holy book is literally true in every respect.
Hindus have the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads; Parsees have the Vedas; Sikhs have the Granth Sahib;
Jews have the Talmud; Muslims have the Qur’an and Christians have the Bible.
The logic for support of belief in a sacred text is often circular: believers quote from the book to support
the truth of the book.
Problems in sacred books include the fact that they were often written before the scientific revolution
and so are inconsistent with scientific knowledge.
1.
Arguments for Religious Belief
Arguments from Morality
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“As you know, once religion is taken away there cannot be a well ordered, well regulated society.” Pope
Pius XII
There has been a long tradition of accepting that religious belief is all that stands between civilized life
and “the brute state of nature” (the law of the jungle).
Religion is considered to be the foundation of our ethics. Dostoyevsky wrote: “If God does not exist, then
anything is permitted”.
But historically, intensely religious societies have not demonstrated a higher morality to others.
In promoting blind acceptance of authority, religion-based morality “prevents the growth of a mature,
autonomonous rational morality among believers”.
Arguments from Known Causes
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Religion can be explained as an attempt to explain natural events we don’t understand.
When we can’t explain something with science, we say “god did it” (God of the gaps theory)
Marxists believe religion is a tool for ruling classes to control the working class. (“opium of the people”).
But arguments against religious beliefs should be targets at grounds, not causes.
Argument from Mutual Incompatibility
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Belief implies acceptance of the religion in a package: you believe all of its tenets or none of them.
But a package is only as strong as its weakest part. As one detail falls, so does the package.
Different religions (or packages) contradict others.
Miscellaneous points from the remainder of the chapter
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Issues around omnipotence: god is considered omnipotent (all powerful) and perfectly good. Explain evil.
Free will of humans to choose evil and cause suffering can’t explain destruction of natural disasters. Some
religious people believe in the existence of non-human spirits like devils or demons.
Issues around free will: If god is all knowing, how can we have free will? Doesn’t he already know what
we will choose? If he does, then the future is predetermined and we have no choices to make.
Issues around “the watchmaker”: believers use the metaphor of a watch – as a watch needs a maker, so
does the complexity of nature. Arguments based on analogy are usually weak – there are many ways in
which nature is NOT like a watch. Not everything in nature works toward a common purpose.
Questions:
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Is religious belief rational? Is religious belief a delusion?
Could any developments in science every account for, or against, the existence of god?
Is the concept of god like that of gravity?
Is the scientist’s faith the world is governed by unchanging laws comparable to the religious believer’s
faith in god?
Is there a necessary conflict between science and religion?