PHIL 1F90 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cn Tower, Immanence, Ckcu-Fm
7 Dec 2017
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PHIL 1F90
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Lecture - “The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke in Thought Probes; “The
Problem of Evil” by John Hicks in Thought Probes
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, post no evil - God & Evil
Flew’s “skeptic” and “believer”
- Story: Two explorers come to clearing in a jungle, a believer and a skeptic. Debate over if
there a gardner? If one exists they should be able to detect him in some way, so they surround
it by guard dogs and an electric fence. No one shows. Skeptic says no gardner, but believer
says there is a gardner that is illusive (i.e., works in mysterious ways)
- Flew exposes philosophical problem, the original assertion that there is a gardener, that one
exists, has been qualified to point of complete erosion
- Flew says compare the following religious assertions:
- God exists, God loves us, God has a plan, God created the world, God works in mysterious
ways
- All appear to be meaningful and intelligent. Are they really meaningful?
- Flew says they would be meaningful if the person making it can tell you what would count
against the truth of it being made. Person making claim must be able to state what would
induce them to withdraw their assertion
- Flew says an assertion is genuinely meaningful as one if something can serve as evidence
against it
- Ex. God exists. It is a meaningful assertion if we can say, “What is evidence to the contrary?”
- What event could make you say, “I was wrong, God does not exist”
- This seems to work both ways. Same must be true for statement “God does not exist” to be
meaningful. What would have to happen for you to change your mind and say, “I believe he
exists now”
- Phrase, “God loves us like a loving flower,” there is no earthly sign of his care. God does not
appear to behave in same way a human parent would care
- Phrase, “God has a divine plan,” do you jump in the water to save child or let child drown?
How do you know which is God’s plan?
- Story: Flood. Boat came to save a man, and he said, “No god will save me.” The water rose,
and a helicopter came to save the man, and he refused again. The water rose again, and the
man drowned. At the Pearly Gates in heaven the man said, “Why didn’t god not save me?” He
was told that he was sent a boat and then a helicopter
- Intelligent design theory is not same as Creationism, but all religious assertions are qualified
time and time again and are eroded
- God is inscrutable and infinite, and we are limited in our understanding. Or god works in
mysterious ways, this may work because God seems a mystery to us or irrational. Maybe we
could say they are unGod-like
How far can reason take us
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PHIL 1F90
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- Faith/religion
- Reason/philosophy
- Can God be known rationally or must God remain a mystery?
- How far will reason go to determine if God exists?
- If God exists how far will reason go to tell us what God is like?
- One possibility is that faith and reason are mutually exclusive and have nothing in common,
so they separate out to two venn diagrams
- In other words faith would be a non-rational belief. i.e., faith and reason have nothing to do
with each other. You can live with both of them (prof doesn't think this is true)
- Another possibility is that reason overlaps with faith, so reason is either there to support
someone’s faith or to contradict it or come into conflict with it
- Philosophy would work as a handmaiden with religion or turn out to be its most severe critic
- What comes first, reason that gives you faith or faith that gives you reason?
- Another possibility is that there is or could be a completely rational religion. A complete and
exhaustive overlap between reason and faith. There would be nothing in religion that would be
outside the scope of philosophy
- Is there such a thing?
- That possibly exists in the history of philosophy. Below are some examples…
HEGEL
- 19th century German philosopher
- Claimed in that in the course of history art becomes religion and religion will become
philosophy, because reason matures and progresses
- Art is where we start. It is completely symbolic and then it becomes religious, which is half
symbolic and half conceptual. As it grows it becomes completely conceptual understanding of
things (philosophy)
- How could this be?
- Animism
- Imagine way back, people see sparks out of fire. They say the sparks are a spirit, so the
sparks have a spirit, the stars have a spirit, etc.
- Polytheism
- Reason matures
- If we had a series of gods, we don't need a spirit in every spark. You just need a fire god.
You don’t need a spirit in every star, just have a sky god
- This replaces primitive animism
- They would view animists as naive
- As reason matures they economize further…
- Monotheism
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PHIL 1F90
Page 3 of 10
- Gives way to one God, a personal deity
- They would view polytheists as primitive and they couldn’t understand animists at all
(just as animists couldn't understand one god, their consciousness hasn't expanded)
- Monism
- Modern day theologians are talking about things that people going to church can’t
comprehend. People going to church are thinking in terms of monotheism
- Already transitioning to monism
- God thought of now not just as God the father, but God as holy spirit, Being, not an
entity, something which allows beings to be
- 100 years from now that is what they will be thinking
- This is an evolution dictated by the advancement of reason
Feuerbach
- “God” is for the birds
- Says if we can ask birds what is your God like, the birds would describe an unequal,
unparalleled bird. Their bird God would have the most beautiful song, would enjoy effortless
flight, have the best plumage and would lay golden eggs
- He says one concept of God is derived by coming to understand the potential perfections of
your own species
- The perfections of the species as a whole (in our case to be all good, powerful, knowing) are
reified (made into a thing) and then as an object in its own right we project these perfections
out there. So the bird thinks its God is out there. The human thinks its God is out there too
- But its a projection
- Therefore, religion is self-alienating
- He believed religion should become anthropology, the study of the human being
- Religion should be viewed negatively as self-alienation
- You can see where Karl Marx comes from with his view that “religion is an opioid of the
people”
Does God Exist?
- Appeared to be only three answers - yes, no, i don't know
- If you say yes, and believe you have evidence and arguments for design, then you are a theist
(not a deist). Theist means you have an anthropomorphic understanding of God
- If you say no and you think you have evidence, ex. problem of evil, that you can’t reconcile
suffering in world, then you are an atheist
- If you say I don't know because there is no evidence to convince you, then you are agnostic
- Bertrand Russell suggested atheist and agnostic amount to the same thing, because it is just as
probable that Greek gods exist as Norse Gods as Judaeo-Christian God
- Russell thinks we would be better off without religion because its self-alienate
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Document Summary
Lecture - the star by arthur c. clarke in thought probes; the. Problem of evil by john hicks in thought probes. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, post no evil - god & evil. Story: two explorers come to clearing in a jungle, a believer and a skeptic. If one exists they should be able to detect him in some way, so they surround it by guard dogs and an electric fence. Skeptic says no gardner, but believer says there is a gardner that is illusive (i. e. , works in mysterious ways) Flew exposes philosophical problem, the original assertion that there is a gardener, that one exists, has been qualified to point of complete erosion. Flew says compare the following religious assertions: God exists, god loves us, god has a plan, god created the world, god works in mysterious ways. All appear to be meaningful and intelligent.
