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Instructor: Kevin T. Kelly.

• E-mail kk3n@andrew.cmu.edu.
• Phone: X8567.
• Room: CFA 211
  
• Time: TH 10:30-11:50
• Office: 135 BH.
• Office hours: Thur, 3:00-5:00 or by appointment through e-mail.

Texts:

• Rowe and Wainwright, Philosophy of Religion
• Johnson, Darwin on Trial
• Dunn, The Evidence for Jesus
• Web-based resources linked to this page
• Scanned documents linked to this page

10% reading questions and class participation.

30% first paper project

30% second paper project

30% final paper project

Description:

Class time will involve a short introductory lecture by the instructor that lays out the issues and provides essential background material not mentioned in the reading. The remaining class time will be devoted to clear-headed, critical discussion. Whether or not the class is a success will depend largely on student preparation. Daily reading questions provide a fair way of giving you credit for your preparation time. They are designed to be easy if you do the reading. Three short essay assignments will provide an avenue for your original thinking concerning the course material. The short length will press you to be succinct and to strive for quality in the short space available.  Think in terms of writing a ten page paper and then cutting out all the fluff. 

Course Outline

Introduction

I. Religion and Philosophy

1. Plato
2. The Upanishads
3. Buddhism
4. First paper assignment: Design your own religion

II. Arguments for the existence of God

1. Anselm's ontological argument 1
2. Plantinga's ontological argument 2
3. The cosmological argument (pro)
4. The cosmological argument (con)
5. God and physical cosmology
6. The design argument
7. Darwin and creationism
8. Complexity theory's response to creationism
9. Second paper assignment.
10. The argument from history
11. The argument from miracles
12. The argument from mystical experience
13. Mystical experience II.
14. The argument from morality
15. Final paper assignment
    

III. The problem of evil

1. Statement of the problem
2. The free will defense
3. Foreknowledge and Freedom
4. Thanksgiving holiday
5. Omnipotence

IV. Faith and evidence

1. The will to believe
2. Religious foundations

V. Immortality and the meaning of life

1. The immaterial soul
2. Material survival  
3. Final paper due
   

I. Religion and Philosophy

Plato

9-1 Reading Assignment:  Click on the following link and read Plato's Phaedo . Another Phaedo site.  Yet another Phaedo site.

Precursors to Plato::

• Orphism and the Dionysian cult
  
• Pythagorianism

1. What does Socrates take to be the one aim of those who practice philosophy?
2. What must we do to obtain true knowledge?
3. What keeps the body attached to the soul?
4. Why does Socrates think we should believe his story about rewards for virtue in the afterlife?
5. List a few striking similarities between Plato's views and those of the Orphists and Pythagoreans

The Upanishads

9-6 Read down through "Early Buddhist Developments" and "Vedanta" in the Indian philosophy outline (Britannica site is accessible only if you access the web through a CMU connection) and then to look at snippets from some of the Upanishads.

1. How does Buddhism differ from the mystical position presented in the Upanishads?
2. Compare Atman to the Platonic soul.
3. What is Sankara's Advaita Vedanta?
4. How do the Upanishads differ from the Vedas?.

5 pages, double spaced, 12 pt. Times font.

Design your own religion!
Due 9-15. 

Grading criteria:

• It should be plausible and appealing.
• It should be urgent. 
  
• It should attend to the religious needs of its followers (allay fears, explain our position in the universe, provide rites of passage, etc.)
  
• It should interpret common religious practices and experiences (e.g., fasting, praying, meditating, sacrificing).
• It should have a mechanism ensuring its own propagation (no suicide pacts or injunctions against procreation).
  
• It should be able to defend itself against attacks by competing religions.
  
• It should be metaphysically sophisticated (not just a bunch of commandments).
  
• It should be bold, novel and exciting (not a mere copy of a standard religion).
• It should sound like a religious tract (sound confident, direct, and hypnotic.)
  

II. Arguments for the Existence of God

The Ontological Argument 1

Note: Reading assignments in the Rowe volume are indicated by section number, subsection title, and author name. Thus, Rowe I: Necessary Being: Anselm-Findlay indicates that you should read all the articles from Anselm through Findlay in section I of Rowe, in the subsection entitled Necessary Being.

Reading assignment
Due 9-13.

• Rowe I: Necessary Being: Anselm-Hick,
• Rowe II: The Ontological argument: Anselm-Kant.

1. State the ontological argument as clearly and simply as you can.
2. What is Gaunilo's objection?
3. What is Kant's objection?
4. What is a necessary being?

Anselm's text is on the web: Anselm.

Reading assignment
Due 9-20

• Rowe II: Ontological Argument: Plantinga.

1. What is a "possible being", according to Plantinga?
2. Does Plantinga think his argument is sound? Does he think it is a proof?
3. What fallacy vitiates the standard version of the argument?
4. How does "greatness" differ from "excellence"?

The cosmological argument (pro):

Reading assignment:
Due 9-22

• Rowe II: The Comological Argument: Aquinas-Clarke

1. List the ``five ways'' by name.
2. How does Aquinas know that the universe was created in time?
3. Which of Aquinas' five ways is closest to Clarke's version?
4. What is the distinction between a causal series per se and per accidens?

The cosmological argument (con):

Reading assignment:
Due 9-27

• Rowe II: The Cosmological Argument: Hume-Rowe.

1. What are Hume's objections to the cosmological argument?
2. What is Russell's objection?
3. What is the principle of sufficient reason?
4. What is Rowe's response to Russell?

Physical cosmology

Reading assignment:
Due  9-29

• Kitty Ferguson, The Fire in the Equations (50 pages: you may want to get started early).  (linked as PDF)
  

1. Why did physicists dislike the idea of a singular beginning to the universe?
2. List  four responses invented by theorists to avoid the big bang singularity.
3. Would St. Augustine find any of this to be of religious significance?
4. What did Goedel prove?

The argument from design

Reading assignment:
Due 10-4

• review Rowe p. 128 (the fifth way)
• Rowe II: The Teleological Argument: Paley-Inwagen.

1. How does Philo compare the design argument to Copernican astronomy?
2. How do the shipbuilders arrive at the complex plan of a ship?
3. What is the point of Philo's animal body analogy?
4. What is the point of the vegetable analogy?

Darwin vs. Creationism

Reading assignment due
Due 10-6

• Johnson text, chapters 2-6 (54 pages, start early).  
• Part I (linked as PDF for those who couldn't buy the book. Scroll UPWARDS). 
  
• Part II
  

1. What is the fossil problem?
2. What is the orthodox neo-Darwinist response?
3. What is Gould's response?
4. What three sorts of thestic theories are consistent with the fossil record?

• Creation science homepage.
• Lots of resources on the creationism debate.
  
• Further reading.
• Evolution FAQ on the Cambrian explosion.
  

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Reading assignment
Due 10-11

• Johnson, chapter 8.
• Kaufman handout: At Home in the Universe, chapter 4.
• Johnson, last paragraph, p. 213.

1. What is Hoyle's metaphor for self-organization?
2. What is an autocatalytic network?
3. What is supposed to knock your socks off?
4. How is Kaufmann's program supposed to be a response to the argument from design?

4 pages, double spaced, 12 pt. Times font.

Discuss one of the following:

1. The ontological argument
2. The cosmological argument
3. The design argument
4. The argument from history

• Present the argument as carefully and convincingly as possible.
• Make sure you state each premise clearly and indicate how the conclusion follows.
• Then present possible objections to the argument as carefully and convincingly as possible.
• Reply to the objections if you think there are good replies.
  
• Strive for clarity, precision, and brevity, rather than for striking originality on this assignment.
• Use appropriate citations and list references.

  Hint: write a longer draft and cut it down to the required length.
  Proofread at least three times.  I will be severe about sloppy mistakes.

Topic: Any topic covered in class.  Subject to prospectus approval.  Grading critera are the same as those for the second paper.