IS IT LOGICAL TO BELIEVE IN GOD?
THE INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF RELIGION
HAKEEM KOLAPO FUJAH
APPLIED THEORY OF PEACE AND PEACE EDUCATION SERIES
DISCUSSION PAPER 1
IS IT LOGICAL TO BELIEVE IN GOD?
Are these extraordinary times? To win the ideological war against terrorism and protect the minds of youth from radicalization is engaging enough. Equally worrying is mounting evidence that too many people across continents may be losing their minds. Alongside possible over-population, joblessness and emasculation of the middle class, a contributory factor of significance might be mankind’s lean store of knowledge of what it means to be human and to live in peace with the self and others. We could be looking at a generally unsuspected human identity crisis snowball into a possible ideological fight-to-finish.
How does a self-respecting person, scandalized, continue to identify with a religion harboring suicide terrorists or sexual predators? What does it mean to be human? And where is the logic in belief in God? This first discussion paper is a reminder that a logical God exists, potentially capable of ideologically reuniting theists (believers) and atheists (unbelievers) into a formidable force for good. Section 1 establishes that a person can benefit from knowing God merely by name. Section 2 introduces the human identity and morality quandary by exposing some peculiarities of the knowledge of what it means to be human.
Section 3 demonstrates that the truth of existence of the logical God is a priori. Section 4 pinpoints three logical points of agreement between theists and atheists, and the possible point in philosophy at which if at all, they might go separate ways in peace. Section 5 considers more of the possible conceptual errors of theists and atheists and calls for bridge building. Section 6 contains the concluding thoughts.
1. Knowing the Logical Content of God
2. Knowledge of what it means to be Human
3. Truth of Existence of the Logical God as A
HAKEEM KOLAPO FUJAH
APPLIED THEORY OF PEACE AND PEACE EDUCATION SERIES
DISCUSSION PAPER 1
IS IT LOGICAL TO BELIEVE IN GOD?
Are these extraordinary times? To win the ideological war against terrorism and protect the minds of youth from radicalization is engaging enough. Equally worrying is mounting evidence that too many people across continents may be losing their minds. Alongside possible over-population, joblessness and emasculation of the middle class, a contributory factor of significance might be mankind’s lean store of knowledge of what it means to be human and to live in peace with the self and others. We could be looking at a generally unsuspected human identity crisis snowball into a possible ideological fight-to-finish.
How does a self-respecting person, scandalized, continue to identify with a religion harboring suicide terrorists or sexual predators? What does it mean to be human? And where is the logic in belief in God? This first discussion paper is a reminder that a logical God exists, potentially capable of ideologically reuniting theists (believers) and atheists (unbelievers) into a formidable force for good. Section 1 establishes that a person can benefit from knowing God merely by name. Section 2 introduces the human identity and morality quandary by exposing some peculiarities of the knowledge of what it means to be human.
Section 3 demonstrates that the truth of existence of the logical God is a priori. Section 4 pinpoints three logical points of agreement between theists and atheists, and the possible point in philosophy at which if at all, they might go separate ways in peace. Section 5 considers more of the possible conceptual errors of theists and atheists and calls for bridge building. Section 6 contains the concluding thoughts.
1. Knowing the Logical Content of God
2. Knowledge of what it means to be Human
3. Truth of Existence of the Logical God as A
References: 1. Brentano, Franz, “Ontology of the Mind” as narrated by Kevin Mulligan and Barry Smith, published in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 45 (1985), 627-644 2 3. Kant, Emmanuel, (1785), General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals, translated by W. Hastie, Source: Steve Palmquist’s website. 4. Kan, Emmanuel, “Perpetual Peace – A Philosophical Essay”, (1795), Translation with introduction and notes by Mary Campbell Smith (Macmillan 1917), p 93. 5. Page, James Smith (2004) Peace Education, Exploring some Philosophical Foundations; International Review of Education 50(1): Southern Cross University, Australia. 6. Russell, Bertrand, The Problems of Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1971-2, 7 8. Von Mises, Ludwig, “Human Action: A Treatise on Economics”, Vol.2, Ed. Bettina Bien Greaves, Liberty Fund Inc, Indianapolis (2007) INTERNET SOURCES: Stanford Encyclopedia, including but not limited to: 7. Steup, Matthias, “Epistemology”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring, 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zaita (ed.), URL= http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entires/epistemology/.