![]() ![]() The longest history of Western philosophy has the idea of a purposeful universe at its heart, particularly within the Christian tradition. I’m interested in connecting the dots and presenting some books here that make these ideas clear and rigorous, and philosophically interesting and respectable. I’m inclined to think that’s a contingent and accidental phenomenon, that there haven’t been academics working on this, and the work of those who have isn’t sufficiently known. As a result, there may be a perception that ‘spiritual but not religious’ is vague and fluffy thinking. But most philosophers are secular atheists of one kind or another. This tends to come from traditional Christians, and a few Jewish philosophers as well. There is some very good philosophy of religion in Anglophone philosophy. Intellectually, this proportion of the population is almost entirely uncatered for. Surveys show that a huge percentage of the population identifies as spiritual but not religious. In other words, they all believe in cosmic purpose in the absence of what philosophers call the ‘omni-God’ – all-knowing, all-powerful, perfectly good, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent (actually, A Fortunate Universe doesn’t quite fit this description, as we’ll see). What draws them together is that they are all defending a middle way between, on the one hand, the traditional secular atheist picture of a meaningless, purposeless universe, and, on the other hand, the traditional Western religious idea of a universe that’s created with a specific purpose by God. If you connect them up, you can see these as an unrecognised school of philosophy. You might not think cosmic purpose is a theme in contemporary philosophy, but these five books relate to this topic in different ways. What do you understand by cosmic purpose, and why is this a philosophical issue? Foreign Policy & International Relations. ![]()
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