Philosophy of Religion

This course provides a detailed introduction and analysis of the central problems and issues in contemporary philosophy of religion.

The questions that we will consider include: Can we prove God's existence by reason alone? Is the evidence of 'fine tuning' conditions in the universe a good reason to believe that God created it? Is it either consistent or plausible to believe that there is a God given the amount of evil in the world? Can we ever be justified in believing that a miracle has occurred? Is religious belief rational if there is no evidence in its favour? What is the relationship between scientific and religious belief?

The unit aims to:

• Help you to engage with some of the most central and enduring problems in philosophy of religion;
• Enhance your power of critical analysis, reasoning and independent thought, and your ability to bring those powers to bear on important philosophical issues;
• Familiarise you with some of the most interesting and provocative texts in contemporary work on philosophy of religion.

One two-hour lecture and one one-hour tutorial per week.

Students should be able to:

• Identify the principal philosophical problems in contemporary philosophy of religion;
• Clearly articulate some of the principle theories discussed in philosophy of religion;
• Understand some of the main arguments and distinctions at issue in the philosophy of religion.

Students should be able to:

• Evaluate some of the key ideas and theories in contemporary philosophy of religion;
• Relate issues in the philosophy of religion to other areas of philosophical enquiry;
• Reflect, assess and comment on the strengths and weaknesses of arguments in the philosophy of religion.

Students should be able to:

• Gather, sift and synthesise material from spoken, electronic and library resources in the preparation of assessments in the philosophy of religion;
• Present complex ideas and arguments in an accessible written form.

Essay (2000 words) 33%

Exam (2 hours) 67%

The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate time is it possible for us to feed back on the student's work. The main forms of feedback on this course are written feedback responses to assessed essays and exam answers.

We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lecture); presenting a question on the discussion board on Canvas; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

Graham Oppy, Michael Scott Reading Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell, 2010).

Detailed supplementary reading lists are provided on Canvas on a topic by topic basis.