Philosophy of ReligionLecturer: Dr Victoria Harrison

Department of PhilosophyUniversity of Glasgow

Philosophy of Religion in a Multi-cultural World

We can interpret the world

• Religiously, or

• Naturalistically.

• Both are rational.

The world is religiously-ambiguous

Moreover, a number of religious interpretations are available

• Monotheistic • Non-theistic

Which religious view seems best often depends on a person’s culture, for example

• Semitic • Asian

If God exists…

• Why is neither God’s existence nor God’s nature obvious?

• Why isn’t atheism foolish?

• The evidence neither for nor against the existence of God is overwhelming.

If God exists, God is hidden

How hidden is God? The evidence:

• Loss of belief• Millions have no awareness of God• Believers sense God’s presence obscurely• Abundance of explanations for God’s

hiddenness• Preoccupation of theists with arguments

for God’s existence• God is hidden to virtually all within certain

cultures

Why would God choose to make belief difficult?

• Has God sacrificed ‘goods of clarity’ for ‘goods of mystery’?

Explanations for God’s hiddenness

• Human defectiveness theories

• Divine transcendence theories

• Hiddenness is a means to producing goods of mystery.

Goods of mystery

• Genuine moral choice

Character formation

• The self as a project

If the existence and nature of God were obvious

• Atheism would be irrational

• All rational people would be theists.

• This is not the case.

• Given the hiddenness of God, how should we respond to religious diversity?

Three Types of Theory Responding to Religious Diversity

• Religious ExclusivismE.g., Alvin Plantinga

• Religious InclusivismE.g., Karl Rahner

• Religious PluralismEg., John Hick

Religious Exclusivism

• Key claim: One religion is exclusively correct.

• Its claims are exclusively true. If the claims of other religions contradict these, then the claims of the other religion must be false.

• It alone offers a way to salvation.

• Problems…

Religious Inclusivism

• One religion has the monopoly of religious truth-claims.

• However, salvation may be available through alternative traditions – despite their false claims.

• Problems…

Religious Pluralism

• Key claim: All major religious traditions are authentic.

• Different forms of religious pluralism:• The most influential is John Hick’s.

The key claims of Hickean pluralism

• Each world religion has its own phenomenal reality. • Since each world religion has its own phenomenal

reality, the claims of one world religion do not conflict with those of another world religion.

• Each world religion is a response to the same thing: The ‘Real’.

• Responding to this phenomenal reality is, so far as we

can tell, equally effective in each world religion.

What does this entail?

• Each world religion is equally valid.

Problems with Hickean Pluralism

• Truth

• Experience

• Appropriateness of responses

• Religious language

END