/
What Is a Meaningful Life? What Is a Meaningful Life?

What Is a Meaningful Life? - PowerPoint Presentation

trish-goza
trish-goza . @trish-goza
Follow
519 views
Uploaded On 2016-07-27

What Is a Meaningful Life? - PPT Presentation

Unit 2 HZB3M Raso Questions for the unit What is a meaningful life Does God exist And what role does God play in your life What is a good life What is a purposeful life Some thoughts on life ID: 421703

people god faith life god people life faith existence universe human philosophers experience religion evidence reason christian religions god

Share:

Link:

Embed:

Download Presentation from below link

Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "What Is a Meaningful Life?" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.


Presentation Transcript

Slide1

What Is a Meaningful Life?

Unit 2 – HZB3M - RasoSlide2

Questions for the unit…

What is a meaningful life?

Does God exist? And what role does God play in your life?

What is a good life?What is a purposeful life?Slide3

Some thoughts on life…

Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living”

Martin Luther King Jr. said “if a man hasn’t got something in life worth dying for, he isn’t fit to live.”

 We need to ask ourselves these questionsSlide4

Did God Create Everything?

The question you must ask is: “where did I come from?”

Some will reply…”God!”

As philosophers, we are interested if there is evidence in support of the existence of GodIs there truth in any of the ideas about God that exist in the world?Slide5

How Do Philosophers Think About God?

Over the last thousand years, much of Europe was dominated by Judeo-Christian ideas of God

People who followed these beliefs settled much of Europe

Prominent Western Philosophers (Judaic, Christian, and Islamic) discuss God from a monotheistic perspective

Monotheism:

belief that there is one God, not many

Polytheism:

belief that there are many Gods, not one (weather God)

Buddhism:

belief in a spiritual dimension, not necessarily a GodSlide6
Slide7

Are Logic and Faith Separate?

Are faith in God and Philosophy incompatible?

Logical arguments have to add up

Logic is designed to offer accurate resultsFaith – does not depend on argumentation of the sort math requires

Some believe that there is evidence to support the existence of God

“evidence” as feelings rather than proofsSlide8

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Christian Philosopher

Distinguished between God of faith and the God of Philosophy

“it is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason”He argued that, while it may be reasonable for Philosophers to undertake rational investigations into the existence of God,

rason

has no role to play in matters of faith”Slide9

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” – Hebrews 11:1, the

BIbleSlide10

Theists

People who believe in god

Their religious beliefs vary around the world

As do their treatments of faith, and descriptions and depictions of God

Faith is a particular way of knowing

It is about hope and feeling, rather than logic, reason, or evidence

Philosophers will argue that even theists will look for evidence to sustain their faith (warm feelings, dreams, or visions)Slide11

Does Theism make life meaningful?

For some it does

Meaningfulness of peoples’ lives has been tied to what is was thought God expects of, and desires for, his creatures

Many religions teach of an afterlife

Your actions in life can dictate the rewards you can expect in the afterlife!Slide12

Is there such a place called Heaven?

Article on “Proof of Heaven

”Slide13

Alternatives to Theism

Agnostics:

Neither accept nor deny God’s existence

Believe that it is not possible either to prove or to disprove the existence of God

Judgement should be suspended on such mattersSlide14

Atheists:

Believe that God does not exist!

Usually involved the rejection of the God of Christianity

Believe their atheism is compatible with the possibility of a meaningful lifeSlide15

Karl Marx on Religion

Appeal to the working class

“Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”Slide16

Marx continued…

Karl Marx:

German Philosopher, (1818-1883)

To him, religion did not begin with the rational recognition of the existence of God

Believed religions origins were rooted in the miserable conditions that most people endure in oppressive societies

Since working conditions were poor, and few made decisions and money, religion is where people turned for comfort (opium)Slide17

Marx’s main objection to religion

Fosters idea that hard lives are inevitable

God allows social inequities

Working people are consequently kept from engaging I the revolutionary activity required to eliminate domination of societies by oppressive minority classesSlide18

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Thought less of people than Marx did

Most humans are no better than cattle

Need God-like figure to look up toAverage person has “herd mentality”

Believe that whether or not God exists, people need to create one to give them someone, or something, around which they can focus their livesSlide19

Like cattle following farmer the barn for food, people

n

eed a shepherd to follow

Argument for existence of God – people have the potential to be good, if goodness of this sort cannot be traced to genetics its must have a divine source, there must be a God – if there were no God there would be no reason to be good

Nietzsche believe whatever the motivate for people being good should be rooted in human reasons, rather than authority religious leaders – saw them as cynically manipulating the foolish masses of people

- Declared “GOD IS DEAD!!!” – to shock peopleSlide20
Slide21

David Hume (1711-1776)

Critical of the types of evidence or proof presented by world religions in support of their creeds

Made claims of the

nature and treatment of miraclesPointed out that all religions use

miraculous events

to establish credibility (New Testament and Miracles – truth of Christianity)

if miracles are supposed to establish the truth for a particular religion – if they did occur, and viewed as evidence, that truthfulness of the claim presented in all other religions would have to be deniedSlide22

Do all religions make the same claim? How can one be true while others untrue?

Hume noted that such miracles do not happen in our days

Points to possibility that claims of miracles recorded in the past were fabricated – “nothing strange, I hope that men should lie in all ages”

Claimed that no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless it is one that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it is trying to establish (risen from the dead – deceive the witness)

Scriptures essentially fabrications or erroneous reports

Faith may lead people to believe in things contrary to reasonSlide23

Philosophy and Existence of God

Aristotle and First Cause – motion in universe must mean a prime mover must exist and must be divine – since movements in the universe are so complex

Most other arguments we have seen have been emotional responses and perceptional illusions (feelings, seeing a light in a dream as proof)

having ordinary explanations and those said to have involved an encounter with the divineSlide24

FIRST CAUSE

Which came first the chicken or the egg?

Origins of the universe – what do you want to know? Its origin?

Big bang theory – what precedes the big bang?

What is the first cause of everything?Slide25

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

Christian Philosopher

Called God the “uncaused first cause”

Chicken egg cycle could not have an infinite history

Argues that there has to have been a “first egg” or “first chicken”

Someone or something more powerful to create everything – GOD, did not consider big bang

Assumes universe can be traced back to one thing, the first cause – does not consider many things which caused it or that the universe has no beginningSlide26

Aquinas’ Defenders!!!

Many different things which caused the universe idea – misses the point, which is to ask why anything exists in the first place

Better that finite things came out of God rather than nothingnessSlide27

DIVINE DESIGN

Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Like Aristotle, sought to explain the motion of the objects in the universe

Adopted a mechanical model, parts of solar system worked like parts of a clock

Believe that the part of the universe moved in a precise and predictable way (moon around the earth in 28 day cycle)

A designer to carefully design each part – each part has a purpose

All parts of the universe move in a particular way – and someone or something has designed their movementsSlide28

God the Designer

William Paley (1743-1805)

Suggested that just as watches are complex structures, so are body parts, like the eye

Therefore body parts, like eyes, must have designers

A being who could design something so complex, must be much more powerful than a human designer – must be God

DESIGN ARGUMENT (existence of God argument)Slide29

How can flaws in the human body be accounted for?

Are our parts perfect? Is this why accidents are acts of God because they are beyond our control?

Should human flaws, those not subject to human control, be regarded as God’s design for the world?Slide30

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Theory of Evolution

“No Design”

Accepted possibility of God’s existence – but Christian belief in a perfect creation and design contrary to the ordinary observation that living things are constantly evolving

No creator who created nature’s structures and life forms

Evolved over millions of yearsSlide31

Can experience prove the existence of God?

Religious records have described individuals interacting with angels, spirits, or even Gods

For many people of faith, these recorded experiences, are evidence of God’s existence

For people of faith, participation in religious life through faith and spiritual exploration, is the key to understanding how God makes life meaningfulSlide32

St. Augustine – Experience with the divine

(354-430 CE)

Wrote of weeping in his garden in need of personal guidance

Recounts he heard a voice that instructed him to “take up and read, take up an read”

He tells of going to his books and reading the first things his eyes fell upon –a verse from New testament “but put ye on the lord

J

esus Christ, and make no provisions of the flesh”Slide33

These experiences gave him the courage to put his energy into Philosophy and Christianity

Deal with the nature of God, the universe, and the problem of evil

As a first millennium Philosopher, he is known as the greatest and last of Christian fathers – spent most of his life defending and promoting Christianity and establishing it as the most predominant religion in EuropeSlide34

Mohammed’s experience with the divine

(570-632 CE)

Muslim Prophet

Described his encounter with the divine

Until he was in his 40s, he was considered nothing more than a successful business man

During his life time, people worshipped God “ALLAH” indirectly through 3 goddesses Slide35

Mohammed concerned with lack of unity in Arab religion

Concerned with prevalence of such sinful things, as violence and adultery

Began spending time secluded in a cave near the city of Mecca

It was there that his meditations were rewarded from Allah – Muslim Qur’an is made up of his revelations from Allah

He was persecuted and ridiculed – his claim of only one God was a criticism of local religious leaders

After 3 years of preaching, he only had a few dozen followers – today over 1 billion Muslims in over 40 countries Slide36

Is it all just a trick of the mind?

Aside from Mohammed and St. Augustine – some do not say these experiences prove the existence of God

Some Philosophers dismiss these experiences as tricks of the mind

Sometimes such experience are ordinary or familiar, despite the fact that those who have them attach supernatural significance to them

Another reason to be skeptical – testimony of those who had the experience cannot be corroborated (will offer the same account of the experience)- spiritual reports cannot be repeatedSlide37

Is it common sense? Some Philosophers may dismiss claims of God’s existence – because the defy common experience and common sense

Some critics may argue that UFO and Elvis sightings exists as supernatural encounters

If you believe people’s claims that God exists on the basis of their out-of-the-ordinary experience, to be consistent shouldn’t you believe in UFO sightings?Slide38

Faith Approach

– provides a legitimate basis for belief

Their view is known as

fiedeism

, faith over logic

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Faith superior to logic, and essential to knowledge of God

Reason or logic relies on human understanding, and power of the human mind

People are mentally unable to reason about a being as perfect as God

Since God is by definition beyond human understanding, logical argument is a foolish way to try to apprehend GodSlide39

He described faith as TRANSRATIONAL – meaning faith is above logic and reason

It may not prove his existence in a Philosophical way, but for some

Philosophers

this is unnecessaryHe also thought that people are to take a leap of faith if they are to know God at allReason

makes people trust in human mental abilities, which are

flawed

Faith comes with an uncertainty which must be accepted with courage and conviction – freedom to choose their own livesSlide40

Does God bring meaning to life? Or can you live a meaningful life without God?

REVIEW!!REVIEW!!REVIEW!!

Ideas from this chapter

Philosophical inquiry – our philosophersNEXT –> What is a Good Life?