Week 4: The Problem of Suffering and God’s Existence and the Mind/Body Problem Overview A 2012 Pew survey demonstrated that 68% of Americans believe in the notion of God or a “universal spirit.” This week’s materials will provide you with a portal for examining philosophical arguments for and against God’s existence. You will investigate one of the primary reasons for skepticism about God’s existence – the problem of suffering. Suffering is part of the human condition, and we have all experienced it in varying degrees. For many, the fact of suffering means it is impossible to believe in an all-powerful, all-good, and all-knowing God. Richard Rubenstein, a Jewish rabbi and religious studies scholar, is an example. He famously argued that it was no longer possible to believe in God after Auschwitz, for surely an all-good and all-powerful being would have intervened in human affairs to stop the brutal suffering of millions of people (1992). But another rabbi and scholar, Eliezer Berkovits comes to the opposite conclusion. He argues that the problem of suffering, specifically the Holocaust, is not a problem for God, but a problem for human beings (Berkovits, 1973). It was human beings who perpetrated the crimes against humanity, not God. You will wrestle with problem of suffering and determine where you stand on the issue. You will also explore the mind/body problem. This branch of philosophy raises questions about the relationship between the mind and body. Specifically, we will investigate the nature of the self. At some point in our lives, most of us have asked the question, “Who am I”? This topic will allow you to investigate modern and contemporary conceptions of the self and determine how they might help you better understand the nature of the self. There are a number of important questions that arise when addressing this topic. Do human beings possess a soul? If so, what is a soul, and how does it differ from a body? Is the soul the essence of who we are as human beings? (In other words, is the soul the nature of the self?) Dualism, most famously popularized by Descartes, maintains that human beings possess an immaterial, rational soul housed in a physical body. Importantly, the soul is the essence of the self. Dualism allowed Descartes to maintain his commitment to Christianity, but it has been soundly criticized for its failure to account for the interaction between the soul (or mind) and body: how does an immaterial substance like the soul (or the mind) interact with a physical body? A number of alternatives to Cartesian dualism have been proposed. These run along a continuum, ranging from the behaviorism (there is no self/soul) to physicalism (the self is reducible to brain functions). As you work through this material, ask yourself which account provides the best explanation for the nature of the self and why? References Berkovits, E. (1973). Faith after Auschwitz. New York, NY: KTAV Publishing House, Inc. Most of the skeptically unaf.