Essay on Philosophy’s Prejudice Towards Religion

The era of France Enlightenment and religion have a misconception that leads one to believe that they were enemies. The Enlightenment was not against religion but it was against the superstitions and the supernaturalism of religion. Philosophes during the era of France’s Enlightenment did not look to abolish religion or the Catholic Church of France. They simply wanted a separation of religion and state because it was believed that the state was based on reason and religion was based on morality. Religion and the Enlightenment were compatible and Dr. Sorkin argues: “the Enlightenment was not only compatible with religious belief,” it actually generated new formulations of that belief. One goal that was a reflection of the

At the beginning of the semester, I wrote: “Religion is the institutional manifestation of feeling and believing in something beyond yourself” (Kelley 2016). Twelve weeks later, I consider this definition incomplete and problematic; nevertheless, it reveals how religious thinkers such as James Frazer, Emile Durkheim, William James, Mircea Eliade, Jeffrey Kripal, and Bruce Lincoln infiltrate our quotidian definitions of religion. In this paper, I hope to develop a new conception of religion, recognizing the impact of such historical thinkers on personal conclusions. In other words, I hope to show that we are

This will be based on the chapter 4 Religion as "Truth-Claims", posted on Blackboard. First of all, Dianne L. Oliver makes a preface about her writings saying that religions claim to get the truth, and followers of diverse religions say that their truth is the only one true, and cannot be compare with any other. Also, she remarks that many of those religion followers use violence to uphold their own version of truth. Moreover, she let us know that she is going to consider the "True-Claims" of different religions, and show how those claims can influence the practices, behaviors, and ideas of religion followers. Next to the introduction, she considers that religion is very essential for understanding the fundamental questions in our daily lives.

This semester in Philosophy of Religion has continued my journey to learn hard truths through class discussions but particularly through the required texts. All of our diverse texts have forced me to calm down my J of the Myers Briggs and helped me to understand the beauty and importance of openness toward God. Mircea Eliade 's The Sacred and The Profane, Martin Buber 's I and Thou, and Søren Kierkegaard 's Practice in Christianity have all forced an encounter with the myriad of ways in which humans experience God. Through this encounter, each author has provided ideas about a new outlet to experience God: Eliade taught us how to experience God in all parts of nature; Buber gave

the role of religion as a haven for the soul to be a relentless fight

Eighteenth century Enlightenment philosophers believed that reason and science were the foundation of truth; thereby, tradition, faith, and superstition were becoming obsolete. They felt they were coming out of the darkness of medieval religion and into the light of reason. However, rather than discovering true liberation after killing God, they had only succeeded in orphaning themselves (Craig, 2008. P. 71). This dissertation will focus on the article On Being an Atheist written by Australian philosopher H.J. McCloskey in 1968. The purpose of his article was to establish, what he referred to as proofs against the existence of God.

Scientific and philosophical innovations during the 18th century brought about a new breed of thinkers. Their driving forces of rational and reason shifted the religious temperament of the elite from “enthusiasts” to intellectuals. “They argued that there was no divine standard of morality, no afterlife to divert humanity from worldly concerns” (The Western Experience, pg. 657). They were radicals who sought to displace the authority of religion. Driven by reason, enlightenment thinkers naturally opposed superstition and attempted to replace religious mysticism with philosophical standards and scientific formulations. Their shift of focus highlighted reverence for the Creator and moral teachings

Otto was a renowned Lutheran Theologian and a scholar of Comparative religion. He was born in 1869 in Germany near Hanover. He later attended the Gymnasium Andereanum and studied at the university of Erlangen and Gottingen. He wrote his dissertation about understanding the Holy Spirit by Martin Luther. Otto is well thought-out to be one of the most influential thinkers who have ever existed in religion. Otto resisted any effort in the reconciliation of science views and religion views on worldly experiences but again he equally opposed the hostility that was existed between scientist and religion. He is well known for his thorough analysis and his experience on religion views (Broadbent, 2012) (Broadbent, 2012). The purpose of this paper is

Rahner underscores the interlocking relationship of philosophy and theology, and this idea directly pertains to the relationship between academic and spiritual contexts. Rather than being so opposed, the love of wisdom is akin to the love of the Divine. Stemming from a collection of sources, I will explore the relationship of spirituality to the present world, in religious and academic spheres. Schneider’s “Religion vs. Spirituality: A Contemporary Conundrum”, Sheldrake’s “Christian Spirituality as a Way of Living Publicly” and “The

Science was not as prominent as it is now before, some people rejected science and all it had to offer for a long time. This was primarily because of the fact that people did not want to change their belief, not only theirs but their previous generations had believed in this also. This religious dogma they had believed in all their life, it was not until about the scientific revolution in the 16th century that science was widely accepted by all. Thales and his students although wrong were the ones who directed speculative thoughts and also started the process that brought physics, chemistry and other sciences. They were part of the first set of philosophers who started to

Today in the Twenty-First Century, the world revolves around science, minds that think in a philosophical way are praised. This hasn’t always been the way of life, unfortunately, the geniuses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had to endured many obstacles to get society to the way that it is. Religion has always and might always be the biggest hurdle one must jump, in history many men and women had to jump a lot higher than ones today. Three in specific went against religion in their time, Giordano Bruno, Francis Bacon, Robert Hooke. These men blew open the door for science and philosophy. Regrettably, with their greatest accomplishments came with some of the cruelest punishments.

Emile Durkheim and Max Weber are two prominent philosophers whose theories unequivocally differed on countless themes. The outlooks of Durkheim and Weber contrast however, their general message in which they attempt to convey are of similar ideologies. When examining Durkheim and the concept of sacred and profane, one would see how it parallels with Weber’s notion of enchantment and disenchantment. Their stances on religion correspond with each other and despite their distinct conceptual frameworks and differing perspectives, Durkheim and Weber both offer profound contributions to the concepts of religion and modernity.

The fields of philosophy and theology are often grounds of debate. While some hold these two to be relevant and dependent on each other, others find them to be completely independent of each other. In John D. Caputo’s work, Philosophy and Theology, he expresses his view of these fields as companions. Caputo states, “Think of philosophers and theologians as fellow sailors on [the] ocean,” depicting his view of the interdependence of these two fields (Caputo 69). Through his illustration we can find the influence philosophy and theology can have on each other in facilitating our toleration of such a mysterious future and world.

Fundamentalism and Religion For a vast majority, the term “fundamentalism” evokes images of hostage crises, embassies under siege, hijackings, and suicide bombers. But these images hardly present a comprehensive picture. People in the west associate fundamentalism with Islam, this is indeed a mistaken belief. Fundamentalism is defined as " the affirmation of religious authority as holistic and absolute, admitting of neither criticism nor reduction; it is expressed through the collective demand that specific creedal and ethical dictates derived from scripture be publicly recognized and legally enforced ." (Lawrence)

The existence of God has been questioned since the beginning of time. Religions thrived on answering the unanswerable questions of the universe and people were able to find solace in the answers. As science has expanded and been able to answer these questions with natural, as opposed to supernatural answers, many people stopped looking to God and religion for the causes of things and started looking towards science. God was dead, according to many scientists and people of all professions. Many philosophers, however, have different conclusions.