The Philosophy Meetup – Faith: a benefit or detriment to society / oneself?
Details
Hello Philosophy Fans!
UPDATE: we have a topic for the Meetup, this Sunday, April 19 at 5 PM – 7 PM Pacific Time. We're meeting on zoom this month; shortly before the meeting starts, I'll send a Zoom invitation with the link and some discussion notes.
If your plans to attend have changed, please update your RSVP.
The winner of the email vote and the topic for Sunday is:
IS RELIANCE ON FAITH A DETRIMENT OR A BENEFIT? When is faith a benefit to society or to oneself? When is faith a detriment to society or to oneself? To take one example, is reliance on faith to support an argument more likely to lead to social conflict or to social harmony?
Faith is defined by philosophers in various ways, though no generally accepted definition exists. Faith can be defined narrowly as a belief for which there's not sufficient evidence or reason that it's true. Or, faith can be defined more broadly as trust in or commitment to principles, a transcendent power, or a set of beliefs that goes beyond what can be supported by logic or evidence alone. Faith is usually spoken of in religious terms, so we can spend much of the discussion of the detriment and benefit of faith on that basis. But faith is not necessarily religious; we can talk about the detriment and benefit of non-religious faith, too.
Examples of non-religious faith held by many people includes: the faith that your country's form of government is the best one, the faith that you are sane, the faith that humans are inherently good, the faith that the real world exists and that we live in it, the faith that the laws of physics will remain consistent tomorrow, the faith that human reason is capable of understanding the universe, the faith in or trust in a partner's reliability, or the faith in and commitment to principles such as democracy or progress.
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READINGS for the topic – I have two very short readings for you this time. Inspire and clarify your thinking on the issues by reading them!
https://philosophynow.org/issues/78/Is_Religion_Bad_For_Society
Is Religion Bad For Society? In this 4-page article from Philosophy Now magazine, Reverend Bob Eckhard, an ordained minister in the Church of England, argues that traditional religious faith is an overall a benefit to society.
https://medium.com/illumination/positive-and-negative-effects-of-religion-7ec841feef07
Positive and Negative Effects of Religion. This 3-page article in *Medium.com* is essentially a bullet point pro/con list, with 31 positive effects and 25 negative effects of religion on individuals and on society. By writer Matthew Gliatto, it comes from an atheistic perspective, but nevertheless concludes that religion is slightly a net benefit, despite many of its truth claims being questionable at best.
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Don't forget, if you have some philosophical question or issue that you want to talk about at a future meeting, email it to me!