Psychology
Final Exam
Choose three questions, and write ½ – 1 page on each. Answers must be typed, double spaced, with 12. point font.
1. Give a description of Einstein’s opinion on God in relationship to nature and his understanding of “cosmic religious feeling. Be sure to indicate why some viewed Einstein as a deist, and why some viewed him as an atheist. Also be sure to include your opinion with regards to which you believe he was.
2. Why does Keiji Nishitani understand religion as a necessity? Be sure to include his understanding on how individuals come to the question concerning religion, why understanding religion in a purely functional sense is problematic, and how religion addresses the experience of emptiness and meaninglessness in an individual’s life. What is your opinion on Nishitani’s take on the phenomenon of religion?
3. What is the ontological argument? Be sure to include a description as to why Anselm believed that the “that thought which no thought can be thought greater than” is distinguishable from other thoughts, why the fool cannot deny the existence of God, and why the fool can say in his heart what cannot be thought. Also include your opinion on the argument.
4. Give a description of Descartes version of the ontological argument. Be sure to include a description as to why the property of existence is a perfection, and how Descartes uses this understanding to conclude that God cannot exist only in the mind alone. Also be sure to give your opinion on the argument.
5. Describe Kant’s criticisms of the ontological argument. How does he come to understand that it is mere tautology?
6. Describe three of Thomas Aquinas’ cosmological arguments and give your opinion on each.
7. Describe the ontological argument in the context of William Paley’s analogy of the watch and the watchmaker. Include in your description an explanation of why a rock would not be understood as designed but a watch would.
8. What does David Hume conclude about the nature of God’s existence? How does he come to this conclusion based on the nature of the world?
9. How does Kant come to an understanding of God, and reward and punishment in an afterlife by way of reason?
10. What is Nietzsche’s take on morality? Be sure to include a description of herd-instinct, master, and slave morality. Also include your opinion on Nietzsche’s position.
ANSWER
Albert Einstein thought of God in an unconventional way where he thought that God would never concern himself with the trivialities of humankind. This belief lies within the range of Deism, where using knowledge understood in religion, he rejected bits of it and added some to his own. It is common for most people to interpret this as atheism but that is only when his faith is judged from the view of religion where God has to be one and his qualities absolute and supernatural. I believe his ideas are conceivable, in the old manuscript called ‘Desiderata’ the Christian philosophers of old left a choice for humankind by telling them to be a peace with their God in whatever way they conceived him to be. This allows for a wide range of perceptions on what or who God could be.
David Hume on the nature of God’s existence concluded that while there are some challenges and numerous questions about God, there is the affirmation that he exists and like any other being, has his own nature. For instance, he offered that God is very different and very superior in comparison to human beings that we are not capable of formulating any clear of a distinct theory of his nature and properties especially if our knowledge is limited to our own characteristics.
For Kant, the existence of God is highly dependable on human kind’s moral being. Morality is at the centre of it all where it contributes to religion and extends to governance. This means that God is an invention of humankind to put a check on their own morality. The soul, according to Kant goes on ahead after the death of humans and is judged on the morality or immorality of the human that came before it and with that judgement comes reward or punishment.
