Of Philosophy and Religion

[huinare]

As the semester draws to its close, I reflect that my Philosophy of Religion class has been one of my favorite classes ever.

This is partly because I really like the professor (in fact, when I talked to him during office hours, I was a little starstruck and my social anxiety popped up a bit, despite the fact that everything he said was quite complimentary and he went so far as to ask if I was in fact a philosophy major).

It’s also partly because I am not invested in either a theist or atheist viewpoint. This was not the case a couple years ago. I was a staunch atheist for a long time, after being raised in a conservative monotheism and rejecting it. Having seen the issue from both those angles, I can say that it’s liberating for me to take an agnostic stance on things. I have no defensiveness when I read these essays, only curiosity.

The course introduced me to my favorite 20th-century philosophers of religion:

John Hick (pluralist christian)

William Rowe (“friendly atheist”)

Anthony Flew (atheist-allegedly-turned-deist) [Actually, I didn’t much like this fellow, but I want to read his book because it would be fascinating.]

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating stuff. I think I'm closest to John Hick.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

John Hick is awesome. He has his own beliefs, yet acknowledges and defends the whole "different strokes for different folks" mentality. He's also a proponent of my favorite answer to the Problem of Evil, the "Soul-Making" argument.