Philosophy of religion is the rational study of the
meaning and justification of fundamental religious claims, particularly
about the nature and existence of God (or gods,
or the divine).
Philosophy of religion as part of metaphysics
Philosophy of religion was classically regarded as part of
metaphysics, after
Aristotle, amongst whose writings was a piece that later editors
identified as The Metaphysics. Aristotle there described
first causes as one of the subjects of his investigation. For
Aristotle, God was the first cause, the
Unmoved Mover. Philosophy of religion as a branch of metaphysics later
came to be called
natural theology by
rationalist philosophers of the
seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. In the
twentieth century, philosophers have adopted the term "philosophy of
religion" for the subject, and typically it is regarded as a separate
field of specialization, though it is also still treated by some,
particularly
Catholic philosophers, as a part of metaphysics.
It can be argued that to nearly anyone capable of understanding the
issues, it should be clear why considerations of the
divine
have been regarded as metaphysical. God, according to most conceptions of
God as divine, would be in an important category: that of beings different
from the rest of the universe. That is, God is typically conceived as not
having a body, and the "mind" of the divine is not typically regarded as
anything very like an ordinary human mind. Metaphysics, and in particular
ontology,
is concerned with the most basic
categories of existence, those types of existence that cannot be
explained as any other type of existence. By taking this view, the very
notion of God (the gods, the divine) cannot be reduced to human concepts
of mind or body; God is, on such a view, a
sui
generis entity, an entity in a category all of its own.
The questions asked by the philosophy of religion
There are a lot of philosophical questions that can be asked about
religious beliefs. But there are two central questions in this
field. They are:
- What is God, that is, what is the meaning of the word, 'God'?
- Do we have any good reason to think that God exists, or to think
that God does not exist?
Still, there are other questions studied in the philosophy of
religion. What, if anything, would be good reason to believe that a
miracle has occurred? What is the relationship between faith and reason?
What might it mean for God to exist as a trinity, that is as the "Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost" of Christian theology?
What is God?
The question "What is God?" is sometimes also phrased as "What is the
meaning of the word, God?" Most philosophers expect some sort of
definition as an answer to this question, but they are not content simply
to describe the way the word is used, they want to know the essence of
what it means to be God. Western philosophers typically concern
themselves with the God of
monotheistic religions (see
the nature of God in Western theology), but discussions also concern
themselves with other conceptions of the divine.
Indeed, before attempting a definition of a term it is essential to
know what sense of the term is to be defined. In this case, this
is particularly important because there are a number of widely different
senses of the word 'God'. The term is
ambiguous: it is used in different ways by different people. So before
we try to answer the question "What is God?" by giving a definition, first
we have to get clear on which conception of God we are trying to define.
Among those people who believe in supernatural beings, some believe there
is just one God (monotheism
See also
monotheistic religion.), while others, in the greatest numbers
Hindus,
believe in many different gods. (polytheism
See also polytheistic religion.)
Buddhists
generally do not believe in a personal God similar to that of the
Abrahamic religions but direct attenion to a more undefined state of being
called
Nirvana.
Within these two broad categories there is a huge variety of possible
beliefs--although there are relatively few popular ways of
believing. For example, among the monotheists there have been those who
believe that the one God is like a watchmaker who wound up the universe
and now does not intervene in the universe at all; this view is
deism. By
contrast, the view that God continues to be active in the universe is
called theism.
There is also another viewpoint that due to so many different concepts
of God, that the definition is best left to the individual to evaluate. An
example is what the Scientologists have stated in their belief system:
Beliefnet (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/80/story_8057_1.html)
With so many different spiritual routes that claim to bring one to a
higher understanding of God, in whatever form he is conceived, their are
also many more definitions. See below.
Monotheistic definitions
Traditionally philosophers of religion, at least in Europe, were
interested in finding out what the word "God" might refer to, in the
sense in which it is used by theists. Again, theism, can be defined
as the view that exactly one God exists, who is an eternally existent
spirit, that exists apart from space and time, which has created the
universe out of nothing, and is therefore all-powerful; and usually this
being is also thought to be all-knowing and all-loving. Even once the word
"God" is defined in this sense, there are still many difficult questions
to be asked about what this means. For example, what does it mean for a
spirit to create anything? What does "all-powerful" mean?
Polytheistic definitions:
Pantheistic definitions:
Panentheistic definitions:
Rationality of belief
The second question: "Do we have any good reason to think that God
exists, or to think that God does not exist?" is equally important in the
philosophy of religion. Since Plato and Aristotle, philosophers and
theologians have offered arguments and counterarguments for the existence
of God.
