1

Introduction

D

oes God exist? Is there any reason to think that God exists? Is there
no God? Is there any good reason to believe that? What makes us
persons? What do the world religions teach about God, human
persons, and life after death? How can what they say be evaluated? If God
knows in advance what we will do, can we be free? Must we be free if we
are responsible for what we do? Can a person survive the death of her
body? Is the existence of evil evidence against God’s existence? How are
religion and morality related? Is faith inherently irrational? Such
questions are the stuff of the philosophy of religion. Our task here is to
look carefully at the issues they raise.
In Part I, four topics are considered:

1 what is the philosophy of religion (which involves our saying what
philosophy and religion are, and how they intersect)?;
2 what sorts of religion, or religious traditions, are there?;
3 what sorts of religious experience are there?;
4 has religious doctrine real religious importance?

The notions of a sort of religion, and a sort of religious experience, come up
for discussion and definition. Part I contends for a certain way of
approaching religion, arguing from different angles (doctrine, experience,
function) that it is false that all religions are the same. We argue that from
a religious viewpoint as well as from a philosophical, doctrine matters.
Philosophy’s task is the construction and assessment of worldviews. A
worldview contains an account of the basic kinds of things there are and how
they are related. These are the concern of metaphysics. It also contains an
account of what knowledge is, what reasonable belief is, and how one identifies
knowledge and reasonable belief. These are the concern of epistemology. It also
gives an account of value, especially moral value. This is the concern of ethics.^1
There is no need for philosophy to construct such accounts from scratch. The
common sense and cultural beliefs one encounters from one’s youth contain
theses and themes that, sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly, make
commitments regarding what there is, what is known, and what is good.^2
Philosophers of course are free to offer their own accounts of these matters. It