WHAT IS RELIGION? A FIRST LOOK

LESSON 4Is Religion for Real?

THE SPECTRE OF RELIGION

The Specter of Religion

A. Is Religion for real? A not so religious critique: Nietzsche, Marx, Feuerbach, and Freud and others.

• B. The Problem of Evil.

• Readings: Peavy “From Problem to Paradox” attached. Lecture IV, attached.

Activity

• Go to http://beliefnet.org/ and click on “Belief-O-Matic” and complete the quiz there. What do the results say about your religious views? Are you surprised by the results?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

• “ … if the human species is ‘hardwired’ to believe in a spirit world, this could suggest that God doesn’t exist as something ‘out there,’ beyond and independent of us, but rather as the product of an inherited perception, the manifestation of an evolutionary adaptation that exists exclusively within the human brain. If true, this would imply that there is no spiritual reality, no God or gods, no soul, or afterlife.” Matthew Alper,”The God-Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God”

OBJECTIVE

• Compare, contrast, and assess the rationality of the concepts of deity, cosmos, and evil proposed by the major religious worldviews.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS TRAILER

The Sunset Limited

Is there anything else?

• What did you think about the trailer you just watched?

• Are you familiar with this mind blowing, soul stirring film by HBO?

• How do we reconcile Black’s belief in God with White’s belief in nothingness?

• Which of the two men has the better argument?

REFLECTIONS

• Please make a special effort to watch the film.

• Why is White so resolved and Black so angry at the end of the movie?

• The movie represents the conflict between religious belief and non-belief which is the subject of our inquiry this lesson.

• Is religious belief rational?

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

• Most people who cite logical reasons for not believing in or subscribing to any particular form of religion cite the problem of evil as the reason for their unbelief.

• The Problem of Evil:God is omnipotentGod is good

Evil exists

THE PROBLEM (Contd.)

• The previous formulation is what is known as a syllogism. Note the problem emerges in that the conclusion contradicts the two preceding propositions.

• If God is omnipotent, then God can do something about evil. If God is good, then God should want to do something about evil. How then do we explain evil’s presence?

THEODICY

• Those who believe in God and who hold on to the beliefs that God is omnipotent and good offer defenses of God and how God can be both omnipotent and good in the face of evil. These defenses are called theodicies.

• The most widely accepted theodicy is the free will defense.

FREE WILL THEODICY

• Free Will posits that God created humans with free will and thus evil flows from the misuse of that free will. God cannot or rather chooses not to interfere with humans’ exercise of free will because humans would not be free unless they are able to enjoy and to suffer the good and the bad that result from their exercise of their free will.

THE PROBLEM PERSISTS

• Many respond that the free will defense is inadequate. While it might explain what is oftentimes referred to as moral evil; that is, the evil that humans cause/do, it does not explain natural evil – the evil committed by animals (eating one another, attacks on humans, etc.) and nature (tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.)

SCIENTIFIC VIEWS

• “I was now convinced that the mind, which I previously believed to constitute my soul, instead represented the workings of my physical organ, the brain. There was no soul. There was no ghost in the machine. There was no transcendental component within my head … (just) synaptic transmissions, electrical and chemical impulses…”

Religion is A Mind Game?

• “Assuming spirituality/religiosity is not learned, this leaves us with the last possibility which asserts that our universal spiritual/religious proclivities must represent an inherent characteristic of our species, a genetically inherited trait. This would suggest that we are innately predisposed to believing [in religion].” (78)

A Religious Impulse?

• “Apparently, spiritual consciousness is just as integrally linked to our neurophysiological make-ups as is any of our other cognitive capacities. … I’m suggesting we inherit our sense of spiritual consciousness. …” (80-81)

Contd.

• “Not only does this spiritual function act to transform our perception of reality, but it also seems to possess the ability to override our critical reasoning functions. … Religion therefore represents the cultural manifestation of our spiritual impulses, that social medium through which our spiritual impulses are given form and expression.”

Who Then Is God?

• “… God isn’t a transcendental force or entity that actually exists ‘out there’ but rather represents the manifestation of an inherited human perception, a coping mechanism that comes in the form of a cognitive phantom generated from the human brain. “ (108)

God (Contd.)

• Essentially, what I'm suggesting is that humans are innately "hard-wired" to perceive a spiritual reality. We are "hard-wired" to believe in forces that transcend the limitations of this, our physical reality. (godpart.com, accessed 3/21/2007)

SOURCE

The “God” Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God

Matthew Alper, New York: Rogue Press (2001)

http://www.godpart.com

A Delusion?

A preeminent scientist – and the world's most prominent atheist – asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11.

A Preview

• With rigor and wit, Richard Dawkins examines God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of

http://richarddawkins.net/

godDelusion• a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, forments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence. The God Delusion makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just wrong, but potentially deadly.

Finally

The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired into Our Genes (Paperback) by Dean H. Hamer (Author)

WRAP UP

• What have we learned this week?• We have looked at the other side of religious

belief and looked, all too briefly, at some of the great criticisms of religious belief.

• Of course, religious belief does not always require a rational basis.

• Reason is not a predicate of religious belief.• On the contrary, a person believes then seeks

reasons to support such belief.