Philosophy of Religion Mind Mapping Project

Reason and Religious Belief


Attachments:
To Navigation Map
To Reason and Religious Belief Discussion Forum
Faith and Reason in the Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy

1: Can religious belief be rational?

Attachments:
Debate on the existence of God between M. Tooley and W. L. Craig
P. Clayton talks about Belieiving in God
W. Sinnot-Armstrong talks about The Existence of God

1.1: Wide scope/narrow scope

1.1.1: Rationality of believing a whole faith tradition such as Christianity.(wide)

1.1.2: Rationality of some specific belief such as the existence of God. (narrow)

1.2: Never rational

Mental Connections:
     ---- Atheism

1.2.1: Bertrand Russell

Attachments:
Russell in Wikipedia
Russell's 'Why I am not a Christian'

1.2.1.1: All proofs of God's existence are bad

1.2.1.2: Concept of God unworthy of free humans

1.2.1.3: Science will replace religion

Attachments:
To New Design Argument Map

1.2.1.4: Task of philosophy to liberate humans from false beliefs

1.2.2: Logical Positivism

Attachments:
About Logical Positivism
Logical Positivism and Religious Belief

1.2.2.1: Theory of meaning

1.2.2.1.1: analytic propositions are true by definition (truth apt)

1.2.2.1.2: Synthetic propositions are empirically testable, hence they are meaningful and truth apt

1.2.2.1.3: If they are not truth apt, then they are not genuinely meaningful

1.2.2.1.4: Problem: seems to exclude a large number of apparently meaningful domains of discourse such as ethics and aesthetics

1.2.2.1.5: Problem: Quine's 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism'

Attachments:
Quine's paper
About 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism'

1.2.2.2: Religious 'propositions' are neither analytic nor synthetic: they are not truth apt

1.2.2.2.1: Ignores ontological proof

Attachments:
To Ontological Argument Map

1.2.2.2.2: No possible experience could verify the truth of statements such as 'God exists'

Attachments:
To Religious Experience Map

1.2.2.2.3: Belief in religion is irrational since the relevant propositions are meaningless

1.2.2.3: A. J. Ayer

A. J. Ayer was one of the principle thinkers of the Logical Positivist movement.

Attachments:
About A. J. Ayer
About Ayer's Book: Language, Truth and Logic

1.3: Sometimes rational

1.3.1: John Hick

Attachments:
To transcendental Pluralism Map

1.3.1.1: Accepts the Logical Positivist's meaning framework

1.3.1.1.1: Two kinds of possible verification: direct and indirect

Attachments:
To Religious Experience Map
To Enlightenment Experience Map

1.3.1.1.1.1: Eschatological (End of Time) verification (Direct Verification)

1.3.1.1.1.1.1: Unimpeded Experience of God at the End of Time

1.3.1.1.1.1.1.1: How can any observations be made when there is no time?

1.3.1.1.1.2: Features of the universe that demonstrate the empirical difference God makes (Indirect Verification)

Attachments:
To Design Argument Map

1.3.1.1.1.2.1: Problem of interpreting evidence that universe is moving toward a goal

1.3.2: Norman Malcolm

See Norman Malcolm, 'The Groundlessness of Belief' in Reason and Religion, ed. S. C. Brown (Cornell University Press, 1977).

Attachments:
About Norman Malcolm

1.3.2.1: Applying Wittgenstein's theory of meaning to religious language

Attachments:
Religious Language in the Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy
Religious Language Resources

1.3.2.1.1: Two types of religious belief: fundamental and non-fundamental

1.3.2.1.1.1: Fundamental beliefs are not grounded in evidence. They are grounded in a community of faith

1.3.2.1.1.2: Fundamental beliefs are the context within which non-fundamental beliefs are evaluated

1.3.2.1.1.3: It can be rational to accept fundamental beliefs, without requiring justification or evidence

1.3.2.1.1.4: Scepticism about fundamental beliefs is misguided

Attachments:
P. Klein on Scepticism

1.3.2.2: Wittgenstein proposed a new theory of meaning

Attachments:
Powerpoint introducing different theories of meaning

1.3.2.2.1: Task of philosophy to understand, not critique or provide a foundation for belief

1.3.2.2.2: The meaning of an utterance is the way it is used by a linguistic community. 'Meaning is use'.

Attachments:
About the 'use' theory of meaning

1.3.2.2.3: Some beliefs are not grounded in epistemic foundations or evidence, but in the understanding of the relevant community

Mental Connections:
     ---- Fideism

1.3.2.2.4: Wittgenstein on Religious Belief

Attachments:
M. Martin on Wittgenstein's Lectures on Religious Belief

1.4: Always rational

1.4.1: The problem of too many competing religious belief systems

Attachments:
To Religious Diversity Map

2: Atheism

Attachments:
Wikipedia on Atheism
BBC on Atheism

Mental Connections:
     ---- Never rational

3: Naturalism

Attachments:
Centre for Naturalism
Popular naturalism

4: Pascal's Wager

Attachments:
The Wager Explained in the Stanford Encyclopedia
Wikipedia on the Wager

5: Fideism

Attachments:
Fideism Explained in Wikipedia
Stanford Encyclopedia on Fideism

Mental Connections:
     ---- Some beliefs are not grounded in epistemic foundations or evidence, but in the understanding of the relevant community









Summary of Mental Connections in map:

Never rational ->     -> Atheism

Some beliefs are not grounded in epistemic foundations or evidence, but in the understanding of the relevant community ->     -> Fideism

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