1. Introduction to Philosophy of Religion
Chapter 25
Introduction to Philosophy of Religion

2. Philosophical Issues in Religion
What are the most basic attributes in our concept of God?
What is the relationship between God’s goodness and power?
Is God good by choice, or does God choose good because God is by nature good?
There are problems with either approach
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3. Philosophical Issues in Religion
The philosophy of religion gets into very complicated issues:
Issues that occupy the best philosophical minds of every generation
The difficulty of reconciling God’s goodness with omnipotence:
Points us directly to the problem of evil
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4. Philosophical Issues in Religion
The problem of evil has been stated in many ways:
But perhaps the following is the simplest and most direct:
How can there be evil in the world if God is both all-good and all-powerful?
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5. Philosophical Issues in Religion
God can only choose the lesser of two evils
Why can God not choose a world where people are free and evil cannot exist?
It’s because that is impossible, and not even God can make the impossible happen
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6. Philosophical Issues in Religion
The relation between faith & reason points us toward another question relating to:
The source of our religious knowledge
Do we learn about the religious life from authority figures:
From scripture, religious experience, or are we completely dependent on reasoning & arguments?
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7. Some Attempts at Definition
If we cannot find a defining characteristic of religion in something:
As apparently basic as belief in God:
Then we can see the difficulty in discovering any characteristic common to all religions
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8. Some Attempts at Definition
Group religions into families determined by features they have in common:
But do not share with other religions
Fails as a philosophical analysis because it does not, by itself:
Lead to an understanding of the nature of religion
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9. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Criteria
If we cannot find a defining characteristic of religion:
We might try discovering what function religion serves
When we look at the various proposed functional definitions of religion:
We find that they fall into two broad categories
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10. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Criteria
Definitions that attempt to explain religion in terms of extrinsic criteria
Definitions that attempt to explain religion in terms of intrinsic criteria
Believers in a religion would prefer intrinsic definitions that emphasize religion as the:
Search for God, or the holy, or the infinite
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