Dubious Stance: "Philosophy Questions. Religion Preaches. I Choose Philosophy."

A recurrent theme in public discussion of religion & philosophy together, is the perceived conflict between the two.

Basis: Philosophy & the sciences before it, are man's striving. Religion is sent down from God. Religion is therefore telling, whereas the others are asking.

Answer: It is non-sequitur to say they are pitted against each other because of this. Philosophy may, for example, discuss the relative merit of differing ideas, whereas religion picks out a fundamental perspective: the perspective of an infinite reality where all is really one, & thus everything aligns to that.


For example, Plato's Republic. The tyrant & the wicked man are cast as good, because they live life to the fullest, while the honest man commits the sin of a wasted life. Think about his wife too, and kids. What a fool he is, a mean fool. So you see, there are real merits open to debate for both alignments. Religion picks out one of two fundamental alignments, the other being a finite materialist perspective, where greed and the fight to dominate finite resources are truly virtuous.


So as you can see, philosophy fleshes out religion, religion being one of two fundamental viewpoints.

Argue.