(OCR A Level Religious Studies) A* Philosophy Of Religion Notes + Essay Plans

Authored by a student who achieved an A* and ranked 1st in cohort at a leading London sixth form, these notes provide a comprehensive revision package for the A-Level Philosophy of Religion component. Complete Table of Contents (All 10 Core Topics Included) The Teleological Argument: Aquinas (Fifth Way), Paley (Watchmaker), Darwin (Gratuitous Suffering & Ichneumonidae), Dawkins (Teleonomy vs. Teleology), Tennant (Aesthetic Principle), Hume (UoTbE & Scales Analogy), and Ockham’s Razor. The Cosmological Argument: Aquinas (Ways 1, 2, and 3), Hume (Fallacy of Composition, Causal Skepticism, Russell's Mother Analogy), and Leibniz (Principle of Sufficient Reason). The Ontological Argument: Anselm (Proslogion I & II, TTWNGCBC), Gaunilo (Lost Island & Epistemic Gap), Plantinga (Intrinsic Maximum), Descartes (Supremely Perfect Being & Triangles), Kant (Analytic/Synthetic & Predicates), and Malcolm (Necessary Existence). Ancient Philosophical Influences: Plato (World of Forms, Anamnesis, Cave Allegory, Demiurge) vs. Aristotle (Four Causes, Prime Mover, Abstraction). Mind, Body, and Soul: Substance Dualism (Plato, Descartes' Indubitability & Indivisibility, Leibniz's Law) vs. Materialism/Hylomorphism (Ryle's Ghost in the Machine, Dawkins' Soul 1 vs. Soul 2, Aristotle's Formal Cause & Wax Stamp). Religious Experience: Mystical (PINT) and Conversion (DCCD) Experiences; James (Pragmatism), Broad (Unanimity), Swinburne (Credulity & Testimony) vs. Psychological/Physiological Critiques (Freud, Dawkins, Persinger’s God Helmet, Ramachandran). The Problem of Evil: Logical (Epicurus, Mackie's Inconsistent Triad) and Evidential (Hume, Rowe's Fawn); Augustinian Theodicy (Privatio Boni, Plenitude, Aesthetic Theme) vs. Irenaean/Hick (Soul-Making, Epistemic Distance, Eschatological Verification). 20th Century Religious Language: Logical Positivism (Schlick, Ayer's Strong/Weak Verification), Putnam's Anti-Skepticism, Wittgenstein (Language Games, Meaning is Use, Forms of Life), Postliberalism (Lindbeck), and the Falsification Symposium (Flew, Hare's Bliks, Mitchell's Partisan). Traditional Religious Language: Via Negativa / Apophatic Way (Pseudo-Dionysius, Maimonides' Ship), Via Positiva / Cataphatic Way (Aquinas' Analogy of Attribution & Proportion, Alston's Critique), and Symbolic Language (Tillich's Being-Itself vs. Hick & Ayer). The Nature & Attributes of God: The Omnipotence Debate (Aquinas, Descartes, Mackie's Paradox, Augustine, Vardy, MacQuarrie's Kenosis) & The Omniscience/Atemporality Debate (Maimonides, Swinburne, Boethius' Lofty Peak, Anselm's Four-Dimensionalism). Bonus Section: Synoptic Essay Plans & Critical Comparisons (A Priori vs. A Posteriori Arguments).