NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK DIVISION OF LIBERAL ARTS AND GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

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1 NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK DIVISION OF LIBERAL ARTS AND GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES PHIL3209/PH209: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION (formerly HU309) COURSE DESCRIPTION: Philosophical examination of religion and religious experience; the criteria of religious knowledge; and adequacy of religion to explain contemporary human experience. PREREQUISITE: One previous course in philosophy or departmental permission and CUNY Certification in reading and writing 3 class hours 3 credits Suggested Textbook: Alternate Textbooks: Pojman, Louis J. Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology. 3rd. ed. Belmont, Ca: Wadsworth Publishing Co., Miller, Ed. L. God and Reason, An Invitation to Philosophical Theology. 2nd edition. NJ Prentice Hall Rowe, William L. Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction. 3rd edition. Belmont, Ca.: Wadsworth Publishing Co Grading: Exam 1 30% Exam 2 or paper 30% Final 40% Prepared by: Dr. Frank Derringh, December 1989 Revised by: Dr. D. McKinney February 1994 January 1997 Revised by: Dr. Walter Brand February 2001 Revised by: Dr. H. McDonald March 2004 November

2 14 WEEK COURSE OUTLINE THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Week One: Week Two: Week Three: 1) Nature of philosophy; the evaluative and conceptual nature of philosophy contrasted with factual, explanatory nature of science. 2) Philosophy discusses the meaning, truth, and value of basic religious ideas, assertions, and ways of living. 3) Definition of religion. Traits common to most religions. Central idea of the sacred and profane distinction. 4) Earliest signs of religious practices and beliefs: its concern with birth, food supply, reproduction, nature, and death. 5) The logical structure of philosophy: arguments, and premises and conclusion. How to evaluate an argument. 1) Traits of God according to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic concept of God. Why this is discussed. 2) Types of proofs for God s existence: a priori and a posteriori. 3) The Ontological Argument of St. Anselm and criticisms of it by St. Aquinas and others. 1) The Cosmological or First Cause argument is presented in two forms and discussed. 2) Critical evaluation of the First Cause argument. 3) Alternatives to the Creation origin of Universe. Logical fallacies involved in the reasoning in the Cosmological arguments exposed. Week Four: 1) The Teleological Argument. 2) Hume s criticisms of it. Evaluating analogical arguments. More modern evaluations. 2

3 Examination One. Week Five: 1) Arguments for God s existence from religious experience. 2) Why religious experience is problematical (privacy). 3) Separating the subjective from the objective in experience. 4) Mystical experience: its traits and universality (W. James). 5) Freud s explanation of religious experience. 6) Perception and the verifiability of proofs from religious experience. Week Six: The Attributes of God 1) God as eternal being. Relation of eternity to time. 2) Notion of Temporally eternal and arguments for and against this idea. 3) Meaning of omniscience, and the problem of its compatibility with human freedom. 4) Standard compatibilist solution: foreknowledge. 5) Necessary knowledge of God and freedom. 6) Meanings of omnipotence, and its coherence or incoherence. Week Seven: Miracles and Theodicy 1) Definitions of miracle, laws of nature, etc. and why so important. 2) Problem of testimony: why the evaluation of testimony is the central problem in dealing with miracles. 3) Hume s argument against the likelihood of miracles. Kinds of evidence needed to substantiate claims of a miracle. 3

4 4) Evaluation of Hume s argument. 5) Meaning of theodicy. The types of evil. Week Eight: Theodicy (Continued and Concluded) 1) Augustinian theodicy and its central ideas: evil as privation and the aesthetic nature of evil; Adam perfect man; Fall doctrine and original sin; punishment; the Great Chain Being. 2) Three objections to the Augustinian theodicy. 3) Theodicy of Irenaeus and Hick: soul-making; virtues and pain; the perfecting of Humanity; against the bird cage, etc. 4) Logical errors in the account of Hick. Examination Two. Week Nine: Death and Immortality 1) What people want when they want immortality. Immortality as a strategy for dealing with the reality, finality, inevitability of death. Other strategies evolved over the ages. 2) Concept of the soul and arguments for its survival after death in Plato and Aquinas. 3) Bodily resurrection and ghostly beings. Problem of personal identity. Are there voices from the Beyond? Week Ten: Faith, Atheism, Agnosticism. 1) Question of the rationality of faith and the relations of faith to reason: compatibility or, 2) Faith opposed to reason, or 3) Faith higher than reason. 4) Do atheists need to prove God s non-existence? 4

5 5) Under what (epistemological) conditions is agnosticism defensible? Week Eleven: Pragmatic Justifications of Religious Belief 1) Pascal s Wager and how faith can emerge from a wager. 2) Criticisms of Pascal s wager. 3) James s psychological defense of faith in an age of science. Faith in general. Pragmatism and making a statement true by prior belief in its truth. 4) Nature of religion according to W. James. Application of the faith-analysis of pragmatism to religion in particular. 5) Standard criticisms of James. Can we distinguish faith from believing what we want? Week Twelve: Religion and Ethics 1) Basic Question: does, should or can morality depend on religion. Additionally, are religious ethics the same as secular ethics? 2) Is God subject to morality? If not, how does God make morality in a non-arbitrary manner? 3) Plato s Euthyphro as an early statement of the problem. 4) Religious and non-religious morality compared in form and content. Kant s ideas on their identity. 5) Religious ethics as deontological and secular ethics as utility ethics. Is this contrast too simple minded? 6) What special value does religious ethics add to ethics? Week Thirteen: Divine command Ethics 1) The Divine Command Theory rejected in the Euthyphro: its meaning and continuing appeal for (some) religious people. Motivation for the theory. 2) Doestoevsky s idea of the implications of rejecting divine command theory. (Locke s too). Nietzsche. 5

6 3) Problems with the Divine Command Theory: a) goodness redundant attribute of God; b) morality becomes arbitrary and thus horrible deeds could be considered right. 4) Attempts to answer these problems by supplementing a divine command theory with a view of God as a loving God. Does this work to save the theory? Week Fourteen: Review and Final Examination 1) Review 2) Final Examination 14 WEEK BEHAVIOR OBJECTIVES THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION At the end of each week indicated, the students should be able to: Week One: 1) Explain and define meaning of central course terms such as philosophy, religion, God, etc. Week Two 1) Define and discuss the Judeo-Christian-Islamic concept of God. 2) Distinguish between a priori and a posteriori arguments for the existence of God. 3) Present and evaluate the ontological argument for the existence of God. Week Three 1) Present and evaluate the cosmological argument for the existence of God. 2) Discuss alternatives to the Creation origin of universe. Week Four 1) Present and evaluate the teleological argument for the existence of God. 2) Explain the importance and relevance of these proofs to a philosophy of religion and for a religiously concerned person. Week Five 1) Present and evaluate arguments for God s existence from religious experience. 2) Define mysticism and explain how religious experience in general can be offered as a proof for God s existence, and the criteria appropriate for evaluating whether any such proof is credible. 6

7 Week Six 1) Define, discuss, and evaluate the attributes of God, especially God s relation to time and eternity, power, and knowledge. 2) Formulate a solution to the problem of the compatibility of God s omniscience with the existence of human freedom. Week Seven 1) Define miracle and present Hume s arguments against the existence (not the possibility) of such events happening and be able to apply his reasoning to analogous events. 2) Define the types of evil, illustrate them, and evaluate the two basic theodicies offered to resolve the theodicy problem. Week Eight 1) Express familiarity with related concepts in theodicy discussions which are current coin of the culturally knowledgeable: Great Chain of Being, Original Sin, the Fall of Mankind, etc. Week Nine 1) Define soul, mind, and similar terms relevant to discussions of the problem of personal identity and immorality. 2) Present Plato s arguments for the immorality of the soul and evaluate their cogency. Week Ten 1) Explain differences among atheism, agnosticism, fideism and state arguments in favor (or against) the rationality of each of them. Week Eleven 1) Explain and evaluate Pascal s and W. James s arguments for the reasonableness of religious belief. Week Twelve 1) Explain the meaning of ethics and expound Plato s argument for the separation of religion from ethics. Week Thirteen 1) Evaluate the modern versions of the divine command theory of ethics. Week Fourteen 1) Understand the distinctive philosophical approach to religion and be able to contrast it with science s approach to religion; 2) Grasp the basic traits of God according to the tradition of Judaism-Christianity, and Islam; 3) Be familiar with the classic proofs of God s existence especially the ontological, cosmological, theological, moral, and experiential arguments; 7

8 4) Comprehend the major obstacles to religious beliefs, in particular those posed by the existence of evil, psychological and sociological explanations of the origin of religious notion, and the verificationist challenge to the meaningfulness of religious language; 5) Defend the notion of fideism and also be able to attack it by citing atheistic objections to placing faith in a being like God; 6) Analyze the relationships, as variously conceived by different philosophers and theologians, between morality and religion; 7) Express a consistent, defensible (which does not mean above criticism) view about god(s) and religion thereby demonstrating the improvement in the quality of reasoning and sophistication of thought wrought by this course. GENERAL EDUCATION General Education at New York City College of Technology, The City University of New York, provides students with a well rounded knowledge base, an appreciation of diverse cultural and intellectual traditions, an interest in relating the past to the contemporary world, and the skills necessary to reflect upon and shape society. A general education provides the opportunity to explore knowledge from various disciplines and perspectives, and to develop students abilities to read, write and think critically, and to assess information from a variety of sources. Further, and perhaps most importantly, general education develops students intellectual and creative curiosity and commitment to lifelong learning. GENERAL EDUCATION LEARNING OUTCOMES Communication Read and listen analytically, comprehending the meaning of texts, including identifying an argument s major assumptions and evaluating its supporting evidence. Write clearly and coherently in varied academic formats using standard English to critique others texts and to improve upon one s own texts. Present a formal or an informal spoken presentation, speaking to persuade or to describe. Listening to detail by way of analyzing the meanings of texts. Critical Thinking Learning the language of logic, formally and informally, for reasoned argumentation. Critical thinking involves the interpretation and criticism of texts, often primary sources. Philosophical positions are evaluated from a variety of sources. Information is integrated into one s own system of beliefs. The basic concepts of logic are identified and studied, i.e., truth and falsehood, the statement, the argument, premises and conclusion, deductive logic, validity, soundness, inductive logic, strength and cogency, identifying fallacies, translating natural language into symbolic form, testing for consistency and entailment, studying and applying the scientific method. Information, Research and Computer skills Information literacy begins with knowing when information is needed. How is the information acquired and then evaluated for its quality? Information literacy allows us to synthesize information 8

9 from multiple, perhaps, conflicting sources. The importance of using information ethically and legally is stressed throughout. Scientific and Mathematical Literacy Understanding logical argumentation as the basis for an understanding of the scientific method; scientific literacy studies the history of the sciences, and recognizes the contribution of science to human progress. It studies the interrelationships among the sciences and between science and the language of mathematics. An understanding of basic statistical analysis, for example, is necessary for evaluating scientific data and interpreting scientific literature. Humanistic and Social Inquiry Humanistic inquiry studies and comes to respect the diversity of human experience while learning the interconnectedness of global and local concerns. The diversity of cultural traditions is stressed throughout together with an understanding of social and political institutions. Humanistic and social inquiry recognizes a variety of perspectives that emerge from new scholarship on gender, race, and class as well as from non-western cultural traditions. The arts are stressed as a basic human activity. Art forms find their expressions culturally, politically, philosophically and ethically. ASSESSMENT OF GENERAL EDUCATION LEARNING OUTCOMES The methods for assessing general education objectives are generic but specificity may arise depending on which area of general education is being stressed. Multiple choice quizzes are especially useful for assessing reading comprehension of basic content as well as attention to detail. The written assignment is many and various depending on the purpose of the assignment. Assignments range from the low-stakes one-pager to the formal term paper. In class, group work resulting in formal/informal oral presentations. Short answer quizzes addressing basic reading comprehension. Collaborative, in-class editing of written work. BIBLIOGRAPHY: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Compiled by: Dr. D. McKinney 1994 Revised by: Dr. D. McKinney 1997 Dr. W. Brand 2001 Dr. H. McDonald 2004 Dr. W. Brand

10 Adams, M. M. and Adams, R.M, eds. The Problem of Evil. NY: Oxford Univ. Press Banner, Michael C. The Justification of Science and the Rationality of Religious Belief. NY: Oxford Univ. Press Brody, Baruch A. ed. Readings in the Philosophy of Religion: An Analytic Approach. 3rd ed. NJ: Prentice Hall Cahn, Steven M. and David Shatz. Contemporary Philosophy of Religion. NY: Oxford University Press Church, F.J. Plato: Phaedo. NY: MacMillan, Inc. LLA Craig, William Lane and Quentin Smith. Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Craig, William Lane. Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology. NY: Oxford University Press Davies, Brian. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Oxford U. Press, New edition Fieser, James. David Hume: The Natural History of Religion. NY: MacMillan, Inc. LLA: Gale, Richard M. On the Nature and Existence of God. NY: Cambridge Univ. Press Green, Ronald M. Religion and Moral Reason. A New Method for Comparative Study. NY: Oxford Univ.Press Guthrie, Stewart Elliott. Faces in the Clouds. A New Theory of Religion. NY: Oxford Univ. Press Helm, Paul. Eternal God. A Study of God without Time. NY: Oxford Univ. Press Hick, John. Philosophy of Religion. 4th ed. NJ: Prentice Hall, Classical and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Religion, 3rd. edition. NJ: Prentice Hall, Hudson, Yeager. The Philosophy of Religion. Mountain View, Ca: Mayfield Publishing Co , Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings. Mountain View, Ca: Mayfield Publishing Co James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience. NY:Mentor

11 Kenny, Anthony, What is Faith? Essays in the Philosophy of Religion. NY: Oxford Univ. Press The God of the Philosophers. NY: Oxford University Press 1979 (paper 1989). Kierkegaard, Søren. Fear and Trembling. Translated Alastair Hannary. NY: Penguin USA reprint Kolak, Daniel. In Search of God: The Language and Logic of Belief. Belmont, ca. Wadsworth Kvanig, Jonathan L. The Problem of Hell. NY: Oxford Univ. Press Mackie, J.. The Miracle of Theism. Oxford: Oxford U. P McGhee, Michael. Philosophy, Religion and the Spiritual Life. NY Cambridge Univ. Press Messer, Richard. Does God s Existence Need Proof? NY: Oxford Univ. Press Miller, Ed. L. God and Reason, An Invitation to Philosophical Theology. 2nd edition. NJ Prentice Hall Nielsen, Kai. Ethics Without God. London: Pemberton Books, Nigosian, World Faiths. St. Martin s Press Oppy, Graham. Ontological Arguments and Belief in God. NY:Cambridge Univ. Press Peterson, Michael William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach and David Basinger. Reason and Religious Belief. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. NY: Oxford Univ. Press Russell, Bertrand. Religion and Science. NY: Oxford U. Press Sessions, William Lad. The Concept of Faith, A Philosophical Investigation. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press (in print 1996). Smith, Norman Kemp. Hume: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. NY: MacMillan, Inc. LLA Stewart, David. Exploring the Philosophy of Religion, 3rd. ed. NJ: Prentice Hall Swinburne, Richard. The Christian God. NY Oxford University Press The Coherence of Theism, Rev. ed. NY: Oxford University Press The Existence of God. Revised ed. NY: Oxford Univ. Press

12 The Evolution of the Soul. NY: Oxford University Press 1986 (paper 1987) Faith and Reason. NY: Oxford U.Press Responsibility and Atonement. NY: Oxford Univ. Press Revelation. From Metaphor to Analogy. NY: Oxford Univ. Press Taliaferro, Charles. Consciousness and the Mind of God. NY: Cambridge University Press, Warner, Martin, ed. Religion and Philosophy. NY: Cambridge Univ. press Yandell, Keith. The Epistemology of Religious Experience. NY: Cambridge University Press Zagzebski, Linda Trinkaus. The Dilemma of Freedom and Foreknowledge. 12