>
> The philosophy of religion is one of the most fascinating areas of
> philosophy. It addresses not only the perennial question Is there a
> God?, but also the questions If there is, then what is he like? and,
> most important of all, What does that mean for us? These are questions
> that everyone should ask at some point.
>
>
http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/
>
> To you I'm an atheist.
> To God I'm the Loyal Opposition.
> --Woody Allen, Stardust Memories [1980]
>
> Just as the boatman sits in his small boat, trusting his frail craft in
> a stormy sea that is boundless in every direction, rising and falling
> with the howling, mountainous waves, so in the midst of a world full of
> suffering and misery the individual man calmly sits, supported by and
> trusting the principium individuationis, or the way in which the
> individual knows things as phenomena. --Arthur Schopenhauer, The World
> as Will and Representation, Volume I, В§63, p. 353
>
>
http://www.friesian.com/religion.htm
>
> Positions
> The second question, "Do we have any good reason to think that God does
> (or does not) exist?", is equally important in the philosophy of
> religion. There are four main positions with regard to the existence of
> God that one might take:
>
> Theism - the belief that
> God exists.
>
> Weak atheism - the lack of
> belief in any deity.
>
> Strong atheism - the belief
> that no deity exists.
>
> Agnosticism - the belief that
> the existence or non-existence
> of God is not known or
> cannot be known.
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy of religion
>
> Here, though is the text seemingly missing
> gone from thence where we see
> the standard version of the debate
> religion be
>
> Chapter 5 - The Problem of Justifying Belief in God
>
> A) Examination of the Concept of a Supreme Being
>
> 1) The Supreme Being Is All-Good
>
> 2) The Supreme Being Is Omnipotent
>
> 3) The Supreme Being Is Omniscient
>
> 4) Other Characteristics of a Supreme Being
>
> B) Can the Belief in the Existence
> of a Supreme Being Be Justified?
>
> C) Appeal to Experience of God
>
> 1) The Argument from Mystical Experience
>
> 2) Support for the Argument: God Must Be
> Postulated as Experienced or as Cause
>
> 3) Objection: No Need to Postulate the Supernatural
>
> 4) The Argument from Revelations and Miracles
>
> 5) Hume's Objection: Belief in
> Violation-Miracles Is Always Unjustified
>
> 6) A Third Argument from Experience
>
> 7) Objection: Perception of Physical Objects and
> Perception of God Are Radically Dissimilar
>
> 8) Reply: Arbitrary Double Standards and
> Epistemic Circularity
>
> 9) Two Further Objections: The Fundamental
> Nature of Perception, and the Easter Bunny
>
> D) Three A Posteriori Arguments
>
> 1) The First-Cause Argument
>
> - First Interpretation:
> Temporally First Cause
>
> - Second Interpretation:
> Ontologically Ultimate Cause
>
> - Third Interpretation:
> Ultimate Explanation of Things
>
> - A Problem: Are Adequate Scientific
> Explanations Complete Explanations?
>
> 2) The Argument from Contingency
>
> 3) Objection: An Equivocation-Physical
> versus Logical Possibility
>
> 4) The Argument from Design
>
> - Analogical Arguments
>
> - Two Versions of the Argument from Design
>
> - Objection to Cleanthes' Analogy:
> Nonintelligent Causes of Design
>
> - Objection to Inferring that the Cause
> of the Universe Is God: Like
> Effects Have Like Causes
>
> E) An A Priori Argument
>
> 1) The Ontological Argument:
> Descartes's Version
>
> - Kant's Objection:
> 'Existence' Is Not a Predicate
>
> - Another Objection:
> Existence Is Not a Perfection
>
> 2) The Ontological Argument:
> St. Anselm's Version
>
> - Gaunilo's Objection:
> The Greatest Island Possible
>
> - Reply to Gaunilo: A Being Greater
> Than the Greatest Island Possible
>
> - Another Objection:
> The Dirtiest Being Possible
>
> F) A Pragmatic Justification of
> Belief in the Existence of God
>
> 1) The Religious Option and
> the Right to Believe
>
> G) Evil as Evidence Against the Existence of God
>
> 1) The Argument from Evil: The Logical Version
>
> - Objection: The Best
> World Might Contain Evil
>
> 2) The Argument from Evil: The Probability Version
>
> - Objection: Evidence Available
> to Human Beings Is Insufficient
>
> - Reply: Believe in Accordance with
> the Total Evidence Available
>
> - Objection: People Are
> Responsible for Evil
>
> - Reply: Moral versus Natural Evil
>
> - Objection: Satan as One
> Cause of Natural Evil
>
> - Reply: Noninterference and
> Natural Causes
>
> - Compensation for Victims:
> The Prospect of an Afterlife
>
> - Reply: No Good Evidence of an Afterlife
>
> - Objection: Natural Evils Are Unavoidable
>
> - Reply: Examples of Avoidable Evils
>
> - Objection: Some Evil Is
> Necessary for Some Knowledge
>
> - Another Objection: Evils Are Necessary
> for There to Be Higher Goods
>
> - Reply: Why So Much Natural Evil?
>
> - Objection: Total Evidence and Probability
>
> - Reply: No Knowledge of the Probabilities
>
> - Objection: Exact Probabilities
> and Comparative Probabilities
>
> H) Conclusion
>
> I) Exercises
>
> 1) The Concept of a Supreme Being
>
> 2) Mystical Experience, Revelation,
> and Miracles
>
> 3) The First-Cause Argument
> and the Argument from Design
>
> 4) Other Arguments for Theism
>
> Philosophical Problems and Arguments: An Introduction
> by James W. Cornman, Keith Lehrer, George Sotiros Pappas
>
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0872201244/
>
http://hume.ucdavis.edu/phi102/lecmenu.htm
>
>
http://www3.baylor.edu/~Scott Moore/handouts/intro Refmd Epist.html
