Philosophical Opinions

[Phaedrus]

Do you trust philosophy to answer the Big Questions on religious matters?

[no one]

Yes, but only if my Magic 8 Ball gives its blessings

[SYZ]

I don't trust philosophy to answer any questions that may or may not affect my life.  I determined many
decades ago that "philosophy" was nothing more than an artful contrivance of academics who were unable to
hold any job outside of their ivory towers.

A classic example of the inconsequentiality of philosophy is William Lane Craig, who holds a doctorate.  Recently,
Neil deGrasse Tyson dismissed philosophy as a useless enterprise, advising students to avoid it.  He said of its
futility, "My concern here is that the philosophers believe they are actually asking deep questions about nature.
And to the scientist it's, what are you doing? Why are you concerning yourself with the meaning of meaning?"

But in the eyes of millions of people, Craig's opinions hold as much weight as those of deGrasse Tyson. What a
ludicrous comparison.  Who should we listen to; the theist philosopher, or the materialist scientist?

[Alan V]

I have been greatly influenced by the thinking of several philosophers in my life, including Henry Thoreau and William James. That made me into something of a generalist in my approach to knowledge, but I still would not be comfortable calling myself a philosopher even if that is what I most resemble in a number of ways. Unfortunately I was misled by certain ideas as much as I was helped by others.

This is why I come down on the side of not trusting philosophical discourse beyond a point. The history of philosophy is not only marked by celebrated spinoffs like the various sciences but also by some terrible religious and political mistakes. I admire the sciences much more than their origins.

So philosophy is much better at asking thoughtful questions than in providing useful answers. While it is still important for asking those questions and in providing the thinking tools required to answer them, those thinking tools are often grounded in philosophy's historical mistakes.

[Mark]

What an odd question.  Philosophy can be employed to arrive at any answer to most religious questions.  None the less it can be done more or less skillfully.  It can also be wielded with better or worse intellectual integrity.  Philosophy is not a body of decided results.  Rather, the past results of philosophy are a record of how people have thought carefully in new and unsettled fields.

Maybe you're asking, do I equally trust all the results which philosophy yields?  Of course not.  Philosophy isn't science or even medicine or law.  Philosophy is merely careful thinking regarding questions not easily decided by any well established specialized field.  Thinking carefully about questions for which no decision procedure exists is not easy but it beats shooting ones mouth off in favor of the answer one simply likes better.

[Unsapien]

I don't really understand the question.

What are the big questions on religious matters? Religious questions are largely irrelevant because they don't have any value to help increase our understanding of reality. I mean who cares how many angels can dance on the head of a pin...etc...?

I also find most of philosophy to be largely useless anyway, I mean sometimes it's an interesting bit of mental masturbation to entertain me for a bit, but whenever I see people taking it too seriously it seems to me it starts to go into irrelevances.

So basically the answer to the question is no.

[Jenny]

I think Philosophy can be useful as it involves pondering things and the use of logic.  I think it’s easy to shut your brain off (for lack of better wordage) when you are a believer.  I’m speaking from past experience, so this is solely my opinion.  Religion requires adherence in many cases and belief in faith alone. Philosophy encourages thought, reflection, reasoning, and logic.  Due to this, I think it could definitely be helpful to someone who is trying to figure out the legitimacies of their belief system.

[Dancefortwo]

I have a philosophical question.  When you have a degree in philosophy, who employs you?  

[Phaedrus]

I have a philosophical question.  When you have a degree in philosophy, who employs you?  

I think it's usually universities, to be professors.

[Szuchow]

I have a philosophical question.  When you have a degree in philosophy, who employs you?  

Allegedy people with philosophy degrees don't have much problem with finding work in Poland, or so I heard.

[Minimalist]

I wouldn't trust a philosopher to give me large fries if I ordered them unless I watched him/her like a hawk.  They might try to redefine "large" with some silly jargon!

[Thumpalumpacus]

If you look at the big questions, not just about religion but other issues as well, you see that philosophers line up on all sides of those questions, using their own formulations to justify their outlooks -- which is fine, we should all have opinions based on a lot of thinking.

But a discipline which can both "prove" and "disprove" gods or determinism or whatnot ... I don't think it brings much power of resolution to the table.

[epronovost]

I have a philosophical question.  When you have a degree in philosophy, who employs you?  

In this day and age, post shit on twitter (you know what kind of shit), setup a patreon and a youtube channel and you are set to go. I guess that makes you self-employed.

[skyking]

You lost me at " important religious questions"
Trust is also a big 5 letter word I would not assign to something as vague as philosophy. I appreciate employing different ways of looking at things, but when it becomes so much mental masturbation I get turned off.

[brewerb]

I'm sure that I employ philosophy thinking or philosophical ideas all of the time, I just don't think of them in the philosophical terms or pause and acknowledge that "hey, pay attention, I'm philosophizing over here". 

And, according to the list I just looked at, religions are simply philosophies, just bad ones. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_philosophies

I don't know what the "Big Questions" are but have a good idea that if they are religious I really don't give a shit.

[mordant]

What an odd question.  Philosophy can be employed to arrive at any answer to most religious questions.  None the less it can be done more or less skillfully.  It can also be wielded with better or worse intellectual integrity.  Philosophy is not a body of decided results.  Rather, the past results of philosophy are a record of how people have thought carefully in new and unsettled fields.

Maybe you're asking, do I equally trust all the results which philosophy yields?  Of course not.  Philosophy isn't science or even medicine or law.  Philosophy is merely careful thinking regarding questions not easily decided by any well established specialized field.  Thinking carefully about questions for which no decision procedure exists is not easy but it beats shooting ones mouth off in favor of the answer one simply likes better.

Philosophy, as colloquially defined, is also thinking about procedural, strategic, moral and ethical questions in settled fields, e.g., the philosophy of science. Science can tell you how to split the atom but not whether or when you should. Or at least not fully. So it might be more precise to say that philosophy is how people think systematically about the unknown, uncertain, unclear or morally ambiguous.

What Neil Degrasse Tyson is not grasping, I think, is that science was bootstrapped from people speculating about the best ways to ascertain new knowledge. In fact natural philosophy was the precursor of modern science. It is based on philosophical principles such as how to think logically, how to avoid logical fallacies, etc. These became the basis of the scientific method.

Another oft-overlooked point is that many people regard mathematics as a branch of philosophy rather than of science -- based, as it as, on a handful of axiomatic / assumed truths. It just happens to do such a good job of explaining experienced reality with great precision and fidelity that we feel comfortable treating those axioms as settled fact when in fact they are not, technically.

When people complain that philosophy is uselessly obtuse they are probably talking more about things like postmodernism which I agree can be regarded as OVERthinking, getting off into areas without practical application. And that's probably more what NDT is thinking about (that, and making a provocative sound bite).

[jerry mcmasters]

Do you trust philosophy to answer the Big Questions on religious matters?

I don't trust it in the sense that I don't believe it's possible.  What I think are the Big Questions depend on the context, and I believe the context is that we are dopey and ignorant short-lived mammals cursed with consciousness and various impulses ranging from the crudely carnal to the sublime.  Religion is flatly wrong, that much I know, so their "answers" get us through the day with a self-importance that allows us to imagine that we aren't mayflies.  Philosophy can suggest some alternatives that might be useful and make the ride tolerable, but I don't know if I would call them "answers."  I didn't need philosophy to teach me "nihilism." (well, the word, yes)  It be what it be.

[GenesisNemesis]

There are still debates on practically every philosophical issue among philosophers as far as I'm aware, so at best it'd be a very long time before any of those problems get solved.

[DLJ]

Do you trust philosophy to answer the Big Questions on religious matters?

Already did.

[GenesisNemesis]

For whatever reason I still enjoy reading some philosophy- the Stoics, for example (even if they believe in a purpose for existence, I obviously do not). I love reading about all of the ancient schools of thought. Also Diogenes is fascinating.

[Szuchow]

These so called big questions on religious matters are as irrelevant as philosophy answer to them.

[SYZ]

Philosophers didn't give us steam engines or tractors; bicycles or automobiles; electric light or radio;
computers or smart phones; penicillin or chemotherapy; movies or television; satellites or jet aircraft etc etc.

So... what exactly did  philosophy give us?      Sweet fuck all.  

[Red Belt]

No. I don't know much about philosophy. Never cared to get into it. And i don't pay much attention to religious matters.  So i wouldn't know what the big questions are. Perhaps i would see them as small. The only big questions for me, is whether to continue existing or not? And how do i wish to spend the remainder of my time on earth?

Do you trust philosophy to answer the Big Questions on religious matters?

Already did.

More like never existed. Something has to first exist to then be dead.

[Chas]

Do you trust philosophy to answer the Big Questions on religious matters?

What big questions?  

[Alan V]

Do you trust philosophy to answer the Big Questions on religious matters?

What big questions? 

One big question: would "Does God really exist?" and "Is there really an afterlife?" be questions at all without religion?