Argument from love - Wikipedia Argument from love From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Part of a series on the Philosophy of religion Religious concepts Afterlife Apophatism Cataphatism Eschatology Enlightenment Intelligent design Miracle Mysticism Religious belief Reincarnation Religious faith Scripture (religious text) Soul Spirit Theological veto Challenges Ethical egoism Euthyphro dilemma Logical positivism Religious language Verificationism eschatological Problem of evil Theodicy Augustinian Irenaean Best of all possible worlds Inconsistent triad Natural evil God Conceptions Aristotelian Brahman Demiurge Divinely simple Form of the Good Holy Spirit Maltheist Pandeist Personal Process-theological Summum bonum Supreme Being Unmoved mover Existence Arguments for Beauty Christological Trilemma Resurrection Consciousness Cosmological kalām contingency metaphysical Degree Desire Experience Existential choice Fine-tuned universe Love Miracles Morality Mystical idealism Natural law Necessary existent Seddiqin Nyayakusumanjali Ontological Gödel Modal Anselm Mulla Sadra Spinoza Pascal's wager Reason Reformed Teleological Intelligent design Natural law Watchmaker Junkyard Trademark Transcendental Arguments against 747 gambit Wager Creator of God Evil God Free will Hell Inconsistency Nonbelief Noncognitivism Omnipotence paradox Poor design Russell's teapot By religion Abrahamic Bahá'í Christianity Islam Judaism Mormonism Buddhism Hinduism Jainism Sikhism Wicca Theories of religion Acosmism Agnosticism Animism Antireligion Atheism Creationism Dharmism Deism Divine command theory Dualism Esotericism Exclusivism Existentialism agnostic atheist Christian Feminist Fundamentalism Gnosticism Henotheism Humanism Christian religious secular Inclusivism Monism Monotheism Mysticism Naturalism humanistic metaphysical religious New Age Nondualism Nontheism Pandeism Panentheism Pantheism Perennialism Polytheism Process Spiritualism Shamanism Taoic Theism Transcendentalism Philosophers of religion Atheist / agnostic Epicurus Hume Nietzsche Harris Critchley Singer Quine Dennett Camus Sartre de Beauvoir Russell Mill Marx Lucretius Heraclitus Rand Foucault Searle Goldstein Schopenhauer Drange Draper Kenny Hecht Michael Martin Buddhist Nagarjuna Vasubandhu Buddhaghosa Dignāga Dharmakirti Jayatilleke Premasiri Ñāṇavīra Nakamura Nishitani Nishida Damien Keown David Loy Evan Thompson Smith Westerhoff Garfield Christian Adams Alston Aquinas Augustine Bell Brümmer Burns Caird Craig Dalferth Eliade Evans Gamwell Heidegger Hick Kierkegaard Kretzmann Leftow McCabe McIntyre Merricks Miceli Moser Newman Otto Paley Schaeffer de Silva Smith Stewart Swinburne Taliaferro Tamer Thiselton Ward White Wiebe Wollaston Yandell Islamic al-Amiri al-Attas Averroes Avicenna Badawi Brethren of Purity Damad al-Farabi al-Ghazali Ibn Arabi Ibn Bajjah Ibn Masarra Ibn Miskawayh M. Iqbal al-Kindi Nasr Ramadan al-Razi Sadra al-Shahrastani Shariati Suhrawardi Shaykh Tusi Waliullah Jewish Buber Heschel Maimonides Mendelssohn Schwarzschild Soloveitchik Spinoza Hindu Adi Shankara Ramanuja Madhvacharya Udayana Kumārila Bhaṭṭa Vācaspati Miśra Jayanta Bhatta Abhinavagupta Raghunatha Siromani Sri Aurobindo Ramana Maharshi J. Krishnamurti Radhakrishnan BK Matilal KC Bhattacharya Others Almaas Anderson Emmet Esaulov Ferré Forman Glogau Hartshorne Hatano Hatcher Klostermaier Kvanvig Martinich Meltzer Runzo Smart Vallicella Zank Zimmerman Related topics Criticism of religion Ethics in religion Exegesis Faith and rationality History of religions Religion and science Religious philosophy Theology Philosophy of religion article index v t e The Argument from love is an argument for the existence of God. Contents 1 Arguments from love to the existence of God 2 Variants 2.1 Comparative rationality of belief in God and Love 2.2 Suggested compelling nature of God's Love 3 Notes and references Arguments from love to the existence of God[edit] See also: omnibenevolence and Trinity § Trinity and love Tom Wright suggests that materialist philosophy and scepticism has "paved our world with concrete, making people ashamed to admit that they have had profound and powerful 'religious' experiences".[1] The reality of Love in particular ("that mutual and fruitful knowing, trusting and loving which was the creator's intention" but which "we often find so difficult") and the whole area of human relationships in general, are another signpost pointing away from this philosophy to the central elements of the Christian story.[2] Wright contends both that the real existence of love is a compelling reason for the truth of theism and that the ambivalent experience of love, ("marriages apparently made in heaven sometimes end not far from hell") resonates particularly with the Christian account of fall and redemption.[3] Paul Tillich suggested (in 1954) even Spinoza "elevates love out of the emotional into the ontological realm. And it is well known that from Empedocles and Plato to Augustine and Pico, to Hegel and Schelling, to Existentialism and depth psychology, love has played a central ontological role."[4] and that "love is being in actuality and love is the moving power of life"[5] and that an understanding of this should lead us to "turn from the naive nominalism in which the modern world lives".[6] The theologian Michael Lloyd suggests that "In the end there are basically only two possible sets of views about the universe in which we live. It must, at heart, be either personal or impersonal... arbitrary and temporary[7] [or emerging] from relationship, creativity, delight, love".[8] Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft summarises the argument as "Love is the greatest of miracles. How could an evolved ape create the noble idea of self-giving love? Human love is a result of our being made to resemble God, who himself is love. If we are made in the image of King Kong rather than in the image of King God, where do the saints come from?"[9] Philosopher Alvin Plantinga expressed the argument in similar terms.[10] According to Graham Ward, postmodern theology portrays how religious questions are opened up (not closed down or annihilated) by postmodern thought. The postmodern God is emphatically the God of love, and the economy of love is kenotic.[11] Variants[edit] Comparative rationality of belief in God and Love[edit] A variant on the argument is a defence of the rationality of theism by comparing faith in God with love, and to suggest that if it isn't irrational to love someone then it shouldn't be seen as irrational to believe in God.[12] The philosopher Roger Scruton suggests: "Rational argument can get us just so far...It can help us to understand the real difference between a faith that commands us to forgive our enemies, and one that commands us to slaughter them. But the leap of faith itself — this placing of your life at God's service — is a leap over reason's edge. This does not make it irrational, any more than falling in love is irrational."[13] Suggested compelling nature of God's Love[edit] Another variant of the argument is that the evidence for God's love is sufficiently compelling that people can reasonably believe in it, and hence a fortiori believe in God.[14] This approach is criticised by Richard Dawkins who suggests that it is an "Argument from emotional blackmail".[15] Notes and references[edit] ^ Tom Wright Simply Christian p 16 ^ Tom Wright Simply Christian pp 25–33 ^ Tom Wright Simply Christian p 33 ^ Paul Tillich Love, Power and Justice Oxford University Press 1954 p4 ^ Paul Tillich, Love, Power and Justice, Oxford University Press, 1954, p25 ^ Paul Tillich, Love, Power and Justice, Oxford University Press, 1954, p19 ^ Lloyd cites Quentin Smith ^ Michael Lloyd Cafe Theology (2005) ISBN 1-904074-76-6 p 14 ^ Peter Kreeft, Your Questions, God's Answers, Ignatius Press, 1994, ISBN 0-89870-488-X, p. 105. ^ Alvin Plantinga (1986), “Two Dozen [or so] Theistic Arguments,” paper delivered at the 33rd Annual Philosophy Conference, Wheaton College, 23-25 Oct. and republished as an appendix to: Deane-Peter Baker (2007), Alvin Plantinga, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-85531-4. ^ The Modern Theologians 3rd ed p 335 ^ This type of argument was made by Alvin Plantinga in God and Other Minds ^ Roger Scruton. Dawkins is wrong about God reproduced from The Spectator ^ See e.g. Michael Welker in The Work of Love p131 "in this love God's identity and power are made known" (italics in original). He cites e.g. John 17:26 ^ The God Delusion p83 v t e Philosophy of religion Concepts in religion Afterlife Euthyphro dilemma Faith Intelligent design Miracle Problem of evil Religious belief Soul Spirit Theodicy Theological veto Conceptions of God Aristotelian view Brahman Demiurge Divine simplicity Egoism Holy Spirit Misotheism Pandeism Personal god Process theology Supreme Being Unmoved mover God in Abrahamic religions Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Islam Jainism Judaism Mormonism Sikhism Baháʼí Faith Wicca Existence of God For Beauty Christological Consciousness Cosmological Kalam Contingency Degree Desire Experience Fine-tuning of the universe Love Miracles Morality Necessary existent Ontological Pascal's wager Proper basis Reason Teleological Natural law Watchmaker analogy Transcendental Against 747 gambit Atheist's Wager Evil Free will Hell Inconsistent revelations Nonbelief Noncognitivism Occam's razor Omnipotence Poor design Russell's teapot Theology Acosmism Agnosticism Animism Antireligion Atheism Creationism Dharmism Deism Demonology Divine command theory Dualism Esotericism Exclusivism Existentialism Christian Agnostic Atheistic Feminist theology Thealogy Womanist theology Fideism Fundamentalism Gnosticism Henotheism Humanism Religious Secular Christian Inclusivism Theories about religions Monism Monotheism Mysticism Naturalism Metaphysical Religious Humanistic New Age Nondualism Nontheism Pandeism Panentheism Pantheism Perennialism Polytheism Possibilianism Process theology Religious skepticism Spiritualism Shamanism Taoic Theism Transcendentalism more... Religious language Eschatological verification Language game Logical positivism Apophatic theology Verificationism Problem of evil Augustinian theodicy Best of all possible worlds Euthyphro dilemma Inconsistent triad Irenaean theodicy Natural evil Theodicy Philosophers of religion (by date active) Ancient and medieval Anselm of Canterbury Augustine of Hippo Avicenna Averroes Boethius Erasmus Gaunilo of Marmoutiers Pico della Mirandola Heraclitus King James VI and I Marcion of Sinope Thomas Aquinas Maimonides Early modern Augustin Calmet René Descartes Blaise Pascal Baruch Spinoza Nicolas Malebranche Gottfried W Leibniz William Wollaston Thomas Chubb David Hume Baron d'Holbach Immanuel Kant Johann G Herder 1800 1850 Friedrich Schleiermacher Karl C F Krause Georg W F Hegel William Whewell Ludwig Feuerbach Søren Kierkegaard Karl Marx Albrecht Ritschl Afrikan Spir 1880 1900 Ernst Haeckel W K Clifford Friedrich Nietzsche Harald Høffding William James Vladimir Solovyov Ernst Troeltsch Rudolf Otto Lev Shestov Sergei Bulgakov Pavel Florensky Ernst Cassirer Joseph Maréchal 1920 postwar George Santayana Bertrand Russell Martin Buber René Guénon Paul Tillich Karl Barth Emil Brunner Rudolf Bultmann Gabriel Marcel Reinhold Niebuhr Charles Hartshorne Mircea Eliade Frithjof Schuon J L Mackie Walter Kaufmann Martin Lings Peter Geach George I Mavrodes William Alston Antony Flew 1970 1990 2010 William L Rowe Dewi Z Phillips Alvin Plantinga Anthony Kenny Nicholas Wolterstorff Richard Swinburne Robert Merrihew Adams Ravi Zacharias Peter van Inwagen Daniel Dennett Loyal Rue Jean-Luc Marion William Lane Craig Ali Akbar Rashad Alexander Pruss Related topics Criticism of religion Desacralization of knowledge Ethics in religion Exegesis History of religion Religion Religious language Religious philosophy Relationship between religion and science Faith and rationality more... 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