What does it mean to say that God is transcendent?
God acts out of the world.
What does it mean to say that God is immanent?
God acts in the world.
What does it mean to say that God is personal?
God acts individually for every person.
Why might someone not believe in God?
- Inconsistent triad, problem of evil
- Tragedy/trauma - loss of belief
- Evolution - genesis is metaphorical
- Don’t want to believe in ultimate punishment - hell, no second chances?
- Atheist upbringing
- Who created him? Cosmological
How can a baptism lead to believing in God?
- Tradition that symbolises the story of Jesus.
- Is said to wash away ones sins, and follows the example of Jesus
- Through faith in Jesus and being ‘baptised into Christ’, one becomes a son of God
- ➡️ Grow up to believe that by being baptised they are pure and destined for heaven. Ensures faith in God
How can a confirmation lead to belief in God?
• rite of passage that means to strengthen ones belief
➡️ learn about christian responsibilities and faith in order to prepare. While learning, become ‘closer with God’ in the eyes of a Christian.
➡️ The promise that a Christian teenager is confirming is to follow God’s laws - choose to stick to their promises and have faith in God
How can attending church lead to someone believing in God?
- sermons may inspire
* hear stories and prayers and decide that belief in God is necessary because God is the only logical answer
How can going to faith school lead to someone believing in God?
• students taught by a teacher, who’s teachings are bias towards Gods existence. Other students may share their reasons for believing in God ➡️ inspire
What may someone believe in God?
- upbringing -religious family, aware of religious traditions, places of worship
- provides reassurance and hope -in a situation where they to hold on to hope and praying helps. - feel secure
- sense of community - same faith, common beliefs w friends - offer help with moral decisions
- teleological argument
What is the design argument?
- beautiful world - selflessness/kindness acts-giving to charity - DOESNT contribute to survival but still exist. A being so loving and powerful
- complicated, uniqueness - fingerprint (“in the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence”-Newton)
- perfectly created and suited for life on earth. Eg gravity (only God can create such an impeccable design for human nature)
- designed and ordered extremely well for its intended purpose - William Paley compared a watch to the world. Like a watch, all of the parts are ordered correctly by a designer and work because of the structure as a whole.
What is the cosmological argument by THOMAS AQUINAS?
- Everything must be created by something else - the universe is something.
- Either an infinite chain of causes and effect or a first un caused cause
- Infinity is only theoretical and cannot exist because life ends and nothing on the universe lasts forever. Infinity is not logically sound as nothing could have caused it if it was always here and never ending.
- something outside the infinite cause and effect chain, an uncaused cause.
- God is the only being that there is a concept of
Nietzsche - not believing in God
- Nietzsche argued that God was ‘dead’
- refused to see order - Earth’s crust is made of plates which do not fit together precisely ➡️ tremors, volcanoes, earthquakes. “How could a God who is good create a world so imperfect”
- concluded - no God, order, absolute purpose (nihilism)
What is nihilism?
The belief that there is no purpose to life.
Darwin, natural selection - no God
Charles Darwin developed theory of evolution - all life evolves by natural selection.
• the animals or plants that are best suited to their environment survive and others die out.
• according to this theory, human, animal, plant life has designed itself.
How a Christian may respond to Darwin
- Evolution might explain the process by which the natural world as we know it has been created but they still see evidence of a greater ‘intelligence’ driving forward these changes.
- The original building blocks of life on Earth also could have been caused by a greater being; God. Only adapted and changed once they were here.
Suffering and evil ➡️ lose faith in God
- Inconsistent triad - omnibenevolent, omnipotent, omniscient (omni-God) don’t want to believe in a flawed God
- mention moral and natural evil
- dedicate lives for ‘perfect God’, sacrifice time - church. But evil, suffering exists ➡️ not the perfect God as portrayed in Bible?
- not ideal - science is convincing against it
How Christians respond to evil and suffering:
- Punishment for sin. If commit a crime or offence against God and do not repent, suffering is justice for what you have done wrong. - not Gods fault
- God has given free will and chooses not to interfere, treat humans as ‘puppets’. People treating each other wickedly not God’s doing.
- always a reason for suffering, some good or purposeful comes from evil. Eg jesus suffered and died for the redemption of the sinful.
- Evil naturally comes from human failing, since the first humans; Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve abused their free will and as a result, everyone has the tendency to be evil.
What’s a creationist? And what do they believe?
- An omni-God created the world in 6 days.
- Genesis 1-2 is literal
- Reject scientific explanations
How could media affect a person’s attitude towards believing in God?
- evidence, new ways of looking at things - stories that have been passed down are more acceptable.
- looks at belief from a different angle - Richard Dawkins, a very scholarly man, said that religion very often leads to terrorism which can persuade
- explains life experiences that have provided hope to others
- bias and one-sided media - Eg Dawkins had a very biased view and negative attitude to religion
Unanswered prayer - lose belief
- omni-god. Believed this God their whole life…lack of response Eg Holocaust many lost faith
- answered prayers in the past but recently no miracles? lost power to perform miraculous events, no current proof Eg Bible - sea split to save the Jews and drowned the Egyptians.
- lotsa dedication/efforts for belief…no response. Sacrifices in their lives, church…no answers to prayers ⛔️
- Matthew 7:7 pray to God and be rewarded?
Christians respond to unanswered prayer:
- God answers but not in the way that is expected. Omniscient and knows what is best
- He doesn’t interfere in day to day matters. It is arrogant to think that he will do what is asked of him
- Prayer works indirectly. Communicating with God helps us to find answers within ourselves
- Prayer is a test of faith and not a test of God. Some people give up without even trying and it proves who are the most religious and righteous people who hold on to their faith
Religious experiences lead to belief in God:
- convincing evidence
- people like the idea of God having concern and believe that they will be looked after
- miracle - person recovered from coma, only logical explanation is God
- science does not have any ideas about religious experiences and no information that science offers could support the experience
Types of religious experiences
Numinous experience
Miracle
Conversion experience
Mystical experience (experience of the divine - hearing God’s voice/seeing a vision)
Near-death experience
How does causation lead to belief in God?
- cosmological argument - Thomas Aquinas (powerful cause = God) logical
- science v confusing - cannot prove reasons for everything. Cosmological is powerful argument - valid explanation of how world creating by God
- in genesis - God created world and its content in 6 days. Environment suitable for humans. Not literal - promotes idea that God is loving and powerful…provides hope
- theory attached to causation- God shares a spiritual relationship w/ human beings. People reassured by image of loving God and relationship between man and God shown in causation.
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Matters Of Life And Death 212
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Marriage And Family 212
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Peace And Conflict 812
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Believing In God 212
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Rights And Responsibilities 812
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Environmental And Medical Issues 812
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Crime And Punishment 812
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Unit 8 x 431
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Community Cohesion 212
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Unit 2 x 429
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Unit 2 x 233
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Unit 8 x 232
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Unit 2 x 347
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Unit 2 x 125
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Unit 8 x 336
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Unit 8 x 125
