The Enduring Appeal of Natural Theological Arguments

Abstract

Natural theology is the branch of theology and philosophy that attempts to gain knowledge of God through non‐revealed sources. In a narrower sense, natural theology is the discipline that presents rational arguments for the existence of God. Given that these arguments rarely directly persuade those who are not convinced by their conclusions, why do they enjoy an enduring appeal? This article examines two reasons for the continuing popularity of natural theological arguments: (i) they appeal to intuitions that humans robustly hold and that emerge early in cognitive development; (ii) they serve an argumentative function by presenting particular religious views as live options. I conclude with observations on the role of natural theology in contemporary analytic philosophy of religion.

Reforming reformed epistemology: a new take on thesensus divinitatis

“…19.Jerome Gellman writes: ‘If we look at the arguments for God's existence, we can appreciate that each of them is an articulation in a discursive, argument form, of a basic mode of experience of God’ (Gellman (1992), 212). See also De Cruz (2014), §3, for reasons from cognitive science why the intuitions underlying certain arguments in natural theology are so resilient.This is similar to the ‘natural signs’ approach taken recently by Evans (2010). On Evans's view, God has designed our faculties to produce theistic beliefs upon encountering certain natural signs.…”

Does religious belief infect philosophical analysis?

“…1 I use 'natural theology' as a rough label for the branch of theology and philosophy of religion on which I focus here. I follow a narrow definition, upon which projects in 'natural theology' are those presenting rational arguments for the existence of God (De Cruz, 2014). Importantly, many interpret natural theological arguments as having real epistemic weight (Braine, 1988;Miller, 1991;Swinburne, 2004).…”

The Problem of Relevance and the Future of Philosophy of Religion

“… This perception may be reinforced by De Cruz (); in her survey, 73.1 percent of specialists in philosophy of religion self‐identify as theists.…”

“…Yet at secular colleges and universities, philosophy of religion is at best a minor subarea of philosophy and religious studies and at worst barely registers, if at all, among faculty. The perception that the field consists of post hoc justifications for religious belief may be reinforced by surveys by David Bourget and David Chalmers as well as Helen De Cruz (see Bourget and Chalmers and De Cruz ).…”