3.1 - CONTENT - Believing in God Flashcards
Name the 4 steps of the argument for design.
1) . That there is evidence of design in the world
2) . If there is evidence of design then something must have designed it.
3) . The only thing great enough to design it is God
4) . Therefore God must exist
How could the presence of evil and suffering in the world lead someone to not believe in God?
When people are suffering they may think either that God does not exist because he would otherwise have helped them, or that he is either not omnipotent, omniscient or omni-benevolent if he didn’t stop it. This may cause a person to lose faith.
What are the different elements of a religious upbringing?
- Parents will ensure that their baby is baptised.
- Catholic children are taken to Mass each Sunday.
- Some children may attend Sunday school.
- Catholic parents teach their children to pray.
- They will celebrate the religion’s main festivals at home, with their parents.
- Children will attend a Catholic primary and secondary school.
- Children will receive their first Holy Communion.
- Encouraged to attend reconciliation and receive confirmation.
Should religion be banned completely from the media?
Yes- because religion is sometimes presented badly
No- because media plays a huge role in some peoples lives and has a effect on how they see the world.
How could some TV programmes affect a person’s attitude to belief in God?
Some TV programmes are very religious and could therefore scared people away from God because the programme is too religious.
A programme could also be for a specific genera for example-older people which to a younger person would seem too religious.
Some programmes can strength a persons belief in god.
See if you can come up with anything other than these!
How could the media make religion look bad?
- by being too religious and scaring younger generations away
- by only having religious broadcasts at a certain limited time during the week it could offend some people.
- Some people may argue that religious people are often portrayed negatively within certain programmes. This may affect the viewers by thinking that belief in God is silly or that religious people are hypocrites.
Give an example where the media has shown religion to be bad.
The TV programme Father Ted
The TV programme Songs of Praise is based around hymns,usually for Christianity.
How could this programme affect a persons attitudes towards religion?
- it can help people believe in God
- Its a programme that it aimed at older people so therefore it may lead a younger person to believe that God and religion is something that older people do and is not for younger generations.
- Not everyone will find worshipping God through hymns is beneficial to them so they may alienate themselves from God.
What is a numinous experience?
An experience where something completely astonishes you and leaves you knowing that there must be something more powerful that you e.g. viewing a beautiful sunrise.
Some people find these experiences so powerful that it convinces them that God must exist.
What is a conversion experience?
Where your beliefs change from one faith to another, or from no faith to believing in God. A further type of conversion is when somebody decides that they want to devote themselves more entirely to God.
What is a miracle?
When something happens that cannot be explained so makes you think only God could have done it. If a person witnesses this event they may believe that only God could have caused or created it so their faith is likely to be strengthened.
What is prayer?
If somebody prays to God they may feel that somebody is listening to them, and so believe that God is with them. This will help them have faith in God.
Sometimes they may feel that God has actually answered their prayer. This is more powerful.
How could unanswered prayers lead some to not believe in God?
If a person prays to God and doesn’t get what they are asking for, they may feel that God doesn’t exist, because if he did he would let them have what they wanted. Sometimes a person may pray to God and feel that God isn’t there. If they continue to pray and continue to feel that God isn’t there, then they may start to believe that God doesn’t exist.
How do Christians respond to the challenge of evil to religious belief?
- PRAY, because prayer is powerful and sometimes we can’t do anything practical, so the only thing we can do is pray.
- Provide SERVICE to others as Jesus would have done, such as donating money and clothes after a natural disaster, and being a good friend when someone is grieving.
- Evil is brought about by the FREE WILL which God has given us, so we choose to love and serve Him, however we can also choose to do the wrong thing and bring pain and suffering to others.
- We AREN’T IN HEAVEN YET, so there will still be evil, and we can’t expect this world to be perfect and pain-free like heaven.
- LIFE IS A TEST to see if we are worthy of heaven, and if there were no pain and suffering then it would be easy to have faith in God and to do the right thing.
- TO HELP US GROW, as evil and suffering exist to make us stronger as people, and so we can learn from them e.g. war is a terrible thing, but it teaches those who witness it to be more forgiving and less judgement and may cause all of us to strive harder for peace.
Explain the 6 steps of the causation argument
- Nothing can happen by itself
- Everything that happens has to be caused by something else
- The universe cannot have just happened by itself
- A very powerful force must have caused the universe
- This cause must have been God
- This means that God must exist.
