Introduction to The Philosophy of Religion

This course provides an introduction to those interested in the study of the philosophy of Religion.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

• What is Religion & What is the Philosophy of Religion
• ISMs and ISTs – ideologies and beliefs.
• Origins & Growth of Religion.
• Religious Experience & Religious Experiences in Language – Fables, Allegory, Literary Forms, Cosmogonies.
• Religious Language – Nameless One, Negative Language, Positive Language, Analogical Language, Dialectical Language, Signs & Symbols.
• Concepts of Deity and their Adequacy
• World Religions
• The Great Theistic Religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam
• The Great Eastern Religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism
• Grounds for Belief/Disbelief
• Cosmological, Teleological, Ontological and Moral Arguments, Pascal’s Wager
• Arguments from Uncertainty –
(Agnosticism)
• Arguments from Disbelief – (Atheism) – Schopenhauer, Marx, Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Freud