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Philosophy Of Religion

Philosophy of religion refers to a rational thought about concerns and issues of religion. The scholars in the field should not be presumptuous on the existence of a deity when coming up with their thoughts. Most of them focus on proofs and inconsistencies in the topic of existence of God. Further, some may consider the relationship between religion and science. Ultimately, the three main themes considered are existence of God, knowledge of God, and nature of God.

To discuss the existence of God, various positions are taken. The first is known as theism, which is a belief system that there is existence of one or more deities. Often, most philosophers take this approach. The second approach is known as agnosticism, where the existence or non-existence of God in not known and cannot be proven. The other approach is that of atheism, where philosophers reject existence of deities. Closely related to this approach is apatheism, where people do not care whether deities exist or not.

The nature of God is described after admitting that there is a deity that is different from humans and the imperfect world. God is therefore described as one who is perfect, unchanging and all-powerful. Some philosophers indicate that God is unknowable due to his nature. Other philosophers tend to take the approach that God can only be described in terms of what He cannot be. The argument here is that no term can be used to describe Him well. Most of the scholars, however, agree that God has maximum greatness and has divine simplicity. Further, they use the masculine pronoun to describe Him.

When it comes to the knowledge of God, philosophers debate on whether humans can have the ability to know God at a personal level. The debate is centered on the nature of God and how it is possible for some human beings to claim that they have known God, while others have not. Experiential approach has been taken to justify that it is possible for people to know God. In this regard, some people may have had different experiences of God, thus may know Him differently. Additionally, some philosophers indicate that there is only one God, thus different religious groups will know Him and refer to Him differently.

As well, philosophers go into the details of defining how different religions define God. For instance, pagans may refer or know Him as the creator while Jews may Him as the lord. Though there may never be consensus on various issues in philosophy of religions, it is clear that all philosophers base their arguments on the existence, nature, and knowledge of God.