Download or read book A Natural History of Natural Theology written by Helen De Cruz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-06-11 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the cognitive foundations of intuitions about the existence and attributes of God. Questions about the existence and attributes of God form the subject matter of natural theology, which seeks to gain knowledge of the divine by relying on reason and experience of the world. Arguments in natural theology rely largely on intuitions and inferences that seem natural to us, occurring spontaneously—at the sight of a beautiful landscape, perhaps, or in wonderment at the complexity of the cosmos—even to a nonphilosopher. In this book, Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt examine the cognitive origins of arguments in natural theology. They find that although natural theological arguments can be very sophisticated, they are rooted in everyday intuitions about purpose, causation, agency, and morality. Using evidence and theories from disciplines including the cognitive science of religion, evolutionary ethics, evolutionary aesthetics, and the cognitive science of testimony, they show that these intuitions emerge early in development and are a stable part of human cognition. De Cruz and De Smedt analyze the cognitive underpinnings of five well-known arguments for the existence of God: the argument from design, the cosmological argument, the moral argument, the argument from beauty, and the argument from miracles. Finally, they consider whether the cognitive origins of these natural theological arguments should affect their rationality.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology written by Russell Re Manning and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 647 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology" explores the diversity and vitality o natural theology, both historically and as an issue of contemporary concern.
Download or read book Ramified Natural Theology in Science and Religion written by Rodney Holder and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a rationale for a new ‘ramified natural theology’ that is in dialogue with both science and historical-critical study of the Bible. Traditionally, knowledge of God has been seen to come from two sources, nature and revelation. However, a rigid separation between these sources cannot be maintained, since what purports to be revelation cannot be accepted without qualification: rational argument is needed to infer both the existence of God from nature and the particular truth claims of the Christian faith from the Bible. Hence the distinction between ‘bare natural theology’ and ‘ramified natural theology.’ The book begins with bare natural theology as background to its main focus on ramified natural theology. Bayesian confirmation theory is utilised to evaluate competing hypotheses in both cases, in a similar manner to that by which competing hypotheses in science can be evaluated on the basis of empirical data. In this way a case is built up for the rationality of a Christian theist worldview. Addressing issues of science, theology and revelation in a new framework, this book will be of keen interest to scholars working in Religion and Science, Natural Theology, Philosophy of Religion, Biblical Studies, Systematic Theology, and Science and Culture.
Download or read book In Defense of Natural Theology written by James F. Sennett and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2005-10-04 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James F. Sennett and Douglas Groothuis have assembled a distinguished array of scholars to examine the Humean legacy with care and make the case for a more robust, if chastened, natural theology after Hume.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion written by Peter Harrison and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-24 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the historical relations between science and religion and discusses contemporary issues with perspectives from cosmology, evolutionary biology and bioethics.
Download or read book Cicero on the Philosophy of Religion written by J. P. F. Wynne and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do the gods love you? Cicero gives deep and surprising answers in two philosophical dialogues on traditional Roman religion.
Download or read book The Failure of Natural Theology written by Jeffrey D Johnson and published by New Studies in Theology Series. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aristotle's cosmological argument is the foundation of Aquinas's doctrine of God. For Thomas, the cosmological argument not only speaks of God's existence but also of God's nature. By learning that the unmoved mover is behind all moving objects, we learn something true about the essence of God-principally, that God is immobile. But therein lies the problem for Thomas. The Catholic Church had already condemned Aristotle's unmoved mover because, according to Aristotle, the unmoved mover is unable to be the moving cause (i.e., Creator) and governor of the universe-or else he would cease to be immobile. By seeking to baptize Aristotle into the Catholic Church, however, Thomas gave his life to seeking to explain how God can be both immobile and the moving cause of the universe. Thomas even looked to the pantheistic philosophy of Pseudo-Dionysius for help. But even with Dionysius's aid, Thomas failed to reconcile the god of Aristotle with the Trinitarian God of the Bible. If Thomas would have rejected the natural theology of Aristotle by placing the doctrine of the Trinity, which is known only by divine revelation, at the foundation of his knowledge of God, he would have rid himself of the irresolvable tension that permeates his philosophical theology. Thomas could have realized that the Trinity alone allows for God to be the only self-moving being-because the Trinity is the only being not moved by anything outside himself but freely capable of creating and controlling contingent things in motion.
Download or read book God and Natural Order written by Shaun C. Henson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In God and Natural Order: Physics, Philosophy, and Theology, Shaun Henson brings a theological approach to bear on contemporary scientific and philosophical debates on the ordered or disordered nature of the universe. Henson engages arguments for a unified theory of the laws of nature, a concept with monotheistic metaphysical and theological leanings, alongside the pluralistic viewpoints set out by Nancy Cartwright and other philosophers of science, who contend that the nature of physical reality is intrinsically complex and irreducible to a single unifying theory. Drawing on the work of theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg and his conception of the Trinitarian Christian god, the author argues that a theological line of inquiry can provide a useful framework for examining controversies in physics and the philosophy of science. God and Natural Order will raise provocative questions for theologians, Pannenberg scholars, and researchers working in the intersection of science and religion.
Download or read book Natural Theology Or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature written by William Paley and published by . This book was released on 1822 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Reformed Objection to Natural Theology written by Michael Sudduth and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-24 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Sudduth examines three prominent objections to natural theology that have emerged in the Reformed streams of the Protestant theological tradition: objections from the immediacy of our knowledge of God, the noetic effects of sin, and the logic of theistic arguments. Distinguishing between the project of natural theology and particular models of natural theology, Sudduth argues that none of the main Reformed objections is successful as an objection to the project of natural theology itself. One particular model of natural theology - the dogmatic model - is best suited to handle Reformed concerns over natural theology. According to this model, rational theistic arguments represent the reflective reconstruction of the natural knowledge of God by the Christian in the context of dogmatic theology. Informed by both contemporary religious epistemology and the history of Protestant philosophical theology, Sudduth’'s examination illuminates the complex nature of the project of natural theology and its place in the Reformed tradition.
Download or read book Our Knowledge of God written by K.J. Clark and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Natural theology is the project of articulating, defending and CntlClzmg arguments for the existence and nature of God without the aid of special revelation. Philosophical theology, which employs the rational methods of natural theology, is not restricted to premises that are discernible through observation and reason; it may rightly employ premises that are knowable through special revelation. While the project of natural theology may be construed as an attempt to demonstrate God's existence, one cannot ignore the importance of using reason or experience to understand, determine or assess attributes. One will want to know at the conclusion of a proof in natural God's theology if one has proved the existence of God and not merely the prim urn mobilum, source of moral obligation or a committee of finite designers; while God may be the prime mover and designer of the cosmos, none of these attributes alone is sufficient for making a claim to divinity. It is, therefore, difficult to distinguish sharply the project of natural theology from philosophi cal theology. The project of classical natural theology has been the attempt to prove God's existence and nature with arguments that employ premises that all rational creatures are obliged to accept.
Download or read book The Philosophy and Natural Theology of Religion written by Anthony Walsh and published by Ethics International Press. This book was released on 2024-05-28 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the philosophy of religion, with strong scientific content from a theistic perspective. It looks at the origin and evolution of the religious impulse, with an emphasis on Plato and Aristotle. After looking at philosophical, ontological, and cosmological arguments for God’s existence, four chapters look at the religious significance of the Big Bang, abiogenesis, the complexity of DNA, and evolution. It draws on social science and historical data in the evaluation of the atheistic alternative to theism, as well as the multiverse explanation as an alternative to the incredible fine-tuning parameters of our universe. The final chapters take on significant theological issues such as the nature of sacred writings, the problem of evil, hell versus universal salvation, miracles, natural theology, the resurrection, and the Shroud of Turin.
Download or read book The Metaphysics of Theism written by Norman Kretzmann and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Metaphysics of Theism is the definitive study of the natural theology of Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of medieval philosophers, written by one of the world's most eminent scholars of medieval thought. Natural theology is the investigation by analysis and rational argument of fundamental questions about reality, considered in relation to God. Professor Kretzmann shows the continuing value of Aquinas's doctrines to the philosophical enterprise today; he argues that natural theology offers the only route by which philosophers can, as philosophers, approach theological propositions, and that the one presented in this book is the best available natural theology.
Download or read book Natural Theology written by William Paley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-17 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Paley set out to prove the existence of God from the evidence of the beauty and order of the natural world. This edition sets his work in the context of the theological, philosophical, and scientific debates of the nineteenth century.
Download or read book Natural Theology written by David Haines and published by . This book was released on 2021-12-02 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christians affirm that Scripture alone reveals truths about God which cannot be known by mere reason, such as the Trinity or the Gospel itself. But how do we account for Scripture's apparent talk of a knowledge of God possible solely from creation? Or for our own sense of the divine in nature? Or for the startling insights of ancient philosophers about the nature of God? The answer: natural theology.Often misrepresented as a fruitless human attempt to comprehend God, natural theology has in fact been a significant part of Christian theology throughout history. It has shaped the Christian doctrine of God and provided a starting point for evangelizing non-Christians. In an age when theologians and missionaries alike are in need of stronger doctrinal foundations, it is a doctrine as vital as ever.In this brief guide, David Haines first outlines the biblical basis for natural theology, suggesting that, if Scripture is correct, certain truths about God should be well attested by non-Christians. A thorough historical survey demonstrates that this is indeed the case, and that the Church has long made use of that which is revealed to reason in order to serve Christ, who is revealed to faith.
Download or read book Contemporary Arguments in Natural Theology written by Colin Ruloff and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revisiting the classical arguments for the existence of God -- Further directions in natural theology.
Download or read book An Introduction to Natural Theology written by Maurice R. Holloway and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-06-21 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What is the God of the philosopher? Can the philosopher, that is to say, can human reason, unenlightened by the revealed word, come to a true and secure understanding of ‘He-Who-Is’? Is it possible for mere man, without the impact of a personal experience, intimate and intuitive, to arrive by means of an objective demonstration at an absolute affirmation that the Being we call God exists, or that He is Pure Act, Existence Itself, because without him the world of our experience is unintelligible, a complete contradiction? “And even if we admit, as all Christian philosophers must, that unaided reason is able by its own power to reach an objectively true and secure assent that God exists, is there any evidence, in the recorded history of our world, that man, without the directive knowledge of revelation, ever did secure by a metaphysical effort this absolute truth that the Ipsum Esse exists? Whatever be the answer to this difficult problem—and we do not pretend to know it—it is obvious that Father Holloway, in composing his philosophical approach to God, allowed himself to be guided by the knowledge of faith. Indeed, he must have prayed often for the enlightenment which the supernatural motion of divine grace brings even to the limited and imperfect intellect of a philosopher.” —From the Foreword by Henri Renard, S.J.
