Philosophy of Religion overview: SQA Advanced Higher RMPS
A guide to the mandatory Philosophy of Religion area of SQA Advanced Higher RMPS: the existence of God, the cosmological, teleological and ontological arguments, the problem of evil, and how to write the extended essay that argues and evaluates rather than describes.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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Philosophy of Religion is the mandatory area of Advanced Higher RMPS, sat by every candidate. It tackles the central question of whether God exists, through the three classical arguments and the problem of evil, and is assessed by an extended essay. This guide maps the area; the dot points take each argument and the problem of evil in detail.
The existence of God
The area opens with the debate itself: theism, atheism and agnosticism, the burden of proof, and the distinction between a priori arguments (from concepts alone) and a posteriori arguments (from the world). This framework sorts the three arguments and predicts the objections each faces.
The three arguments
The cosmological argument moves from the universe's existence and causation to a first, uncaused cause or necessary being, and is pressed by Hume and Russell. The teleological (design) argument moves from order and apparent purpose to a designer, and is pressed by Hume and by Darwinian evolution, though the fine-tuning version survives the latter. The ontological argument moves a priori from the concept of the greatest conceivable being to its existence, and is pressed by Gaunilo's island and Kant's claim that existence is not a predicate.
The problem of evil
The strongest case against God is the problem of evil: an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good God seems incompatible with the evil and suffering we observe. You learn the logical and evidential forms, the distinction between moral and natural evil, and the main theodicies, the free will defence, the Augustinian theodicy and the Irenaean theodicy, and evaluate whether any of them answers the evidential problem.
Writing the essay
The area is assessed by an extended essay, so technique matters as much as content. The higher bands reward a sustained line of argument, the use of named thinkers, analysis of how each argument works, evaluation of the objections and replies, and a substantiated conclusion. A descriptive tour of the arguments, however accurate, will not reach the top: every argument should be weighed, not just reported.
How to use this module
Learn each argument well enough to set it out, then drill the objections and replies, because that is where the marks are. Practise judging which version of an argument survives its strongest objection (a first cause but not God; fine-tuning but not biological design; the logical but not the evidential problem of evil). Always revise from the current SQA course specification, specimen and past papers, since the essay wording and marking are board-specific.