6. The roots of religious belief

One of the features of human societies is the ubiquity of religious commitment. But why do we find religious ideas compelling? ‘The roots of religious belief’ suggests we need to look beyond the arguments for God’s existence. The ‘standard model’ of religious belief is comprised of three elements: the activity of a hypersensitive agency detection device; the intuitive pull of teleological explanations; and the need to ensure that the members of a society comply with its norms. What implications might the standard model have for the rationality of religious belief? The destabilizing thesis, the by-product argument, the argument from explanatory absence, and the argument from unreliability are all discussed.

2. The concept of God

Religions differ widely in their conceptions of God’s nature, from God as a unity to God as a triune and God as a supernatural being or the totality of all that there is. ‘The concept of God’ restricts its attention to what philosophers of religion call ‘classical monotheism’ because monotheism—or theism—has dominated philosophy of religion within the Western world. Theism lies at the heart of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and is found in certain strands of Hinduism. Theists regard God as the creator of the world; a perfect being of unlimited knowledge, power, and goodness; and the proper object of our worship.

8. The afterlife

Speculation on the nature of the afterlife is as old as recorded history. Although the doctrine of an afterlife is not found in all religious traditions, where it does, it is typically central to the religious belief and practice. But is the idea of an afterlife intelligible? ‘The afterlife’ considers substance dualism, a concept popular throughout the history of religious thought, but no longer favoured by contemporary philosophers of religion. It also discusses three resurrection models: the reassembly, body-snatchers, and falling elevator models. In addition to asking whether life after death is a possible state for creatures like us, it also asks whether we should even want to live forever.

4. Divine hiddenness and the nature of faith

Assuming—as theists invariably do—that God wants to be recognized and worshipped, why does God not make Godself manifest? Perhaps God is ‘silent’ because God doesn’t exist. ‘Divine hiddenness and the nature of faith’ considers both the hiddenness objection and the benefits of divine hiddenness: that divine hiddenness is a precondition for moral agency; that if God’s existence were evident to us then any relationship that we might have with God would be inauthentic; and that belief in God is more virtuous when it is based on faith. It also discusses the thoughts of W.K. Clifford, William James, and Søren Kierkegaard on religious belief.

1. What is the philosophy of religion?

Philosophy of religion is concerned with philosophical questions prompted by religious faith and experience. Some of these questions concern religion generally; others concern particular families of religion; and some concern particular religious traditions. ‘What is the philosophy of religion?’ explains how there is an intimate relationship between philosophy of religion and theology, but that the nature and location of the border between them is of some dispute. Some religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism, embrace philosophical reflection, whereas the Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—contain very little in the way of explicit philosophical reflection. Despite this, numerous Abrahamic philosophers have made important contributions to the philosophy of religion.

7. Speaking of God

Language plays many roles in religious thought and practice, but philosophers of religion are most interested in the doctrinal uses of language. ‘Speaking of God’ considers both realism and anti-realism—which is favoured by some theorists—and their plausibility. One of the most influential versions of anti-realism construes religious utterances as expressions of emotional states or attitudes. One motivation for anti-realism derives from the verificationist theory of meaning, but this has few contemporary advocates. The different names of God are also discussed with the two main accounts of how names refer: descriptivism and the causal view. Finally, two accounts of religious predication are outlined: the univocal and analogical accounts.

5. The problem of evil

Evil represents the most serious challenge to belief in God. Philosophers of religion typically distinguish between two versions of the problem of evil: the logical and the evidential problem. ‘The problem of evil’ focuses on theists who provide two types of response to the problem without modifying the classical theistic conception of God: defences and theodicies. Almost all responses involve an appeal to the ‘greater good strategy’, including soul-making, natural law, and free will. A very different approach to the problem of evil is the sceptical response, which aims only to make plausible the idea that we can’t tell whether or not the evils of the world are absorbed.

3. Arguments for the existence of God

Is it possible to prove that God exists? There is certainly no shortage of arguments that purport to establish God’s existence, but ‘Arguments for the existence of God’ focuses on three of the most influential arguments: the cosmological argument, the design argument, and the argument from religious experience. Before examining these arguments, it first considers the very enterprise of attempting to establish God’s existence. What should we expect from an argument for God’s existence? What would it take for such an argument to be successful? The attempt to justify claims about the nature and existence of God on the basis of commonly accepted truths is known as natural theology.