Philosophy of Religion Book

[siliconwafer]

I found a PDF version of a book about the philosophy of religion. Here is the link: http://mey.homelinux.org/companions/...0E.Yandell.pdf

The author is Keith Yandell.

[siliconwafer]

In his book, Yandell gives the following definitions of the following terms or concepts:

Philosophy

"Philosophy is the enterprise of constructing and assessing categorial systems." (A categorical system is a worldview.)

Religion

"A religion is a conceptual system that provides an interpretation of the world and the place of human beings in it, bases an account of how life should be lived given that interpretation, and expresses this interpretation and lifestyle in a set of rituals, institutions, and practices."

"A different, but compatible, characterization of religion makes use of the notions of diagnosis and cure. A religion proposes a diagnosis (an account of what it takes the basic problem facing human beings to be) and a cure (a way of permanently and desirably solving that problem): one basic problem shared by every human person5 and one fundamental solution that, however adapted to different cultures and cases, is essentially the same across the board. Religions differ insofar as their diagnoses and cures differ."

Philosophy of Religion

Yandell says that philosophy of religion combines the enterprises of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics in offering philosophically accessible accounts of religious traditions and assessing those traditions.

Yandell says that doing philosophy requires one to rationally assess truth claims. If one is not making an assessment of truth claims, then he or she is not doing philosophy.

[shunyadragon]

I will watch for others to respond.

In terms of the above characterization definition of religion, I propose that the Baha'i Faith offers the best available diagnosis of the problems facing human beings, and the cure that is more relevant to the modern world than other ancient religions that cling to limited world views of the past, and have to rely on humanist alternatives to make their religion function in a limited way.

From the humanist perspective the Unitarian Universalists do well relating to the modern world.