Religion · Unit 16

Philosophy of Religion

Arguments about God, evil, faith, reason and experience

Every other unit in this subject describes what traditions hold. This one asks whether those claims can be defended, which is a different activity and one many believers engage in as seriously as any critic.

It covers the reasoning offered for and against the existence of God, why suffering is treated as the hardest objection, the relationship between belief and evidence, religious experience as a source of knowledge, and the question of whether talk about God is meant literally at all.

This unit breaks down into 21 short steps and 120 questions, starting at difficulty 4 and building to 5. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 21
Questions: 120
Difficulty: 4-5

What this unit covers

Arguments for God
Faith and Reason
The Problem of Evil
Religious Experience
Religious Language

Where this fits

Overlaps with Philosophy's unit of the same name. Best late in the track.

Where people slip

An argument failing does not settle the conclusion. Showing that a particular proof does not work is not the same as showing that what it tried to prove is false.

How the unit is structured

Philosophy of Religion runs as 21 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 6 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 4 and climb to 5 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 21 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 120 in the unit altogether.

Arguments for God

Choose all that applyLevel 4
1. Which of these are traditional arguments for the existence of God? (Select all that apply.)
- The cosmological argumentcorrect
- The ontological argumentcorrect
- The teleological argumentcorrect
- The verification principle
The cosmological, ontological and teleological arguments all argue for God, while the verification principle is a theory of meaning.
Fill the blankLevel 4
2. William Paley's design argument compares the world to a ____ found on a heath, whose intricate parts imply a maker.
- watchcorrect
- river
- mountain
- seed
Paley argued that finding a watch implies a watchmaker, and the ordered world likewise suggests a designer.
Guess the numberLevel 4
3. How many 'Ways' did Thomas Aquinas offer as arguments for the existence of God?
Answer: 5 ways
Aquinas set out Five Ways, including arguments from motion, causation and design.
Multiple choiceLevel 4
4. A teleological (design) argument for God infers a designer from...
- the apparent order and purpose in naturecorrect
- the mere concept of a greatest possible being
- the need for a first cause of all motion
- the reported reliability of religious experience
Teleological arguments move from observed order or apparent purpose in the world to a designing intelligence.
Build the sentenceLevel 5
5. Build a true sentence about Paley's design argument.
Answer: Paley argued that design in nature implies a designer
Paley's watchmaker analogy concluded that intricate design points to an intelligent designer.
Fact or fibLevel 5
6. A common step in cosmological arguments is the claim that an infinite regress of causes cannot by itself explain why anything exists at all.
Answer: True
Cosmological arguments typically deny that an endless chain of causes is a sufficient explanation, pointing to a first cause.

Faith and Reason

Build the sentenceLevel 4
7. Build a true sentence about fideism.
Answer: Fideism holds that faith does not need rational proof
Fideists claim that religious faith stands on its own and does not depend on rational proof.
Fact or fibLevel 4
8. Soren Kierkegaard is associated with the idea that faith involves a passionate 'leap' beyond what reason can prove.
Answer: True
Kierkegaard emphasized a subjective leap of faith that goes beyond objective rational certainty.
Fill the blankLevel 4
9. Thomas Aquinas held that God's existence can be ____ from effects in the world, while some truths of faith are known by revelation.
- demonstratedcorrect
- disproved
- ignored
- imagined
Aquinas thought reason can demonstrate that God exists, while mysteries like the Trinity depend on revelation.
Match the pairsLevel 4
10. Match each thinker with their position on faith and reason.
Answer: Thomas Aquinas = Faith and reason are compatible; Soren Kierkegaard = Faith is a leap beyond reason; Alvin Plantinga = Belief in God can be properly basic
Aquinas harmonized faith and reason, Kierkegaard stressed the leap of faith, and Plantinga defended properly basic belief.
Multiple choiceLevel 4
11. Fideism is best described as the view that religious belief...
- rests on faith rather than on rational proofcorrect
- can be fully demonstrated by reason alone
- is meaningful only if it can be tested by the senses
- must always match the conclusions of science
Fideism holds that faith is the proper basis of religious belief and does not depend on rational proof.
Choose all that applyLevel 5
12. Which of these are recognized positions on the relationship between faith and reason? (Select all that apply.)
- Fideismcorrect
- Natural theologycorrect
- Reformed epistemologycorrect
- The numinous
Fideism, natural theology and Reformed epistemology are stances on faith and reason, while the numinous is a category of experience.

Religious Experience

Build the sentenceLevel 4
13. Build a true sentence about Rudolf Otto.
Answer: Rudolf Otto described the holy as the numinous
Otto's book The Idea of the Holy introduced the numinous as the core of religious experience.
Choose all that applyLevel 4
14. According to William James, which of these are marks of a mystical experience? (Select all that apply.)
- Ineffabilitycorrect
- Noetic qualitycorrect
- Transiencycorrect
- Being permanent and fully describable
James listed ineffability, a noetic quality, transiency and passivity as marks of mystical states.
Fact or fibLevel 4
15. Rudolf Otto used the term 'numinous' for an experience of awe before a mystery that feels both overwhelming and fascinating.
Answer: True
Otto described the numinous as the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, a mystery that both overwhelms and attracts.
Fill the blankLevel 4
16. Richard Swinburne's principle of ____ says that, other things being equal, if it seems to someone that something is present, then probably it is.
- credulitycorrect
- verification
- sufficient reason
- analogy
Swinburne's principle of credulity treats apparent experiences, including religious ones, as prima facie evidence.
Match the pairsLevel 4
17. Match each thinker with their contribution to the study of religious experience.
Answer: William James = The Varieties of Religious Experience; Rudolf Otto = The idea of the numinous; Richard Swinburne = The principle of credulity
James studied varieties of experience, Otto named the numinous, and Swinburne defended the principle of credulity.
Guess the numberLevel 5
18. How many defining marks of mystical experience did William James identify (ineffability, noetic quality, transiency, passivity)?
Answer: 4 marks
James named four marks: ineffability, a noetic quality, transiency and passivity.

Religious Language

Build the sentenceLevel 4
19. Build a true sentence about Wittgenstein's view of meaning.
Answer: Wittgenstein said the meaning of a word is its use
Wittgenstein's later philosophy linked a word's meaning to how it is used in practice.
Choose all that applyLevel 4
20. Which of these are ways philosophers have tried to explain how language can speak about God? (Select all that apply.)
- The via negativacorrect
- Analogycorrect
- Symbolcorrect
- The Five Ways
The negative way, analogy and symbol address religious language, while the Five Ways are arguments for God's existence.
Fact or fibLevel 4
21. The later Wittgenstein suggested that religious language works within its own 'language-game' with its own rules of use.
Answer: True
On this view meaning comes from how language is used within a form of life, so religious talk has its own language-game.
Fill the blankLevel 4
22. Wittgenstein linked the meaning of words to their ____, arguing that meaning comes from how language is used.
- usecorrect
- spelling
- length
- origin
The slogan 'meaning is use' expresses Wittgenstein's view that words get meaning from their role in a form of life.
Match the pairsLevel 4
23. Match each approach to religious language with its description.
Answer: Via negativa = Describing God by what God is not; Analogy = Words applied to God in a related, not identical, sense; Symbol = Language that points beyond itself to the sacred
The negative way, analogy and symbol are three classic ways of understanding how words can speak of God.
Multiple choiceLevel 4
24. The 'via negativa' (apophatic way) approaches talk about God by...
- saying what God is not rather than what God iscorrect
- using words about God in exactly the same sense as about creatures
- treating all statements about God as literally false
- reducing religious language to moral commands only
The apophatic or negative way describes God by denying limiting attributes, saying what God is not.

The Problem of Evil

Build the sentenceLevel 4
25. Build a true sentence about the problem of evil.
Answer: The problem of evil questions how a good God allows suffering
The problem of evil asks how suffering can be squared with belief in a wholly good God.
Choose all that applyLevel 4
26. Which of these are proposed responses to the problem of evil? (Select all that apply.)
- The free-will defensecorrect
- The soul-making theodicycorrect
- The Augustinian privation viewcorrect
- The verification principle
Free will, soul-making and privation are responses to evil, while the verification principle is a theory of meaning.
Fill the blankLevel 4
27. In the ____ theodicy, evil is understood as a privation or lack of good rather than a substance in its own right.
- Augustiniancorrect
- Irenaean
- process
- evidential
Augustine treated evil as privatio boni, a falling away from goodness rather than a thing God created.
Fact or fibLevel 5
28. In process theology, God is often understood as persuading rather than coercing the world, which some use to respond to the problem of evil.
Answer: True
Process thinkers describe God as working by persuasion within a world God does not unilaterally control.
Guess the numberLevel 5
29. Irenaeus, the early bishop whose ideas inspired the 'soul-making' theodicy, lived mainly in which century CE?
Answer: 2 century
Irenaeus of Lyon lived in the second century CE, and John Hick later drew on him for the soul-making theodicy.
Match the pairsLevel 5
30. Match each response to evil with the thinker most associated with it.
Answer: Soul-making theodicy = John Hick; Privation theodicy = Augustine; Free-will defense = Alvin Plantinga
Hick developed soul-making, Augustine the privation view, and Plantinga a modern free-will defense.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 14 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sort into groups
Spell it
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Philosophy of Religion

120 questions across 21 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

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