I participate in both philosophy of religion debates and more secular philosophical reflection groups, and I notice quite different approaches to similar existential questions. In increasingly secular societies, how relevant are traditional philosophy of religion debates? Do they still offer valuable insights for existential questions community discussions, or should we focus more on secular frameworks? This seems like an important question for modern philosophy forums.
Even in secular contexts, philosophy of religion debates can offer valuable conceptual tools. The arguments about divine attributes, for example, push us to think carefully about concepts like omnipotence, omniscience, and perfection. These conceptual exercises have value beyond their religious origins for metaphysics questions and philosophy of mind discussions.
Ancient philosophy discussions often blended what we would now separate into philosophy and religion. The Stoics had theological elements, as did Plato and Aristotle. In our philosophy study groups, we discuss whether this integration might offer a more holistic approach to existential questions than our current secular/religious divide.
From a logic and reasoning discussions perspective, philosophy of religion debates often involve sophisticated argumentation that's valuable for developing critical thinking skills. The philosophy of language forums also benefit from analyzing religious language as a special case of metaphorical or analogical discourse.