THREE ISSUES CONSIDERED
Dominikah Booth
PHL 100
National University

Is there a rational argument that shows, or at least makes it highly probable, that the universe and everything in it was created by a Supreme Being? The universe, the place we call home. Where did it come from? How did it get here? Who created it? What we have been told to believe is that there is a supreme being that created this world for himself. I remember going to church with friends or my Girl Scout meetings at the local church and reading the bible every time. And I would hear or read the name God; this wasn’t the first time I heard this mystery man’s name as both of my parents grew up in the church. I was told that we were all his children and that he created this world for us to live in. as I grew older I began to question God and the idea that he created all the things we see in nature like the flowers in the garden or the squirrels that run up the trees in my front yard. For some reasons I cannot fully explain I feel as though some things are not as they seem. Even though the bible says that God created the universe and everything in it, there has been no concrete proof and science has dispelled some of those notions. We are often told not to believe everything we see on newspapers, the internet, or televisions but the bible is one thing we are told to believe all that is written in it. Created thousands of years ago by many different people, we are led to believe that it came directly from the all mighty God. But how can words written in different languages and by man himself come from God. Throughout the history of the earth, there has been a debate between science and religion. Science challenges the things we have learned as kids or even as adults. The most controversial and poignant scientific theory is that of evolution. Discovered in 1858 by scientists Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace, evolution simply says that we as humans have evolved from fish ( National Academy of Sciences, 2008). Darwinism as it has become known as has been the main argument against the bibles claims of God created people. To believe in everything the bible is like believing the weather man whenever he says it’s going to rain. If god

Is the creator than why would he ruin his creation or let others ruin it? Or maybe he entrusted us with his world to take care of it but what happens when the universe is no longer does that mean God is no longer. On the other hand the bible, while hand written and not explicitly from the mouth of God, it does have some things in it that make it believable the he in fact did create the world known as creationism. This basically means that it has been proven with science but does not prove evolution. In the book of genesis we are told that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” ( Gen. 1:1 New World Transaltion of the Holy Scriptures). To say that evolution is the reason we are all here would be like saying we don’t believe in God or his word. For me it’s hard because I don’t believe we were created out of dust and from the breath of God but I also believe that God is responsible for our being. Where does that leave me in the world? God, the universe and evolution are all major topics in philosophy that can’t be one or the other. We can’t have evolution without a simpler life form. Where does that life form come from, did God create it or did it just appear. Sure we can believe that God created the trees and water that we need to survive. But to say he created humans is a stretch I don’t know if I’m willing to believe just yet. That might be the question of life whether or not the world was created by god himself and whether god exists. While the bible gives us some theories and stories to live by science has slightly edged out the bible as a basis for creation of the universe and human life in general. “No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means” (Shaw).

Do religion and philosophy answer the same questions and serve the same basic purpose in human life and in society overall? Or are the goals and methods of each quite different or even at odds?

Religion and philosophy two of the world’s oldest disciplines. What would the world be like without religion and how would society function without the questions posed in philosophy? Asking questions and getting answers is how each one works. In philosophy we face questions that challenge what we thought we knew and also ones we didn’t. In religion we get answer for some of our questions but we also develop a boat load of questions that can be answer by philosophy. Is it possible to have one without the other, if not how is that? Philosophers like Immanuel Kant and Soren Kierkegaard gave their opinions on if philosophy and religion can coexist. Kant believes that the moral code of religion, The Golden Rule, doesn’t really give us a moral compass to live by. The bible says do unto others as you would have done unto you, but as we learned in earlier in this class that isn’t always the best way to go. If you pinch someone you should expect them to pinch you back, does that sound like the right or good thing to do? No it doesn’t. So he created a new ethical way of thinking called the “Categorical Imperative”, which asks us to make choices based not on what we know but what makes sense and seems like the right thing to do for the situation (Wolff, 2012, pp. 154-158). religion has a way of making people not realize how they are not growing with society but it also serves its purpose as giving us something to live by, as does philosophy. Both answer the moral and ethical questions what is wrong and what is right. Each side of the equation would probably try to argue how different they really are but we all know that they can’t exist without one another. They both provide me with the tools to live a purposeful life. I get my moral code from the bible but I question those things with philosophy. Everything that we ask of religion is philosophical. They each help to decide which way to go only divided by one thing, society. There isn’t much that I can say about religion and philosophy being different. I guess some of the questions and moralities are different, such as the bible was written thousands of years ago thus it does not adapt fully to the world we live in today, although you can still work around certain things. With philosophy you can take it that with you everywhere because it is not stuck in one century or decade. It is ever changing because we as humans are constantly coming up with new dilemmas and questions waiting to be answered. I know that I can look at philosopher from the past like Plato and Socrates and still equate their principles to today’s world. Like the process known as the “Socratic Method”, which is basically asking questions over and over getting deeper into certain principles and problems and we can use this to gain more knowledge (Wolff, 2012, p. 9). but in religion there are things that even philosophers can’t agree on and that’s whether or not god exist and if religion should serve as the basis for human life. I believe the goal of religion is to give us something to believe in and to look to when we are in trouble. Philosophy just can’t do that because of all the questions that are asked without answers. Personally I think that philosophy and religion are one in the same, kind of like a set of twins. They each have their own brains, limbs and heart but they share the same womb. they can both answer the same questions that you may ask even though they give completely different words they answer is usually always the same. I came across a quote that I think sums things up pretty well “We shall be compelled to renounce the hope of finding philosophical proofs of religious beliefs. ...Hence, once more, the value of philosophy must not depend upon any supposed body of definitely ascertainable knowledge to be acquired by those who study it” (Russell).

Does each human being have the freedom to choose whatever action she or he wishes to do, given that it is within the power and capability of the person to do that action? That is, do humans have free will, or are our actions as determined as any natural, physical event in space and time? We are born into this world without a care. As adults we look back and see the way we were as children and begin to think about the freedoms of childhood. No responsibilities to uphold, no act to put on, and no reason to run and hide. I think back to a time when I thought I was free, running around in the front yard with my dog and my friends, laughing and carrying on. But then I heard my mom’s voice telling me to come in for dinner, I would ask why and she would say as all parents do “because I said so”. And thus I began to see that I wasn’t as free as I thought I was. There is always someone to answer to whether it me our bosses, parents, and even the lord. While we are free to make decisions on our lives and we control what happens in our lives, there is still some higher power to listen to. With life come choices, choices we make based on everyday life and things from which we know. We decide to get out of bed every morning, we choose the clothes we put on, the car we drive, the job we go to, and yet we aren’t free from the powers that be. Picture this! What if I said the decision to get out of bed wasn’t yours, it was mine, the clothes you put on I picked them out, the car you drive I put it in your driveway, and yup you guessed it handpicked that job just for you. What if that’s how the world worked and we knew that what was going on, we would be livid. But that is kind of what is happening we want to believe we have free will but don’t really. All of our choices and decisions have been made for us in advance. Free will is defined as “the freedom of human beings assumed in the sense that we are not entirely circumscribed by a predetermined destiny but that we make our own” (Wolff, 2012, p. 87). Our bodies are not of free will, we are controlled by the brain which is programmed in every person to work the same unless some chromosomal things occur and our brains do not function correctly. The idea that nothing is predetermined is mind blowing. What about the people who come from families where everyone went to the same college, naturally that kid would grow up and go to that school as well. Or women in a family who have only married doctors since generations back. Certain things are programmed in our brains because we have grown up with them yet there are still things we can choose. Free will is something that we do have to a certain extent. We can make our own choices that in return affect our lives. People can make choices to do well in school as to not get bad grades or not try and fail. Life is made up of a series of decisions which ultimately determine our fate. One bad choice can lend itself to a myriad of more bad decisions and a terrible life. Just like a good decision can set you up for a lifetime of success. in an article I read the author gives three reasons for the argument for free will, the one I identify with the most is this “Believing we’re free allows us to be consistent with our other beliefs. We deliberate, weigh options, and make choices. We wouldn’t do that if we didn’t believe our actions are under our control. You can’t decide not to be subject to the law of gravity. So what would be the point of weighing options if we’re not really free?” (Pierce, 2007). In his statement he has taken the approach of why question things if we make the choices. I think that is the most true statement we do decide what is right and wrong and if something works for us or not, so why should we even take the chance of thinking about not having free will. To say that we as humans don’t have any free will at all is kind of like saying fish don’t swim, or birds don’t chirp. We can make the choices to better our lives or do the moral thing. Although at the same time we think where that imaginary line comes from for which we decide whether this is the right thing to do. We are always doing something because we want to be the best we can be, but are we doing it because we are told to do it or is it because we really want to. That is something we probably can never fully grasp because we have been taught one thing for our whole lives. If we were told that the bad things we do were actually good what would the world be like? Being free is a state of mind not a lifestyle we aren’t slaves, we are free to do what we want, and live how we want, and act how we want. All within certain parameters though, physical decisions are not in our control but life choices are.

References:
Gen. 1:1 New World Transaltion of the Holy Scriptures. (n.d.).
National Academy of Sciences. (2008). Evolution Resources: Compatibility of Science and Religion. Retrieved from National Academy of Sciences: http://www.nas.edu/evolution/Compatibility.html
Pierce, J. (2007, January 26). Arguments for Free Will. Retrieved from Parablemania: http://parablemania.ektopos.com/archives/2007/01/freewill.html
Russell, B. (n.d.). Quotes About Philosophy Religion. Retrieved May 31, 2014, from Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/philosophy-religion
Shaw, G. B. (n.d.). Philosophy and Religion Quotes. Retrieved May 31, 2014, from DennyDavis.net : http://www.dennydavis.net/poemfiles/religionq.htm
Wolff, R. P. (2012). About Philosophy. Pearson Education Inc.