Free Will According to the Philosophy of Religion Essay Example

as how does the world exist, and the origin of creation.

What is associated with the nature or reality, how can the spiritual mind affect the physics body, is there a God, or are there many gods, if things exist, what is their objective nature’s. footnoteRef:4 Aristotle divided metaphysics into three that include ontology, universal science, and natural theology. 3: Rogers, G. A., Vienne, J. M., & Zarka, Y. C.

(Eds.). (2013). The Cambridge Platonists in philosophical context: politics, metaphysics, and religion (Vol. 150).

Science & Business. p 3 4: Rodgers and The Cambridge Platonists in philosophical context 2013 p 3 Philosophy of free will deals with the study of existence and being, which entails definition and classification of entities, the mental and physical, the nature of their properties and the change. Natural theology is the learning about God, that includes the nature of religion, the world, how the divine exist, it also deals with a question about creation, different religion and spiritual issues. footnoteRef:5 While the universal science deals with the principles of logic and reasoning, such as the laws of non-contradiction. Although metaphysics has been attacked by several philosophers who describe it as useless and ambiguous, it implies the ideas about the world that are reasonable but are not empirically supportable, testable or verifiable.footnoteRef:6 5: Campbell, C.

A. (2013). In the defense of philosophical free will: together with other philosophical essays. Routledge, p. 76 6: Ibdi 98 Free will deals with ethics which is connected to the question how people should act; it defines the rights of conducts and the right of life.

footnoteRef:7Ethics is different from the morals because ethics are used to denote the theory of

the right action towards the good actions while the moral indicates their practice.footnoteRef:8 In ethics, there is no limitation to a specific act as well as moral ciphers but incorporates the complete of ethical principles and actions philosophy about life. It asks a question such as Normative, or Narrow Principles, Practical Morals, Meta Moral code and Descriptive Ethics. footnoteRef:9 7: Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A relation to ethics or moral education.

The Univ of California Press. np 8: Ibdi np 9: Ibdi np According to philosophers, the Socrates, which is recorded in the Plato's dialogue, is viewed as the basis for the Western ethics it the philosophy of free will gives people freedom to do what and choose what is right . It says that people will continue doing what is good as long as they are doing the right, but do evil things due to ignorance. He portrayed that self-awareness, happiness, and virtue are equal to wisdom and knowledge, and thus there are good as a wise person will do the right thing, do good and will always be happy.footnoteRef:10 From Aristotle point of view nature does not do anything in vain, when an individual acts according to the nature they realize their full capability and hence they will act well and be satisfied in life and that they have liberty to choose religions, what is referred to as free will. 10: Carey M., ; Paulhus L.

(2013). The Worldview implications about believing in free will as well as determinism: Politics, punitiveness, and morality. The Journal of Personal attributes, 81(2), p. 134. He further stressed that self-realization and being free in making choices is the best

path towards happiness and is the goal of other things like wealth and civil life.

He called for moderation in all actions because the extremes become dishonored and depraved and emphasized that human being should live a better life in behaviors that are administered by moderate attitude.footnoteRef:11 Virtues denote doing what is right, to the relevant person, and at the correct time to the best extent in the favorable fashion and for the good reason.footnoteRef:12 Anthropology is the theory about human nature or humankind; it criticizes the environment of understanding as well as how it connects to similar concepts such as belief and justification. Also, it deals with the means of producing knowledge and skepticism about claims of knowledge. footnoteRef:13 It deals with issues pertaining formation and distribution of information in individual zones. The epistemology asks a question like what knowledge can be, how is it acquired, what conditions are sufficient for knowledge, its structure as well as their limits, what leads to justification of the beliefs, how one understands the concept involving justification, and its reason, internal or at times, external.

footnoteRef:14 11: Fabian, J. (2014). This Time as well as the other: And How anthropology can makes its object. The Columbia University Press. p220 12: Vaihinger, H.

(2014). The philosophy of as if. Routledge P 8. 13: Behar, R. (2014).

The Vulnerable Observer: An Anthropology which breaks the heart. The Beacon Press p. 122 14: Behar, R. (2014).

The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks your heart 122 The philosophy of free will is applied in many religions, like pagans who views that divine justice has little to do with human religious administration. Pagan leadership had a minor role

to play in managing any disrespect shown to gods. footnoteRef:15 The pagan religious syncretism used the concepts of heresy and orthodoxy which were not central to the pagan culture. The doctrines formulation was like metaphysics constructs were not essentially the true religion, but they were concerned with religious centered on much more social interests.footnoteRef:16 15: Ibdi 243 16: Ibdi 244 The philosophy of free will uses doctrine preoccupation that may be typical used by early Christianity but not the pagan syncretism contemporary with it. The argument used by Phillips on the uniqueness of the concept of the heresy and orthodoxy, the early Christians agree with the position of Richard Lim.

He notes the philosopher’s disapproval of authoritative, given dogmatic beliefs or blind trust in the dictates of authority that emphasized on neither Greco-Romans religion nor philosophy functioned with categories of heresy or orthodoxy.footnoteRef:17 The Roman is engaged in conflict, controversy debates on philosophical demonstrations. The thesis regarding the toleration of the Roman paganism in contrast to the unique social intolerance of the Christianity on the issue of free will finds its roots in a recent discussion. 17: Carey, J. M., ; Paulhus, D. L.

(2013). The Worldview implications on believing about free will and determinism: Politics, morality, and punitiveness. Journal of Personality, 81(2), p.133 Judaism entails philosophy of free will culture on how the Jewish people lived it is an ancient monotheistic belief with the foundation text being Torah and the supplemental oral tradition.footnoteRef:18 Religious Jews consider Judaism as the expression of free will covenantal relationship that God established with the Israelites.it include an extensive quantity of texts practices, theological positions, and form of organization. The Torah

remains a collection of the books of Moses, the stories of Noah, Abraham, and many prophets. It teaches about one God, demons, in the world.

Angels and supernatural forces that work, it shows that the human need God due to their sinful nature that starts at the Garden of Eden.footnoteRef:19 18: Eilberg-Schwartz, H. (Ed.). (2012). People from the body: the Jews and Judaism as from an Embodied perspective. SUNY Press.

np 19: Curthoys, N. (2015). Arendt’s Hidden Conversation, New York/Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2013, 238 pp., ISBN 978-1-78238-007-8 (HBK). What do we mean by Liberal or Reform Judaism, particularly in a European context? This short book is hugely stimulating and endlessly annoying. I. p.

20. Judaism had free will that enabled in the recording of Jewish life which composed their laws and history, myths saga poetry and prayer that show the religious and spiritual foundation of their belief; it incorporated the Jewish Bible in the Old Testament. The aim of Jewish teaching on free was to create the kingdom of God to prepare the way for the Messiah who was expected to be the descendant of King David; he was to rule in Jerusalem and rebuild the destroyed sanctuary.footnoteRef:20 20: Eilberg-Schwartz, H. (Ed.).

(2012). People of the body. np Moses was the founder of Judaism where the Israelites have been slaves, God commanded him to redeem them from the yolk of slavery in Egypt, and he obeyed and took the children of Israel to the promise land. On the way, God had given Moses Ten Commandments, through which the religion of Israel formed the name Judaism. The children of Israel started worshipping idols, Moses warned them but the majority of

them did not change, by the time he was dying he left them divided into two groups, those who followed the God’s commandments and the idol worshipers.

footnoteRef:21 21: Curthoys, N. (2015). Arendt’s Hidden Conversations p 145 The children of Israel received the name Jews after the departure of Ibrahim; the name is connected to one of his grandsons Jacob after wrestling with God, and he was given the name Israel after prevailing.footnoteRef:22 The name Jews was derived from Judah one of the twelve sons of Jacob; he was the last born of his mother. The religion was founded in 80 B.C. The people of Israel founded another religion after they have lost their true God, that was laid down by Moses and the religion was called Judaism which means the religion of the people of Judah. footnoteRef:23 Christianity is the dominant religion with over 2 billion followers, whose faith is built on the tradition of Judaism and I originated in the city of Jerusalem.

It is considered monotheism with the religion built upon the story of creation; they believe the Torah to be the world of God. The central figure of Christianity is Jesus Christ, who was a Jew, Christianity spread from Jewish to Greek-speaking areas. The stories of Torah are continued in the teaching and stories of Jesus that are compiled in the new testaments in the books known as the Gospel books and other books.  The essential elements of the Jewish faith remain intact, with some modifications. One of the main changes is Jesus being referred to as the Messiah, which means the God incarnate. 22: Sanneh, L. (2015).

West African Christianity: the religious impact.

Orbits Books. P.58 23: Zeitlin, I. M. (2013). The Ancient Judaism: The Biblical Criticism of Max Weber to that of present.

John Wiley ; Sons. np From the philosophy the free will the Torah uses the idea of the savior of the Jewish nation and uplift the general population is a frequency theme.  The Messiah is believed to be an active religious, political, and a political figure. In Torah, it was written that the Messiah will come, but the Jewish do not accept Jesus to be the promised Messiah. The Christians viewed Jesus as the Messiah, and a signed him the qualities of divinity. They consider him as the son of God and the savior of the world.

The spirit of the faith is found in the Book of John 3:16. Such a concept is objected by the Jews, who view the perception of God as unchanged, and He cannot become a man. This view gives the Christians a free will to believe on the messiah who they assign him the divinity and they consider him the son of God. According to the philosophers, Jesus ministry also observed the free will; he lived as a devoted Jew, by observing and insisting that his follower keeps the laws. He taught on how to approach the kingdom of God.footnoteRef:24 Christians regard Jesus as a great human teacher; he is the Savior, who died to save them from the sin, according to the views of the Christians the death brought salvation, and there is the possibility of eternal life.footnoteRef:25 They gather in the church as they believe that God dwells there and that. He want them to form individual groups

of worshipping, they also meet in the church to encourage each other to live upright lives according to the God moral laws.

24: Sanneh, L. (2015). West African Christianity P. 59 25: Johnson, P. (2012).

History of Christianity. Simon and Schuster. p 465 The free will gives Christians freedom to perform two religious practices in church, the baptism, and the Holy Communion or the Eucharist, also known as the Lord supper. The baptism signifies that one had entered into Christianity while the Eucharist is the final meal that Jesus took with his disciple before he was crucified.footnoteRef:26 The worshippers share wine and bread during Eucharist as a sign of unity with each other and with Jesus, they believe that the bread represents the body of Christ while the wine is the blood that he shed. footnoteRef:27 26: Moffett, S. H.

(2014). A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. I: Beginnings to 1500. Orbis Books. P.

643. 27: Johnson, P. (2012). History of Christianity. Simon and Schuster p 55 From the philosophy of the free will, Christians views Jesus to continue with God of Judaism, the collection of Christian writing added to the Jewish scripture termed as the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible.

The Christians writing is known as the New Testament, and it records the life of Jesus, developing the church as well as explaining their faith in Jesus means.footnoteRef:28 Their Bible includes both the Old and the new testaments; some of the Christians accept part of the Bible known as the Apocrypha. The Christianity started in the ministry of Jesus who preached the gospel that means the good news, which said that God was coming to the earth

to with His people.  Jesus called the particular the kingdom of God and warned his listeners to repent their sin in preparation for the kingdom of God. He gave the interpretation of the laws of the Jewish to show how people should obey remain righteous. The teaching brought great popularity.

footnoteRef:29 28: Moffett, S. H. (2014). A History of Christianity in Asia p.659 29: Sanneh, L. (2015). West African Christianity p.

99 According to the philosophy of free will, the Hindu religion tradition does not fit the description by any simple list of doctrines and practices.  Some of the branches philosophy are monistic and view divinity as permeating all reality; others are dual and posit realities, as an interrelation on the divinity of the spirit known as the Purusha and primordial material, some are monotheistic and worship a personal god while others worship formless and nameless god.footnoteRef:30 They believe in Supreme Being, the spirit called Brahman, who manifests himself in many forms. 30: Knott, K. (2016). Hinduism: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press P.

73. The philosophy of the free religion believed that Hinduism worship three hundred million gods in one; that means that the God appear to them in those forms. They have their doctrine of trinity known Trimetric and triad of gods, they include, Brahma the creator, Siva, the Sagara, and Vishnu the savior or the preserver. Their worshipping places are mostly the river, the natural river where they worship River Ganger that they believe the mother of gods.footnoteRef:31 The Hindus have many cults such as the secret cult of Krishna, Skanda, Dsugra, Rama, Guru and many others. They have a custom of bathing in

a nearby river or streams, or at home are not common, this is usually done early in the morning, and the reason of bathing is to make them holy. The Hindu worships their idols with red powder and the offer food and flowers to them; the god is placed in one corner of their room called Ganesa, they use a holy book termed as Vedas.

footnoteRef:32 Hinduism originated from Ancient Babylon and Iran, but its cradle is in India and Pakistan and their environs. They are not easily differentiated with Muslims regarding dressing because the two use wears a turban, and their females wings are always head cover known as Hijab, but their faith is different. footnoteRef:33 Although the Hindus worship their sages, masters and their teachers as gods they claim that they are not polytheists, as they see their gods and goddesses as a representative of powerful and one supreme. 31: Ibdi p 78 32: Knott, K. (2016). Hinduism: a very short introduction p 86 33: Hick, J.

(2016). Dialogues in the Philosophy of Religion. Springer np According to the philosophy of free religion, Buddhism was initiated in 1600 B.C by a man called Siddhartha Gautama who searched for enlightenment without God. The man was later called Buddha by those who followed him. The term Buddha means the awakened, the savior and the enlightened. The religion has series of domination, sects, and faith that is diverse.footnoteRef:34 They have their trinity, and they believe in miracles just as Christians.

Just like the Christians bow down to images of their past sages such as Mary, Jesus, and angels the Buddhist worship idols. The majority of the Buddhist is found

in Western Europe, Soviet Union, Korea China, Japan, Thailand, North and Latin America. 34: Deleuze, G., ; six Guattari, F. (2014). What is philosophy? Columbia University Press np From the philosophy of free will, Buddhism is not a religion from Almighty God but its founder was seen as a god by his followers because they believed in the miracles he said and copied what he did.footnoteRef:35  Siddhartha, the founder of this religion, researched on the problems that affect human beings through questioning the teachers of the faith the critical and sorrowful life of people. He asked a question like why were people born and die, why do they get old if God created human why does He let him suffer.

He sought the answer from the Hindus and the guru teachers, but the answer that he got were negative. 35: Rinpoche S. (2012). Tibetan book for the living or dying: the spiritual classic from one of the foremost interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Random House.

Np. To get the answer on what is free will according to religion he preceded on meditation where he fasted, yoga, self-denial but his effort were in vain. He sat under India fig tree for about 49 days meditating and figuring the answers. He was attacked by evil spirit Mara, but this did not stop his effort to achieve his objectives as he had enlightenment and knowledge to understand everything.  At the end he stood with the doctrine of God exist not; he knew everything only about life problems.

Buddha becomes the started healing the sick and save the old who were dying; many started following and learning his way of

meditation and enlightenment, and he became their god. footnoteRef:36 36: Ibid. np. Taoism means the path that leads to heaven; it is a philosophical religion of free will with its origin in China about 600 B.C.

Li-Erh founded it was also known as Lao-tzu that means the old one. He was call so as it is believed he stayed for so many years in the womb and by the time he was born he had gray hairs.footnoteRef:37 He was a hardworking man during his lifetime; he served as a clerk at Loyang in central China, and he had a clean record. He resided in Chou but nobody knew how he died because when finished writing the book where he discussed the concepts of the way of power, he departed his house and nobody saw him again.footnoteRef:38 37: Flemons, D. C. (2014). Completing Distinctions: Interweaving the ideas from Gregory Bateson as well as Taoism in the unique approach towards therapy.

Shambhala Publications. P. 128 38: Ibdi p131. After so many years since he left Changing reported that he received revelation from Lao-tzu.  Who told him that he was successful in making the elixir of life and ascended alive in heaven, riding a tiger from Mount Lung-hu in Kiangsi province.

If the story he told was true than Li-Erh has been in the sky before Jesus came to the world. Taoism believed that Tao was the controller of the seen or the unseen things and believed that there was no God apart from Tao. Heaven is the cause of everything; they worship paradise the supplier and Tao, the supervisor. The hypothetical each person must apply the concept or Tao before

he can do proper things, the believer should overlook a worldly thing or materials and they should firmly believe in Tao as failing to do so may lead to disasters.footnoteRef:39 39: Ibdi p.139 Confucianism is a religion from the philosophy of free will and religion that uses beliefs of Taoism and Buddhism; the free religion does not differentiate between Taoism and Buddhism.  The religions worship the same god of wealth and offer sacrifices at the temples during the festive days; it was started by Confucianism .He taught people the rules and the conducts that can lead them to restore peace and order in the society.

Kante was engaged in many issues of philosophy under the philosophy of free will; these are the argument about the existence of God, the attribute of God, the difficulties of wicked, the association of moral behavior of religious belief and practice and the immortality of the soul. footnoteRef:40 He based his argument on the metaphysical system and theoretical structure of Newtonian physics. He addressed three lines of argument, the cosmological argument, ontological, and physic-theological argument. 40: Kant, I. (2012).

The Fundamental principles involving metaphysics about morals. The Courier Corporation p.57 He uses the philosophical understanding of free will to focus on the evidence of the existence of God and his classified his case under two heading, the affirmation of God from the rational concept of the possible and the innovative concept of the things that are existing. On the situation around rationality and value of theological arguments that support God’s existence, he figured three features from his work. The first one he formulated a central element of the primary objective that he

raised against the ontological argument.

His objection was directed against rationalist accounts that he took judgment on something that exists that he based on the concept of physical objects and the fundamental to the ontological argument is the view of existence that described the concept of God.footnoteRef:41 41: Kant, Fundamental principles of the metaphysics of morals. P 68 He concluded that God must exist, he proved the statement on the free will by giving an example of hundred dollars in his pocket, and how one can imagine they have the hundred dollars in their pocket, and where he said the notes in the pocket is something that exists. The second in contrast to the position he had taken earlier he argues on the validly that makes the conclusion in the existence of God, this falls under the same heading where he classified the ontological argument that starts with the concept of the possible. Thirdly, he grouped the cosmological and physic-theological arguments and named this cosmological where he concluded that there must be a wise creator, but the statement lacked probative forces as it does not provide a sure demonstrative an affirmation of God. footnoteRef:42 42: Ibdi p. 76 Feuerbach used the philosophy of free will to criticized traditional religion for placing too much emphasis on the egotistical ideas of personal immortality.

footnoteRef:43 He puts his argument on the idea that personal life after death was a new idea within the religion of free will and viewed that the concept of personal God was also egotistical. Despite attacking Christianity, he did not reject the whole religion. He said that Christianity fails to be a true religion because Christians

are concerned in with self rather than with the God. His definition of the term religion of free will was that it is a matter of God, of the will of God, of God in and for himself. He argued that religion is a projection of our hopes and desires, it is created to deal with the fear of life and death; death is feared, and this creates personal immortality and eternal life.

People fear being helplessness at the time of disaster; this creates a compassionate omnipotent God and savior, he portrayed that people believe in God because they want God to exist, and thus He is a man-made illusion which derives from people’s ability to feel and imagine.footnoteRef:44 He viewed that people were not created in the image of God but God is created in their image, human give God the quality of love because they already value love. 43: Deranty, J. P. (2015). The Feuerbach's theory about object?relations as well as the legacy in 20th-century in the post?Hegelian type of philosophy. Southern Journal about Philosophy, 53(3),p.

286 44: Ibdi. P. 290 His approach to the question of free will according to philosophy of religion is seen as the natural culmination of the modernism; this is because he emphasized his explanations and reinforced them with proofs and he was confident that the method he used will not fail him. footnoteRef:45 He challenged divine revelation and submitted it to the scrutiny of human reason, and his interest was in man as the measure of all things further showed the post-enlightenment emphasis on the autonomy and individualism.footnoteRef:46 His illustration of the modernist approach can be seen to destroy

the religion; the approach also entails some of the traditional belief and values. 45: Bourget, D., & Chalmers, D. J.

(2014). About What philosophers believe in? The Philosophical Studies, 170(3), p. 466. 46: Bourget,.What do philosophers believe? Philosophical Studies, p. 287 Conclusion The Philosophy of free will according to religion is a philosophical branch that investigates the spiritual realm inherent in man, from metaphysics, anthropology, and ethics.  Most of the free will religions believe that there is a supernatural being that controls the evil in the world. These and other questions, gives ideas and religious postulates.

Before the twentieth century, the Western philosophical trajectory of free will sought to explain some angles of the pagan traditions of Judaism and Christianity, whereas in the East, in spiritual practices such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, it is not easy to see how far one research is religious or philosophical free will of nature. It is not easy to define this proper discipline object of study, from the religious point of view. According to these philosophers, even if you reach a correct characterization of the free will according to religion, it remains to find a reason to want to existence know the existence off God, Therefore, many religious scholars have their prejudices against modern religious practices of free will culture, as Kant and Feuerbach, which stimulated the study of philosophy of free will religions from a social and anthropological angle of the spiritual conviction path followed today by most philosophers of this discipline. The different religions have a supernatural being who they worship.

Some religion is similar in some aspect; Christian is similar to Judaism in that they use the same

book while Buddhist and Taoism are similar, thus they have the free will to choose the religion they like.

References

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