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Can Quantum Contextuality Help to Understand the Contextuality of Theology?
By Wojciech P. Grygiel, Pontifical University
The precise formal account of the contextuality of the quantum measurement provided by the Kochen-Specker theorem allows for a unique insight into the nature of the contextuality of theological language. The conceptual analysis carried out in this paper has demonstrated that despite of the methodological difficulties in juxtaposing theoretical physics and theology, legitimate bridges can be established between them whereby quantum contextuality may serve as a model of contextuality in theology. A structural factor in the form of a richer logic proper to the Divine nature has been identified as the possible source of contextuality of theological discourse.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2024.2359194
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Tags: #Theology #Science #Religion
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The extended evolutionary synthesis: An integrated historical and philosophical examination
By Yafeng Shan, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Among biologists and philosophers, there is an ongoing debate over the Modern Synthesis and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. Some argue that our current evolutionary biology is in need of (at least) some substantial revision or nontrivial extension, while others maintain that the Modern Synthesis remains the foundational framework for evolutionary biology. It has been widely debated whether the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis provides a more promising framework than the Modern Synthesis. The nature and methodological implications of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis were also examined. This paper offers an integrated historical and philosophical examination of the debate over the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. It reviews the development of evolutionary biology of the twentieth century. It argues that there are substantial conceptual and theoretical differences between the Modern Synthesis and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, but they are not incommensurable paradigms in the Kuhnian sense. It also argues for a functional approach to the debate over these two frameworks of evolutionary theory.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.13002
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Tags: #Science #Evolution #Philosophy
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Representations of Disability in Qur’anic Narratives
By Akbar Ali & Geraldene Codina,
University of Derby
In some Muslim cultures disabled people are ridiculed, abused and face social injustice. Whilst there are texts which examine the representations of disabled people in a range of legal, social, religious, and cultural Muslim documents, there is a paucity of literature which analyzes the representations of disabled people in the Qur’an. Applying critical discourse analysis, this study interprets two well-known Qur’anic stories. Through the application of thematic analysis, the phrases, clauses and sentences of these two stories are analyzed in order to present patterns of meaning which challenge ableism from a scriptural Islamic perspective.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2024.2353603
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Tags: #Quran #Islam #Religion
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Perceptual transformation in Ibn ‘Arabī’s philosophy: The night journey (isrā’) and ascension (mi‘rāj) of Prophet Muḥammad
By Ismail Lala, Gulf University for Science and Technology
The night journey (isrā’) and ascension (mi‘rāj) represent arguably the most significant and unique events in the life of Prophet Muḥammad. However, the influential Sufi thinker Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī (d. 638/1240) argues that the Prophet had thirty-four night journeys of which only one was physical. This physical night journey, and the ascension that took place with it, was the one in which he was given the five daily prayers. Ibn ‘Arabī thus employs the secondary night journeys and ascensions of Prophet Muḥammad to delineate a point of emulation between the Prophet’s spiritual experience and those of his nation. Muslims can also have their own ascensions, but their journeys cannot be physical, and, analogously, cannot have autonomous legislative authority. They can, nevertheless, cause a change in their perception that allows them to see the world as it truly is: a manifestation of the divine Names.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09552367.2024.2366044
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Tags: #God #Prophet #Islam #IbnArabi
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Could Avicenna’s god remain within himself?: A reply to the Naṣīrian interpretation
By Ferhat Taşkın, Indiana University-Bloomington
Avicenna holds that since God has existed from all eternity and is immutable and impassible, he cannot come to have an attribute or feature that he has not had from all eternity. He also claims for the simultaneous causation. A puzzle arises when we consider God’s creating this world. If God is immutable and impassible, then his attributes associated with his creating this world are unchanging. So, God must have been creating the world from all eternity. But then God’s creative act, one might object, seems to be no different from a matter of natural necessity. This is a threat to divine freedom, for God would then have no choice concerning his creative action. Anthony Ruffus and Jon McGinnis argue that this puzzle can be solved in such a way that Avicenna can consistently affirm divine freedom along with divine simplicity. They suggest that Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī’s interpretation might help to show that it is false that Avicenna’s God cannot choose absolutely. For it is still open to him to choose either to create eternally or to refrain from creating anything at all. Ruffus and McGinnis argue that since creating or not creating anything at all do not correspond to two distinct concepts, Avicenna’s account of divine simplicity, which denies any multiplicity in divine mind, is safeguarded along with divine freedom. I claim that God’s omnirationality requiring that he always acts for reasons is a serious threat to such an interpretation.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-024-09918-0
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Tags: #God #Avicenna #Metaphysics
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The Pursuit of Justice in the Women’s March: Toward an Islamic Liberatory Theology of Resistance
By Etin Anwar, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
The Women’s March on 21 January 2017, opened a new social and political landscape for Muslim women to engage in Islamic liberatory activism. I locate Muslim women’s participation in the marches following the 2017 ‘Muslim travel ban policy’ as a site for discovering the link between the politics of resistance and the utility of Islam as a source for liberation. I argue that Muslim women living in minority and post-secular contexts resort to faith as a source of agentival liberation to address the political rhetoric of anti-Islamic sentiments and policies. The outcome of this research demonstrates (1) how Muslim women activists challenge the Western narratives of being oppressed and explore the ways they want to represent themselves; (2) how Islam serves as a catalyst for theological resistance and how this enhances the role of Muslim women as moral and spiritual agents in transforming their political and social conditions; (3) how the Islamic liberation in the US context historically intersects with Black churches’ resistance toward White racism; and (4) how Muslim women’s agency as spiritual beings is linked to the promotion of justice in the Western liberatory movements. Overall, the article shows how Muslim women resort to their spiritual journey and use such narratives to confront unjust political rhetoric and policies.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060706
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Tags: #Islam #Feminism #LiberationTheology
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A female imam in Paris: Islam, gender, and secular normativity
By Francesco Piraino, Harvard Divinity School
This article discusses Kahina Bahloul’s political and religious engagement and her project to create the liberal ‘Fatima Mosque’, founded in 2019 in Paris. Bahloul is a complex figure, and her political and religious project touches on several dimensions: she was inspired by Sufi doctrines (Ibn ʿArabi and the ʿAlāwiyya) and Islamic modernist philosophy (Mohammed Arkoun). Furthermore, she advocates for a liberal and secular Islam, proposing radical reform and implying the compliance with secular constraints, the merging of social sciences with Islamic sciences, and the polarisation between liberal Muslims and ‘fundamentalist’ Muslims. This article will show that 1) Sufism is mainly used to justify an individualistic approach to Islam; 2) Bahloul’s epistemological hybridity, based on Islam and social sciences, implies a strong tension between her role as a scholar and as a religious authority; and 3) Bahloul’s reform of Islam is not new or radical. The peculiarity of her political and religious project is her compliance with the whimsical French debate on Islam and laïcité, which implies accepting new bans, the privatisation of Islam, and the polarisation between ‘good Muslims’ and ‘bad Muslims’.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2024.2350950
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Tags: #Religion #Islam #Feminism #Secularism
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Metaphysical explanation and the cosmological argument
By Thomas Oberle, University of Alberta
A premise of the Leibnizian cosmological argument from contingency says that no contingent fact can explain why there are any contingent facts at all. David Hume and Paul Edwards famously denied this premise, arguing that if every fact has an explanation in terms of further facts ad infinitum, then they all do. This is known as the Hume–Edwards Principle (HEP). In this paper, I examine the cosmological argument from contingency within a framework of metaphysical explanation or ground and defend a ground-theoretic version of HEP which says, roughly, that the plurality of contingent facts is grounded in its members.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-024-02148-0
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Tags: #Religion #God #CosmologicalArgument
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What to Expect from the God of History
By Laura Frances Callahan, University of Notre Dame
I argue that our expectations for particular evil events, conditional on theism, ought to be informed by our empirical knowledge of history—that is, the history of what God, if God exists, has already allowed to happen. This point is under-appreciated in the literature. And yet if I’m right, this entails that most particular evil events are not evidence against theism. This is a limited but interesting consequence in debates over the evidential impact of evil
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2022.39.4.3
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Tags: #Religion #God #Evil #Theism
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The Necessity and Goodness of Animals in Sijistānī’s Kashf Al-Maḥjūb
By Peter Adamson and Hanif Amin Beidokhti, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
The Neoplatonic notion of “emanation” implies a required progression through hierarchical stages, originating from the highest principle (the One or God) and cascading down through a series of principles. While this process is deemed necessary, it is also inherently good, even “choiceworthy”, aligning with the identification of the first principle with the Good. Plotinus, a prominent Neoplatonist, emphasizes the beauty and goodness of the sensible world, governed by divine providence. This perspective, transmitted through Arabic adaptations of Plotinus, influences Islamic philosophers too. This paper delves into the thought of the Ismāʿīlī philosopher Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī (d. after. 349/971), exploring the interplay of necessity and goodness in his cosmology, with a focus on non-human animals. Sijistānī’s Persian Uncovering the Veiled provides a unique perspective on animals, presenting them as both necessary unfoldings of the universal intellect and inherently good beings with intrinsic value. The paper concludes with an appendix featuring an improved edition and English translation of relevant passages.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies9030072
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Tags: #Islam #Shiism #God
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The Prophet’s Day in China: A Study of the Inculturation of Islam in China, Based on Fieldwork in Xi’an, Najiaying, and Hezhou
By Chuanbin Zhou, Ping Shang
Ping Shang and Wenkui Ma, Lanzhou University
Islam is widely spread throughout every corner of China, with the Hui people, the largest Muslim ethnic group in China, numbering over 10 million people, serving as its main carrier. Their culture types and local features exhibit great diversity across different provinces. The ceremony of Prophet’s Day or Mawlid al-Nabi in China, as one of the three fundamental festivals of the Hui people alongside Eid al-Fitur and Eid al-Qurban, appears to be more comprehensive, open, and localized. Drawing from fieldwork in three Hui communities—Xi’an in Shaanxi province, Najiaying in Yunnan province, and Hezhou in Gansu province—this paper approaches the topic from the perspective of inculturation and cultural innovation. It aims to describe the ritual processes observed in these three different Hui communities and discuss how the Hui people integrate Islam with traditional Chinese culture in their local contexts, with the intention of forming and preserving their own cultural characteristics.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060630
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Tags: #Islam #Religion #Culture
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Embodying Pedagogy
By Allen G. Jorgenson et al, Wilfrid Laurier University
This article reflects on an instructor's experience of incorporating an optional assignment in a theology class wherein students are invited to learn a new athletic skill, journal while doing so, and then theologically reflect on their experience. It begins with the instructor making a case for the need to bring the body back into the classroom. This is followed by the theological reflections of three of the instructor's students. Finally, the instructor reflects on the themes of balance and muscle memory, stretching, and flow developed in the student reflections. These are used to outline how a balanced classroom revives theological wonder, affirms change in a cruciform fashion, and understands failure as part of God's modus operandi and so intrinsic to theology.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/teth.12662
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Tags: #Theology #Pedogogy #Religion
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Knowledge and God
By Matthew A. Benton, Seattle Pacific University
This Element examines a main theme in religious epistemology, namely, the possibility of knowledge of God. Most often philosophers consider the rationality or justification of propositional belief about God, particularly beliefs about the existence and nature of God; and they will assess the conditions under which, if there is a God, such propositional beliefs would be knowledge, particularly in light of counter-evidence or the availability of religious disagreement. This Element surveys such familiar areas, then turns toward newer and less-developed terrain: interpersonal epistemology, namely what it is to know another person. It then explores the prospects for understanding what it might take to know God relationally, the contours of which are significant for many theistic traditions.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009127103
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Tags: #God #Epistemology #Metaphysics
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Special Divine Action and the Miraculous
By Donghwi Kim, Presbyterian University
This paper attempts to outline the miracle discussions that show up intermittently in the CTNS/VO project. The project's main purpose focuses on how and in what ways God could act in a non-miraculous manner in nature and history rather than through God's miraculous interventionist activities. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to cover the miraculous in light of this project, as special divine action and miracles are conceptually interwoven in the sense that the extraordinary divine actions could be included within the larger range of God's special providence. Thus, several relevant arguments concerning the miraculous in the project need to be addressed.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2024.2351640
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Tags: #God #Miracles #Metaphysics
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Love for God and Self-Annihilation
By Michael Rea, University of Notre Dame
In The Mirror of Simple Souls by Marguerite Porete, a 14th century mystic, there is a straightforward path from claims about what love for God in its purest form entails to the conclusion that a kind of self-annihilation is the ultimate goal for a Christian. There is, furthermore, an implicit argument in her work for the conclusion that achieving self annihilation through love for God is superior to and better for us as individuals than achieving conformity with God’s will through the (mere) cultivation of virtue as it is traditionally conceived. Taking inspiration from Porete’s work, this paper defends both of these counterintuitive claims.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2022.39.4.1
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Tags: #God #Christianity #Metaphysics
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Can Scientists Become Prophets? Christian and Islamic Eco-Theology
By Ted Peters, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
Who would have expected to hear God's word spoken by Amos (760–755 BCE)? Amos was no prophet by profession. He was a sheep herder near Tekoa, in Judah, the southern kingdom. Amos wandered north to the kingdom of …
Read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2024.2359186
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Tags: #God #Science #ConflictThesis
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The Effectiveness of Islamic Spiritual Therapy on the Perception of Pain Intensity and Catastrophic Pain in Female Patients with Chronic Pain
By Faride Ensafdaran, Maryam Jalali, Mahmoud Nejabat & AbdolReza Mahmoudi, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
Chronic pain is an important medical problem that is associated with significant negative effects in many aspects of life. Based on prior studies, certain religious behaviors and having religion-based beliefs help coping with chronic diseases. this research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Islamic spiritual therapy on the perception of pain intensity and catastrophizing of pain in patients with pain.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2024.2361869
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Tags: #Spirituality #Islam #Religion #Sociology
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Supernatural Attributions for Extraordinary Events: Examining Cognitive and Contextual Predictors
By Joshua A. Wilt, Julie J. Exline & Nick Stauner, Case Western Reserve University
Why do people make supernatural attributions (SA) for events? This article focused on five possible predictors: stressfulness, unusual events, religiousness, seeing a supernatural explanation as meaningful, and seeing supernatural entities as powerful. We also predicted that people would be more likely to adopt supernatural explanations seen as highly accessible, motivating, and plausible. We focused primarily on SA in general and secondarily on specific entities. We tested preregistered hypotheses using survey data in two samples of undergraduates: one reporting life-changing events (N = 594) and another reporting on an event with a supernatural air, or supernaturally perceived events (N = 475). Results supported all proposed predictors except for stressfulness. Path analyses revealed that, in both samples, predictors were linked with seeing supernatural explanations as accessible, plausible, and motivating; these ratings, in turn, had positive associations with SA. These results begin to integrate previous theory and research on individual predictors of SA.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12933
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Tags: #Psychology #Miracles #Religion
Philosophical Inquisition Online Research Seminar
Thursday 27th June 2024 | 18:30-20:00 (GMT)
Islamic Legal (Ifta) Training in the UK:
An Empirical Study of the Applied Pedagogical Methods in British Ifta Training Programs from Teachers’ and Students’ Experiences
To be delivered by: Mufti Abdul Waheed
Abstract
The ifta course is a rigorous and systematic legal training program offered to passionate alimiyyah alumni wanting to advance their knowledge of theory and practice in Islamic law. Whilst there is a plethora of research studies exploring Islamic pedagogy in higher Islamic seminaries, literatures exploring ifta pedagogy in the UK setting are scarce. This presentation seeks to discuss my thesis submitted as a Masters dissertation at the University of Warwick (in August 2023) which empirically investigates the applied pedagogical practices in British ifta training programs. This research is the first of its kind within the field of Islamic education and pedagogy.
Literatures on classical tarbiyah legal training pedagogy were reviewed to infer specific pedagogical principles and then examine their correlation with the current ifta teaching practices. It adopts a qualitative methodology approach and uses a semi-structured interview, focus group and structured observation as data collection tools to collate participants’ subjective experiences. A deductive thematic analysis method was used to analyse and interpret our findings. The research findings of the current ifta pedagogy revealed that participants overall demonstrated a positive experience of the ifta training program and it fostered essential skills such as critical thinking, comprehension and research skills in advanced classical law manuals. The ifta program comprises of mixed pedagogical strategies namely instructional and dialogical approaches to combine the theoretical knowledge with the application of law. The study identified major gaps in the current ifta programs such as the need for incorporating advanced structured research modules to produce extensive and well-researched works and the inclusion of contemporary legal topics in the curriculum for wider exposure on modern issues.
For those interested in participating, kindly complete and submit the online registration form via the following link:
https://forms.gle/dSxvYREzNrdkP3TU8
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Corruptio boni: An alternative to the privation theory of evil
By Christophe de Ray, Nanyang Technological University
The classic ‘privation theory’ of evil defines evil as an absence (or ‘privation’) of a good that ought to obtain. Despite its historical importance, privation theory is faced with a number of serious difficulties. I outline two of these difficulties and argue that they continue to pose a threat. I then present ‘corruption theory’, an alternative theory of evil reconstructed from some of Augustine's writings on the subject. I argue that this theory shares the strengths of privation theory, while evading its problems.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/rati.12410
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Tags: #PoE #Evil #Metaphysics
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Does Providence Entail Divine Temporality? Maybe
By R. T. Mullins, University of Lucerne
Within contemporary Christian philosophical theology, there are three broad theories of providence being debated. These are theological determinism, Molinism, and open theism. Of course, there are nuances amongst proponents of each theory, but the nuances are not terribly important for my purposes in this essay. I will argue that the basic conceptual machinery of each theory seems to entail divine temporality. Since open theists are already committed to divine temporality, there is nothing for me to argue there. Things get interesting when I consider theological determinism and Molinism. There are proponents of each view who already affirm divine temporality, but there are also proponents of each view who affirm divine timelessness. What I will argue is that theological determinism and Molinism are incompatible with divine timelessness. In order to make my case, I will start by defining some terms. Then, I will offer some arguments related to acting for a reason, divine freedom, and so-called logical moments in the life of a timeless God.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060702
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Tags: #Time #Metaphysics #God
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Consciousness, Subjective Facts, and Physicalism – Fifty Years since Nagel’s Bat
By Robert Van Gulick, Syracuse University
The existence of subjective facts in the epistemic sense defined by Thomas Nagel’s famous article, “What is it like to be a bat?” might be taken to support an anti-physicalist conclusion. I argue that it does not. The combination of nonreductive physicalism and teleo-pragmatic functionalism is not only consistent with such subjective facts but predicts their existence. The notion that conscious minds are self-understanding autopoietic systems plays a key role in the argument. Global Neuronal Workspace Theory is assessed in terms of its potential to answer David Chalmers’ Hard Problem of consciousness. A suggestion is made for augmenting the theory that involves another sense in which facts about conscious experience are subjective. The idea of conscious minds as self-understanding systems again plays an important role.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies9030072
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Tags: #Consciousness #Physicalism #Philosophy
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A Holistic Response to the Problem of Evil
By Jonathan Fuqua, Conception Seminary College
The four standard theistic responses to the evidential problem of evil are theodicy, Reformed Epistemology, natural theology, and skeptical theism. It’s somewhat common for theists to combine Reformed Epistemology and skeptical theism or natural theology and theodicy. An insufficiently appreciated possibility is that of combining all four of these positions into a more holistic response to the evidential problem of evil. The chief hurdle to doing this is that it seems that skeptical theism isn’t compatible with either natural theology or theodicy. This first appearance, however, is misleading. And, interestingly, certain theists have implicitly put forth a holistic response to the problem of evil. In this paper, I sketch out how one can combine all four of the standard theistic responses to the evidential problem of evil so as to yield a holistic response to the problem of evil. The focus will be on reconciling skeptical theism with natural theology and theodicy.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2022.39.4.5
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Tags: #Religion #God #Evil #Theism
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The Beliefs of Nonbelievers: Exclusive Empiricism and Mortal Finitude Among Atheists and Agnostics
By Joseph Blankholm, University of California
This essay argues that “atheist” and “agnostic” are not merely negative labels that indicate a person lacks belief in God or is not religious. Relying on a new survey of very secular Americans and the General Social Survey, we demonstrate a statistically significant and substantively meaningful relationship, in both predictive directions, between identifying as atheist or agnostic and holding certain beliefs about how best to know the world and what happens when we die. We can reliably predict that most people in the United States who trust science, reason, and evidence and do not trust religious sources will identify as atheist or agnostic—and vice-versa. We find the same bi-directional relationship with belief in mortal finitude, i.e., that death is the final end. Our findings suggest that exclusive empiricism and mortal finitude are positive tenets of belief systems that those who identify as atheist or agnostic are likely to hold.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srae003
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Tags: #Religion #God #Atheism #Agnosticism
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Dialetheism and the A-theory
By Sam Baron, University of Melbourne
According to dialetheism, there are some true contradictions. According to the A-theory, the passage of time is a mind-independent feature of reality. On some A-theories, the passage of time involves the movement of the present. I show that by appealing to dialetheism, one can explain why the present moves. I then argue that A-theorists should adopt this explanation. To do this, I defend two claims. First, that the dialetheic explanation is an improvement on the only other explanation available for why the present moves and, second, that adopting the explanation is better than leaving the motion of the present unexplained. Assuming that A-theorists should adopt the best available version of their view, it follows that they should adopt a dialetheic explanation of why time passes.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqae035
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Tags: #Kalam #Metaphysics #Time
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Kierkegaard and Natural Law
By Casey Spinks, Baylor University
This essay addresses the relationship between Kierkegaard and natural law afresh. First, I exposit Thomas's natural law doctrine in the Summa, particularly its theological emphasis on the God-human relationship, which often goes underappreciated. Then, I argue that natural law doctrine downstream from Thomas suffers from an acute vulnerability: its natural aspect is emphasised so much that the divine-human relationship at the heart of natural law falls away. Next, I argue Problema II of Fear and Trembling deals with this same issue and theologically criticises ethics’ secularising tendency. I then argue that Fear and Trembling and other writings of Kierkegaard's corpus claim a universal law similar to Thomas's doctrine: each individual must relate absolutely to God. Thereby, Kierkegaard transforms natural law from a general norm prone to secularisation into a gift and theological task for everyone, grounding the possibility of ethics in the divine-human relationship. For regular dogmatic purposes, I suggest this shifts natural law to the doctrines of justification and sanctification.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.14328
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Tags: #Theology #Aquinas #NaruralLaw #God
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Sceptical theism, divine commands, and love
By Ho-yeung Lee, University of Oxford
Sceptical theists respond to the problem of evil by arguing that we should be sceptical of our abilities to understand God's plan and the justifying reasons for his actions. A major difficulty faced by sceptical theism is the problem of moral paralysis. Some sceptical theists have proposed a divine command response: theists can appeal to God's commands in acting, and this circumvents the need to exercise value judgement in moral deliberations. This article provides an objection to the divine command response by arguing that it renders love impossible and practically undermines the possibility of the theistic way of life. As a result, this article demonstrates a constraint on any potential solution to the problem of moral paralysis in sceptical theism: the access to values of loving relationship and human well-being, as well as their role to play in agents’ deliberative process, should be safeguarded.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412524000222
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Tags: #Theism #God #Metaphysics
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Evolution, Evil, Co-Creation and the Value of the World
By Robin Attfield, Presbyterian University
This article builds on and supplements an earlier one in this journal about theodicy. It focuses on species extinctions and on the possible role of humanity as fallible co-creators. Christopher Southgate has suggested that co-creators might shoulder the task of curtailing extinctions. In appraising this view, I distinguish between extinctions resulting from evolution, which humans have limited power to reverse, but which are held to be indispensable for the evolution of complexity, consciousness and self-consciousness, and those caused by humanity itself, which humans should reduce, even if they cannot be halted. Human creativity, however, extends further to the development of skills, trades, the arts and literature. Church Fathers, such as Ambrose, Theodoret and Cosmas Indicopleustes, held that God left the creation incomplete so that humanity could enhance it; certainly, human creativity has introduced agriculture, navigation, technology and culture, adding to the value of the world. Granted belief in creation, this can be understood as co-creation. Granted the value that humanity continues to add to the world, the belief that such creativity flows from the creator’s overall plan emerges as a coherent one.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050615
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Tags: #God #Evolution #Evil
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The Continuation of Religion by Other Means?
By Chris Daly, University of Manchester
There are several published versions of religious fictionalism. This paper focuses on just one of them: it evaluates Peter Lipton’s pioneering account of religious fictionalism. According to Lipton, whereas the sentences of a religious text are to be understood literally, they are not to be believed but to be accepted. To accept a religious text is to believe the moral claims it makes but not its supernatural claims. The purposes of this version of fictionalism are to reconcile religious practice with scientific theory and to access various moral and cultural values. My evaluation will be especially critical of two of Lipton’s claims. One is that, for a religious fictionalist, a religious text can be a source of moral guidance. The other is that, again for a religious fictionalist, a religious tradition provides a better understanding of oneself and others, and a better means of community identification, than any secular tradition.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2022.39.4.6
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Tags: #Religion #Fictionalism #Science
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Two (Failed) Versions of Hume's Argument against Miracles
By Nathan Rockwood, Brigham Young University
Hume’s argument against believing the testimony of miracles is the most influential treatment of the topic, but there is not yet a consensus on how to interpret his argument. Two arguments are attributed to him. First, Hume seems to start with the infrequency of miracles and uses this to infer that the testimony of a miracle is exceedingly unlikely, and this then creates strong but defeasible evidence against the testimony of any miracle. Second, perhaps Hume takes the constancy of our experience of the laws of nature as decisive or indefeasible evidence against the testimony of any miracle. I explain the basis for each of these interpretations of Hume’s argument, and then develop a novel criticism of the latter interpretations: namely, any inductive inference depends on the relevant similarity between the observed and the unobserved, but we may have reason for thinking that purported miracles are not relevantly similar, and thus our past experience cannot be used as reliable evidence about the testimony of (some) miracles.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2022.39.4.4
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Tags: #Hume #Miracles #Metaphysics
