Revision Site for Year 13 |
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Religious Studies at As and A level
Coursework guides for Y12 students This Page contains:- |
This page contains some information and guidelines to help prepare for A2 Level Religious Studies exam in Philosophy. It will gradually expand but it should give you enough material to understand what is required of you, to prepare your reading, to guide you in your revision and to give you some exam questions. Hopefully we will then be able to provide some model answers. HOW TO GO ABOUT THE WORK OF REVISION Stage 1.
Select your reading carefully. Always have a pen and paper handy. Stage 2.
Make a large MIND MAP. I mean large i.e A2 or A1 paper and use
different colours for who
said what and when and why???? Stage 3.
Use the sample exam questions to create exam essay plans and then do a
timed essay (43
AN OUTLINE OF WHAT YOU MUST KNOW.......... 1. The Ontological argument for the Existence of God.
Helpful Sites:- http://www.faithnet.org.uk/ontologicalargument.htm Really good outline http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/anselm.htm#Philosophical%20Writings http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/o/ont-arg.htm http://www.princeton.edu/~grosen/puc/phi203/ontological.html http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ontological-arguments/ http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/anselm.htm http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anselm-gaunilo.html The best things to read:
1. John Hick Chap
"Grounds For Belief in God" from Philosophy of Religion One of the main skills that is examined at A2 level is the skill of Critical Thinking or Critical Reasoning. I have put together some simple ideas upon this and you can use this to help you. Mastery of this skill will provide the framework upon which high quality essays can be built. Besides my own material you might like to look at a very simple site for advice on EVALUATION. The following should help:- http://commhum.mccneb.edu/argument/summary.htm
2. The Argument from Religious Experience This is a very modern argument in comparison with the others and is not always included with them as "traditional arguments". Inevitably it is a circular argument since it derives its conclusion from an assumption already contained within the conclusion, i.e as an argument it begs the question.....To argue that religious experience is uniquely distinguished from all other experience by its divine origin and then, from this deduce that therefore God must exist is without doubt fairly lame! However, it does contain some value if Religious Experience can indeed be identified as "religious", as always it must remain possible that religious experience is evidence of the Divine Presence. What you need to know a. Different types of Religious Experience. Numinosity, Mysticism, Prayer, Conversion etc. b.
The main scholars William James, Rudolph Otto, Martin Buber, Soren
Kierkegaard. Although please c. The genuineness of Rel. Exp. i.e can we tell. d. The faults of the argument, drug inducement, circularity, other explanations of rel.exp. e. The remaining value of the argument, concepts of truth, authority. The best sources of information for revision are as follows:-
1. John Hick Chap
"Grounds For Belief in God" from Philosophy of Religion You have access to all of these as photocopies. Also you might like to try:- http://www.philosophyonline.co.uk/pages/relex_main.htm# Very simple outline http://www.faithnet.org.uk/religiousexperience.htm very useful indeed I think that is probably enough.
3. Arguments against the Existence of God There are no formal arguments against the existence of God that would be equivalent to the traditional arguments for God's Existence. Obviously the fact that the Ontological, Cosmological, design and Moral arguments fail is a strong indicator that arguments about God, whether for or against are bound to encountare problems. For this reason it is generally assumed that arguments against the existence of God do no more than verify the position of the Agnostic. Neither Theism nor Atheism can be proven. You need to know and understand the background of the following words:- ATHEISM philosophical, political and religious. AGNOSTICISM - philosophical and religious You need to know reason why people do not believe in God. These are generally placed under the following categories:- a. Naturalism - religion can be naturally explained without resorting to God. The psychology of religion - especially the work of Freud. Psychology has the effect of reducing religion to a phenomena of the human mind. Freud consider this to be a neurosis and rejected religion and God as IRRATIONAL. Jung comes to the opposite conclusion but still does not offer any evidence for God's real existence. The sociology of Religion explains the role fo religion in the development and working of society. Emile Durkheim did much to found this study and had much to say about religion. His work reduces religion to tool of society. There are some significant arguments against his views. http://www.faithnet.org.uk/freudreligion.htm This is about Freud's Religious ideas http://www.faithnet.org.uk/freud.htm This is about Freud's Psychology Basically all naturalistic views fail to disprove belief in Go because any statement about God's existence can only be made within the context of philosophical theology and not within any other discipline. Even if all believers are suffering from mental delusion does not mean that the object of their religious belief does not exist. It simply makes their statements unreliable. b. General skepticism - this is based upon the logical problems associated with the belief in God The views contained under this heading normally follow such philosophers as Russell and Flew both of whom considered that Religious belief was logically irrational. They considered that the concept of God was logically self contradictory and that therefore there was no valid rational nor empirical basis for belief in God. In fact they both point to evidence against God's existence i.e. evil. There are many philosophers who considered that God is self contradictory. A good read here is W. ABRAHAM. "Natural Atheology" from his book. You should have this as a photocopy. An interesting read for you might be this following article: http://www.faithnet.org.uk/deathofgod.htm Very good article about modern atheism c. The advance of modern Science - much of modern science render belief in God unnecessary. This follows from the work done in Science over the years. Basically science uses empirical methods which appears superior to the myth and faith characteristic of religious claims. Science also appears to have a more consistent explanation for the world than Religion. Science also provide much of the answer to our every day needs. It would seem then that the atheistic view of science has had a major impact on the "need' for belief in God. See the work you have on this in "Religion and Science" from As level, http://www.faithnet.org.uk/religionscienceorigin.htm d. The
Problem of Evil - in the end the failure of
theodicy to explain the presence of evil does not This is obvious. The fact that evil exists has been recognised virtually universally as very strong evidence against the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient benevolent God. refer to you work on the Problem of evil from last year. http://www.faithnet.org.uk/theodicyintro.htm
4. The Belief in Life after Death This controversy in philosophy stems from the differing views upon human nature i.e. DUALISM and MONISM (the Mind Body Dabate). Obviously belief in life after death presents unique philosophical problems but it also incorporates those issues that are fundamental to a discussion upon dualism. Therefore it is important that you are informed of these. The most comprehensive guide to this debate is in:- Essay on Mind and Body By
R. Double. which you have as a photocopy. It is important that you familiarize yourself with this debate so that you can understand fully the issues of life after death. a) SUBJECTIVE BELIEFS i.e. beliefs where the soul that survives is personal and individual. 1.
Immortality. This belief is based entirely upon dualism and was
most influentially proposed by http://www.faithnet.org.uk/immortality.htm This is excellent revision 2.
Problems of disembodied soul existence. Identity,
desirability, difficulty with the concept of http://www.faithnet.org.uk/immortalityproblems.htm Read this after the essay above 3. Monism and resurrection. Christian belief and specifically the work of John Hick. 4. Criticisms of Resurrection and especially of Hick
1. Reincarnation. The Popular concept and the Vedantic concept. (see Hick especially) 2. Criticisms of Reincarnation. The problem of continuity, the purpose of life after death, identity. 2. Karma and rebirth, the relation between this and reincarnation. Hindu and Buddhist concepts.
The best reading comes from 1.
Hick
Chapters 10 and 11 in his Philosophy of Religion.
Photocopied All these will provide you with excellent information and I think you should read them oin the order I have given.
5. Religious Language - the Verification debate This specific debate raged much throughout the mid twentieth century and was prompted by the challenge brought to all language by the LOGICAL POSITIVISTS. In many ways the debate produced quite a number of theories of religious language and challenged the accepted view originally posed by Aquinas that Religious Language was ANALOGICAL. This view had held sway for about 800 years and was the basis for all understanding of talk about god. however the challenge by the logical positivists and the Vienna circle, THE VERIFICATION PRINCIPLE, brought a new challenge to religious language, that it was logically meaningless. This meant that according to the VP. religious language could not be established as true of false therefore it could not pass the test of logical meaningfulness. This in turn meant that religious language must therefore be NON COGNITIVE (i.,e, non information bearing). Clearly this brings a problem since religious people clearly do intend that their language carries information. There were a number of responses. (Abraham in his book clearly describes these) 1. Absolute rejection of the VP - namely Plantinga and Kenny 2. Absolute
acceptance - producing such theories as , language games, "bliks" by R.M. Hare, 3. Rising to the Challenge. - Basil Mitchell and John Hick. The main problem for the verification principle was that it could not itself be verified which prompted many to eventually drop it. Even A..J. Ayer, a main proponent of the VP, retracted everything he had said in support of it. However this then fuelled a new debate - the FALSIFICATION DEBATE - which was led by Anthony Flew. This debate can be clearly seen in the photocopy The verification debate - a symposium. which is a collection of articles in an edited book by B. Mitchell. A very good article...... http://www.faithnet.org.uk/language.htm You should have a very good working knowledge of the process of the debate, the reactions and the reasoning behind the arguments. The Key players, Ayer, Wisdom, Wittgenstein, Flew, Mitchell, Hare, Hick etc. must be well known to you. Best reading comes from 1.
Abraham Philosophy book Chapter 2 This is particularly well revised as a mind map of all the arguments and how they relate to each other.
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