The Book Of Job Is The Nature Of Ignorance

Matthew Ayoub

Philosophy of religion

M/W 3:30-4:45

March 21, 2016

The Satisfying Nature of Ignorance

The Book of Job is the perfect portrayal of what faith should be. It starts with a man who is extremely successful, wealthy, and has a beautiful family. The only person that Job thanks for all his fortunes is God. One day the Devil points out to God that Job only praises his name, because of all the good fortune he has brought Job. So for no other reason but to prove a point, God killed all of Job’s livestock, destroyed his beautiful home, and killed all of his children. Job was completely unmoved by the tragedy that stuck him and said, “The lord gives and the lord takes away” (Book of Job). Prior to this instance, Job had never spoken to God

Phillips perfectly sums up the philosophical search for knowledge of God’s existence, in which he states, “” Does God exist?” is not a theoretical question, nor should it be thought that philosophers are able to answer it.” The only sure way to know without a doubt if God exists, is to end your life, and see with your own eyes that Hell exists. Even then you have only proven Hell, and not heaven. By doing very extreme approach, this you ensure two things; 1) your living life is over, and 2) if God does exist, then you commit yourself to eternity in Hell because you committed suicide. Even then only you will know the truth, which bring us back to the same conclusion of empiricism and pragmatism, both of which are much more appealing since they don’t involve your death. At these stakes, it may make sense to sacrifice your reason and give into faith as you can drive yourself to insanity at the search for religious knowledge. John Locke argued that “Things above reason” may be accepted on faith (Locke IV 18.7). Than what constitutes reason? I can only think of reason as logical objective proof that has room for interpretation. I would define faith as the irrational justification of a claim. It seems that every aspect of religion is without reason and is open to interpretation. Even if a rational reason came to light proving objective Knowledge of God’s existence, there would most likely still be people who would argue against it. The search for rational widespread religious knowledge appears to be a lost cause in itself. I have proven that faith in itself is irrational and does not constitute knowledge, thus a rational approach is not applicable. Also I have shown that empiricism and pragmatism are both valid approaches to knowledge. The only conclusion I can draw from the epistemology of religion, is that knowledge in terms of religion can only be justified or reasoned by none other than yourself. Whether you use