The Philosophy of Religion

by Timothy Chappell

In this book we turn from the self to God. We turn from questions about personal identity, and what it is to be someone, to the area of philosophy called the philosophy of religion. We will begin by asking what the words ‘God’ and ‘religion’ mean, and what it means to ask philosophical questions about them; then we shall consider the familiar claim that there can be no argument about faith. We will look at a variety of arguments for God’s existence. These will include the medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas’s ‘Second Way’, which is an argument about causes and effects, and the ‘argument from design’ – the argument that deduces God’s existence from the apparent presence of design in the world. Our detailed discussion of design arguments will lead us to the problem of evil – the question why, if there is a good and all-powerful God, there is so much evil in the world. We will then conclude by raising some questions about miracles and religious experience. Along the way, a number of issues about good and bad, right and wrong, benevolence and evil will come up (most obviously, perhaps, with the problem of evil). So this book will set the stage for our discussion of ethics in Book 3. The set book, John Cottingham’s Western Philosophy, is the source for most of the readings in this book, and has a lot of other useful material in it which is relevant to the philosophy of religion, especially in Part VI, ‘God and Religion’, and Part XII, ‘Human Life and its Meaning’. You should keep it handy while you are studying this book. On the Exploring philosophy website, you will find audio recordings involving a number of experts on some of the most important issues raised in this book. These discussions provide an easy way in to some of the questions, so make sure you take full advantage of them! On the website, you will also find a quiz for each chapter. One other resource worth mentioning is the glossary, in which most of the key terms in the philosophy of religion are explained. You can find this at the back of this book (entries are also included in the glossary on the website). Glossed terms are emboldened at their first (or at least an early) use in the text.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Religion

184 pages, Paperback

Reviews

[Benjamin Eskola]

This was a bit disappointing, because (as another reviewer said) there’s a distinct atheist bias to the whole book. I’m not religious myself, so it’s not as if I have a problem with the conclusions drawn, but it does feel like a bit of a waste from a teaching perspective. At one point the author dismisses a particular religious person’s examples as “leading”, which seems like a missed opportunity to explain why it’s leading (or even what “leading” means) — especially since a major theme of this book is analysing philosophical arguments.

Not only that but quite a lot of the content seems to be based on non-philosophers like Richard Dawkins — nothing against him per se but this seems to be at the expense of hearing what actual philosophers have to say.

The final chapter (on miracles) starts fine, but the second half seems to reiterate the first half, as if trying to hammer it home; it seems a bit of a waste, and I’d have found it more useful to see other opinions on miracles (someone who disagrees with Hume, for example), or other aspects of the philosophy of religion generally.

On the other hand, if you’re reading this book it’s almost certainly because you have to for the OU Philosophy course and don’t have a choice in the matter, so my opinion seems irrelevant. :)

[Antonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little more personality than 'The Self' for A222 so made it a little easier to read. If you're short for time for the assignment the 4th chapter can be skipped

[Tiago F · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the book, and I think it was generally well made. I perceived some atheist bias and it seems a very modern and superficial look at religion, but I certainly understand where the author is coming from.

The book touches on 3 major issues within the philosophy of religion. The first is the argument by design. There is a God because of the complexity of the universe and how fine-tuned it is must have a conscious creator. The second is the problem of evil. If there is a God, how come there is evil in the world? Lastly, the claims of miracles from a Humean perspective. Testimonials can be never reliable enough to justify believing in breaking the laws of nature.