Pascal's Wager

In Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky invites the reader to explore the results of fully embracing utilitarianism as a moral philosophy. The novel does this through Rodya, a character who adopts utilitarianism and acts in unsettling ways. I will argue Dostoevsky does not challenge the core premises of utilitarianism, but instead asks the reader to think about the consequences of this ideology. Rodya is both nonreligious as well as utilitarian to the extreme. Rodya is (at least in part)…

Scott Sturgeon, the author of “Philosophy: The Great Debate”, talks about philosophy and the existence of God. Sturgeon states that every culture believes in a different God. He mentions that people always believed that there is more in life than everything we see and touch. Sturgeon asked us many questions whether God exists because of a psychological defense-mechanism or because of a common experience for all humans that led them to believe in God? Sturgeon talked about Theism which means the…

Without God, there is no real obligation to hold true to morals. Morals are simply devices that we have adapted to in order to ensure the survival of our species. Craig uses the example of rape, saying that certainly everyone knows that rape is wrong, but without God there is nothing truly wrong with rape, it is simply something that we avoid because it is not beneficial to humankind. But because there is a real moral objection to this behavior, then it is important because it is another…