Faith and Reason

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Faith and Reason
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History of Defences of Religious Belief

• Philo (1 c. CE), Augustine (4th c.), Ibn Sina,
  Ibn Rushd (10th 12th c.), St. Anselm
  Maimonides (11th c) Aquinas (13th c.) tried to
  reconcile Monotheism with Greek Philosophy
• Efforts to prove that God exists were meant to
  show that reason does not go counter to what
  faith accepts

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Questions about Traditional Arguments

• Cosmological arguments at best only prove the
  necessity of an uncaused first cause that is
  outside the natural order
• Paleys references to biological complexity are
  weakened b/c evolution supports the possibility
  for a natural source of biological complexity
  besides conscious intelligence

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The State of the Debate About God

• Traditional arguments for the existence of God
  are still being strenuously debated
• Two major arguments for Atheism are still being
  debated
• Freuds Projection Theory
• Problem of Evil (after midterm)
• Many philosophers see the issue as undecided

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Freuds Projection Theory of Religion

• One of the most common arguments used against
  belief in God and in support of atheism
• Freud (and others) have argued that God is not
  real, but rather a psychological projection of
  our deep need for a protective authority figure
• God does not make us in his image, rather we make
  God in our image

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The Projection Theorys Relevance to the Question
of Gods Existence

• There is a major logical flaw in the projection
  argument God doesnt exist b/c Religious
  beliefs are psychological illusions
• Even if it were true that all religious beliefs
  were actually psychological illusions, this
  would not show that God does not exist
• Gods existence is a logically separate issue
  from the question of how people happen come to
  their religious beliefs about God

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Blaise Pascal

• Blaise Pascal 17th c. CE philosopher, scientist
  and mathematician
• Deeply religious man
• Wrote The Wager to help unbelievers to see the
  reasonableness of faith even if reason cannot
  decide the issue of Gods existence

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The Wager
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William James

• 19th c. CE American philosopher
• Rejected Pascals argument
• Argued that faith based in selfish calculation
  would not be real faith
• Argued instead for the reasonableness of choosing
  a faith stance under certain circumstances

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Faith as a Genuine Option

• Genune Options
• Living Option (vs. dead)
• Forced Option (vs. avoidable)
• Momentous (vs. trivial)
• Passional nature may and must decide upon
  genuine options when they cannot be decided on
  intellectual grounds
• Passional naturehopes, fears needs that come
  from personal experience

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Alvin Plantinga

• 20th c. Philosopher
• Everyone must have some beliefs for which there
  are no arguments for why they are true--one
  simply believes them to be true (basic beliefs)
• Atheists might propose that only self-evident
  propositions should be allowed to be basic
  beliefs
• Is this proposition self-evident asks Plantinga?

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God Properly Basic Beliefs

• There is reason to question the standard for
  basic beliefs proposed by atheists
• Since we all need some basic beliefs to begin
  reasoning and to ground reasonable discourse, why
  cant Christians have Gods existence as a basic
  belief, especially considering how essential it
  is for their efforts to make sense of the world?