Do most philosophers believe in God or not?

Question

I'm taking an ethics class and the more I learn about philosophers, the more I feel they are just self rightous individuals. Take Kant for instance, he believed God didn't exist because you couldn't prove he existed. Then there was Socrates, who killed himself. Why do we hold these people on such high regard?
The conclusions drawn from the "Enlightenment" era seem just common since to me, with regards to how we should treat each other (which I learned from the Bible).
As far as people believeing we didn't start to think for ourselves before the Enlightenment (or at least the ones that don't believe in God, therefore Divine law and direction doesn't exist), how do you suppose we came up with the 10 Commandments and other laws of religous beliefs that teach us how to behave in society. If there isn't a God (which I know there is one), then who was coming up with all these rules that governed mankind before the Enlightenment. Someone must have been "enlightened" before then.

Answer 1

Philosophers , may seem as self righteous people and probably many are, but they are abstract thinkers , that see and express their thoughts to the people to give a different perspective and possibilities to life . There are religious philosophers as there are politic philosophers , they encompass a many different disciplines , with a wide range of views . So to your answer , yes many of them do not believe in God as many do believe in It .

Answer 2

If you can't take a course with an open mind, then you don't need to be in it.

"Take Kant for instance, he believed God didn't exist because you couldn't prove he existed." If you can prove to me, conclusively, that God exists, then you have a point. Otherwise, Kant is correct in his assumption: Religion is based on faith and faith alone, trying to interject reason into it always ends in failure.

"Then there was Socrates, who killed himself. Why do we hold these people on such high regard?" Socrates killed himself because he had to according to the laws of the time.

What do we hold these people in such high regard? You state that the conclusions drawn from the Enlightenment are just common sense to you. Could you consider that what was stated or learned in the Enlightenment has just been passed down to you over time in such a way that you did not realize what was being done?

No one has told you people did not think before for themselves prior to the enlightenment. What you believe is divine law may be that to you, but not to the man next to you.

Then you asked how we came up with the ten commandments - This is where a lack of knowledge kicks your buttocks. If by chance you think that the ten commandments were the first laws on earth, then you have problems. As a matter of fact, the so called ten commandments that you probably believe in are mentioned three times in the first five books of the Bible. Two of the mentions are basically the same, the third one is radically different. If you will read the book of Exodus from the very beginning up to and through Exodus 20, you will see the ten commandments in the form which you are used to. But Moses broke those tables and had to go back on the mountain to get another set. Read now from Exodus 20 to and through Exodus 34 and tell me if the myth you have been told about the ten commandments has any credibility.

your problem is that you are trying to study an objective field from a subjective standpoint (I know there is a God). I would suggest that you drop the class if it confuses you and major in Accounting where every thing you hold, generally belonging to someone else, is green and has "in God we trust" on it.

Answer 3

First of all, there is a glaring factual error in your diatribe there. Socrates did not kill himself... he was sentenced to death in a court of law. I suppose you can choose to argue that he might have escaped or defended himself better, but do you really want to argue that it's worth sacrificing your integrity to save your life?

And while we're on the subject, Socrates was by all accounts a very firm believer in the gods. Maybe not YOUR god, but he was definitely a theist. He questioned many, many things in his time, but the existence of the Divine was never one of them.

There were, in fact, many many philosophers for whom the largest body of their work centered entirely on proving the existence of this or that god as conclusively as possible. And many more who at least touched on it and decided that there definitely was at least one divine entity kicking around. Aristotle and Plato all but ruled philosophy for a thousand years, and they were both ardent theists.

I couldn't find a modern survey to give you a good estimate of philosopher's beliefs today. But even the question runs into another problem - who, exactly, IS a philosopher? If you choose only people employed full-time to philosophize, you'll leave out a LOT of people (and some of the greater historical ones). If you include anyone with philosophical thoughts, you'll include just about everyone.

Having said that, I suspect that philosophers are more or less like most people, except being more accustomed to having their every belief and idea questioned and torn apart by their peers. From that vantage, agnosticism would seem the most defensible stance to take. But I have very little doubt that there is no small minority of theist philosophers out there, even if they aren't as loud as the atheist ones.

Links to some of their resources are below. Enjoy!

Answer 4

Kant believed in God. He just thought you could not prove it. Socrates killed himself because he was told to do so by his government and he believed it was the moral thing to do. People coming up with laws that show us how to treat each other does not prove or disprove God's existence. The reason Kant and Socrates are held in high regard is not because we agree with them rather it is because they developed new ideas that influence our everyday lives. Philosophers seek wisdom and whether or not you agree with their ethical wisdom they gave us new views that can help you decide your own beliefs. As far as your main question; do most philosopher's believe in God? I would say yes. Most don't believe in your God because only about 1/5 of the world is Christian.

Answer 5

The question of this hour is not about having or not having belief in God . we have to believe the other human beings first - irrespective of country , language , caste , religion .....
There is no meaning in believing in God with out sort out the issues which makes todays world as war field -wheather we are a philosopher or an ordinary man .
Let us spread love and peace first then we will think about God .

Answer 6

I don't know about "most," but there are many who do believe in God. Try Rene Descartes (Discourses and Meditations), Saint Thomas Aquinas, Plato, Saint Augustine.

There are many different paths to morality and enlightenment; for some philosophers, that path is not simply met through the Bible or through God alone.

Philosophy, for some people, may strengthen one's faith. For others, it doesn't. It is what you make of it.

Answer 7

That is hard to ascertain.
But the one thing that's certain is philosophers gained perspective by analysing contemporary issues and weighing them against their own values and beliefs.

When it comes to law, its simply a matter of placing solutions against problems. When a toddler wants to reach an object placed high up, he doesn't need anyone to teach him how to climb up anything within vicinity in order to facilitate his aims. To that, I propose that problem solving is a innate human instinct.

Next, somebody recognised inconsistencies in social practices and said 'That ain't right'. To get things in check, certainly there has to be some sort of guidelines or regulations, He pondered about what would be right, and puts it together. But there's this other problem: no one bothers to observe them if there's nothing in it. So, he comes up with this system of reward and punishment.

But he has nothing to offer for rewards and no way of enforcing by measures of force. Playing around with the fact that that time, a majority of people who-have-no-answers believe in the presence of a higher being, he attributes the rules he had written to a higher being known as a God.

So was the man who wrote the laws 'enlightened'? Who knows. What we do know is he is an intellectual that recognised problems and came up with an innnovative solution. Could be that he possessed more common sense than most, or he just thought about stuff alot more than most.

What'd you think?

Answer 8

Actually there were 15 Commandments but the last one was destroy. Actually the people governed the laws just like we doing today because they follow what was in the bible, but was changed and written over and over by other priests.(Babylon). Anyone who doesn't believe in God. Then to those who have a brain need think how the living and nonliving came about. Who put us here in the first place. I don't care if you don't believe me. who build our families generations. Sorry I'm picking a fight, but if you really want to find out the true answer go to Barnes and nobles your question will be solve there.

Answer 9

The dead philosophers were varied, many believed and many did not believe. In my study of philosophy I have found many philosophers that do believe. Two names to drop are the present and the most recent Pope. Both men have published their philosophical writings. Most philosophers I know (and I hang around a few) have deep and strong faith in God.

Answer 10

It is a big mistake to worry about what people think they can or cannot prove.

Kant was a great man but as a man he made a mistake in trying to use science or logic to prove there was a God.

Socrates was given the "choice" to drink poison or to suffer death in some other way.

I think it is sad when people can't enjoy the works of great minds because they don't adhere to all of their notions.