Michael PolyardCorresponding author

Philosophical Implications of Naturalizing Religion

Article
15/2 - Fall 2010, pages 355-365
Date of online publication: 20 décembre 2010
Date of publication: 20 décembre 2010

Abstract

This paper deals with Daniel Dennett’s argument regarding the nature of belief in contrast to belief in belief. The idea that the value of the first order belief in the existence of a precept is entirely irrelevant because it is indistinguishable from the second-order belief; that the belief in something is a good thing. That is to say it doesn’t matter if I believe something inasmuch as if I believe that the belief is a good thing (i.e.: beneficial to the individual, etc). Dennett’s approach particularly regards an analysis of religion from this point, and suggests that it is entirely impossible to determine if an individual believes in God, or simply believes that the belief in God is a good thing. More importantly, Dennett argues that the individual themselves cannot make this distinction.

Keywords

Cite this article

Polyard, Michael. “Philosophical Implications of Naturalizing Religion.” Forum Philosophicum 15, no. 2 (2010): 355–65. doi:10.35765/forphil.2010.1502.24.

Bibliography

Dennett, Daniel. Breaking the Spell: Religion As a Natural Phenomenon. New York: Viking, 2006.

Copyright

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License