Plantinga Argues That There Is Superficial Conflict but Deep Concord Between Science and Theistic Religion
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Varieties of Religious Naturalism
Varieties of Religious Naturalism Wesley J. Wildman — Boston University — Spring 2010 — STH TT861/TT961 Course Description The aim of this course is learn about varieties of religious naturalism and how they have been, and can be, incorporated into philosophical and theological reflection. The seminar will read a variety of works in contemporary religious naturalism, from twentieth-century classics to current contributions, and from theoretical analyses of the meaning of naturalism to surveys attempting to map out the territory of plausible viewpoints. We will also track the close relationship between religious naturalism and both ecologically-rooted forms of spirituality and nature-centered forms of mysticism. The class is intended for advanced masters students and doctoral candidates interested in contemporary forms of philosophical and theological reflection on nature and God, and in forms of spirituality rooted in the natural world. Students registered at the 900-level have readings and a bibliographic task to complete over and above the obligations of students registered at the 800-level. Classes will meet once a week on Wednesdays from 8:00 to 11:00 in STH 319. Each class will be conducted in the seminar discussion format with lectures given by the instructor as needed or requested. The 800-level version of this course counts (1) as an MTS Core Concentration course for Science and Religion, for Theology, and for Area B; and (2) as an MDiv Theology 3 Core Elective. It may also count (3) as a requirement for a BTI Certificate program in science and religion. The main product of the course will be a research paper on some aspect of the course material, topic to be approved in advance by the instructor (50%; 3,000 words for 800-level students, 5,000 words for 900-level students). -
Naturalistic Theism Teed Rockwell
Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism 25.2 (2017) 209–220 ISSN 1522-7340 (print) ISSN 2052-8388 (online) https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.34830 Naturalistic Theism Teed Rockwell Sonoma State University [email protected] Abstract Many modern theological debates are built around a false dichotomy between 1) an atheism which asserts that the universe was created by purposeless me- chanical processes and 2) acceptance of a religious system which requires both faith in the infallibility of sacred texts and belief in a supernatural God. I propose a form of naturalistic theism, which rejects sacred texts as unjustified, and supernaturalism as incoherent. I argue that rejecting these two elements of traditional organized religion would have a strongly positive impact on the beliefs and practices of religion, even though many religious people feel strongly attached to them. It is belief in sacred texts that is responsible for most of the evil done in the name of religion, not belief in God. Many of the strongest arguments for atheism work only against a supernatural God, and have no impact on the question of the existence of a natural God. Keywords atheism, theism, agnosticism, naturalism, supernaturalism, sacred text, Shook, Dennett, Dawkins, Kuhn, Quine, Neurath, Koran, Bible, Islam, Buddhism, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, miracles, Marxist atheism I agree with many of the criticisms of established religions voiced by promi- nent Atheists. That is why the only form of Theism I could accept would be what I call Naturalistic Theism. For many Atheists, this will appear to be a contradiction in terms, but I will argue that this kind of theism is as com- patible with science as nondogmatic Atheism.1 As far as I can tell, Natural- istic Theism is essentially identical to what John Shook calls either Religious 1. -
Royce and Religious Naturalism Royce E O Naturalismo Religioso
Royce and Religious Naturalism Royce e o Naturalismo Religioso Robert E. Innis Department of Philosophy University of Massachusetts Lowell - USA [email protected] Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the orienta- tion proposed by the American philosopher Josiah Royce, which puts an infinite, absolute, and saving consciousness at the center of religion and the orientation set forth by a broad range of thinkers who have developed and defended various forms of religious naturalism where it is nature fundamen- tally in the form of natura naturans, not a center of consciousness, that is the focal point of religious concerns. The paper examines the key features of Royce’s notion of the Absolute and its relation to the three pivots of the religious problem as Royce saw it: an experienced fault lying at the heart of existence, a need for a beloved community of interpreters who would be loyal not just to one another but loyal to loyalty itself, and practices of atonement that would heal the broken world of human existence in time. I show how it is possible to reconstruct these pivots in religious naturalist terms: ‘fault’ can be reconstructed as the sense of ‘creatureliness,’ ‘atonement’ as ‘healing the rift’ in human existence by the ‘free creation and preservation of values’, and the ‘beloved community’ as a variety of interpretation communities open to the appearance of meaning and value in all the ways they emerge from natura naturans. Various ways of reconfiguring other elements of the Roycean position are also developed in the course of the paper. -
Confucianism As a Form of Religious Naturalism
CONFUCIANISM AS A FORM OF RELIGIOUS NATURALISM Mary Evelyn Tucker Confucianism religious naturalism encompasses a dynamic cosmological ori- entation that is interwoven with spiritual expressions in the form of communi- tarian ethics of the society, self-cultivation of the person, and ritual expres- sions integrating self, society, and cosmos. This tapestry of spiritual integra- tion, which has had a long and rich history in China and in other countries of East Asia deserves further study. The author thinks such studies will also point the way toward future forms of Confucian religious naturalism in new and creative expressions. Keywords: Confucianism, religious naturalism, self-perfection, communita- rism, cosmology. Introduction The art of Confucian religious naturalism might be described as discovering one's cosmological being amidst daily affairs. For the Confucian the ordinary is the locus of the extraordinary; the secular is the sacred; the transcendent is in the immanent. What distinguishes Confucianism is an all-encompassing cosmological context that grounds its world-affirming orientation for humanity. This is not a tradition seeking liberation outside the world, but one that affirms the spirituality of becoming more fully human within the world. The way of immanence is the Confucian way.1 The means of self-transformation is through cultivation of oneself in relation to others and to the natural world. This cultivation is seen in connection with a tradition of scholarly reflection embedded in a commitment to the value of culture and its myriad expressions. It aims to promote flourishing social relations, effective educational sys- tems, sustainable agricultural patterns, and humane political governance within the con- text of the dynamic, life-giving processes of the universe. -
Religion and Science1
Phil 3303 Phil of Religion Religion and Science1 Four Models for Understanding the Relationship Between Religion and Science I. Conflict A. Areas of conflict 1. Creation and evolution 2. Freudian psychoanalytic theory calls into question the legitimacy of the religious way of life by suggesting that its roots are in wish fulfillment and repression (Totem and Taboo; The Future of an Illusion; Moses and Monotheism 3. Einsteinian relativity theory which drastically reinterprets our conceptions of space, time and causality and thus challenges us how God relates to the world (see Einstein's Relativity: The Special and General Theory). 4. Technological advances in computers and artificial intelligence seem to endanger the unique status of homo sapiens (originally, see A. M. Turing, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," Mind 59 (1960); D. Hofstadter and D. Dennet, The Mind's I). 5. Biotechnology and the discovery of the DNA molecule threaten to put the secret of life into the hands of scientists. B. Scientific materialism or philosophical naturalism Many evolutionary scientists adopted the perspective of PN (Philosophical naturalism) as the control belief and basis of evolution. (1) that physical nature alone is real; (2) all phenomenon are configurations of matter or nature; (3) there is no supreme being or supernatural realm governing nature or overseeing humanity; 1 Taken from Michael Peterson, et. al. Reason and Religious Belief, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford UP, 2003), pp. 246ff. (4) natural processes are responsible for the origination of life and diverse life forms. This control belief led to the full-fledge world view of evolutionary naturalism which holds the following: (1) that humanity stands alone in an essentially hostile universe; (2) that humanity has no overarching purpose; (3) reject religion as an illusion, and view science as the only hope for the progress of humanity and as the only way to explain human experience, existence, and destiny. -
Hesitations About Special Divine Action: Reflections on Some Scientific, Cultural and Theological Concerns
HESITATIONS ABOUT SPECIAL DIVINE ACTION: REFLECTIONS ON SOME SCIENTIFIC, CULTURAL AND THEOLOGICAL CONCERNS ALISTER E. MCGRATH Oxford University Abstract. The new interest in special divine action has led to a close reading of the great debates and discussions of the early modern period in an attempt to understand contemporary resistance to the notion of divine action, and to develop strategies for reaffirming the notion in a refined manner. Although continuing engagement with and evaluation of the Humean legacy on miracles and divine action will be of central importance to this programme of review, there are other issues that also need to be addressed. In this article I identify some of the factors that have caused or continue to cause difficulties for the articulation of a concept of special divine action and I suggest how they might be engaged. The last two decades have witnessed a renewed surge of interest in the question of whether, and to what extent, God may be said to act in the world. Can God be understood to act entirely in and through the regular structures and capacities of nature, or does a robust account of divine action also require us to affirm that God acts specially in order to redirect the course of events in the natural world, thus delivering outcomes that would not have occurred if God had not acted in this way? Although this discussion is sometimes framed in terms of a generic notion of divinity,1 the most significant recent engagements with the question have reflected Judeo-Christian conceptions of God, and the questions arising from these. -
Religious Naturalism: the Current Debate
Religious Naturalism: The Current Debate Leidenhag, M. (2018). Religious Naturalism: The Current Debate. Philosophy Compass, 13(8), [e12510]. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12510 Published in: Philosophy Compass Document Version: Peer reviewed version Queen's University Belfast - Research Portal: Link to publication record in Queen's University Belfast Research Portal Publisher rights © 2018 The Author(s) Philosophy Compass © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher. General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Queen's University Belfast Research Portal is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The Research Portal is Queen's institutional repository that provides access to Queen's research output. Every effort has been made to ensure that content in the Research Portal does not infringe any person's rights, or applicable UK laws. If you discover content in the Research Portal that you believe breaches copyright or violates any law, please contact [email protected]. Download date:02. Oct. 2021 Religious Naturalism: The Current Debate A religious naturalist seeks to combine two beliefs. The first belief is that nature is all there is. There is no “ontologically distinct and superior realm (such as God, soul, or heaven) to ground, explain, or give meaning to this world” (Stone, 2008, 1). Moreover, the natural sciences are the only or at least most reliable source of knowledge about the world. -
Religion of Nature As a Form of Religious Naturalism
ONE RELIGION OF NATURE AS A FORM OF RELIGIOUS NATURALISM Ah, nature! subtle beyond all human subtlety, enigmatic, profound, life-giver and life destroyer, nourishing mother and assassin, inspirer of all that is best and most beautiful, of all that is most hideous and forbidding! —W. MacNeile Dixon, The Human Situation We humans are persistent questioners. We like to get to the bottom of things. We are not simply creatures of instinct, responding automatically to circumstances of the natural environment in our urge to survive. Instead, we possess consciousness, reason, and freedom to a degree that no other creatures of earth apparently do. These qualities enable us to stand out from the natural environment in our conscious minds rather than being immersed in it. They confer upon us a capacity and need to refl ect upon both the environment and ourselves in a critical, searching, detached fashion. As a result, the more inquiring ones among us tend to speculate intensely about our world, seeking to understand its character, the how and why of its existence, and our proper role as humans within it. We crave intelligibil- ity, purpose, and meaning in our outlooks and lives. We are not satisfi ed with mere survival. The history of cultures and civilizations is suffused with evidences of this relentless human quest for comprehension and meaning. Down through the ages, in story, myth, and rite, in philosophy, science, and art, the search goes on. Two major styles and outcomes of this search are religious super- naturalism and religious naturalism. The “religion of nature” of this book’s initial chapter title is a particular version of religious naturalism, as we shall presently see. -
The Panpsychist Worldview
THE PANPSYCHIST WORLDVIEW CHALLENGING THE NATURALISM-THEISM DICHOTOMY Written by Edwin Oldfield Master’s thesis (E-level essay) 15 HP, Spring 2019. Studies in faith and worldviews Supervisor: Mikael Stenmark, prof. Philosophy of religion Department of Theology Uppsala University 2019-06-03 Abstract The discussion of worldviews is today dominated by two worldviews, Theism and Naturalism, each with its own advantages and problems. Theism has the advantage of accommodating the individual with existential answers whilst having problems with integrating more recent scientific understandings of the universe. Naturalism on the other hand does well by our developments of science, the problem being instead that this understanding meets difficulty in answering some of the essentials of our existence: questions of mentality and morality. These two views differ fundamentally in stances of ontology and epistemology, and seem not in any foreseeable future to be reconcilable. To deal with this issue, Panpsychism is presented here as the worldview that can accommodate for both existential issues and scientific understanding. 1 Table of contents 1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 Purpose and Questions ............................................................................................. 3 1.2 Limitations ............................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Methodology ........................................................................................................... -
Pansacramentalism, Interreligious Theology, and Lived Religion
religions Article Pansacramentalism, Interreligious Theology, and Lived Religion Hans Gustafson College of Arts and Sciences, University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Avenue, Mail 57P, St. Paul, MN 55105, USA; [email protected] Received: 21 May 2019; Accepted: 26 June 2019; Published: 28 June 2019 Abstract: Opening with a philosophical definition of sacrament(ality) as a mediator (mediation) of the sacred in the concrete world, this article offers pansacramentalism as a promising worldview—especially for those rooted in or emerging from the Christian traditions (since, for them, the language of sacramentality may have a stronger resonance)—for bringing together interreligious theology and data mined by Lived Religion approaches to the study of religion. After articulating the concept of pansacramentalism and emphasizing interreligious theology as an emerging model for doing theology, growing trends and changing sensibilities among young people’s religious and spiritual lives (e.g., the “Nones”) is considered insofar as such trends remain relevant for making contemporary theology accessible to the next generation. The article then considers the intersection of pansacramentalism and interreligious theology, especially the issue of determining sacramental authenticity. To explain how this challenge might be met, Abraham Heschel’s theology of theomorphism is offered as but one example as a nuanced means for determining sacramental authenticity of the sacred in the world. Turning to “Lived Religion” approaches, rationale is offered for why pansacramentalism and interreligious theology ought to be taken seriously in the contemporary world, especially considering recent data about the nature of contemporary religious identities among young people living in the West. Keywords: pansacramentalism; sacramentality; interreligious; lived religion; interreligious studies 1. -
Exploration Towards God in a Scientific Age
ST GEORGE’S LECTURES 8 - Exploration Towards God in a Scientific Age No 8 - © Arthur Peacocke 2002 Exploration Towards God in a Scientific Age 1 Arthur Peacocke MBE, DD, DSc, SOSc Honorary Canon and Chaplain, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford Little Gidding is a small village in Huntingdonshire, England, to which Nicholas Ferrar, a doctor well-connected politically, retired with his family in 1626 to lead an ordered life of prayer and good works (medical, book binding, etc.) in a lay community – the first one in England (lay or ordained) since the English Reformation. It lasted for 21 years before being broken up by Puritan Protestants. In May 1936, T.S. Eliot visited its 17th-century chapel, which still exists, and later he composed the last of his influential Four Quartets . The poem, entitled Little Gidding , is a profound reflection on the significance of time in the divine purpose and four lines provide the leit-motif of this lecture: We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. (T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding ) Nicholas Ferrar had been a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, where I was for 11 years Dean (of Chapel). One of my great experiences at that college was, once a year, to go with students to Little Gidding. There we conferred in the adjacent farm house and then celebrated the Eucharist, Holy Communion, the Mass, in its unforgettable, evocative and dignified small 17th-century chapel with the light of the setting sun streaming through its west door. -
Thesis.Pdf (274.2Kb)
Speaking of God in an Age of Science Torbjørn W. Engel REL-3901: Masteroppgave studieretning i teologi Institutt for religionsvitenskap Det samfunnsvitenskapelige fakultet Universitetet i Tromsø Mai 2008 2 Contents CONTENTS............................................................................................................................. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... 5 PREFACE ................................................................................................................................ 7 CHAPTER I: P EACOCKE AS A FUNCTIONALIST ........................................................................ 9 Life and work of Arthur R. Peacocke................................................................................ 9 Opening remarks............................................................................................................. 10 Bridging religion and science......................................................................................... 14 Summary of introduction................................................................................................. 25 CHAPTER II: A D ISCUSSION OF PEACOCKE ’S FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE ....................... 27 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 27 Discussion......................................................................................................................