“Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese”

2020 ◽  
pp. 250-270
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Natural Theology ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
Binary Arithmetic ◽  
Immortal Soul ◽  
Classical Chinese ◽  
Spiritual Foundations ◽  
Chinese Empire

Leibniz wrote the “Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese” during the last year of his life. Previously, he had praised the polity and societal peace of the Chinese empire, deeming it superior to that of Christian Europe. Various thinkers used such a claim to argue that a pagan society could be ethical and politically stable without the belief in God. Leibniz sought to demonstrate that the intellectual and spiritual foundations of ancient Confucianism were indeed monotheistic and that this was the basis of their well-ordered society. He attempted to show that the classical Chinese believed in the tenets of a natural theology (i.e. belief in the existence of a monotheistic God and an incorporeal and hence immortal soul). He even attributed the discovery of binary arithmetic, not to himself, but to the ancient founder of the Yi Jing, thus further legitimating ancient Chinese knowledge (“science”).

Can Belief in God be Basic?

Horizons ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-282
Author(s):  
Anthony M. Matteo
Keyword(s):  
Natural Theology ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Alvin Plantinga ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
Natural Tendency ◽  
Marginal Status

AbstractAt least since the Enlightenment, religious thinkers in the West have sought to meet the “evidentialist” challenge, that is, to demonstrate that there is sufficient evidence to warrant a rational affirmation of the existence of God. Alvin Plantinga holds that this challenge is rooted in a foundationalist approach to epistemology which is now intellectually bankrupt. He argues that the current critique of foundationalism clears the way for a fruitful reappropriation of the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition's assertion of the “basic” nature of belief in God and its concomitant relegation of the arguments of natural theology to marginal status. After critically assessing Plantinga's proposal—especially its dependence on a nonfoundationalist theory of knowledge—this essay shifts to an analysis of the transcendental Thomist understanding of the rational underpinnings of the theist's affirmation of God's existence, with particular emphasis on the thought of Joseph Maréchal. It is argued that the latter position is better equipped to fend off possible nontheistic counterarguments—even in our current nonfoundationalist atmosphere—and, in fact, can serve as a necessary complement to Calvin's claim of a natural tendency in human beings to believe in God.

Oman, John Wood (1860–1939)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith E. Yandell
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
The World ◽  
Mechanistic View

A central theme of John Wood Oman’s writings is the possibility and actuality of knowledge that is not gained through science. He rejects as too simplistic the mechanistic view of the world. His belief in God rests not on the arguments of natural theology, but on the force and content of religious experience. The source of religion is to be found in our sense of the supernatural, from which stems also our moral dependence on God.

Belief in God is not properly basic

1983 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart C. Goetz
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Alvin Plantinga ◽  
The Past ◽  
Belief In God

In this article I shall concern myself with the question ‘Is some type of justification required in order for belief in God to be rational?’ Many philosophers and theologians in the past would have responded affirmatively to this question. However, in our own day, there are those who maintain that natural theology in any form is not necessary. This is because of the rise of a different understanding of the nature of religious belief. Unlike what most people in the past thought, religious belief is not in any sense arrived at or inferred on the basis of other known propositions. On the contrary, belief in God is taken to be as basic as a person's belief in the existence of himself, of the chair in which he is sitting, or the past. The old view that there must be a justification of religious belief, whether known or unknown, is held to be mistaken. One of the most outspoken advocates of this view is Alvin Plantinga. According to Plantinga the mature theist ought not to accept belief in God as a conclusion from other things he believes. Rather, he should accept it as basic, as a part of the bedrock of his noetic structure. ‘The mature theist commits himself to belief in God; this means that he accepts belief in God as basic.’

The Rationality of Belief in God

1981 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. DePaul
Keyword(s):  
Natural Theology ◽  
Belief In God

In the introduction to his account of the debate concerning religion between Cleanthes, Philo and Demea, Pamphilus remarks that ‘reasonable men may be allowed to differ where no one can reasonably be positive’. Pamphilus goes on to suggest that natural theology is an area that abounds with issues about which ‘no one can reasonably be positive’. Assuming that the beliefs of reasonable men are themselves reasonable, Pamphilus can be interpreted as holding that(P) If no one is reasonably positive that the proposition p is true or that it is false, a man might reasonably believe that p or might reasonably believe that not p.

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