PSC 170 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Tim Crane, Agnosticism, Antireligion
4/12/18 – NATURE OF RELIGION, PART 1
William James: Religious Impulse
• Religious attitude
• Belief that here is a usee order, ad that our supree good lies i haroiousl adjustig
ourseles to it.
o More to life than what you see.
o Must live in harmony and in accordance with that unseen.
• How things are and how they should be.
• Cosmology
o How the world came to be.
o The origin of things.
o Live in harmony w/ cosmology.
• Ethos
o Ethics
• Scientific unseen order
o Natural laws
Two Essential Components:
1. Transcendent (something more to this world)
• Ultimately beyond our comprehension.
• Unseen order
2. Identification
• Practices and belonging to a group.
• Ex: Muslim, ethnic Jew, Christian, etc.
• Doing things in that tradition. A lot of things you are doing traditions together with
other people. Also doing some stuff on your own.
What is religion?
• A ssteati ad pratial attept hua eigs to fid eaig i the orld ad their
place in it, in terms of their relationship to soethig trasedet. –Tim Crane, The Meaning
of Belief: ‘eligio Fro a Atheists Poit of Vie
1. Systematic (system)
• An authentic religion has a collection of ideas and practices that are designed to fit
together.
2. Practical (action)
• Religion is not just something that people have in their heads.
• People are doing stuff on the ground such as praying, meditating, reading scriptures,
etc.
• Various rituals that are done individually or as a group.
3. Meaning (of life)
• Search for meaning and a search for making sense of why things are.
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Two essential components: transcendent (something more to this world, ultimately beyond our comprehension, unseen order. Identification: practices and belonging to a group, ex: muslim, ethnic jew, christian, etc, doing things in that tradition. A lot of things you are doing traditions together with other people. Who are the atheists: atheists tend to be young, male, white, unmarried, well-educated, upper income, atheists: 70% male; 7% of males atheist, vs. 2% of females, 38% under age of 30. Atheists have more education: 43% college degree, 29% of non-atheists, 28% have graduate degree vs. 16 % of non-atheists, but among those with graduate degrees, atheists are 8% There are probably many causes of atheism: being raised not to believe, traumatic experiences with religion, unmystical personalities, socialization to antireligious professions, as a result of philosophical reflection. Superhuman powers: not supernatural (distinction between natural and supernatural not necessary), not humanly emergent, not about ultimate realities, not about god(s), spirits, angels, or other beings.
