Philosophy of Religion
Phil
3600
Fall 2007
Instructor:
Wes Morriston
Office:
Hellems 280
Hours: TR 10:40 – 12:10 and by appt. (You can
usually catch me after class as well.)
Tel.: 303-492-8297 (from
campus: 28297)
Email: Wes.Morriston@Colorado.EDU
Class webpage: http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/3600.html
Description:
I hope to cover a fair amount of ground this semester. We'll begin by taking a look at one of the main issues religious faith and practice is supposed to help us with – the Meaning of Life. Next, we'll give careful and critical consideration to the frequently made claim that without God morality lacks a firm foundation and “everything is permitted”. The next three sections of the course will focus on some of the most important lines of argument for – and against – traditional theism. Special consideration will be given to the problem posed for traditional theism by the amount and variety of evil in the world. If there is time, we'll also take a look at a couple problems in traditional philosophical theology – puzzles having to do with omnipotence, omniscience, and free will.
To provide a bit of contrast, we'll include an extended discussion of most of the chapters in Ken Wilber's book, No Boundary – a particularly clear example of a “non-dual” Eastern analysis of the human problem. We'll conclude with what I hope will be a deeper-than-usual treatment of Pascal's famous Wager Argument. (As Pascal recognized, all of this is supposed to have something to do with the way we decide to live our lives!)
Required texts:
C. Stephen Layman, Letters to Doubting Thomas: A Case for the Existence of God
A very accessible, up-to-date, and tightly argued attempt to provide a cumulative case for the existence of God. It focuses principally on the idea that the existence of the God (traditionally conceived) provides the best explanation of a wide variety of phenomena.
Peter van Inwagen, The Problem of Evil
An attempt by an major American philosopher to construct the best possible defense of traditional theism against the "argument from evil".
Ken Wilber, No Boundary
An early book by a prolific author. Borrowing from many different (mostly eastern) traditions, the book explains and advocates a "non-dual" diagnosis of the human problem. If you don't yet know what that means, don't be alarmed. I chose this book because it's exceptionally clear and makes it easy to see what's going on.
Several other required readings will be online. You can find them at the addresses provided below. In many cases, a username and password is required. These will be provided in class.
These readings deal with several topics that aren't fully covered in the books I've assigned. All of the readings in the first two sections of the course ("God and the Meaning of Life" and "God and Morality") are online.
Course requirements:
Two short papers giving (or critically considering) an argument.
In each case, there will be a choice of assigned topics.
A midterm exam (short answer and essay)
A final exam (short answer and essay)
Important dates:
Tu., Sep. 18: first paper due in class.
Th., Oct. 18: midterm exam given in class.
Th., Nov. 15: second paper due in class.
Sat., Dec. 15, 7:30am–10am: final exam.
OUTLINE OF TOPICS AND READINGS
God and the Meaning of Life
William
Lane Craig, “The Absurdity of Life Without God”
http://www.bethinking.org/pdf.php?ID=129
Karl
Branting, “Religion for
Skeptics”
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/Branting_UUCC_12_Aug_2007.pdf
Thomas
Nagel, “The Absurd”
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/TheAbsurd.pdf
(Username and password required.)
God and the Foundations of Morality
William
Lane Craig, “The Indispensability of Theological Foundations for
Meta-Ethical Foundations of
Morality”
http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/meta-eth.html
Ross
Shafer Landau, “Does Ethical Objectivity Require
God?”
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/Ross-Shafer-Landau.pdf
(Username and password required.)
Robert
M. Adams, “Moral Arguments for Theistic
Belief”
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/adams4dct.html
(Username and password required.)
A
cumulative case for the existence of God
(All readings are from
C. Stephen Layman, Letters to Doubting Thomas: A Case for
the Existence of God.)
Framing
the question and setting up a methodology for answering it
Layman,
Introduction and Chapter 1
Do
experiences of God boost the “prior probability” of
theism?
Layman, Chapters 2 and 3
A
Cosmological Argument for a “necessarily existent” God
Layman,
Chapter 4
An
argument for an intelligent creator/designer
Layman, Chapter 5
An
argument from free will
Layman, Chapter 6
God and
evil
Layman, Chapter 7
Naturalism
and evil
Layman, Chapter 8
A moral
argument for God's existence
Layman, Chapter 9
God
and evil
(All readings are from Peter van Inwagen, The
Problem of Evil.)
Setting up
the problem
van Inwagen, Lectures 1, 2, and 3
The Global
Argument from Evil
van Inwagen, Lectures 4 and 5
The Local
Argument from Evil
van Inwagen, Lecture 6
The
Sufferings of Beasts
van Inwagen, Lecture 7
The
Hiddenness of God
van Inwagen, Lecture 8
The Ontological Argument
Peter
van Inwagen, “Necessary Being: The Ontological
Argument”
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/pvi-oa.pdf
(Username and password required.)
Puzzles in philosophical theology
Omniscience
and free will
Plantinga, “Ockham's Way
Out”
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/plantinga-ockham.pdf
(Username
and password required.)
Omnipotence
Wielenberg,
“Omnipotence
Again”
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/wielenberg-omnipotence.pdf
(Username and password required.)
A “non-dual” approach to the human problem
Ken Wilber, No Boundary, chapters 1 – 3
Ken Wilber, No Boundary, chapters 4 – 6
Ken Wilber, No Boundary, chapters 9 – 10
Stephen
Mitchell, selection from the Introduction to The Gospel
According to
Jesus
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/wes/lad/Gospel-Jesus-Mitchell.html
(Username and password
required.)
Wagering on God
On
Pascal's Wager
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/