Philosophy 202 Final

religion

"A set of symbolic forms and acts that relate human beings to the ultimate conditions of their existence."; "A system of beliefs and practices primarily centered around a transcendent Reality."

Boethius

"Eternity is the complete, simultaneous and perfect possession of everlasting life."

Miracles of Timing

"Miracles" as fortunate and extraordinary coincidences that do not transgress any laws of nature

Karma

(Hinduism and Buddhism) the effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny in his next incarnation.

Logical Problem of Evil

(Plantinga) "The Free Will Defense" It is not possible for God to ensure that his free creatures would always do good and never do wrong. (Leibriz) "The Best of All Possible Worlds Theodicy" God, who possess perfect, power, knowledge, and goodness, would chose to bring about the best possible world.

Rene Descartes

A 17th century French philosopher who argued for a philosophical method based on doubt—but he could not doubt that there was a "doubter".

Augustine of Hippo

A Dilemma for Free Will Theodicy There was death and suffering long before humans ever appeared. How could have human free will caused this? If human sin brought death, suffering, and decay into the world, then why do these phenomena precede the appearance of humans? Is there any point to such animal suffering?

Moksha

A Hindu term that references breaking the cycle of life, death and reincarnation.

Basic belief

A belief which is not based on other beliefs; for example, the belief that there are other minds besides one's own, or that 1+1=2.

basic belief

A belief which is not based on other beliefs; for example, the belief that there are other minds besides one's own, or that 1+1=2.

Chessmaster analogy (and human freedom)

A chess master is always in 'control' of the game when playing the novice even though the novice has perfect freedom to make many different moves to try to beat the master. Applies to Deism? theists have traditionally affirmed that God's action engages with and responds to human freedom (e.g. in prayer)

Yoga

A group of mental, physical and spiritual practices that are practiced in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism

Multiverse

A hypothetical group of multiple separate universes including the universe that humans live in

Kalam Cosmological argument

A posteriori argument David Hume: If universe is eternal, than it is a metaphysically necessary being Shows that universe has a beginning Hence, Universe is subject to chance

X-Club

A society of Victorian agnostics brought together by Thomas Henry Huxley and united by a "devotion to science, pure and free, untrammelled by religious dogmas" who sought "to rid natural science of women, amateurs, and clergy." This group's enduring legacy is the myth of a perennial warfare between science and religion

X-Club

A society of Victorian agnostics brought together by Thomas Henry Huxley and united by a "devotion to science, pure and free, untrammelled by religious dogmas" who sought "to rid natural science of women, amateurs, and clergy." This group's enduring legacy is the myth of a perennial warfare between science and religion.

One important objection to the Argument from Design is that

A. It relies on reason rather than faith. B. Philosophers reject all arguments from analogy. ANSWER C. Even if it were sound, it wouldn't prove the existence of the personal God of Theism. D. Not all natural objects in the universe show signs of organization. E. None of the above.

Which of the following is NOT one of the four conditions for soul-making in John Hick's theodicy?

A. There must be creatures capable of choosing between good and evil. B. The creatures must be placed in an environment that allows free choices to be carried out. ANSWER C. The environment must have a ( lawful, amoral, and impersonal structure) structure that points the human mind toward the existence of God. (natural law theodicy?_ D. The environment must contain challenges to one's character that allows for both virtuous and non-virtuous responses. E. Creatures must have sufficient opportunities to respond to make character building possible.

Which of the following is NOT a typical response theists give to the argument against God's existence from the problem of evil?

ANSWER a. Evil is not real; it is an illusion and only seems real from our limited and unenlightened perspective. (Buddhism) b. Evil is not due to God but to the abuse of freedom by human beings. c. Evil is necessary so that we can identify good and be motivated to achieve the good. d. Evil is an unavoidable but necessary byproduct stemming from the regular operation of the laws of nature. e. Evil and good are both caused by God, who's sovereign will is mysterious and should not be questioned.

Hilbert's Hotel

Absurd thought experiment intended to show that it is impossible for an actual infinite number of things to exist in spatiotemporal reality.

Deductive reasoning

An argument that takes a true premise and another true premise and deducts a truth from the two true premises -- a sound argument has true premises (ex: Socrates is a man → All men are mortal → Socrates is mortal); has to follow the order: 1. S is M 2. All M are P 3. Therefore, S is P (where S = subject, M = middle term, and P = predicate)

Reductionism

An epistemological and/or ontological view which holds that "the whole is nothing but the sum of its parts"; That Everything is ultimately just a bunch of atoms and nothing more.

Teleological argument

Analysis of instances of apparent purpose or design in the universe

Cosmological argument

Analysis of the temporal beginning of the universe Can the existence of God be supported by arguments? Form Greek "cosmos" and "logos" Since there is a cosmos which exists, rather than just nothing, it must have been caused by something beyond it Something or "someone" beyond the universe is required to explain its existence Inference from certain initial facts about the world or cosmos to the existence of a unique being

Quantum Indeterminism

Apparent necessary incompleteness in the description of a physical system that has become one of the characteristics of the standard description of quantum physics

Euthyphro Dilemma

Are morally good acts willed by God because they are morally good, or are they morally good because they are willed by God?

Epicurus

Argued for a universe of infinite space and infinite time

Pascal, Blaise

Argued for the passionate/emotional dimension of the God argument "the heart has its reasons" - he offers a pragmatic justification

Aquinas, Thomas

Argued the existence of God through reason (but claimed we can't know through reason alone). "The Five Ways" argument that proved God through an analogy. Also believed that god was in control of all contingent things, but humans were still free. Saw body and soul as together. Classical foundationalist.

Kant, Immanuel

Argued we CAN confirm God though reason alone, proposed a moral argument for God affirm religion through reason alone

Gaunilo of Marmoutiers

Argument against Anselm Consider the idea of a perfect island Which has every perfection Existence is a perfection

Cosmological Argument

Argument for God's existence in which it is claimed that since whatever begins to exist needs a cause, and since the universe began to exist (and cannot be eternal), the universe must need a cause; it is further argued that this cause must be a personal creator

Methodological Naturalism

Assume no supernatural causes (miracles or karma) interfere with the "normal" course of nature Belief of Science

Reductio ad absurdum

Begins with a premise that is contradictory to what it desires to prove; one then demonstrates that the contradiction of this premise must be true

Scientism

Belief that science alone can solve all problems and answer all our important questions

Creatio ex nihilo

Big Bang is emergence of universe from nothing At this singularity, space and time came into existence; literally nothing existed before the singularity Universe originated at such a singularity = creatio ex nihilo

Cryptomnesia

Brain fabricates pseudo-memories from forgotten source-material and then presents these as genuine (Ian Stevenson) Alleged cases of reincarnation forgotten sources have been positively identified

Anatta

Buddhism: anatta ("no-self")

Horrendous Evil

Causes one to question life's goodness or worth so bad that when you get to the end you question your purpose of life

Hume, David

Claimed that faith and reason are NOT compatible (thus irrational); skeptic

Kierkegaard, Søren

Claimed that risk and uncertainty (FAITH) are the highest virtue and only faith can bring you the deepest fulfillment. AKA NOT confirming God is more important - would take the passionate love affair /adventure out of it - SUBJECTIVITY IS TRUTH

Metaphysical Naturalism

Claims that only physical entities exist and that transphysical or transcendent factors and/or entities cannot exist (=materialism) Belief of Scientism

Cognitive science of religion

Cognitive Science (cognitive developmental psychology) Interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence Examines what cognition is, what it does, and how it works Mind is not all-purpose processing device Paul Bloom: "There's now a lot of evidence that some of the foundations for our religious beliefs are hard-wired" Our minds are finely tuned to believe in Gods Acquiring religion is like acquiring language--the brain is primed for certain religious concepts Vast majority of humans have cognitive predisposition that orients them to seek religious explanations Religion is common within and across culture because of its cognitive naturalness Humans have natural propensities towards believing in some kind of God Widespread conscious rejection of the supernatural appears to require either special cultural conditions that upset the function of maturationally natural outputs, cognitive effort, or a good degree of cultural scaffolding

Locke, John

Complex cognition, self-awareness, and individuality make a person

Darwin, Charles

Darwinian evolution emphasizes central role of death, extinction, pain, selfishness, and competition as being entailed in the very process by which organisms are created Too much misery in the world → cannot convince himself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designed animal suffering Everything is a result of designed laws with the details left to work out in change Was motivated by abolitionist ideals in his scientfic work

Eternity

Deists and atheist scientists argued for the uncreated eternity of the Earth For atheists, eternal earth was seen as the best guarantee of the absence of a creator God of any kind Eternalism assumed uncreated eternity of the human race

Perfect Being Theology

Describes God as the "greatest conceivable being" and that there is nothing greater that can be conceived

Murphy, Nancy

Even if life were possible in a universe with different basic laws, there would still be suffering The better we understand the interconnectedness among natural systems in the universe, the clearer it becomes that it would be impossible to have a world that allowed for a free and loving response to God, yet one without natural evil Natural and metaphysical evil are unavoidable by-products of choices God had to make in order to achieve his purposes in creating creatures who could know and love him

Teleology

Explanation of phenomenon by the purpose they serve rather than by postulated causes

Materialist Monism

Explanation of physical world that all world's objects are composed of a single element; oneness or singleness

The Contingent Cause Argument

Fact 1:there are certain beings or events in the world that are contingent (they could have not been or have been otherwise). Fact 2: that the universe (as the totality of contingent things) is contingent in that it could have been other than it is. Assertion: it is possible that the Universe (the 'Big Contingent Fact') has an explanation.

Trinity

Father, Son and The Holy Spirit.

Block Universe

Four-dimensionalism or Eternalism everything that ever did exist or ever will exist does exist.

Event-causal libertarians

Free actions are caused in deterministically by prior events

Libertarian Free Will

Free will is incompatible with causal determinism and agents have free-will

Natural Law Theodicy

Freedom, morality, rationality, love, etc., necessarily require a significant awareness of the consequences or results of one's actions

Metaphysics

General features of reality such as existence, time, being, causation

According to contemporary historians of science:

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was executed by the Catholic Church because of his scientific views. Galileo was tortured and thrown into a dungeon by the Inquisition for promoting Heliocentrism. Copernicus hesitated to publish his work for fear of religious persecution. Christopher Columbus defied the Churc;h and its views by demonstrating that the earth was a sphere. ANSWER None of the above statements are true.

Calvinism

God causes both good and evil; both are the result of God's eternal decree; God's sovereign will is mysterious.

Soul making theodicy

God created humans as 'good' but not perfect because moral maturity requires experiencing trials and hardships in life. Natural evils, then, are a necessary element of the process of developing immature human persons into spiritually and morally mature beings.

Timelessness

God has neither temporal extension nor temporal location: no before, during or after; events that for us are past or future are all present to God simultaneously

Occasionalism

God is the cause of all "occasions"; the things God creates have no real causal powers of freedom (predestination)

Open Theism

God lacks knowledge of certain future events

Process Theism/ Theology

God needs nothing and made the world from nothing; God not only can, but does intervene in earthly affairs

Deism

God's causal involvement in creation is limited to creation and conservation (not providence)

Divine Attributes

God: omnibenevolence, omnipotence, omniscience, eternity, providence

Dharma

Hinduism: Dharma is religious and moral law governing individual conduct and is one of the four ends of life Buddhism: Dharma is the doctrine, the universal truth common to all individuals at all times, proclaimed by Buddha

Epistemology

How do we know what we know? Or that something is true or false? Theory of Knowledge That scientism offers is not the consequence of any scientific investigation but rather reaches outside itself into the very realm that it claims does not exist

Noseeum Arguments

If one can't see any good reasons, then they probably are not there

Universal causal determinism

If one knows the right physical information, the one can precisely predict the outcome of any event

Evolutionary Evil

In evolution, species develop adaptive strategies that "tend to be accompanied by pain, suffering, unhappiness, and conflicts of interest, the major categories of evil"

Tracy, Thomas

In order for the world to engender intelligence life, it must be put together in very much the way we find it, and therefore, contain nearly the current range and volume of natural evils Freedom, morality, rationality, love, etc., necessarily require a significant awareness of the consequences or results of one's actions

Natural Evil

In order for the world to engender intelligent life, it must be put together in very much the way we find it, and will therefore, contain nearly the current range and volume of natural evils

Evidential Problem of Evil

Logical impossibility of the coexistence of God and evil, while the evidential form tries to show that given the evil in the world, it is improbable that there is an omnipotent, omniscient God.

Principle of Sufficient Reason

No fact can be real or existing and no statement true without a sufficient reason for it being so and not otherwise

William Paley

Objections to argument: The analogy is weak at best and even with IBE, evolution is a far better explanation than that of an intelligent design

Evidentialism

One of descartes basic beleifs- two thoughts that can be held WITHOUT evidence - these are thoughts about myself and thoughts that are self-evident (obvious, ex. 1+1=2). -- dont need reason

Religious exclusivism

Only one religion is objectively true

Presentism

Only present objects and events objectively exist; common sense view of time: the past is gone (no longer exists) and the future does not yet exist

Evolutionary Convergence

Organisms "navigate" to or arrive at the same biological "solution" from very different starting points.

Anselm of Canterbury

Perfect being theology, was the bishop of canterbury in 11 century. Saw god as rational

Atman

Personhood is defined via a non-physical or non-material component (a super- natural substance often identified as the soul or atman).

Descartes, Rene

Philosophical method based on DOUBT- doubts everything, existence, body, etc. - claims "I THINK THEREFORE I AM" - the basic belief which is a starting point for thought

Existentialism

Philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.

Eternalism

Planet Earth is eternal (having no beginning) and its processes and basic features have essentially been the same forever.

Plantinga, Alvin

Plantinga proposed a "free will defense" which attempts to refute the logical problem of evil, the argument that the existence of evil is logically incompatible with the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good God

Clark, Samuel

Principle of Sufficient Reason: "no fact can be real or existing and no statement true without a sufficient reason for its being so and not otherwise." Based on premise that there must be a sufficient reason, or explanation, for the existence of any contingent being and for the contingent universe as a whole.

Gottfried Leibniz

Principle of Sufficient Reasoning: God is first reason or first cause of the universe

Hick, John

Proponent for religious pluralism John Hick define evil as contrary to God's will.

Providence

Protective care of God or of nature as a spiritual power

Reincarnation

Rebirth of a soul in a new body

Noetic

Relating to mental activity or the intellect

Freud's view of Religion

Religion is a mental defense against the more threatening aspects of nature. (Religion is an illusion) God= Dead father

Galileo

Rumor: Nearly put to death by the Church for constructing his telescope and discovering the moons of Jupiter Reality: broke contract w/ church and was put on "house arrest"

Conway-Morris, Simon

Simon Conway-Morris:The path of evolution is highly constrained by laws of nature deeper than natural selection. Evolution"'discovers' prior organizational templates" that exist in the laws of nature. "The constraints of evolution and the ubiquity of convergence make the emergence of something like human beings a near- inevitability

Dualism (Body-Soul)

Soul is naturally eternal, pre-existent, and distinct from the body The soul belongs to the realm of "The Forms" Death is the liberation of the soul

Four Noble Truths

Suffering: suffering is involved in life, in obvious and subtle forms. The Cause of Suffering: suffering is craving and fundamental ignorance. The End of Suffering: suffering can end because our obscurations can be purified and awakened. The Path: living ethnically, practicing meditation, and developing wisdom

Dukkha

Suffering; desire is cause of suffering; "pain", "unsatisfactoriness", or "stress"

Religion

System of beliefs that breaks in the transcendent reality , human attitude of meaning and purpose

Everlastingness

That God exists without beginning or end, through everlasting time

Conflict Thesis/Warfare Thesis

That Science and Religion have had a long history of conflict or warfare Conflict Thesis: that science and religion have had a long history of conflict or warfare Invented by Enlightenment Rationalists Elaborated by Victorian "Freethinkers" Assumed and perpetuated by many modern-day proponents of scientism Made popular drapers and whites books on the supposed historical warfare of science and war

Craig, William Lane

The Kalam Cosmological Argument: universe is not eternal but had a beginning Since God is a causal agent who creates the world, God must--in some sense-- be time

Sunyata

The Mahayana notion of emptiness, meaning that the universe is empty of permanent reality

Design Arguments

The complex, ordered system from nature provides evidence for an intelligent designer.

Samsara

The cycle of life and rebirth in Hinduism

Free Will Defense and Theodicy

The free will and responsible choice that God gave humans is responsible for good, but also for evil. However, to have free and responsible choice, it's necessary for agents to have a choice to do evil. Therefore, a maximally good world is one where evil may occur.

Nirvana

The state of enlightenment for Buddhists

Fideism

The view that religious belief should be based solely on "blind" faith rather than reason.

fideism

The view that religious belief should be based solely on "blind" faith rather than reason.

Reductionism

The whole is nothing but the sum of its parts, everything is ultimately just a bunch of atoms

Natural Theology

Theory of knowledge of God based on observed facts and experiences apart from divine revelation

Emergentism

There are many levels to reality and each level is true/valid without being reduced to whats below it -- THERE IS A QUALITATIVE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SUM AND ITS PARTS

Thomas Aquinas

This Dominican medieval philosopher and theologian integrated Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology and enumerated five ways or arguments demonstrating God's reality.

reductio ad absurdum

This type of logical argument begins with a claim that is contradictory to what one desires to prove and then demonstrates that the contradiction of this supposition must be true.

brahman

This understanding of Ultimate Reality in Hinduism is the undifferentiated Absolute that includes no attributes, and no distinctive characteristics.

Moral Evil

To create creatures capable of moral good.. God must create creatures capable of moral evil; pain and suffering that results from a perpetrator, or one who acts intentionally

Brahman

Ultimate Reality in Hinduism; based on undifferntiated reality

Gratuitous Evil

Unmerited suffering and pain which seem to be random and meaningless EX: Forest Fire that horribly injures a fawn and the fawn thus cannot get food and dies of starvation

Pascal's Wager

Uses cost-benefit- analysis to justify religious belief -- its in our best interest , if God exists and you don't believe, you lose everything but if you do believe and he doesn't exist you lose nothing

Theodicy

Vindication of divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil

Incompatibilist Free Will

We act freely only if determinism is false (belief that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the free will)

Gould, Stephen Jay

We may yearn for a higher answer but none exists is an atheist

Dawkins, Richard

What is the ultimate purpose of life? Survival and reproduction: "our genes created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence...We are their survival machines" Total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation Religion is a virus like meme

Cosmic Fine Tuning

When we look into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together for our benefit, it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming Responses: A lucky accident Theory of Everything (TOE): yet to be discovered law of physics that describes everything Multiverse: multiple universes in which ours happened to work out Cosmic designer

Paradigm

a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitutes legitimate contributions to a field.

The idea that every event in the cosmos is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature. Or the view that if the state of all physical events could be known, along with all relevant laws, then all future states could (in principle) be precisely calculated.

a. Emergentism (the whole is more than the sum of its parts) b. Materialism c. Scientism ANSWER d. Universal causal determinism e. Interventionism (miracles)

Which of the following was NOT reflective of Søren Kierkegaard's understanding of the relationship between faith and reason?

a. Faith, not reason, is the highest virtue a human can reach, because faith is a trait that is necessary for the deepest human fulfillment. b. Faith is objectively uncertain, for it is risk and uncertainty that are crucial for personal growth into selfhood. c. Religion is like a passionate love affair, not calculating or rationalistic, but spontaneous, risky, and deeply fulfilling. ANSWER d. A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence, and the conclusions philosophers and theologians have drawn go well beyond the available evidence. e. None of the above (meaning all of the ideas above are included in Kierkegaard's understanding).

This term refers to pain and suffering that results from a perpetrator, or one who acts intentionally.

a. Gratuitous Evil (pointless evil) b. Evolutionary Evil (animals) c. Natural Evil (tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.) ANSWER d. Moral Evil (involves intentionality) e. Horrendous Evil (so bad that when you get to the end you question your purpose of life)

Which of the following is NOT a key understanding of divine providence?

a. Occasionalism (God causes every event) b. Deism (God creates the universe and lets things go) c. Calvinist Predestination (God ordains all events) ANSWER d. Presentism (theory of time; "today") e. God as "Master Chess Player

This philosophical approach to religious diversity holds that while each religion can be regarded as "true" and "effective" for its adherents, there is no objective or tradition-transcending sense in which we can speak of religious truth.

a. Religious Exclusivism(only one is objectively true) b. Religious Inclusivism(one is more true than others but all religions hold some truth) c. Religious Existentialism d. Religious Pluralism( objectivity at the core) ANSWER e. Religious Relativism (what is true for me(you) is true for me(you))

According to scientific researchers Andrew Newberg and Justin Barrett, belief in God is:

a. Rooted in the biology of the brain. b. A consequence of persistent cultural conditioning and/or indoctrination. (Richard Dawkins as well) c. Cognitively intuitive (or natural) and typically commences automatically at a very young age. d. A virus-like meme that multiplies by infecting the gullible brains of children. (Richard Dawkins) ANSWER e. Answers a. and c.

The absurdities of this thought experiment intend to show that it is impossible for an actual infinite number of things to exist in spatiotemporal reality.

a. The Madman with a card-shuffling machine b. The Block Universe ANSWER c. Hilbert's Hotel (video of infinite hotel) d. Musical Brain Hemispheres e. None of the above

Which of the following is NOT one of the standard philosophical responses to the discovery that the Universe appears to be 'finely-tuned' for the existence of intelligent life?

a. The existence of 'finely-tuned' universe is a lucky accident. b. The 'finely-tuned' universe is the handiwork of a cosmic designer. c. The emergence of a 'finely-tuned' universe is a natural outcome of the multiverse. ANSWER d. The universe is not 'finely-tuned' according to most physicists. e. A 'finely-tuned' universe is an inevitability of the yet to be discovered Theory of Everything.

"If everything that exists in the world (including the world itself) is not the cause of its own existence, then there must be a cause of the world's existence which itself does not need to be caused by anything else: that uncaused cause is God." This line of argument is called:

a. The existential argument. ANSWER b. The cosmological argument. c. The ontological argument. d. The teleological argument. e. The argument from religious experience.

The teleological argument for God's existence gets its name from the fact that it begins with an analysis of:

a. The nature of the concept "God". (ontological) ANSWER b. Instances of apparent purpose or design in the universe. c. The temporal beginning of the universe. (big bang/cosmological) d. Sufficient reasons for the existence of the universe. e. None of the above.

Which of the following is NOT one of Hume's objections to the theological argument from design?

a. There is only one universe, and thus we have no other universes to compare it to or judge it by. ANSWER b. Since order in the universe is due to natural processes, God is only indirectly responsible for it. c. In many ways the world is not like a human artifact or an orderly machine. d. Even if some God creates the universe that does not prove that he is infinitely wise, good, or powerful. e. Cases of apparent design could be the result of chance.

Agent-causal libertarians

agents in deterministically cause free actions

Atheism

all religions are false; there is no religion whose central claims are true. One should thus abandon religion altogether.

Aristotle

argued that Earth was eternal (without beginning and without end)

A posteriori

based on experience/observation.

A priori

based on premises that can be known independently of experience of the world. Rely on premises that one can know to be true simply by thinking about them

Non-causal libertarians:

free actions are constituted by basic mental actions such as decision or choice

Universal Causal Determinism:

if one knows the right physical information, than one can precisely predict the outcome of the event

Causal Determinism:

if the state of the entire universe could be known, along with all relevant laws, then all future states could (in principle) be precisely calculated

Determinism

laws govern the behavior of all physical processes and all causes are accounted for

Religious pluralism

multiple religious traditions will constitute equally valid attempts to achieve the goals of religion, and equally valid responses to the diverse "religious phenomena" that give rise to religious belief

Realism, scientific

recommending belief in both observable and unobservable aspects of the world described by the sciences

Ontological argument

rests on the use of a paradox. Essentially, God is a being which none greater exists, but exists only in the understanding. God has a possibility of existing and if he did exist, he would be greater. Therefore, he cannot possibly be a being which none greater exists but only exist in the understanding, since existing in reality would create a greater being. Therefore, God exists.

Popper, Karl

reverses traditional scientific rationality Theory --> Predictions --> Data/Evidence to refute or falsify a theory

Marx's view of Religion

sees ideology as a belief system that distorts people's perception of reality in ways that serve the interests of the ruling class. Those who control economic production (the bourgeoisie) also control the production of ideas in society through institutions such as the church, the education system and the media. The bourgeoisie uses these institutions as 'weapons' to legitimate inequality

Practical Rationality

the appropriate way of processing info through reasoning

Ontology

the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being

Agnosticism

there is no way to determine which, if any, of the religions is most likely to be true, and thus the best response is to remain doubtful or undecided about the claims of any religion.