Philosophy of Religion - Reading

Part Two: Philosophy of Religion

MySearchLab Connections

  • Multimedia Resources: Students are encouraged to engage with additional materials through MySearch Lab, including readings, videos, podcasts, and research tools.
  • Assessments: Complete topic-specific and chapter exam assessments available online.

Key Readings and Review Materials

  1. Blaise Pascal, "The Wager," Number 233 in Section 3 of Pensées

    • Discussion of Pascal's wager and its different formulations. Focus on discerning the arguments' differences.

  2. William James, "The Will to Believe," Pages 1-5

    • James proposes that decisions about belief, especially in God, can be based on factors beyond evidence.
    • Insights into why belief in God may be justified beyond mere evidence.

  3. W. K. Clifford, "The Ethics of Belief"

    • Clifford posits that believing without sufficient evidence leads to negative consequences.
    • Essential questioning of whether belief in God can lead to the consequences Clifford anticipates.

Watch and Listen

  1. Podcast: "Ben Rogers on Pascal's Pensées" - Philosophy Bites
    • Discussion of the themes of Pascal’s work and how his understanding of humanity influenced his arguments in the Wager.

Key Themes in Philosophy of Religion: The Argument from Evil

  • Overview: The Argument from Evil suggests that the existence of evil in the world provides a basis for atheism, questioning the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good God (referred to as all-PKG).

First Version of the Argument

  1. Premises:
    • (1) If God exists, then he is all-PKG.
    • (2) If an all-PKG being exists, then there would be no evil.
    • (3) There is evil.
    • Conclusion: Hence, there is no God.
  2. Validity: The argument is deductively valid.
  3. Premise (1) Interpretation: Addresses the nature of the definition of God, arguing it is not strictly definitional.
  4. Premise (2): Supported by the rationale that an all-good God would desire to prevent evil, being all-knowing and all-powerful.

Two Kinds of Evil

  • Human Actions: Evils resulting from human actions (murder, torture).
  • Natural Events: Evils resulting from natural disasters (earthquakes, diseases).

Possible Reactions to the Argument

  • Reject Premise (3): Deny existence of evil or moral categories.
  • Reject Premise (1): Argue that God may not be all-PKG.
    • This allows room for a reinterpretation of divine nature.

Theodicy and Defense

  • Reject Premise (2): Provides theist responses to argue why an all-PKG God could permit evil.
    • Theodicy: Attempts to explain why evil exists despite God's nature.
    • Defense: Seeks merely to show that we lack reason to believe that premise (2) is true.

Concept of Soul-Building Evils

  • Definition: Evils that may strengthen and develop character through adversity.
  • Criticism: Not all suffering leads to character improvement; some suffering is debilitating and may not justify the experience.
  • Parental Analogy: Emphasized to explain why a loving God could allow for soul-building through adversity but questioned for its justification against God's omnipotence.

Second Version of the Argument

  • Refinement:
    • (1) If God exists, then he is all-PKG.
    • (4) If an all-PKG being exists, then evil should not exceed a soul-building minimum.
    • (5) The current amount of evil exceeds this minimum.
    • Conclusion: Hence, there is no God.

Free Will Argument

  • Proposal: Human free will allows for a choice of good or evil leading to more evil than necessary for soul-building.
  • Counter-question: Can God not create free agents who choose only good?

Third Version of the Argument

(Illustrating intense evils with historical examples, such as Hitler's actions and natural calamities, emphasizing that they exceed the proposed justifications for evil's existence).

  1. Structure:
    • (1) If God exists, then he is all-PKG.
    • (6) If all-PKG, evil quantity would not exceed soul-building or free will justifications.
    • (7) The quantity of evil does exceed this minimum.
    • Conclusion: Hence, there is no God.

Criticism of the Third Argument

  • Challenge to Premise (6): The critique introduces the notion that humans may not fully understand God's rationale for allowing the existence of more evil than proposed limits.

Testability of Evil Arguments

  • Questions concerning the testability of God’s existence based on the amount of evil present in the world.

Evidential Argument from Evil

  • Introduces a less definitive stance:
    • States that a variety of evils serve as evidence against the hypothesis of an all-PKG God, without being conclusive.
  • Formulation:
    • If an all-PKG God exists, we would not see certain kinds of evil (principle of surprise).
    • If no all-PKG God exists, then these evils are expected.

Review Questions

  1. Is the proposition of God as all-PKG definitional?
  2. Do imperfections contribute to human understanding of God?
  3. Explore the balance of soul-building evils against human freedom in reference to evil.
  4. Distinguish between theodicy and defense and construct linked arguments.
  5. Analyze the criticism of the third Argument from Evil based on its premises and their validation.
  6. Evaluate the evidential argument from evil’s effectiveness compared to deductive arguments.

Problems for Further Thought

  1. Compatibility of omnipotence with the existence of free will.
  2. Additional reasons beyond soul-building for an all-PKG God allowing evil.
  3. Assessing biblical theodicy in explaining evil’s presence.
  4. The interplay between divine foreknowledge and human free will.
  5. Leibniz’s claim about the best possible world and its critiques from thinkers like Voltaire.

Suggestions for Further Reading

  • Research topics related to the problem of evil, the concept of theodicy, and free will discussions.