Philosophy of Religion

Join an esteemed professor of philosophy in exploring the question of divine existence by using the tools of epistemology.

Topics Covered:

• 1: What is Philosophy?
• 2: What is Religion?
• 3: What is Philosophy of Religion?
• 4: How is the Word "God" Generally Used?
• 5: How Do Various Theists Use the Word "God"?
• 6: What is Knowledge?
• 7: What Kinds of Evidence Count?
• 8: What Constitutes Good Evidence?
• 9: Why Argue for the Existence of God?
• 10: How Ontological Argument Works
• 11: Why Ontological Argument is Said to Fail
• 12: How Cosmological Argument Works
• 13: Why Cosmological Argument is Said to Fail
• 14: How Teleological Argument Works
• 15: How Teleological Argument Works (continued)
• 16: Why Teleological Argument is Said to Fail
• 17: Divine Encounters Make Argument Unnecessary
• 18: Divine Encounters Require Interpretation
• 19: Why is Evil a Problem?
• 20: Taking Evil Seriously
• 21: Non-Justificatory Theodicies
• 22: Justifying Evil
• 23: Justifying Natural Evil
• 24: Justifying Human Evil
• 25: Evidence is Irrelevant to Faith
• 26: Groundless Faith is Irrelevant to Life
• 27: God is Beyond Human Grasp, But That's O.K.
• 28: Transcendental Talk is "Sound and Fury"
• 29: Discourse in an Intentionalist Paradigm
• 30: Evaluating Paradigms
• 31: Choosing and Changing Paradigms
• 32: Language Games and Theistic Discourse
• 33: Fabulation—Theism as Story
• 34: Theistic Stories, Morality, and Culture
• 35: Stories, Moral Progress, and Culture Reform
• 36: Conclusions and Signposts