فصلنامه اندیشه نوین دینی
پیاپی 71 (زمستان 1401)

In Western thinking, one of the most important proofs of God's existence is reasoning through possibility and necessity. Analyzing the process of its various expressions, the characteristics of each of those expressions and their distinctions, as well as evaluating their cognitive validity and achieving a criterion or a solution for evaluation, is the motivation of the current research. The result of this research is that all expressions have been presented in two ways or with two approaches: 1. Expressions through causality or causal explanation; 2. Expressions through description and explanation or non-causal explanations. On the other hand, by examining Aquinas's and Locke's expositions, which are examples of causal explanations, we are led to the conclusion that those expositions are either reasoning through occurrence or reasoning through non-causal explanation, not reasoning through possibility and necessity, nor reasoning based on causal explanation. Therefore, their epistemological validity is under question. On the other hand, Leibniz's argument and other explanations through non-causal explanation fail to carry epistemological validity, and it is not possible to achieve certain knowledge, even based on the correct assumption.

One of the important and challenging issues regarding Divine attributes is the that of the existential relationship between Divine Essence and Attributes and the how of Essence`s being qualified with the Attributes of perfection. Khawjah Nasir al-Din Tusi defended the theory of "the identity of God's Essence and Perfect Attributes" in his book Tajrid al-i`tiqad and based it on God's state of being essentially necessary in existence. Now the question is raised that: how can the theory of the identity of Divine Attributes and Perfectional Essence be proved on the basis of the necessity of existence? The hypothesis of this article, using the descriptive-analytical method, is that Khawjah put the concept of "necessity of existence" as an inclusive title for some of his ontological and theological foundations to explain the theory of identity. His main ontological foundations in this topic are the unity of the concept, originality, and gradational state of existence. Also, his use of some theological principles such as "the identity of the Essential necessity with the Existence of  the Supreme Right", "the unity of the Necessary by the Essence", "the simplicity of the Essence of the Necessary by the Essence" and "the reachness of the Necessary by the Essence " which help to argue more fully the theory of identity.

The proof of awareness is one of the contemporary proofs of the existence of God. This argument relies on the fact that the emergence of consciousness in the world needs an explanation and scientific explanation is not enough for it. It deals with the theistic explanation of this phenomenon. This argument has been presented in modern times by three theistic philosophers named Richard Swinburne, Robert Adams and JP Moreland in defense of theism. This article tries to provide a detailed conceptualization of consciousness and its types, and, then, examines the various interpretations of the above-mentioned philosophers about the proof of the consciousness of God's existence with an analytical-critical method. The problem discussed in this research, therefore, is the analysis of the what of the proof of the knowledge of the existence of God, which is done by examining the viewpoints of the three contemporary philosophers. The explanation and defense of a new argument among the traditional arguments on the existence of God and the proof of the impossibility of explaining the consciousness based on materialistic views are the findings and results of the present research.

Graham Oppy, a contemporary Australian philosopher, is a naturalistic atheist who denies any supernatural causes. The problem of research is that; What are Oppy's principles in replacing naturalism instead of theism? The findings of the research, which were obtained with the analytical method of evidence, show that Oppy's epistemological, methodological and ontological foundations, based on which he considers naturalism more believable than theism, are not realistic and have fundamental challenges and slippages. In epistemology, his view of a successful argument faces many challenges; in methodology, he relies on the principle of simplicity, but by claiming the simplicity of naturalism against theism, he does not provide adequate answers to the many questions that are raised and does not resolve the theological philosophical problems about it. Ontologically, naturalism is not a substitute for God's supremacy, and the possibility of replacing naturalism with theism is very weak. Also, Oppy does not have a correct explanation of causality and has confused causality with the principle of determinism.

According to Ibn Sina, beauty is pure existence and perfection, and knowledge is one of the existential attributes and perfections. With the realization of Its Beautiful Nature, the Essence of God becomes Happy through the Essence and this Love and Enjoyment becomes the cause for creatures. The authors of this research, using the descriptive-critical method and with the approach of linguistic analysis and hermeneutics of the Shiite scholars of usul, seek to find an answer to the problem that in the Avicenna`s theology, what may be taken as the relationship between the two Divine Attributes, Knowledge and Beauty from one side and between the two Attributes and Divine Essence from othe side? And again, What effect does the relationship of these two have on our view to Avicenna theology? The findings of the research show that the appearance of Ibn Sina's expressions in explaining the quality of the relationship between Attributes and Essence, especially in the case of the two mentioned Attributes, i.e. Divine Knowledge to the Beauty is of such a contradiction that, except by viewing degrees in the Divine Essence, may not be resolved. While, such a view would bring Avicenna theology closer to mystical ontology.

Undoubtedly, the Holy Qur'an, as an important and eternal miracle of the Holy Prophet, like any miracle, has special conditions, one of which is tahaddi, challenge, in any field, especially mathematical calculations. In this article, this issue is analyzed with an analytical method and by referring to library sources, in which, in addition to stating the conditions of the miracle (especially tahaddi), various views regarding the reason for the human inability to bring a surah or a book like the Qur'an are explained. According to the findings of the research, mathematical calculations regarding the number of probable sentences (fasih & baligh, eloquent and fluuent) (from Arabic words) show that in addition to the two theories of "sarfeh" (disability of man by God) and the opposite view (human natural disability), is a more accurate point of view that believes in the field. it, therefore, can be said that the reason for human inability to bring the example of the Qur'an is actually the lack of a text of its size, not his own lack of ability and, in fact, the challenge of the Qur'an is the discovery of the lack of such text.

The issue of movement in the two systems of thought including Islamic philosophy and Islamic theology has followed two different paths. An important issue in this is to find those epistemological, methodological and ontological foundations that have led to the formation of the theologians' special approach to nature and movement. The problem of the article is: what is the approach of Islamic theologians to the question of nature and movement and what principles and what methods is it based on and studied with? According to the findings of the article, from their point of view, knowing nature means knowing God's actions and it leads to knowing God. Therefore, natural science is not an essentially sought knowledge, but an organic knowledge and a ladder to know the Supreme Being and His distinction from others. The negative epistemology of theologians is the main reason for believing in the corporeality of contingent world and believing in the individual substance, jawhar. Also, movement is not a single, connected, and gradual thing in its philosophical sense, but based on the theory of individual substance, four beings, akwan, and vaccum, khala`, movement is a discrete and a unique thing in transitional movement. This article deals with the problem in an analytical way.

In order to objectify the meaning of life, Allameh Jaafari and Frankel suggest certain practical mechanisms based on the principles and foundations of their school of thought. The research problem in this fundamental research, which is a library research method and with an analytical-descriptive approach, is to examine the practical working procedures of Allameh Jafari as an Islamic semanticist philosopher and Frankel as a psychologist who created the style of semantic therapy. The findings of the research show that Allameh Jaafari, based on religious, rational and conscientious principles and methods, by planning the three stages and principles of exalting the soul, transcendence-giving principles and negative principles, explains the ways for the realization of reasonable life to give meaning to life. Relying on experimental and psychological principles and methods, Frankel proposes three approaches: empirical values, creative values and attitudinal values to realize meaningfulness through love, conscience, truth of the soul, self-awareness, responsibility and choice-based state.

One of the important effects of knowing the essence of the self is believing in the hereafter life and justifying how to live after death. Therefore, the main problem of this research is a comparative study of the explanation of this method in the process view and some similar views in the tradition of Islamic theology. Some of the Mu'tazilites as well as Seyyed Mortaza, believing in the monotheism of the soul, consider it to be the same external person and visible body in which the soul has dissolved, and some, such as Sheikh Mofid and Whitehead, believing in the dualism of the soul and the body, consider the soul to be an essence other than body belonging to it. However, Whitehead considers this essence to be material, and sheikh views it as an immaterial being. The current research has been carried out with a descriptive and analytical method. The most important finding of the study is the connection between the correct and unambiguous explanation of the survival of the soul after death, with the structural distinction between the soul and the body. The process perspective as well as some views of the monotheism of the soul in the Islamic tradition face a challenge.

On the one hand, scientific advances have brought new challenges and many criticisms to the design argument, and on the other hand, it has become a turning point in presenting new readings and interpretations of the argument. Richard Dawkins came to the view that scientific findings have always opened the way for a naturalistic explanation of natural order. On the other hand, Anthony Flew also came to the belief that new scientific developments have strengthened the result of the design argument. Using a descriptive-analytical method and relying on the principle of "designed state of nature", The present article has evaluated Flew and Dawkins' arguments. The main problem of the research is that the best explanation for the orderliness of existence is "evolution" and "natural selection" or "intelligent designer"? The result of the research indicates that the explanation of the origin of order on the course of evolution faces many scientific and theological challenges, and Flew's collective reasoning will lead to a conclusion based on probabilities in a way that is rational and worthy of consideration, although a rational argument, though not being in logical deductive form. And also this research shows that it is possible to have an approach to theology from empirical sciences without using ambiguous philosophical principles and concepts.