FINAL ORAL COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Mr. Ronald B. Turiano, M.A.

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." – Benjamin Franklin

Guidelines:
Each student should bring a hard copy of the thesis statements during the oral exam. Notes
should be closed or removed during the exam except for the thesis statements.
Only the students who will take the exam on the day can enter the classroom and fall in line
for their turn inside the classroom. Bringing friends, classmates or anyone in the classroom
(who will not take the exam) will automatically give the examiner a mark of 0.
No swapping of schedule, unless in emergency cases and the professor should be notified a
day before the exam. (Students are strongly encouraged to take the exam on the scheduled
date and avoid swapping)
The student will answer two (2) theses through a draw lots and answer in five (5) minutes.
Strictly 2.5 minutes for each thesis.
Relax. But give your best shot!
Failure to take the oral exam will be marked 0. No Excuses! Except for really real valid reason
and should notify the professor prior to the exam.
The score of the student will be based on the following rubrics (which will be given right away
after the exam):
Directions: Final Oral Comprehensive Exam will be graded accordingly:

10 - Demonstrates full grasp of knowledge. Main ideas are clear and are well supported by
detailed and accurate information, explanation and elaboration.
9 - Main ideas are clear and are somehow supported by detailed and accurate information.
8 – Main ideas are clear but are not well supported by detailed information.
7 - Main ideas are somewhat clear without elaboration.
6 – Main ideas are somewhat clear and have no clear direction.
5 – Stated only one topic and the direction is somewhat unclear, provides weak examples and
facts.
4 – Stated only one topic and the direction is unclear and provides weak and insufficient
support.
3 – Does not clearly define the topic and purpose and no support of the subject.
2 – Does not have a grasp of information and gives confusing information.
1 – Circular argument, Beats around the bush and are distractingly repetitive, bluffing without
a clear direction, examples and no support at all.
0 – Failing to take the Final Oral Exams or shows no interest in topic presented and did not
speak anything or speaks non-sense in two (2) minutes.
THESIS STATEMENTS:

1. Religious intuition is the original source of all religion. It does not need any external proof or
justification (in fact, it is incapable of any) because religious intuition is man's answer to the
call of God inside him which gives rise to a vision of something which stands beyond, behind
and within. Discuss the phenomenological description on religion by Walter Stace. Discuss
the difference of Philosophy of Religion from Theology according to William Rowe.
It is innate to us that there is God and we don’t need a reason or a choice to prove that God
really exists. Philosophy of religion is hollistic, seeking the reasons behind the development of
religion while Theology is that the belief and concepts: God, faith, miracle, omnipotence, etc.
are the basis of religion.

2. The faculty that we apprehend God is not reason, volition or an ethical faculty but intuition
and feeling on the immediate self-consciousness on the causes and relationships of one’s
existence, the according to Friedrich Schleirmacher. Religion opens up the possibility of
having a numinous experience of unexplainable experience of mysterium, tremendum et
fascinans to a supernatural source according to Rudolf Otto. Religion must always be
explained on its own terms as sacred (space and time) and profane according to Mircea
Eliade. Compare and contrast the different religious experiences according to
Schleirmacher’s feeling of absolute dependence, Otto’s mysterium, tremendum et fascinans
and Eliade’s sacred and profane.

For Schleimacher, religious consciousness is a feeling of absolute dependence. It is

innate to us that God exists.
For Otto, the numinous can be understood to be the experience of a mysterious terror
and awe (Mysterium tremendum et fascinans) and majesty (Majestas) in the presence of that
which is “entirely other” (das ganz Andere) and thus incapable of being expressed directly
through human language.
For Eliade, religious consciousness is experience through visible things

3. The secret of Theology is Anthropology (Humanism). What God is, what Christianity is and
what all religions are, are basically projections of human desires and human fantasies
according to Ludwig Feuerbach. According to Friedrich Nietzsche: God is dead! We have
killed him. God is no longer a philosophical strong explanation as the source of moral values.
The person who can re-create his moral values is the ubermensch or uber human. What
precisely does it mean to be an ubermensch and who can be one? Compare and contrast
Feuerbach’s Critique of Christianity from Nietzsche’s Master Morality (self-mastery) vs Slave
Morality (herd happiness and ressentiment) , Will to Power and Ubermensch.

For Feuerbach, religion is a dream, in which our own conceptions and emotions appear to us
as separate existences, being out of ourselves. Humanistic atheism is a recognition of the
dignity of man and its emphasis on the value of living a full human life. He considered faith in
God to be destructive of human dignity and a full human life. And because of religion man
loses touch with his own greatness, becoming an alien to himself that is because people
project into God all the good qualities. Such a projection results in people seeing themselves
as just opposite of God as imperfect, evil, weak and ugly. So by rejecting religion the
grandeur of human existence is restored.
According to Nietzsche, master morality is an attitude that where “good” and “bad” are
equivalent to “noble” and “despicable” respectively. For strong-willed men, the 'good' is the
noble, strong, and powerful, while the 'bad' is the weak, cowardly, timid, and petty. Masters
are creators of morality; slaves respond to master-morality with their slave-morality
For Nietzsche, the will to power is the dominant principle of organic function. Without this
exploiting the sentimental weaknesses of equality among people, society cannot develop. The
will to power is the will to life.
4. Religion is an escape mechanism, a feel-good buffer against reality as people escape into
a silly world of illusions and hallucinations. It is the illusory happiness of the people. “Religion
is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of the heartless world and the soul of the
soulless conditions. Religion is the opium of the people.” Discuss Exploitation of Labor,
Alienation of Labor, Capitalism, Class Struggle, Historical and Dialectical Materialism,
Substructure and the Material Order, Ideology and Superstructure to support Marx’s Atheism.
For Marx, religion is the opium of the people. Upper classes of society have often
used the religion as a means to maintain control over society. He saw religion as a symptom
of human alienation, from which we must free ourselves by realizing our value in this world.

5. Religious rituals and obsessive actions stem from this inner feeling of disorder and anxiety
and therefore both of these actions are a defense mechanism meant to combat this anxiety.
Religion is an illusion a kind of childish delusion that humans created as a form of
wish-fulfillment. Discuss Freud’s Psychoanalysis: Conscious and Unconscious Mind, Id, Ego,
and Superego, Psychosexual Development, Defense Mechanisms and Ego Anxiety and Life
and Death Instincts.
For Freud

6. Superstition, religion and irrationalism should not simply be tolerated but should be
countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument according to the New Atheists
(Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, Dennett and Stenger). Science alone can give us complete and
reliable knowledge of reality. Scientism is not as "simple ordinary science", but as a
replacement for religion. On the other hand, Tillich argued that there can be no conflict
between science and faith or between history and faith because science and history seeks to
express empirical truth by means of literal concept, whereas the claims of faith are attempts
to express spiritual truth through the medium of symbols and myths. Compare the New
Atheists argument from Tillich’s Dynamics of Faith: Philosophical Truth and Truths of Faith.

New atheists don't believe that there is God because there is no physical evidence
that God really exists, they don't believe in the existence of a soul and science cannot prove
that there is such thing called God. And for them science alone can give us complete and
reliable knowledge of the reality.
In contrast, Tillich believe that we don't need evidence to prove that God really exists.
Our spiritual faith alone can

7. If it is possible that God exists, then it follows logically that God does exist. God defined as
a maximally great being (perfect) - all powerful, all-knowing, morally perfect in a POSSIBLE
world therefore must exist in an ACTUAL world to be a maximally great being (perfect)
according to St. Anselm. On the other hand, Rene Descartes argued that the Belief in a Clear
and Distinct Perception and the Theory of Innate Ideas can demonstrate certainty of God's
existence based on the logical conclusion drawn from the fact that necessary existence is
contained in the clear and distinct of a supremely perfect being. Compare and contrast
Anselm and Descartes’s Ontological Argument.
8. Cosmological argument argues for the existence of a First Cause for the universe and
argues that: Whatever begins to exist has a cause, the universe began to exist, therefore the
universe has a cause. Can God’s existence be proven based on the phenomenon
(observable things) of the natural world? Discuss the Five Ways of St. Thomas Aquinas and
compare and contrast the Watchmaker Argument of William Paley to Aquinas’s Teleological
Argument.

9. Clifford argues that “it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything
upon insufficient evidence.” However, William James believes that faith is sensible, though
not rationally demanded. In an option without direct evidence risk is needed through a
Genuine Option (living, forced and momentous). In the same vein, Blaise Pascal argued that
if reason cannot be trusted, it is a better "wager" to believe in God than not to do so.” If you
gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.” Is
it wrong always to believe upon anything without sufficient evidence? Compare Clifford’s
Evidentialism from James Pragmatism and Pascal’s Wager.

10. Immanuel Kant argued: If objective moral values exist, then God exist. Objective moral
values exist. Therefore, God exist. Can you be good without God? If there is no God, what is
the objective basis for good and bad, right or wrong? Discuss the Euthypro Dilemma,
participation in the summum bonum, rationality of moral behaviour through justice and hope
for a future world of perpetual peace and happiness under the spirit of the moral law
according to Kant.

11. It is logically impossible to have an all-good, omnibenevolent and omnipotent God with the
existence of evil. Why is there evil? and why does God allow evil? Discuss the following: a.
arguments of Logical Positivists, b. Proposed Solution to the Problem of Evil, c. Physical Evil
and Irenaean Theodicy (Proposed Solution to Physical or Natural Evil), d. Moral Evil and Free
Will Defenseor Augustinian Theodicy (Proposed Solution to Moral Evil) and e. Leibniz’s
principle of sufficient reason (best of all possible worlds) to answer the problem of evil.
Evil comes in many forms. It is a hindrance or obstacle of doing good in life. God is
unseen entity, one that cannot be verified, then the term God is meaningless, nonsensical
and empty. The proposed solution to the problem of evil are (1) God is not powerful enough to
make a world that does not contain evil, (2) God created only the good in the universe and
that some other power created the evil , like the Satan and the Fallen angels in the bible (3)
God is all powerful but morally imperfect universe.
Evil is not just the act of man there are also physical or natural evil. (1) Dangerous place and
animals. (2) Natural calamities and immense human suffering. (3) Disease. (4) Physical
deformities and defects. Proposed solution to the problem of physical evil are physical good is
(1) impossible without physical evil. Just like the battery, there is no positive if there is no
negative. (2) God’s punishment for sin. Kaya may bagyo o sakit ang isang tao para mawala
na masama na mga tao. Kumbaga eto ay karma. (3) God’s warning to men. Makasalanan na
ang mga tao, kaya nag wawarning na ang Diyos na kailangan na nating maging mabuti. (4)
Evils are the results of the operations of laws of nature. (5) The universe is better with evil in
it. Dahil sa volcanic eruption, nagtulungan ang mga tao.
Moral evil is simply immorality. It is committed on purpose by humans. Proposed solution: (1)
free will provide justification for the moral evil. It is our choice to do evil. Pinili mo ang gumawa
ng masama kahit na may ibang pagpipilian, ginusto mo pa rin na gawin yun(2) The goods
made possible by free will provides a basis for accounting for moral evil. Ginawa mo lang yun
dahil nakitang mong may kabutihan na maidudulot yun sayo. Tulad ng mga nag suicide,
nagpakamatay sila dahil para sa kanila “marhay pa ngaya na magadan” na ang problema
niya sa buhay ay mawawala kung mamamatay siya .
Whatever God has chosen is good because He is good. “There’s evil in the world but there’s
a sufficient reason for that.”

12. There are some truths which will never be known through reason but only through faith. It
needs trust and conviction, a leap of faith in matters that can never be known as stated by
Soren Kierkegaard. On the other hand, St. Augustine believe that faith is a life of conversion
(pagbabalik-loob) and love. “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until
they can find rest in you,” he said. Compare and contrast the leap of faith of Kierkegaard and
the life of conversion (pagbabalik-loob) towards love of St. Augustine.
Faith is a kind of trust that we had in God. We trust everything we had to Him. Like
Abraham that are willing to sacrifice even his own child for God. It is an act of obedience and
love. “Worry ends when faith begins”.
Faith is like our home. St. Augustine believe that faith is a life of conversion and love.
After we do the things in earth like going to school, going to work or what you do in life, we go
back to our home because it is a place we are comfortable with. We feel empty if we don’t go
back or if we don’t have faith. God is the way the truth and the life. Our soul is restless until it
rests in you. Di tayo matatahimik kapag di tayo nakabalik sa kanya. Nag dadasal tayo para sa
katahimikin ng ating buhay. Sa buhay natin ngayon maiisip natin na di na natin kaiangan ng
diyos. Kumbaga andiyan na lahat na kailangan natin. Advanced na ang technology, may
internet, gadgets at iba pa. Pero hindi eh, kahit sa dinami dami bagay nay an sa mundo,
bumabalik at bumabalik pa rin tayo sa Diyos. Sa kanya lang natin nararamdaman ang
katahimikin ng ating buhay. Kung saan tayo nanggaling doon tayo bumabalik.

13. Without God, we must live in anxiety, forlornness, and despair - on our own, with no
ultimate guidance, and also with no excuses for ourselves according to Jean Paul Sartre. But
Gabriel Marcel believes that hope is a religious experience. Hope is returning home, of finding
one’s own way again. It can inspire courage, motivation, and sustain a sense of faith,
meaning, and purpose. Hope represents a light, overcomes isolation and alienation as it leads
to a sense of communion. Compare Sartre’s Despair to Marcel’s Hope.
Hope is giving us light in our life. In contrast, despair is a complete loss or absence of hope.
Without God, life has no value we don’t know what we will do if there is no God, we feel
empty inside, nervous about what might happen to us. We are not the masters of our fate.
Despair arises. Life became meaningless
Religion stands for our hope in life. We don't easily give up, we are open to future
possibilities, we don't isolate ourselves to others and life became meaningful.