Does God exist? Or something like God? Or some kind of deity or demiurge? If so, what is its essence and nature? We explore Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese...

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Michael James

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Is the world we experience truly real, or is it more like a dream we haven't yet woken up from? Michael James, a leading scholar and translator of the teachings of Sri Ramana...

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What Is the World According to Sri Ramana?

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How to think about God afresh? Can we consider God—God’s possible existence, God’s essence and nature—without preconceived assumptions or biases? What...

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Thinking about God (Part II)

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To assess whether God exists, we must ask what kind of God is supposed to exist? But can humans probe God? Can we inquire into God’s essence and nature? Is God at all...

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What is God? (Part III)

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In searching, striving to know God—if there is a God—we discover contrasting ways that God could be. It is good to wonder about God, see a landscape of possibilities, get...

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Speculating About God?

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We dig into issues and arguments about God’s existence—and, if God exists, about God’s nature or traits. We explore competing ideas about God and assess divine...

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What is It About God?

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Does God exist? Or something like God? Or some kind of deity or demiurge? If so, what is its essence and nature? We explore Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese...

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Michael James

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Novel concepts of God challenge theism—rejecting the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Is this ‘heresy’? Or enlarging our vision of what the Ultimate can...

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What can we Learn from Alternative Gods?

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Is God, if there is a God, a personal, conscious, all-powerful Supreme Being? Some offer radically different concepts of ‘God’, exploring novel ideas of what God...

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Alternative Concepts of God? (Part II)

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Is our search for God too narrow? Why do some philosophers espouse ‘pantheism’? Pantheism’s claim is not shy: God is the Cosmos and the Cosmos is God. But...

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Pantheism: Is God All Reality?

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Is God, if there is a God, a personal, conscious, all-powerful Supreme Being? Some offer radically different concepts of ‘God’, exploring novel ideas of what God...

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Alternative Concepts of God? (Part III)

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Is God, if there is a God, a personal, conscious, all-powerful Supreme Being? Some offer radically different concepts of ‘God’, exploring novel ideas of what God...

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Alternative Concepts of God? (Part I)

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This is personal. ‘Why believe in God’ can mean two things: ‘What are the possible benefits of believing in God?’ and ‘what are the possible...

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Why Believe in God? (Part II)

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Art is deeply involved in the practice of religion, embedded in the rituals and liturgy of almost every religion. But how could the ubiquity of the arts in religion affect...

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Arts and Religious Reality

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What is the relationship between experiencing art and experiencing God? Can the arts generate or trigger religious experience? If so, can it be validated?

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Arts and Religious Experience

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Is there a relationship between diverse arts and belief in God? Can the arts express or encourage religious belief? If so, can it be validated?

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Arts and Religious Belief

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Why are the arts so deeply embedded in religious settings and services? How do the arts work in religious spaces and activities? What are differences among the arts, say...

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Arts and Religious Practice (Liturgy)

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Religious belief is everywhere. Why so pervasive, ubiquitous across diverse human cultures? What motivates the universal belief in things we cannot see? Some say the reason...

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What Causes Religious Belief? (Part II)

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Almost all religions use art in their sacred spaces and many use art forms in their worship rituals. Certainly, there is powerful social cohesion at work. Can...

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Can Art Harmonize Diverse Religions?

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The many different religions of the world proclaim radically different, often opposing and contradictory doctrines about God. How then can their believers be worshipping the...

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Do Major Religions Worship the Same God?

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Huston Smith, world religion scholar and seeker of the Divine in diverse religions, died on December 30, 2016. We had the privilege of discussing God, spirit, soul, eternal...

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A Tribute to Huston Smith

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If we’d like to believe in God, do conflicting religions trouble us? All the doctrinal disputes are wearying. Perhaps each religion complements and enhances the others....

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Do Diverse Religions Give Complementary Insights?

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Religions clash and compete—that’s a problem for those who believe. Some claim that the similarities of diverse religions—such as seeking transcendence beyond the...

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Do Religions Complement or Contradict?

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Conflicting religions fill the world. Doctrines about God contradict one another. No one denies the diversity of religions and the apparent incompatibility of their core...

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Can Many Religions All Be True?

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It’s intended as ultimate purpose: salvation means eternal life with God. For believers, what actually happens, what kind of life? For non-believers, what can we learn...

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Salvation – A Philosophical Inquiry

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Can atonement absolve sin? For believers, how could The Atonement work? What’s the process? For non-believers, what does The Atonement say about the kind of God that...

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Atonement – A Philosophical Inquiry

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It’s a staggering idea: God became flesh. Why would the Creator become human? For believers, how could Divine and Human natures interact? For non-believers, how do beliefs...

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The Incarnation – A Philosophical Inquiry

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It seems the ultimate riddle: How could One God be Three Persons? How could One be Three? Or Three be One? And why three? Non-believers and believers can both enjoy the logic...

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The Trinity – A Philosophical Inquiry

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Why the astonishing claim that Jesus is God? Not like God. Not representing God. But literally God? One need not be a Christian, or even a theist, to appreciate the...

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Jesus as God – A Philosophical Inquiry

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Christians are accustomed to hearing that “Jesus died for our sins”. But what would that mean literally? How would atonement work? What would be happening? Is there a...

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How Does Atonement Work?

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Are religions part of the problem or part of the solution? What do we really know about the social consequences of religions, and what more can we learn about them? Religions...

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Social Consequences of Religion

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How can we transform religious diversity from a troublesome fact we’re stuck with into a positive asset? What conditions contribute to progress in religion? A key factor is...

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Covenantal Pluralism

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How and why do people think about science and religion the way they do? What factors influence the ways that people react to the findings of science and the teachings of...

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Science and Religion in Context

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How to improve the methods of inquiry into the existence and nature of spiritual realities? There are two types of diversity or pluralism: methodological and religious. How...

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Contemporary Theological Engagement

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Abstract objects, like numbers and logic, give God problems. Because they always exist and exist necessarily, abstract objects cannot be created or destroyed. But could God...

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Did God Create Abstract Objects? (Part II)

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A perfect being, as defined by philosophically motivated theologians (particularly during the Middle Ages), is “that which no greater can be conceived”. What does...

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What is Perfect Being Theology? (Part II)

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A perfect being, as defined by philosophically motivated theologians (particularly during the Middle Ages), is “that which no greater can be conceived”. What does...

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Yujin Nagasawa

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Closer To Truth is highlighting remarkable women in philosophy of religion.

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Women in Philosophy of Religion

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Can art inform topics in philosophy of religion? Can the existence and varieties of art address or affect theological questions about God, faith, belief, worship?

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Can Art Engage Philosophy of Religion?

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Can art inform topics in philosophy of religion? Can the existence and varieties of art address or affect theological questions about God, faith, belief, worship?

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Art and the Philosophy of Religion

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Evolutionary psychology naturalizes religion. It seeks to explain elements of mind by selection and survival over time. Take altruism—individuals sacrificing themselves for...

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Does Evolutionary Psychology Undermine Religion?

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Religion without God? Most people believe that God exists and religion is God’s revelation. But some say religion, particularly the organization of religion into...

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Can Religion Be Explained Without God? (Part I)

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Religion without God? Most people believe that God exists and religion is God’s revelation. But some say religion, particularly the organization of religion into...

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Can Religion Be Explained Without God? (Part II)

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Most people believe that God exists and religion is God’s revelation. But some claim that religion needs nothing supernatural; that religion, without God, can flourish...

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Can Religion be Explained Without God?

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What are Persons or Selves? | Michael James

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Does God exist? Or something like God? Or some kind of deity or demiurge? If so, what is its essence and nature? We explore Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese...

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Michael James

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Is the world we experience truly real, or is it more like a dream we haven't yet woken up from? Michael James, a leading scholar and translator of the teachings of Sri Ramana...

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What Is the World According to Sri Ramana?

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How do Buddhism, Chinese traditions, and Hinduism address the perennial problems of suffering, ethics, ritual and contemplative practices? Why is suffering so important in...

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Eastern Traditions: Why are Suffering and Ritual Vital?

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How do Buddhism, Chinese traditions, and Hinduism address the essence of human sentience? What is consciousness? What is the self? What is qi? Do humans have souls or...

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Eastern Traditions: What is the Human Person?

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How do Buddhism, Chinese traditions, Hinduism, and Shintoism address causality, consciousness, energies, God, ultimate reality? What is non- dualism? How is the world...

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Eastern Traditions: What is World? What is Reality?

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Does God exist? Or something like God? Or some kind of deity or demiurge? If so, what is its essence and nature? We explore Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese...

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Michael James

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Why evil and suffering? Is there life after death? What is the world to come? Ultimate Questions from the perspectives of Global Philosophy of Religion, featuring diverse...

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Season 30

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Every religion deals with ultimate futures. What happens to the person? Reincarnation? Reabsorption? Resurrection? What is the final state of the world? Innumerable cycles? A...

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Global Philosophy: What is the World to Come?

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Can non-Western traditions discern new perspectives of fundamental reality, the deepest levels or categories or grounds of being? Can novel ways of seeing the world’s...

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Global Philosophy: What can Global Metaphysics Discover?

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Science and religion: clash or consilience? Science commands broad consensus, which religion cannot. Religion claims ultimate insight, which science cannot. Should the...

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Global Philosophy: How Does Religion Engage Science?

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What kinds of afterlives do the world’s religions offer? Soul/spirit in heaven or hell, with or apart from God? Reincarnation with innumerable rebirths, seeking liberation...

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Global Philosophy: What Life Might Come After Death?

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