How do philosophy and religion compare

Hence, it can be said that religion and philosophy are mutually exclusive and they cannot co-exist. God the Father via Wikicommons Public Domain. Catholic philosophers questioned and applied philosophical principles for thousands of years—See Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Scotus. As did Jewish philosophers: Maimonides etc. Christianity is philosophically different from the other Abrahamic traditions. They may share an overall philosophy but differ in practice and beliefs completely. Philosophy of religion questions the very existence of the supreme power.

Philosophy is philosophy. Read Aquinas. Read Maimonides. They are brilliant. Nen of thee differences are Valid. Religion and Philsophy are the same thing. These comparisons are so muddy, a close and deep scrutiny must admit that both are dealing with the same etiology of thought: Why?

The Because of the why shows how these concepts inevitably join at the Y of this question to link the focus of analysis. David Gabert. This is quite a biased view of religion, but I did learn something here. I am not one to adhere much to any religion because religions are man made organizations designed to worship an intelligent designer of the Universe in various ways deemed by those who are in charge of the religion. However, all religions do not demand rituals.

I think it's a great question because it's quite clear, but I think many of the answers fall for a problem in the way the question is posed.

In other words, there's two categories of things and something can at most belong to one of the categories. First off, both religion and philosophy are terms that have had a large number of differing definitions. Looking just at the philosophy side, the epicureans lived together in communities, had parties, and prostelytized. Similarly, there were groups like the pythagoreans, etc. Moving past the Greeks and Romans, there was the medieval arrangement where philosophy is the hand maiden of theology.

And then later philosophy is a name for natural science, etc. Further, what happens when the term philosophy refers not just to the Western inheritors of the Greek tradition but to ideas from India, China, Africa?

Religion, too is a term that has rather varied definitions as several answers highlight. This clouds things significantly and makes the question harder to answer. Let's say we define a religion as something that has ritual communal practices and moral views.

Let's say we define a philosophy as something which attempts to give a fundamental account of metaphysics and epistemology. On such a reading, it would seem to me some forms of Christianity say catholicism are 4. Some forms would be 2 say faith healing pentecostalism. Some forms of philosophy would also be kind of religious see for instance the Jesuit difficulties in understanding the Confucian practices they saw in China.

Moreover, the groups that do "church" for atheists or even just have regular discussion sessions in a bar on the weekends about philosophy but with a commitment to a singular viewpoint or to pure inquiry might qualify as being both religion and philosophy on this definition. I suspect any resistance to this would be predicated on differing definition of "religion" -- which probably for some people means more like "believing idiocy" than having ritual practices.

As the most general explanation, religion is about everything in relation to one cause and one end while philosophy is about different things in relation to no cause and different ends. Another way of stating that, intended to bring its meaning out clearly is, the end of religion is Truth, also known as Beatific Vision, Heaven, Paradise, etc. The relation between man and this end in man's quest for it through prayers, rituals, beliefs, etc, is known as religion.

Philosophy on the other hand has many means and NO one end. The relation between man and each of the ends in man's quest for them could be religious but since means may differ and no common end exists for all, as in religion, philosophy is not religion. It is noted, as correction of the definition of philosophy as "rational search for truth"based on which it is argued that religion, which it is said is based on faith is not philosophythat the definition of philosophy as "rational search for truth" is the definition for epistemology and not philosophy.

But if philosophy is taken as rational search for truth, St. Augustine's rational search for truthTrinityis a particular example of how or why religion is philosophy. A general account of religion is community, ritual and reverence. Philosophy simply is reverence for obtaining knowledge.

Same way you make any distinction: analysis. For example, as I have described them, note that in this case both involve "reverence". Religion, however, merely requires reverence i. Philosophy is reverence for something specific: wisdom. There is philosophy, not philosophies. There is love in the sense of initial utterance, read: virtue, respect, reverence and there is wisdom read: obtaining knowledge and there are prepositions to join them i.

Perhaps you mean something like, "according to my philosophy This is using philosophy as misnomer for a way of looking at things. Unlike "theology" and "theism" philosophy is not an "-ology" a study of Note that religion requires neither theology, nor theism, I merely bring this up to clarify the distinction between what you can categorize as "religion" and what is "philosophy".

If a religion encourages reverence for obtaining knowledge, it may be said accurately that it is philosophical, but do not confuse this description of religion or the religious with the virtue of obtaining knowledge read: philosophy.

You create a religion when you want a set of beliefs to be seen as true. When you simply have Truth, you don't need religion. And when you don't have Truth, you have philosophies. Every religion begins with someone teaching some philosophical principle; a moral or ethical worldview meant to help people understand and navigate human life. These teachings are then memorized, written down, expanded, and codified, usually along with practices and interpretations, so that they can be passed more easily down to others.

The effort to pass the teachings on to others eventually generates the authoritative hierarchies, institutional structures, rules and standards, and other formal mechanisms that we associate with religion. A full-fledged religion is calcified philosophy. Philosophy has its basis in reason. Theology deals with thinking about religious beliefs in a rational manner but it presumes faith.

Theologians employ reason to make their beliefs appear more clearly and to wherever possible have beliefs satisfy the dictates of reason.

Theologians begin with a set of beliefs as foundational or fundamental and in some sense not subject to possible disbelief or to truly critical analysis. Philosophers examine, indeed they look for, all assumptions and suppositions of any system of thought or belief.

For philosophers there are no ideas to be accepted on faith. Philosophy of Religion is rational thought about religious issues and concerns without a presumption of the existence of a deity or reliance on acts of faith.

Philosophers examine the nature of religion and religious beliefs. Philosophers in the West have focused on ideas related to the existence and nature of the deity because that idea is central to the religions of the West.

Western Philosophy of Religion has centered on arguments or proofs for the existence of god and explications of apparent inconsistencies in the description of the nature of god. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights.

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Austin Cline, a former regional director for the Council for Secular Humanism, writes and lectures extensively about atheism and agnosticism. Updated March 19, Cite this Article Format. Cline, Austin. The Similarities Between Religion and Philosophy.