Naturalistic Explanations of Religious Beliefs

European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 9 (3):107-114 (2017)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Branden Thornhill-Miller and Peter Millican as well as Janusz Salomon put forward versions of supernaturalism that avoid the existence of a religion which alone provides the true revelation and the only way to salvation and which teaches that God acted in this world. Their rejection of revealed, exclusive religion is based on an argument from religious diversity and an argument from natural explanations of religious phenomena. These two together form the "common-core/diversity dilemma". In this article I refute these two arguments by arguing that explaining the origin of belief in supernatural agents does not provide a reason for not believing in the existence of supernatural agents.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,438

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Naturalism and Religion.Kai Nielsen - 1998 - Philo 1 (1):45-62.
The psychology of atheism.Miguel Farias - 2013 - In Stephen Bullivant & Michael Ruse (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Atheism. Oxford University Press. pp. 468.
Explaining God Away?Kelly James Clark - 2010 - In Melville Y. Stewart (ed.), Science and Religion in Dialogue. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 514--526.
Religious Ambiguity and Religious Diversity.Robert McKim - 2000 - New York: Oxford University Press USA.
The Explanatory Challenge of Religious Diversity.Jason Marsh & Jon Marsh - 2016 - In Helen De Cruz & Ryan Nichols (eds.), Advances in Religion, Cognitive Science, and Experimental Philosophy. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 61-83.
In defense of naturalism.Paul M. Churchland - 1980 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3 (1):74-75.
The role of religious and non-religious beliefs in medical decisions.Atsushi Asai & Yasuhiro Kadooka Aizawa - 2009 - Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 19 (6):162-165.
Subversive Explanations.Charles Pigden - 2013 - In Gregory Dawes & James Maclaurin (eds.), A New Science of Religion,. Routledge. pp. 147-161..
What I believe.Graham Oppy - 2009 - In Russell Blackford & Udo Schuklenk (eds.), 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why we are Atheists. New York USA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 50-56.
Moral Explanations of Moral Beliefs.Don Loeb - 2007 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 70 (1):193-208.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-09-22

Downloads
49 (#320,021)

6 months
10 (#256,916)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Daniel von Wachter
International Academy of Philosophy In The Principality of Liechtenstein

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references