Reddit reviews Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction

I like to recommend this. It's a very nice, user-friendly introduction to philosophy of religion, including the major philosophical arguments for and against God.

BTW, don't let anyone tell you you can't celebrate your cultural heritage once you stop believing in god. I know an atheist ethics professor who still fasts for Yom Kippur.

In that case, consider taking a look at Rowe's Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction, or some other intro text with a focus on analytic philosophy of religion. It sounds like your philosophy education might be basically completely bereft of analytic philosophy, otherwise you probably would have encountered a reasonable amount of this stuff already.

https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/access/content/group/theofac/Book%20Lists/FHS%20new/FHS%2011%20Philosophy%20of%20Religion%20_2014_.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Religion-Introduction-William-Rowe/dp/0495007250/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482113896&sr=1-8&keywords=philosophy+of+religion


Also, anyone serious about studying philosophy of religion would want to read some primary texts as well:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0195393597/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1485800701&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=philosophy+of+religion+selected+readings


This is the book we used when I took the class.

This is an introduction I might recommend. However, it is just an introduction. Each of the issues picked up in the book have been covered in thousands of other volumes. So after you get your head wrapped around that, I would go deeper and focus on just one thing at a time.

Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction by William Rowe

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion by Brian Davies

Philosophy of Religion: Thinking About Faith by C. Stephen Evans & R. Zachary Manis

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion by William Wainwright

Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology by Louis Pojman & Michael Rea

Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide by William Lane Craig

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The links above are roughly ordered by length, sophistication, and subgenre. Rowe, Davies, and Evans/Manis are short introductions that mostly explore classical Western monotheism. The bottom three are anthologies that hit on more specified areas and explore specific religious traditions such as Christianity (Craig), Buddhism and Hindusim (Pojman/Rea), and even nontheistic concepts of the divine (Wainwright).

CONSCIOUSNESS AS AN ONTOLOGICAL PRIMITIVE: THE EXISTENCE OF GOD(S)

• Consciousness is empirically proven to be ontologically distinct from matter. This can be shown by comparing the properties of both, such as minds being nonspacial and matter taking up space, the contents of mind being subjective and those of matter objective, the contents of mind private to the individual and those of matter accessible to anyone, the contents of mind being about things and the contents of matter lacking aboutness, and these are only a few examples. Anyone can test this at any time. For instance, the volume in a room your body takes up will be the same if you're actively consciously thinking or dead, there's no difference. Or that no matter who you love the most of feeling you cannot actually access those feelings. [1]
  
  
• Consciousness is an absolute certainty, it is the one thing we know directly and can be sure exists. The existence of the Self and Consciousness is an axiomatic fact, it must be true and cannot even be logically argued against without violating that same logic. Anything that is Not-Consciousness in known through Consciousness, including the material world, body, and brain. Anything you ever have or will know about matter relies on consciousness, and while consciousness cannot have its existence doubted [2-3], we can EASILY doubt matter (such as brain in a vat, solipsism, idealism, philosophical skepticism, etc.) [4-7]. To reduce what we can doubt and never directly or certainly to something axiomatically true that we know with direct certainty is the height of unreasonable.
  
  
• Consciousness, even in less advanced being like animals, comes with very specific traits. This includes being aware of the self and others to some extent, having needs and desires, seeking either social situations or isolation actively, emotions, and so forth.
  
  
• CONCLUSION: since consciousness axiomatically exists, cannot be doubted, and is proven ontologically distinct from matter, consciousness must be a separate “substance” or “thing”, an ontological primitive. We know this primitive because we have direct access to it, so we can know about the nature of consciousness. An ontological primitive – something immaterial and eternal – which desires, has emotions, experiences, is self-aware, etc. is the best possible definition for a God. Therefore at least one God exists.
  
  
  
  THE NATURE/RISE OF CONSCIOUSNESS: THE INTERFERENCE FROM GOD(S)
  
  
• Not only are the properties of consciousness mutually exclusive from those of matter, but what we see consciousness is capable of, at least in humans, does not line up with the deterministic, linearly moving, material universe. For instance the mind of humans can question, manipulate, and even go against this linear, deterministic matter. Questioning is proven in this very writing, we are stepping outside of the system and looking in to figure out how it works, something which, to our knowledge, no other life does. If it does the certainly and evidently don’t to the same extent. We can manipulate nature such as the creation of complex chemical medications, the harnessing of electricity itself, the building of mega-structures that stand the tests of time [8-9], not to mention devices such as what you’re reading this on which would never have grown in a consciousness-less nature. Contradiction of this material nature is scientifically proven in things such as Self-Regulation, Cognitive Therapy, and Placebos without Deception [10-12]. All of these prove that we can willfully recognize our deterministic patters and freely choose to act differently.
  
  
• The rise of the higher consciousness possessed by humans is suspicious even if we ignore that this consciousness came to be able to contradict nature, and doesn’t fit with what we know about biological evolution. This is specifically in the Great Leap Forward of the Upper Paleolithic Revolution, a scientifically proven event well known in anthropology. Mankind went from “just another animal” to an abstractly questioning and thinking being. Art arose, religion, language, math, cultures, agriculture, and society and civilization themselves. This has never occurred to the same extent in another species, not even close. Further, there was no genetic change that occurred at this time, and biologically modern humans had already existed for over 100,000 years when the UPR happened![13~15?]
  
  
• CONCLUSION: The nature of the consciousness it birthed, along with the scientifically evidenced fact that it occurred abruptly and without biological evolution, suggest the interference of something outside of nature, i.e. a God.
  
  
  
  
  TELEOLOGY OF MIND AND BODY: THE PLAN OF GOD(S)
  
  
• There is a Telos to the mind which was proven by psychological scientist Abraham Maslow in his Hierarchy of Needs. This shows the best path for human beings to follow in order to reach their ideal life, something that applies across times in cultures. Maslow showed that there is a “proper” hierarchy to human priorities, and a “proper” end-goal of Self-Actualization whatever that may before you. [16]
  
  
• There is a Telos to the body which was proven by the Yale School of Medicine, especially through the works of Dr. Harold Burr. It shows that there are external fields creating and controlling, not simply produced by, the physical forms of all life. Anything from trees to amphibians to human beings. Readings of these “Life Fields” can predict cancer, ovulation, birth defects, and much more. Unfortunately Dr. Burr believed this to be evidence of an intelligent plan (it is…), so it has been largely swept under the rug in favor of (much more profitable!) materialism. [17-19]
  
  
• CONCLUSION: There being a clear proper path for both all matter and consciousness shows that there is a Telos, or purpose, to human life and that we do not exist or evolve randomly.
  
  
  
  
  PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: DIRECT EXPERIENCES OF GOD(S)
  
  
• Every single culture has experienced Gods. Hundreds of millions of people throughout human history and across cultures have experienced Gods, and these experiences have extremely similar characteristics. In fact these are so clear the can be categorized into 3 specific types of experiences (see Philosophy of Religion, and Introduction, by atheism William Rowe for example) [20]. Yes, the pantheons experienced seem to differ, but this is exactly what we would expect from cultures dependent on geography, weather, economy, class system, and so forth. To say this shows the experiences are invalid would be like saying the stars don’t exist because cultures came up with different constellations.
  
  
• We also don’t inherently reject and human experience as delusion off the bat. We accept people experience pain, love, fear, happiness, depression, etc., despite never having actual access to their experiences. Yet when it comes to religious experiences many non-believers fall back on SPECIAL PLEADING, which is to judge this one type of experience differently from the rest. [21]
  
  
• CONCLUSION: since we would expect gods to be interpreted differently by cultures, and without reasons to reject religious experiences (which would have to be on an individual basis, such as pain), all we have is something all cultures have consistent experienced across time, which parsimony would suggest means they actually experienced.
  
  
  
  
  
  POLYTHEISM: MORE THAN ONE GOD
  
  
• There are experiences of all different gods throughout time, and so if one accepts experience (you have to without reasons specific to that individual case, such as intoxication or mental illness) they cannot say THEIR god is valid while others are not without SPECIAL PLEADING.
  
  
• Monotheistic gods have been logically defeated, such as by the problem of evil, lack of miracles, lack of answered prayers, etc.
  
  
• CONCLUSION: If you believe ANY gods exist, it is more reasonable to believe MANY do.
  
  
  SOME References
  
  1- Mind/Body Dualism, SEP
  https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dualism/#MinBod
  
  2- About of Consciousness http://wiki.objectivismonline.net/Axiom_of_Consciousness
  
  3- Ontological Argument for Idealism by Bernardo Kastrup
  
  4 to 7- Skepticism and Content Externalism https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/skepticism-content-externalism/
  
  8- Making Medicines
  http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/themes/treatments/medicines
  
  9- Powering a Generation
  https://americanhistory.si.edu/powering/generate/gnmain.htm
  
  10- How to Practice Self Regulation
  https://www.verywellmind.com/how-you-can-practice-self-regulation-4163536
  
  11- Cognitive Appraisal
  https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-1005-9_1115
  
  12- Placebos Without Deception
  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0015591
  
  13- Framework of the UPR
  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0392192107076869
  
  14- Modern Humans Take the World
  https://www.thoughtco.com/upper-paleolithic-modern-humans-173073
  
  15- UP Technology, Art, Culture
  https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/origin-humans-early-societies/a/paleolithic-culture-and-technology
  
  16- Hierarchy of Needs
  https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
  
  17- The Electrical Patterns of Life
  http://www.wrf.org/men-women-medicine/dr-harold-s-burr.php
  
  18- Harold Burr's Biofields
  http://www.energymed.org/hbank/handouts/harold_burr_biofields.htm
  
  19- Electromagnetics of Life (PDF)
  https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://journals.sfu.ca/seemj/index.php/seemj/article/download/401/362&ved=2ahUKEwjv6Mm9xe_kAhW_CTQIHSjDCd8QFjAHegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw0xWf76krbzIG2DWHWuOP4q&cshid=1569537305106
  
  20- Phi of Religion https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Religion-Introduction-William-Rowe/dp/0495007250
  
  21- Special Pleading
  https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/163/Special-Pleading