Apologetics Unit 2 Study Guide

Question 1

What are the differences between version 1 and version 2 of the problem of evil?

Answer 1

Version 1: any amount of evil is incompatible with God’s existence

Version 2: this version of the POE is the claims that if God is good there should be no evil AT ALL

Question 2

What is evil?

Answer 2

Evil is not a being, thing, substance, or entity. It is the absence of good and God did not make evil.
Yes, evil is real but it is not a real thing. “Evil” is the absence of good; the result of living in a fallen world

Question 3

Explain how it’s​ not a contradiction to have an all-good God and evil to exist in the world? Use the Doctor/Kid and sports analogies.

Answer 3

A sick child goes to the doctor and receives a shot. That shot causes pain. Why is the shot justified to cause the child pain? Because it is helping/healing the child. Even if the child doesn’t understand, the doctor/parents are still at liberty to do this because it is for good, not evil. God is not causing evil, he is allowing it to happen for the greater good

Teams suffer, yet it makes them better. i.e. running in soccer will make you better on the field

Question 4

How is suffering valuable?

Answer 4

A good God can use suffering to make his creation even better and suffering/Pain gives us an opportunity to go beyond ourselves (to become better people)

Question 5

How is the burden of proof on the person who makes this claim?

Answer 5

The fact that we find evil in the world is not contradictory to the existence of a good God. Suffering can work for our good and make us better human beings

Question 6

How is saving someone against their will a contradiction?

Answer 6

How can the supreme voluntary act of self-surrender be involuntary and We have to accept God

Question 7

Lewis says he lied when he said he would pay any price to remove the problem of hell. How is this a lie?

Answer 7

He could not pay one-thousandth part of the price that God has already paid to remove.

Question 8

How does Lewis respond to the objection/appeal of a second chance after death instead of hell?

Answer 8

If a million chances constantly (given a second chance at some point finality has to come sometime)

Question 9

“Hell is hell not from its own point of view, but from ____________________________________.”

Answer 9

the heavenly point of view

Question 10

Explain the “God of the Gaps” argument in your own words

Answer 10

The philosophical doctrine that nothing exists except matter and There is no mental or spiritual reality

Question 11

Define materialism

Answer 11

the doctrine that nothing exists except matter and its movements and modifications???

Question 12

What can science not explain?

Answer 12

Science explains WHAT happens and not WHY something happens

Question 13

Which proof of God from Unit 1 can science not explain away here?

Answer 13

Contingency Argument

Question 14

Describe the Divine Watchmaker vs. Blind Watchmaker

Answer 14

Charles Darwin claimed to have discovered a way for nature to produce the appearance of design without the intervention of a designer

This blind, unconscious, and automated process is known as natural selection

According to Richard Dawkins,​ there was no divine watchmaker but rather a blind watchmaker

Dawkins’ argument and use of evolution is seen by many biologists to be a decisive refutation of the argument from design and against the existence of God

Question 15

What can a Catholic believe about evolution? What can a Catholic not believe about evolution? (note: these are basically the same question)

Answer 15

A Catholic can believe in evolution but, can’t believe in the evolution of the soul

Question 16

What is in the human soul?

Answer 16

A creation that God made after his image and likeness

Question 17

3 Problems of evolution

Answer 17

1st Problem: Evolution cannot explain the beginning of life

2nd Problem: Evolution cannot explain consciousness

3rd Problem: Evolution cannot explain human rationality or morality

Question 18

How is the New Atheism different from the “old atheism”

Answer 18

New Atheism: a 21st-century attack on Christianity and presents religion as the source of evil in the world

Question 19

How did Christianity improve the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome?

Answer 19

Marriage and the Family
Servant Leadership
Compassion
Hospitals
Education System
Human Dignity for All
Women’s Status in Society

Question 20

What did Christianity bring to Western Civilization?

Answer 20

Marriage and the Family
Servant Leadership
Compassion
Hospitals
Education System
Human Dignity for All
Women’s Status in Society

Question 21

Georges Lemaitre

Answer 21

Belgian astronomer who first proposed the Big Bang Theory (A Catholic Priest)

Question 22

Copernicus

Answer 22

Discovered the heliocentric theory

Question 23

Francis Bacon

Answer 23

Founded the scientific method

Question 24

Christianity and the founding of the educational system

Answer 24

when Rome fell the barbarians destroyed education. They destroyed libraries and schools. But the christian monks preserved education.
They started the reeducation ​of Europe. Clergy​ members started schools at the university level the​​n secondary schools and finally elementary schools. Soon everyone was being educated

Question 25

What were the crusades?

Answer 25

A series of wars b/w Christians and Muslims over the Holy Land b/w the years 1095 - 1291 AD

Question 26

How were the crusade wars of self-defense?

Answer 26

To defend Europe against the growing threat of Islamic conquest

Question 27

What was the goal of the Inquisition?

Answer 27

The goal was not the conviction of heretics but the salvation of their souls.

Question 28

Over how many years did they last?

Answer 28

1100s - 1300s (12th, 13th, & 14th centuries)

Question 29

How many people were killed?

Answer 29

between 1,500 - 4,000

Question 30

What is the exaggerated number thrown out there?

Answer 30

100,000

Question 31

Are the crimes of the Inquisition completely excusable?

Answer 31

These deaths are all tragic and still too many
but, 100,000 is a gross exaggeration and the record should be set straight

Question 32

Did Galileo prove heliocentrism?

Answer 32

Copernicus was the first to formulate a heliocentric theory.

Question 33

What was the Church’s hesitancy with his scientific work?

Answer 33

Did not think that Galileo had clinched the case

The Church decided that Galileo should not teach or promote heliocentrism publicly until he had more evidence

Question 34

Why was Galileo’s work controversial?

Answer 34

Galileo claimed to demonstrate the truth of heliocentrism

Question 35

Why was Galileo seen dishonest during his trial?

Answer 35

Said in his book that he had not promoted heliocentrism in it when he clearly had and said that he tried to demonstrate the weakness of Copernicus’ theory (not so)

Question 36

What was Galileo’s punishment?

Answer 36

Put under house arrest and was allowed to​​ continue his scientific work and publish it. He d​ied of natural causes in 1642

Question 37

What mistake did the Church make in the handling of Galileo’s case?

Answer 37

They persecuted Galileo?

Question 38

How many people did Stalin kill?

Answer 38

Killed around 20 million

Question 39

In what manner did Stalin kill them?

Answer 39

Done through mass slayings, forced labor camps, firing squads, population relocation, and starvation

Question 40

Stalin killed them during a time of _________.

Answer 40

peace

Question 41

How many people did Mao kill?

Answer 41

45 million in four years (some estimates as high as 70 million)

Question 42

Mao killed during a time of _________.

Answer 42

peace

Question 43

How many people did Hitler kill?

Answer 43

Called Christianity one of the great scourges of history

Said to the Germans, “let us be the only people who are immunized against this disease.”
“through the peasantry we shall be able to destroy Christianity”

Blamed the Jews for inventing Christianity
Condemned Christianity for its opposition to evolution

Detested the Christian values of equality and compassion

Hitler’s leading advisers - Goebbels, Himmler, Heydrich, Bormann- were atheists who hated religion and sought to eradicate its influence on Germany

Question 44

Was Hitler Christian? Explain.

Answer 44

Raised Catholic but didn’t practice. He rejected his religious upbringings.