Philosophy's Irrelevant Religious Proofs

Paper Summary:

Western philosophy's correspondence or coherence criteria for religious truths cuts off the transcendent right from the start. The paper argues that this self-limitation allows for the possibility of considering the soundness or truth of religion. However, the actual experiencing of religious truth, any possible truth in religion, becomes unexplored. The paper shows that, consequently, proving or disproving the existence of God and the immortality of the soul become curious endeavors. No matter how powerful the arguments, such proofs are not what the religious seeker needs, and what the seeker needs, philosophy cannot give.

From the Paper:

"Pascal's Wager has inspired many academic journal articles, but curiously most of them dwell on the virtues and weaknesses of the wager as an example of decision theory and of statistics and probability. There has been little discussion of the relevance of the Wager, which leads to actual belief. Pascal, himself, is cognizant of the problem of how a detached understanding of a logical conclusion that God exists does not automatically force a person to believe in God. Even if one were to agree that believing in God was the "best bet," it is another matter to believe in this best bet at will. Pascal suggests that we overcome the passions and obstacles that prevent righteous belief and that we become involved in the life of fellow-believers and start acting like them."

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