Philosophy of Religion: Final Exam Example Questions
Six Short-Answer Essay Questions (estimated 20-30 minutes)
Sample Questions: Circle and answer 2 of the following 3 questions: List and describe the various ways of understanding the relationship between faith and reason and name at least one advocate for each position. List and describe the three basic components of science and briefly explain the role of philosophy and religion with regard to the third component
The three basic components of science are data, shaping principles, and theory. Data are a collections of information about physical processes. Scientists often find and collect data to support theories. Shaping principles are assumptions and non- empirical factors that form the basis of science and go into selecting a good theory.Theories are ideas that are suggested or presented as possibly true but that are not proven or known to be true. Philosophy and religion play very significant roles in developing and proving theories that relate to their disciplines. For instance, religion has various theories that attempt to explain the existence of a supernatural being and the general occurrence of the universe.
List and describe the various theories we discussed concerning the origins of religion in human nature. Some of the theories concerning the origin of religion in human nature are: religion as a law revealed by God, religion as a control mechanism, religion as a belief in spiritual beings, and religion as nature myth. Religion as a nature myth: Max Muller suggested that religion arises out of cults and myths which are based upon on original personification of personification of the sun, natural phenomena, sky, mountains, and mountains were foundation of the earliest known cult (Dixon, 2005)s. Religion as a control mechanism: most of the religious theories present theory a quest for direction, meaning, purpose, reason, or control.Religion as a law revealed by God: a large number of religious people believe that their religion is a law directly revealed from god to his ecstatic prophets, who they follow the claims of.
Circle and answer 2 of the following 3 questions: What were some of David Hume’s objections to the design argument for the existence of God?
Some of David Hume’s objections to the design argument for the existence of God are:Blind Indifference: David argued that the inferred powers and qualities of the designer cannot go beyond the quality of the evidence used to support that inference (Dixon, 2005).
Multiple Hypotheses: The inference to a designer is based on an analogy with human design. But this analogy need not support belief in a monotheistic God. It could support the existence of a committee of gods; or an apathetic God who takes no interest in his creations; or an incompetent God who designed the universe as part of a half-baked experiment in universe creation (Dixon, 2005).
Weak Analogy: The design argument is premised on a supposed similarity between the construction of human artifacts and natural objects (creatures, physical laws etc.). Hume argues that this analogy is far too weak to support anything approaching similar …
