Exam 3: God

The Aesthetic Totality Solution to the problem of evil urges us to view God as a kind of "cosmic artist."This view is most consistent with

What is spirituality and how is it different from religion?

If we understand religions in terms of their traditions,differences between religions appear to disappear and it seems more and more true that "all religions are the same."

That the universe may have always existed and thus does not need to be explained by a "first cause" that created it,

How does Aquinas' cosmological argument for God's existence differ from the argument from design?

If,according to the free will solution to the problem of evil,God cannot interfere with our actions then

Because Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection makes an attempt to explain exactly how a complex world could come into existence over time without assuming a divine creator,it challenges the

What does it mean to say Western conceptions of God tend to be anthropomorphic?

Although Karl Marx believed religion was an illusion,he thought that it was an expression of real suffering and a protest against that suffering.

According to John Hick,ordinary believers report an awareness of God as existing in isolation from all other objects of experience.

For Kierkegaard,believing in God is not just a matter of intellectually accepting the proposition that God exists.

The seventeenth-century Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza,insisted

According to Hegel,absolute Spirit acts through human beings but is also not different from human beings.

Buddhists hold that we can be liberated from suffering through belief in God.

William Paley developed a version of the

What is the difference between the concepts of God as transcendent and God as immanent?

Voltaire made fun of the ontological argument in his novel Candide.

According to Pascal,if we wagered that God exists but it turned out God did not exist,then the worst that could happen is that we would have given up a few sinful pleasures that we might otherwise have enjoyed.

The theologian Paul Tillich defines faith as "ultimate concern." Write an essay developing your philosophy of religious faith. What is the object of your ultimate concern? Is it a god-or something else? What's the basis of,or grounds for,your commitment to this object of faith? The way you were raised? Some philosophical argument? A mystical experience? Is your faith rational-or irrational,as Freud,Marx,or Kierkegaard claim? Have you made anything resembling Pascal's "Wager," or Kierkegaard's "Leap of Faith?" How do you understand the fact that other people have different objects of faith?

Write a fictional dialogue featuring two characters who are attempting to grapple with evil,as they witness it in the world. The substance of the dialogue should be a critical discussion in which the characters describe the problem of evil,as they understand it,and then argue about how the problem is best resolved. As the dialogue unfolds,the traditional problem of evil should be described,and three of the theodicies from chapter three should be discussed-although the characters are not limited to these viewpoints. The dialogue can end in the two characters agreeing,in their agreeing to disagree,or in their arriving at a new viewpoint that synthesizes both points of view.