ABSTRACT
Few questions have so engaged philosophical attention as those surrounding religion. We shall survey the central concerns of the philosophy of religion by focusing on two sets of questions, those surrounding the rationality of religious belief, and those asking about the nature of God. Do we have good reasons for thinking that God exists? Do the requirements of good intellectual conduct require that believers have evidence? These and related questions ask what sorts of intellectual requirements, if any, religious believers must satisfy in order to believe rationally. Assuming that God exists, our second set of questions asks what is he like? 1 Throughout the chapter, we shall note how scepticism concerning religion has influenced the arguments and discussion in the philosophy of religion by posing powerful objections against God’s existence and against certain understandings of his nature.
