Philosophy of theism [Elektronisk resurs].

• "Man is religious. However it came about, our race, at least as soon as it emerged from brutishness, possessed religious ideas and impulses. The earth is full of religion; and life and thought, art and literature, are moulded by it. Concerning this fact three questions may be asked. These concern respectively, (1) the source of religion, (2) the genesis and history of religion, and (3) the rational foundation or warrant of religion. This work does not aim to say everything about theism. I have rather sought to give an outline of the essential argument which might serve as a text for teachers and as a somewhat critical survey of the subject for other readers. Kant pointed out that the ontological argument properly proves nothing, and that the cosmological and the design argument depend on the ontological. The argument, then, is not demonstrative, and rests finally on the assumed existence of a perfect being. In a different form I have maintained the same position; but so far from concluding that theistic faith is baseless, I have sought to show that essentially the same postulate underlies our entire mental life. There is an element of faith and volition latent in all our theorizing. Where we cannot prove, we believe. Where we cannot demonstrate, we choose sides. This element of faith cannot be escaped in any field of thought, and without it the mind is helpless and dumb. Oversight of this fact has led to boundless verbal haggling and barren logic-chopping, in which it would be hard to say whether the affirmative or the negative be the more confused. Absurd demands for "proof" have been met with absurd "proofs." The argument has thus been transferred from the field of life and action, where it mainly belongs, to the arid wastes of formal logic, where it has fared scarcely better than the man who journeyed to Jericho from Jerusalem. The conclusion is that theism is the fundamental postulate of our total life." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved). 

Ämnesord

Theism.  (LCSH)

Theology  (MeSH)

Klassifikation

BL200 (LCC)