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 2)

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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 3)

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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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Can humans probe God? Can we inquire into God’s essence and nature? Is God at all knowable? Or forever beyond human understanding? Let’s be bold in questioning God.

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Is This God?

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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 2)

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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 1)

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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 2)

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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 3)

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Western religions have a specific image of the divine. For example, God is not only a person but also seems to have gender—and it is always masculine. Some are now...

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New Visions of the Divine?

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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 2)

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Can God be known only by faith? What is faith? What does faith feel like? Can faith be actionable, practical? Describing faith is one thing; having faith, quite another.

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How Does Faith Work?

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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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Conflict among religions troubles believers and well it should. How to reconcile contradictory doctrines and beliefs with competing claims of ultimate truth? One approach is...

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Pluralistic Hypothesis of Religion

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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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The Social Consequences of Religion

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Covenantal Pluralism

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Science and Religion in Context

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Contemporary Theological Engagement

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A perfect being, as defined by philosophical-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, is “that which no greater can be conceived”. What does this mean? Is this coherent? Is...

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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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Philosophy of religion poses numerous questions about God: “proof” or “disproofs” of existence, nature and attributes, personhood, relation to time, relation to...

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Can the Bible Address Philosophical Questions?

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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 1)

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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 2)

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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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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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How do Buddhism, Chinese traditions, and Hinduism address the ultimate essence of all things, the ground of being? What are transcendence, oneness, interconnectivity,...

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Metaphysics: Essence and Existence (Part II)

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How do Buddhism, Chinese traditions and Hinduism address Final Things—eschatology—life after death and the ultimate transformation of the world? What are reincarnation...

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Eschatology: The Ultimate Future (Part II)

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How do Buddhism, Chinese traditions and Hinduism address Final Things—eschatology—life after death and the ultimate transformation of the world? What are reincarnation...

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Eschatology: The Ultimate Future (Part I)

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Inner Life, Contemplative Practices (Part II)

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Inner Life, Contemplative Practices (Part I)

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What is the ultimate essence of all things? What is ultimate existence, the ground of being? What are transcendence, oneness, ineffability, causation? What is Brahman in...

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Fundamental Reality: Essence & Existence (Part II)

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What is the relationship between science and religion in the major traditions: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Chinese traditions as well as Christianity? What are...

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Science & Religion (Part II)

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What is the deep nature of the world? What is the role of value? What goes beyond the physical world? What is fundamental reality? We explore Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism,...

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World, Value, Reality (Part III)

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What happens after we die? Is there life after death? If so, what kind of life? From heaven and hell to systems and cycles of reincarnation, we explore Hinduism, Buddhism,...

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Death, Life After Death, Reincarnation (Part III)

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