Philosophy & Religion

Comment

Created: 2021-01-23 Sat 12:37

Newton: God's "immensity" stretching infinitely in all directions and unchanged for all eternity See an amazing short "inquiry" by Jorge Borges
what was most important about religion was its morality (cf. Jefferson's approach (206))
while retaining religion, it is no stripped of the "supernatural"
"natural religion" (206)
Church of England would keep its theology vague enough to include as many groups as possible and tolerate the presence of some dissenting groups like Anabaptists and Quakers, though not Catholics
cf. 3 parts of Anglican: high (emphasizing ritual), low (like Methodism), broad (open to science and reasoning)

Nearly all the attitudes of the time came together in John Locke (207)
John Locke (most influential English philosopher of his day The reasonableness of Christianity (Locke)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kItXvJLnTtk
Many Deists brought to bear on the biblical miracle stories all the prestige of the scientific discovery of laws (209)
Deists distrusted appeals to authority and the miraculous, but they also turned away from anything beyond natural religion in part for moral reasons.

Descartes argued that knowledge would come only from doubting everything
can a religion be built on Doubt?
No man shall ever be kept out of Heaven … if he had but an honest and good heart, that was ready to comply with Christ's commandments (205)
God is more inward to us than our very souls (205)

"Enthusiasm" was a dirty word in the eighteenth century. (210)
story begins in Germany, where Lutheran orthodoxy had increasingly defined faith as assent to a set of doctrines
Lutherans suspect any call to moral improvement as a move toward works-righteousness.

Methodism with a "method" for holiness
morality more important than doctrine
Wesley and Whitefield changed the shape of popular religion in England and North America,
but they made little impact on the attitudes among most intellectuals

David Hume, "asking embarrassing questions about scientific method" (213), question about what we can know …; scepticism
skeptic of scientific inference producing absolute knowledge
Hume is relevant to the question we asked in the opening weeks of the class about proofs for existence of God

Rousseau, Lessing … Christian, Jews, Muslims should all follow God and humanity in own ways (215)
doubting even civilization
cf. Emile raised as a natural child
follow self & respect others (214)
Lessing: story of 3 rings (214)

Cartesian coordinates
can a religion be built on Doubt?
No man shall ever be kept out of Heaven … if he had but an honest and good heart, that was ready to comply with Christ's commandments
God is more inward to us than our very souls