PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION



PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

RELIGION AND SCIENCE

What is the view of religion from the scientific perspective?

a. The Romantic View

b. The Scientific "Evolutionary" View or

c. A middle approach?

A Diversity of Views: Contemporary Approach

Various theories on the origin and nature of religion

I. Classical Antiquity

Plato

Aristotle

Theagenes

Critias

Epicurus

Euhemeras

II. Christian Apologists

Middle Ages

Renaissance

III. Eighteenth Century

European Enlightenment

Fontenelle

Brosses

Bergier

Voltaire

Vico

IV. Romanticism

Philosophical Theories

Rosseau

herder

Kant

Lessing

Schelling

V. Symbolists

Creuzer

Heyne

VI.Historical School

Lobeck

Hermann

Muller

VII.Nineteenth Century

Positivism

Comte

History of Religions

Nature Myths

Frazier

Malinowski

Panbabylonism

Ethnological Theories

Lubbock

Animism

Tylor

Spencer

Pre-animism

Marett

Creator god lang

Monotheism

Schmidt

Van der leeuw

Durkheim

VIII. Psychological Explanations

Freud

Jung

Bastian

James

Leuba

Otto

IX. Sociological Theories

Durkheim

Primitive Thought

Levy Bruhl

Ernst Cassirer

Theory of Culture Circles

W. Schmidt

Indo-European Polytheism

Dumezil

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1870 Max Muller "Science of Religion"

Introduction to the Science of Religion (1873)

Greeks attempted to offer theories

Christians saw other religions as "wrong" and not worthy of serious study

1. By 1500ce due to world exploration there was a great deal of information or knowledge of other cultures; e.g.,

Confucian, Hindu, Buddhist

2. Christians fought one another: the truth of religion must lie beyond quarrels

DEISM- Natural Religion-simple belief-1 god:

Recover the original form ORIGINAL FAITH

Live by it in peace and harmony

RELIGION- without recourse to a supernatural or revelation

1870>1900 SCIENCE of RELIGION

1. Possible to explain ALL of Religion

2. Possible to explain through investigation of RELIGION - historical study

E.B. Tylor Science set against Religion

1. Theory of religion out of objective facts

- Evidentiary support

- Final test of truth

2. Theory - comprehensive & General

Stimulates new inquiries, reformulate problems, promote a new understanding

THEORY OF ORIGINS: basic categories

a. Pre-historical

b. Psychological

c. Social

d. Intellectual

e. Historical

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TENTATIVE LIMITED DEFINITION OF RELIGION

Beliefs and behavior associated with supernatural realm - divine

Spiritual ancestors society

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TYPES OF THEORY

A. Search for origins

Evolutionary theory vs.:

A. Can't have scientific knowledge of earliest facts

B. I. Reductionist: functional psychological-e.g. Obsession neurosis (sub conscious) social- group (totem) unites in own terms economic injustice-class struggle

II. Anti-Reductionist:

Eliade-RELIGION=archaic mode of thought function: need for order and significance

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B. RANGE OF THEORIES

Attempt to address RELIGION as a WHOLE

Evans-Pritchard and Geertz- focus of science of religion on the particular, as religion is always embedded within a culture

EVIDENCE AND THEORY

C. COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH

Tylor, Frazer, Eliade examine the widest range of religion

1. Dependence on second order information

2. Facts taken out of natural context in cultures that generate them

WESTERN

e.g., Freud, Marx

1. Must show how all religions arise out of Oedipal complex or class struggle, can't just assume it

D. COMPROMISE

e.g., Durkheim, Evans-Pritchard, Geertz

1. Evidence won't allow for scientifically generalized claims

3. Vs. whole idea of a general theory as applied to something so culturally bound can't develop a comprehensive theory

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THEORY AND BELIEF

SCIENCE vs. RELIGION

As scientific , theories of Religion appeal only to "natural causes"

Tylor & Frazer- anti-religious rationalists

Religion was suitable to people in relative ignorance

Freud-rejected religion-relic of age of ignorance

Durkheim-rejected religion as evil unhealthy

Marx-rejected religion as evil-opiate of the people

Eliade sympathetic to religion

Evans-Pritchard-sympathetic to religion

Geertz- agnostic

Opposes reductionism because it doesn't adequately explain religious phenomena

THEORIES PAST AND PRESENT

Freud- partial insight

Marx- partial insight

Durkheim-partial; insight re: religion and social element

Eliade- defense of archaic thought

???: can any general theory of religion continue to claim scientific attention

universalist theories of religion tend to be fatally flawed

superficial, speculative, unprovable

vague, arbitrary, subjective

PARTICULARIST APPROACH

Future study of religion lies more in the humanities than science

humanities are more appropriate

RELIGION- personal beliefs and behaviors that can only be plausibly explained because they have arisen from complex choices of human agents

CONCLUSIONS:

I. Theoretical inquiry serves as powerful incentive to further exploration and deeper understanding

II. Twentieth Century Approach and Theories

Many Contemporary theorists regard religion as an irreducible Phenomena

Are they Correct?

Is there something distinctively human that finds its expression only in religion?

Is the religious disposition to the world something that is in the human, together with reason, aesthetics and will?

Is the mythological form of thought a structure of the human mind?

Is the human species homo religiosos ? Is receptivity to the transcendent part of what makes the species what it is?

Do all peoples have the same religious or spiritual predispositions? If so, why?

B. RELIGION AND SCIENCE

I. Scientific Study of Religion

de Vries, Jan, The Study of Religion; New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1967

Durkheim, Emile, Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Evans-Pritchard, Theories of Primitive Religion; New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.

Feuerbach, Ludwig, The Essence of Christianity

Freud, Sigmund. The Future of an Illusion; Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Anchor Books, 1964

Huchingson, James E, Religion and the Natural Sciences; Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993

Otto, Rudolph, The Idea of the Holy; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1950

Pals, Daniel L, Seven Theories of Religion; New York: Oxford University Press, 1996

Russell, Bertrand, Religion and Science; London: Oxford University Press, 1961

Tremmel, William Calloley, Religion: What is it? 3rd ed; Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt, Brace College Publishers, 1997

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II. Science and Religion

Crick, Francis, The Astonishing Hypothesis

Davies, Paul, The Mind of God; New York: Touchstone, 1992

Davies, Paul, God and the New Physics; New York: Touchstone, 1983

Davies, Paul & Gribbin, John, The Matter Myth; New York: Simon & Shuster, 1992

Glynn, Patrick, GOD: The Evidence; Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, ForumBooks, 1997

Penrose, Roger, Shadows of the Mind; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994

Ross, Hugh, The Fingerprint of God

Tipler, Frank J, The Physics of Immortality, the Omega Point

Mike, Elemental Mind

Leon, The God Particle

Ward, Keith, Religion and Creation; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996

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III. Science

Barrow, John D & Tipler, Frank J, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988

Capra, Fritjof, The Tao of Physics; New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1977

Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time; New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1988

Horgan, John, The End of Science; New York: Broadway Books, 1997

Hoyle, Fred, The Origin of the Universe and the Origin of Religion; Wakefield, RI: Moyer Bell, 1993

Zukav, Gary, The Dancing Wu Li Masters; New York, NY: William Morrow and Company, 1979

Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, & Bach, An Eternal Golden Braid; New York, NY: Basic Books, 1979

Wilkinson, Denys, Our Universes; New York: Columbia University Press, 1991

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