Assignment Code: BPYG-172/ASST/TMA/2021-22

Course Code: BPYG-172

Assignment Name: Philosophy of Religion

Year: 2021-2022

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Note:

1. Give Answer of all five questions.

2. All five questions carry equal marks.

3. Answer to question no. 1 and 2 should be in about 400 words each.

Q1. Write a note on the Psychological theory of Origin of Religion. 20

Ans) The rise of religious psychology aided the naturalistic explanation of religion. Sigmund Freud and James Henry Leuba were the prominent proponents.

According to Leuba, religion exists because of its biological value, not the objective reality of its beliefs. He illustrates this with the belief in a personal God. Earlier theologians had proposed metaphysical arguments for such a God, such as the design argument. The development of the physical sciences has weakened such arguments, pushing theologians to turn to interior experience instead. Leuba endeavoured to explain mystical experiences, which are considered the peak of religious experience, in psychological and physiological terms. A spiritual sublimation of sexual passion, he said, or a drug-induced altered state of awareness. He linked it to hysteria and epilepsy.

Philosopher Sigmund Freud considered religious beliefs to be delusions and gratifications of mankind's deepest and most persistent desires. He saw religion as a mental shield against natural threats like earthquakes, floods, disease, and death. He explains that nature looks to be rising up against us, with majestic, brutal, and relentless force. When these forces are imagined as personal, the impersonal forces stay distant. We can now breathe freely, feel at ease in the uncanny, and use psychic techniques to deal with our stupid fear if the natural elements are recognised as having the same raging passions as our souls. We are still defenceless, but not helplessly paralysed. We can retaliate. So, we may use the same ways to stop these murderous supermen outside our society. We may bribe them, placate them, and thereby take away some of their authority.

Freud classified the psyche as Id, Ego, and Superego. “Id” is the unconscious zone where our basic inclinations converge without order or value. With the exterior world still intact, the ego seeks self-preservation, satisfying some Id desires while rejecting others. The “Superego” is the deposit of childhood parental influences, and it controls by prohibiting socially undesirable activities. We learn about awareness and the mind by examining its veiled appearances. It contains primitive instincts and repressed memories. These repressed feelings persist in the unconscious and appear in many ways. Religion, according to Freud, is the universal obsessional neurosis of humanity that may be left behind when humans learn to face the world relying not on illusions but on scientifically validated information.

Religion is the repressed’ s return. God is thus a heightened form of the human father's image. The father becomes God both in the history of the race and in the history of individuals. Adults project onto the universe the infantile memory of the father and elevate it to the status of a Father God. They are the children of a loving father who provided for them and required their obedience. This view emphasised that religious belief is governed by the person's psychological past, and that religious belief is inherently infantile and neurotic. It's a nursery projection into the world, and so a detour from reality. There is no Father God in the real world, which is an atheistic universe.

Q2. Discuss briefly some of the salient features of Religion. 20

Ans) Some important elements of religion help the reader recognise and categorise religious ideas and activities.

1. Claims to provide answers to some of the fundamental questions

Such fundamental issues may include ‘what is ultimate reality', ‘why does anything exist', ‘what is our true essence', etc. These questions imply that religion promises to provide the blueprint for reality. In response to these questions, most if not all faiths project a reality that transcends our common experience while also being closely related to our lives and welfare.

2. Gives a higher purpose that ought to guide our life

In addition to addressing the subject of life's inherent meaning, most world religions also address the question of whether there is a higher purpose that should guide our lives. Is death the last truth staring us and our loved ones in the face or is there some type of continuity that makes our lives more meaningful than what appears.

3. Offers general moral principles to guide one’s actions

Most religions seem to shape their followers' moral compass. Alternatively said, most faiths define right and wrong, good and evil, which means that religion provides broad rules that members must follow in their daily lives. The fear derives from the undesired consequences and punishments that non-adherence to such standards entails.

4. Faith

Faith is another important aspect of religion that is unmatched in other areas of life. Faith is accepting a belief or set of beliefs without seeking reason. Faith does not imply renunciation of justification. Rather, justification is fundamental to religious activity, but it always originates from the religion's ideas, claims, and ideals. In most faiths, people cannot seek justification for the tenets, claims, and principles that form the religious superstructure.

5. Revelation as the source of ultimate knowledge

Religious views frequently rely on a specific source of information, which sets them apart from other beliefs. Most faiths claim supernatural revelation or authority, such as scriptures, prophets, or inscriptions, as the source of all knowledge, unquestioned and unrivalled. As previously stated, all religious practises are justified by their professed divinity or ultimate power.

6. Ritualism

Most faiths include rituals, a socio-cultural phenomenon. In this view, rituals are religious activities and observances designed for the practitioners' benefit. These are the activities that effortlessly merge with even the most secular areas of a person's socio-cultural milieu, regulating "what" and "how." The amount of ritual penetration is often overlooked but can be shown by observing a religious person's life from birth to death.

7. Prayer

Most religions practise prayer. It is viewed as a conduit for divine-subject contact. The intention of prayer can be classified. One such goal is to show adoration and regard for the divine, and hence the prayer must contain components of worship or praise. Petitionary prayers, on the other hand, are intended to fulfil a wish, seek forgiveness for wrongdoing, or just to ensure that the divine's blessing does not leave the petitioner. The divine or God is an important aspect of petitionary prayer.

8. Spiritualism

Spiritualism is a secular concept, typically associated with religion. It's a search to understand one's own nature, or self-actualisation. However, when such a meaning is sought within a religion or when the journey to comprehend one's own nature brings one to the doorsteps of religion, it becomes merged with religion. In the above definition, spiritualism is a part of but not unique to religion.

Q3. Answer any two of the following questions in about 200 words each. 2*10= 20

Q3. a) Write a note on the negative way of religious language. 10

Ans) To correctly apprehend the Ultimate Reality, all religious terminology, according to this concept, is unclear and must be denied or negated. This is why the 'negative road' is frequently referred to as an option. They were German mystics Meister Eckhart and Moses Maimonides. In this tradition, language is only useful if it evokes a holy or ultimate experience. Surprisingly, some who have had a clear glimpse of the reality and vividness of a spiritual encounter with God have maintained their scepticism. This is a belief shared by all religions' mystical traditions.

Plotinus, in the third century, claimed that the One is unknowable. The One manifests as intelligence, soul, and matter. Purification occurs from matter to soul, soul to intellect, intellect to One. It is an imageless meditation. Quitting means letting go and rising. After abandoning the body and mind's images, one can have direct touch with the One. The sensation is characterised as ineffable yet real. Denis the Areopagite teaches in “The Divine Names” how God's names refer to God as the cause of all things. He claims that as we ascend, our language becomes increasingly confined, until we lose all speech and comprehension. The highest point is reached by negativa, which means denial of God in all forms.

Q3. c) What are the arguments to prove that God is omniscient? 10

Ans) God's omniscience refers to his ability to know everything.

These arguments prove that God is omniscient or all-knowing.

This argument can be viewed from two perspectives:

1. His omniscience is timeless if he is everlasting, residing outside of time entirely. He has simultaneous awareness of the past, present, and future. It's not that he perfectly predicts what will happen in the future; it's that there is no future for him. His wisdom is always available.

2. If he is eternal, he will be aware of all that has happened in the past as well as what is happening today. He will also be aware of the current events that will influence what happens in the future. God may be considered to 'know' the future in this way, even if he hasn't been there yet!

The main concern for theists is human freedom and responsibility. Isn't our freedom illusory if God knows what we chose freely? It's not a matter of chance when someone knows something is going to happen. God can't know if it's not unavoidable. In other words, if God knows what will happen, how can the future be unpredictable?

Those who hold that God is all-knowing give the following reasons:

1. God is flawless in every way. He can't be this if he doesn't know what he's doing. As a result, God is all-knowing.

2. The world's order can be explained in terms of a God who knows everything.

3. The universe was created by God. Creating, on the other hand, is an act of intelligence. So, God is aware of everything.

4. Knowledge is a concept that exists in the real world. We can attribute knowledge to God since he is responsible for all that exists in the world and because this must represent who he is.

Q4. Answer any four of the following questions in about 150 words each. 4*5= 20

Q4. a) What are the basic problems with Naturalistic theory of origin of Religion? 5

Ans) Ernst Haeckel, a scientist turned philosopher, was a pioneer of the naturalistic hypothesis of religion's beginnings. He believed that the nineteenth-century scientific discoveries solved the centuries-old puzzles that had baffled mankind. His approach was fundamentally “monistic,” opposing all “dualisms” that distinguished between God and nature, soul and body, spirit and matter. According to Haeckel, there is just one substance that emerges as matter, energy, or spirit. Every material atom has a primitive soul that is far beyond conscious awareness.

According to him, awareness is a natural phenomenon that arises from the primitive psychical quality of matter. In Haeckel's view, there is no spirit or energy without matter. This monism is based on scientific evidence and promises to unravel the universe's mysteries. It suggests that the very concepts of God, freedom, and immortality are predicated on a faulty dualism. It teaches us there is no God outside the universe. An unseen God who thinks, speaks, and acts is unthinkable. The immortality of the soul and free will appear to be impossible in the monistic deterministic universe.

Q4. c) What are the three basic approaches to study religious language? 5

Ans) The following are the three main approaches to the study of religious language:

The first view assumes that religion refers to a transcendent ‘sacred' reality that is concerned with universal issues such as the meaning of life and death, good and evil, and suffering.

The second viewpoint sees religion as primarily an emotional manifestation. Religious language is not to be regarded literally in either of these approaches; rather, it is to be viewed as a symbolic depiction of non-cognitive feelings. Many of the terminology that are employed in religious discourse are applied in unique ways. The majority of them aren't used in everyday situations. As a result, there is a significant difference in meaning between how these phrases are used in everyday life and how they are used in theology. When these concepts are used in a religious setting, they all take on a unique meaning and perspective.

The third perspective dismisses the significance of religious language. The meaning of religious language should be explained as a part of ordinary language, whose meaning is determined by the truth conditions entailed by all languages, according to this approach, which draws on semantic theory of language and sides with Logical Positivism in claiming that the meaning of religious language should be explained as a part of ordinary language, in which meaning is determined by the truth conditions entailed by all languages.

Q4. e) Write a note on the Kalam Cosmological Argument. 5

Ans) The KALAM ARGUMENT is a variation of the Cosmological Argument. In the ninth and tenth centuries, Muslim philosophers Al-Kindi and Al-Ghazali spelled it clearly. During the late Middle Ages, the Kalam Argument for the existence of God was born and developed in Islamic theology. Its name comes from the Arabic word "kalam," which means "philosophy" or "theology." It's an Arabic word that roughly translates to 'fight' or 'debate,' but it's also been translated as 'theology' or 'dialectical theology.' The argument was traditionally used to prove the difficulty of a genuine endless existence in the real world, as well as to explain the problem with infinite temporal regress, demonstrating that the universe could not be eternal. In recent years, scientific discoveries and mathematical insights, such as portions of the Big Bang hypothesis and Hilbert's Grand Hotel dilemma, have backed up these philosophical arguments. Dr. William Lane Craig is the most comprehensive and persuasive proponent of the case today.

Q4. f) Briefly discuss the challenges of Atheism. 5

Ans) According to atheism, religious beliefs throughout history have had nothing to do with the existence of God. Our knowledge and experience of God and the world, according to materialistic philosophers, consists solely of material items. Theism's philosophers have yet to come up with a consistent or satisfying theory of God's nature. Theists' responses to the problem of evil, acceptance of a single God, and the relationship between Creator and Creator are not without disagreement.

1. Atheism is not found to be a satisfactory theory for the non-existence of God. The following are some of the reasons:

2. To begin with, while the presence of God is categorically rejected, it cannot be wholly dismissed. Because we must presume that there is a creator, sustainer, and ruler of the cosmos in order to understand the world.

3. Second, despite scientific progress, the shadow of God in the form of Supreme Being cannot be erased from people's hearts.

4. Various philosophers and thinkers have expressed their views on the non-existence of God. However, their arguments are incomplete and for the sake of argument only inasmuch as they neglect the theist's religious experience.

Q5. Write short notes on any five of the following in about 100 words each. 5*4= 20

Q5. b) Prayer 4

Ans) Prayer is a phenomenon that may be found in almost all religions. It is envisioned as a way for the divine to communicate with its subject. The purpose of communication can be used to classify prayers. One such objective is to express adoration and reverence for the divine, and a prayer that accomplishes this goal must include components of worship or praise. Petitionary prayers differ from the preceding in that they are intended to see a wish fulfilled, to ask forgiveness for some wrongdoing, or simply to ensure that the divine's blessing does not desert the petitioner. The divine or God's conception is an important aspect of petitionary prayer.

Q5. c) Myth 4

Ans) Myth is a symbolic tale that apparently relates actual occurrences and is typically related with religious belief. It is usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional. Symbolic behaviour (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or items are distinct. Myths are narratives of gods or superhuman beings involved in unusual events or situations in an indeterminate time yet thought to exist outside of ordinary human experience. Mythology refers to both the study of myth and the collection of myths associated with a certain religious system.

Because myths describe extraordinary events without attempting to prove them, it's commonly considered that they're just fiction with no basis in fact, and the word has become a synonym for falsehood or, at best, misunderstanding. However, when studying religion, it's critical to distinguish between myths and simply false stories.

Q5. d) Pantheism 4

Ans) The term pantheism is derived from the Greek root’s 'pan' and 'theos,' which mean 'all' and 'God,' respectively. Thus, pantheism is either the idea that the universe is God and deserving of worship, or the view that God is the sum total of all that exists, and that the substances, forces, and natural laws we perceive around us are just expressions of God. The basic purpose of pantheism is to deny the necessary implication of monotheism, which is the distinction between God and nature. Pantheism is the idea that the physical cosmos is the same as God and that there is no distinction between a Creator and the substance of his creation. God is conceived thus as inherent in nature, rather than beyond it. The world does not come from God but is God in and of itself.

Q5. f) Agnosticism 4

Ans) T. H. Huxley invented the term agnosticism to describe a state of suspended belief. "Not-knowism" is the direct translation of agnosticism. It is primarily used to describe one's faith in God. It does not provide us with adequate evidence to declare or deny the existence of God. Agnostics believe that God or gods exist but that their existence is unknown or fundamentally unknowable. Aldous Huxley, Herbert Spencer, David Hume, and Voltaire were all proponents of agnostic theory. Agnostic philosophers attempt to think about God in terms of substance or objects that exist in space and time. The existence of God cannot be disputed, according to Huxley, but we cannot know His true essence. Hume is a sceptic and an agnostic philosopher. He questioned God's existence. However, Hume is unable to provide a sufficient solution to the issues of actuality. He does not distinguish between empirical and metaphysical conceptions on a consistent basis.

Q5. h) Culturisation 4

Ans) Confessionalization is the inclination to reduce everything to religion, whereas culture is an attitude that tries to place everything that is part of our human life under the flag of culture and debate it as such. It is critical to recognise that human groups and societies have a variety of perspectives on life and how to live it, which extends far beyond culture and religion. Many gestures and customs are the product of a variety of different variables that help to define a community and its belief system. As a result, dialogue is a discourse in which people talk to each other without labelling each other's actions.