Faith and Reason

• fideism

  faith takes priority over reason or has nothing to do with it. Religion isn't rational and subjecting it to analysis places reason above God.
• fideist- Martin Luther

  philosophy is the "devil's whore"/ bad for faith
• fideist- tertullian

  "what had athens to do with jerusalem?", christianity is muddled by philosophical ideas put forward by the likes of Plato
• fideist- kierkergaard

  we must take a "leap of faith" with infinite passion contrary to reason to find god. faith is more important than philosophical reason because its the only way to reach him.
• fideist- karl barth

  objects to natural theology, gospel is in danger of philosophy. reason has no value, otherwise why would we need faith and revelation?
• problems with fideism

  • how can you chose a religion without reason, how do you pick the 'right' one?
  • self defeating- you must have a reason to claim fideism is right but to give a justification is to no longer be a fideist
• rationalism

  uses reason logic, science and argument to defend ideas. WK Clifford "it's always wrong to believe something upon insufficient evidence."
• rationalists- hume and russell

  used reasoned arguments against arguments for god like design and cosmological. show gods existence hasn't been proved yet.
• rationalists- ayer and flew

  religious language- statements about god are meaningless because they are untestable
• rationalists- freud and marx

  • human religious behaviour is a neurosis caused by a childhood desire to be protected by a father figure, hallucinations with a psychological explanation and products of our subconscious.
  • religion alienates you from yourself as it acts as a form of comfort for the oppressed. calls it the "opium of the people" something to suppress us into not wanting that sweet sweet world revolution.
  • offer a psychological and sociological objection to religious belief respectively
• rationalist- Aquinas

  god's existence can be proved by reason -the five ways- but faith is needed to believe doctrine like the trinity and transubstantiation
• problems with rationalism

  • no singular world view can satisfy all reasonable people
  • reason isn't neutral, philosophers have preexisting bias from their world experience
  • human minds can't be expected to reason accurately about complex metaphysical issues like god's existence
• anselm and compromise

  "i believe in order that i may understand" faith can be tested rationally but only once you've come to faith. it allows for reason to be used properly. faith based reason and reason based faith.
• HH Price

  
  

  • belief in is a trust in something. disinterested in the sense that gods existence is intrinsically good like friendship. God's existence would be intrinsically good for everyone because he's supposed to be omnibenevolent
  • belief that is mere acceptance of a proposition there is a god, doesn't hold value when compared to the other
• key thinker- Wittgenstein

  what we believe and how we interpret evidence depends on our already existing ideas, supported by RM Hare's bliks.
• key thinker- RM Hare

  • Bliks- unfalsifiable beliefs we live by
  • example of the don fearing lunatic. convinced the oxford dons (professors) are trying to poison him and any evidence presented is an attempt to get him off guard so they can poison him
  • shows the blik can't be refuted by evidence- it is determining what counts as evidence and what that evidence means
• key thinker brian davies

  • not all beliefs are provable, axiomatic (self-evident or unquestionable) beliefs are needed as a basis for belief
  • people often believe without proof, like trusting experts
  • some christian beliefs can't be proved, like jesus being both fully human "son of man" and fully god "son of god"
  • we often use belief for both things open to doubt and things conclusively proved
• key thinker basil mitchell

  • gives the example of the partisan who believes a stranger is the secret leader of the resistance movement, and believes anything that stranger does that looks to counteract their movement is part of the plan so continues to believe in them.
  • shows how religious belief continues not just without but contrary to evidence and how its not unreasonable. they weigh up evidence for and against like believing god is loving because of the crucifixion despite living in an evil world
• understanding of the word god

  • some people regard god as cognitive, as an external independent objective being which can be proved true are false in the way literal statements are.
  • however some philosophers see religious statements as non-cognitive, not open to truth or falsity like wittgenstein
  • dz philips drew on W: learning of god isn't like seeing an additional being exists, it involves not just an extension of knowledge but an extension of understanding where life gains new meaning, seeing what already exists in a new way. theistic proofs are a misunderstanding of what "god exists" means