Philosophy and Religion Essay Example

“Reason is the devil's greatest whore” -Martin Luther.

The 16th century was the renaissance period of philosophy, a great time for the expansion of knowledge and religion. In this time many scientific, geographic and religious discoveries were found. The evolution of religion can be seen following the exponential growth of philosophy and search for knowledge. 

“Philosophy, (from Greek, by way of Latin, philosophia, “love of wisdom”) the rational, abstract, and methodical consideration of reality as a whole or of fundamental dimensions of human existence and experience.” (Briticana) 

Philosophy and religion go hand and hand together as they go through time. Philosophy is the study of the rudimentary nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. While religion on the other hand is the belief and worship of a higher being, typically one or many gods. With religion there can come loads of speculation and corruption, and with such comes contemplation and deeper thoughts. 

These deeper thoughts can have many different meanings and philosophies. They get grouped together into the following categories: humanist, Lutheranism, open theism, natural theology, and more. 

“Natural theology is a program of inquiry into the existence and attributes of God without referring or appealing to any divine revelation” (IEP). In natural theology, someone may ask what the word “God” can mean. In addition to how names could be given to a God, if God exists, or if  God knows the future. It is the free choices of his followers. The goal of this form of theology is to allow its patrons to ask questions and receive answers without drawing claims from sacred texts. 

According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Open Theism is the thesis that, because God loves us and desires that we freely choose to reciprocate His love, He has made His knowledge of, and plans for, the future conditional upon our actions.”. Despite being omnipotent, he allows us to freely collaborate in his creation. Including building, governing and developing. He’s left it open for us to choose for or against his will. That our future hasn’t been written, instead we write it for ourselves. 

With some gods being omnipotent there has to be a basic understanding of what an omnipotent being truly is. Essentially what being omnipotent is comes down to a matter of power. It is the property of being all powerful. Although “This notion of an all-powerful being is often claimed to be incoherent because a being who has the power to do anything would, for instance, have the power to draw a round square.” (IEP). Along with being omnipotent a god or goddess may be immutable or simplistic. With Divine immutability a god can be immutably weak, or immutably strong. Being immutable meaning that it’s unable to change or inflexible. Though with divine simplicity it denies physical or metaphysical composition that can be in a divine being. “This means God is the divine nature itself and has no accidents (properties that are not necessary) accruing to his nature. There” (IEP)

All of these things are different philosophies constructed and built upon by many different t philosophers. They were used to help define parts of the Christian and Catholic religions. Though not everyone would believe all of these at one time they still influenced other philosophies. Which should be taken into accounting. The philosophies listed so far are not the only ones, there is a large expansion to be recognized that’s taken place in our history. 

Everything starts as a thought, if thought did not exist nothing would. So again, everything starts as a thought. Whether philosophical or abstract. Inventions start as a thought, before they become physical things we use in our everyday life. These things influence our lives in many ways whether it’s a pencil or a car. A lot has changed since the beginnings of thought due to these inventions. There are many things invented in the 16th century including pocket watches, theodolite and the first designs for a helicopter. 

But philosophy didn’t stop at inventions and religion, scientific philosophies were also common. During this time exploration was prominent, oceans were discovered and so were brand new continents. Books such as “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium” by Copernicus that changed our views on the universe, and the planets. Philosophy influenced all of these ideas and changed our view on the world and how we lived. 

Despite what has been discussed so far no light has been shedded on the true main contributors to our discoveries with religion, science or exploration. These contributors may be well known or be taught in schools for their revolutionary ideas and thoughts. People such as John Locke, Francis Bacon or René Descartes. These people are philosophers, scientific and religious, sometimes both. 

John Locke, a more famous philosopher and political theorist, known for founding the school of thought the British Empiricism. During Locke's lifetime religious epistemology (their claims over our understanding of God and their duties to respect him) was prominent. While in his youth the English Civil War was for the majority fought over the disagreement of the right way to understand on the right way to understand Christian religion and the requirements of religious faith. So when Locke decided to discuss the nature of faith and reason, the stakes were high. “He defines reason as an attempt to discover certainty or probability through the use of our natural faculties in the investigation of the world. Faith, by contrast, is certainty or probability attained through a communication believed to have come, originally, from God” (IEP). A wonderful example of this is when one drinks milk and notices it is sour, they believe that it might have been set out. They believe this according to reason. Although when one believes that the sun was created by a divine being because they've read it in a religious text, then they believe according to faith. This is one of Locke's religious philosophies, but he has also taken up political philosophies.