Within contemporary philosophy, practical consequences of agnosticism about the existence of God have mostly been discussed on the margins of other topics—such as the nature of faith or the problem of divine hiddenness. The aim of this article is to present the existing views on the practical upshots of suspending one's judgment on God's existence, briefly discussing the way in which agnosticism relates to practical atheism, non‐doxastic faith, fictionalism, apophaticism, and spiritual inquiry.

This article addresses the problem of whether petitionary prayer, aimed at influencing God, is consistent with the traditional Christian affirmations of divine omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence. In this article, I first briefly articulate the problem of petitionary prayer, then briefly introduce and discuss some common approaches to resolving the problem. Finally, I introduce and discuss some implications of retrieving a cosmic conflict approach with rules of engagement as a possible avenue that warrants further consideration relative to the problem of petitionary (...) prayer. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that atheists who think that the issue of God's existence or non-existence is an important one; assign a greater than negligible probability to God's existence; and are not in possession of a plausible argument for scepticism about the truth-directedness of uttering such prayers in their own cases, are under a prima facie epistemic obligation to pray to God that He stop them being atheists.

This research seeks to explain the most important anthropological dimensions of prayer according to Vincent Brommer through analytical and citation methods. The independent man is one of the main components of prayer according to Brommer. Although he has not distinguished the anthropological topics of prayer from other topics, according to his presuppositions and epistemological foundations, it can be said that; Faith, love, human maximum authority, freedom and individuality are the most important anthropological dimensions of prayer for Brommer. In explaining these (...) anthropological issues, he has opened prayer influenced by existentialism and theology. According to Brommer, faith is a necessary and prerequisite for prayer and the essence of man's relationship with God. With a moderate approach to the issue of faith, he considers all three elements of knowledge, action and love to be effective in the truth of faith. In his view, the goal of faith and prayer is love of God. In the light of his belief in man's maximum free will and individuality, Brommer interprets prayer as man's interpersonal relationship with God. (shrink)

The teaching of mediation in Islamic tradition refers to a person requesting forgiveness of another and in the Christian tradition apart from forgiveness includes the bestowal of goodness to another as well. Motahhari and Brümmer consider the acceptance of mediation to be faced with the problem of superiority of the mediator’s mercy as compared to God’s mercy and the limitedness of God’s benevolence. Motahhari believes the answer to this problem to be in the attention to the hierarchy in the world’s (...) system and the bestowal of good to creation in the form of a linear system; mediation is not the existential cause for forgiveness but rather the preparatory cause for the bestowal of forgiveness from God. As a reply to this problem, Brümmer addresses God’s permission for man’s participation in spreading good to others in the form of prayers. According to Brümmer, God has made the world such that through prayers – while establishing a loving relationship with God – man can also have an active participation with God’s power in the acceptance of prayer. In this way, Motahhari and Brümmer with their answers consider mediation and God’s absolute benevolence to be consistent with one another. According to both, the world has an order in which man can play a role in spreading good to others with God’s permission. (shrink)

This analysis examines the theme of divine activity as found in the literature of religion and science over the past quarter century. After a brief historical chapter, reflections on divine action from authors in the philosophy of religion are considered. In chapters 2 and 3, concepts such as intervention, deism, master act and subacts, primary and secondary causation, double agency and the causal joint are outlined. Following this, chapters 4 and 5 concentrate on the work of Whitehead. The amount of (...) space devoted to the treatment of process thought in this investigation reflects the attention it has given to the topic of divine activity. (shrink)

از دید غزالی، انبیا تأثیری بنیادین در رساندن سایر انسان‌ها به عالی‌ترین مرتبۀ معرفتی دارند. این تأثیر، علاوه بر این که در حوزۀ تعلیم حقایق به انجام می‌رسد، تأثیری تربیتی است که با ایجاد تغییر در ساحت‌های عاطفی‌ـ‌ارادی انسان‌ها ساحت معرفت را به مرتبۀ یقین و به سطح مکاشفه می‌رساند. نقش تربیتی انبیا هدایتگری «سفری» است که انسان در نفس خود به سوی حقیقت در پیش می‌گیرد تا «قابلیت» دریافت حقایق را بیابد. رسیدن به این قابلیت مستلزم «تسویه» و «اعتدال» (...) و «انسجامی نفسانی» است، تا وی «یکسره» به حقیقت توجه یابد. انسان‌ها در مواجهه با نبی قالب زبانی مکاشفۀ او را دریافت می‌کنند. تبعیت از دستورات شرع و پیروی از حرکات و سکنات و اقوال و افعال انبیا انسان‌ها را در سفری معرفتی همراهی می‌کند که غایت آن ظهور عالی‌ترین مرتبۀ معرفتی در ایشان است. در این مرتبه است که طالبان معرفت می‌توانند به «فهم» و «تأویل» باطن حقایق شرع و معرفت به واقعیت‌های روحانی دست یابند، که شامل موجودات روحانی و ربط و نسبت‌های میان موجودات و معنای وجود آنها می‌شود. (shrink)