Believing In God.

Question 0

What are the four types of religious expericances?

Answer 0

The numinous, prayer, conversion and miracles.

Question 1

What are the problems of the design argumnet?

Answer 1

There could be many different Gods, not just one.
If God is perfect then why did he create an imperfect world with natural and moral evil.
Science says that the world was created because of cause and effect and that a God wasn’t needed.
What designed God?
The design is always changing.
Why must there be a God?

Question 3

How does Conversion make people believe in God?

Answer 3

An experience so strong they commit their life to God.
Called regenerative experience. Born again.
Turn atheists or agnostics to religion.
St Paul felt it going to Damascus.

Question 4

What are the problems with the cosmological argument?

Answer 4

There might not be a God but only a vague first cause.
There is self contradiction in the argument. Who caused God.
Why can’t there be infinite regress, with no first cause?
The concept of cause is vague and doesn’t apply to things beyond the physical universe.

Question 7

What is the Catholic response to evil and suffering.

Answer 7

Moral evil comes through humans miss-using the gift of free will.
Life is preparation for paradise. We spend an eternity in paradise so it doesn’t matter short term.
A good way to show our love for God is to make sacrifices in our loves which can only happen if there is evil.
God is all knowing, we aren’t. There must be a reason for suffering as God sent Jesus to suffer.
If we went straight to paradise then we wouldn’t know how lucky we were. We have to feel suffering to know hoe lucky we are.

Question 8

How does the numinous feeling make people believe in God?

Answer 8

It is feeling something greater than your self. Experience of the transcendent.
Father Yves Dubois has felt it twice praying in front of a statue of the virgin Marry.
You feel as if you were in the presence of a greater God.

Question 9

What are the main four features of a Christian up-bringing?

Answer 9

Going to Church, Sunday school, prayer and parents.

Question 11

Explain the cosmological argument.

Answer 11

Everything that exists or happened has be caused by something elss.
The universe exists so somethings must have caused it to exist.
The universe must have been caused by the “first cause” or uncaused cause.
Only God could have been that cause.

Question 12

How is Sunday school part of a Christian upbringing?

Answer 12

It supports belief in God as Christian reasons for things are explained to them. What do there believe about God.

Question 13

How can prayer make a person believe in God?

Answer 13

Catholics believe that we use prayer to talk to God. We are born wanting to find him and he wants to listen to us.
If it comes from the heart, God will listen.
Wanting to pray is a religious experience.
Formal prayers are made during mass and offered in worship.
Informal prayer is made by individuals.
All prayers are answered in God’s own terms.
An answered prayer is the biggest religious experience.

Question 14

How can unanswered prayers make a person not believe in God.

Answer 14

God should answer all prayers as he has the power and he loves us.
Prayers aren’t answered, but for others and in the bible prayers are answered.
This means that God doesn’t have the power to answer all prayers or he doesn’t love everyone. This means that the all loving or all powerful God can’t exist.
No-one is listening.

Question 15

How are the parents part of a Christian upbringing?

Answer 15

They tell children about God and children are likely to believe what their parents tell them.

Question 16

What are the Catholic responses to science.

Answer 16

Only God could cause the big bang and create the world.
The main points of the bible fit with the scientific creation story. One of Gods days could have been billions of years.
Only god could create life through evolution.
Science is wrong. The world was made in seven days.

Question 18

How is Church part of a Christian upbringing?

Answer 18

Going to Church and seeing so many people worshipping will make children think that God must be real as otherwise they wouldn’t do it.

Question 19

How can evil and suffering make people not believe in God?

Answer 19

If God did exist then he would not create evil and suffering to began with.
An omni-benevolent God would love us and wouldn’t want us to feel pain and suffering. Loving people wouldn’t die of cancer.
An omniscient God would know the pain and suffering that we feel and he would know how to stop it.
A omnipotent God would know how to stop evil and suffering and could stop us from committing moral evil.

Question 20

How is prayer part of a Christian upbringing?

Answer 20

The parents teach the children how to pray and it shows prayer as being an important part in life. It is also natural and encorages them to believe in God.

Question 24

What is the Catholic response to unanswered prayers?

Answer 24

You may be praying for help that you don’t need and you don’t need God’s help.
He can’t answer all prayers as people will pray for different things.
You might be praying for selfish things that you don’t need.
God may only answer prayers for the God and faithful.
You might be praying for things that will harm other people.
God has other plans for you.

Question 25

How do miracles make people believe in God?

Answer 25

It a a break in the laws of nature that only God could have caused.
Miracles means God is in direct conduct with you, and it means he has acted on Earth.

Question 28

Explain the design argument.

Answer 28

All complex things must have been designed so there should have been a designer. The world is very complex(DNA) so it must have been designed.
If the world was designed then there must have been an designer.
The only possible designer of a world as complex as the world is God.
Therefore the appearance of design proves that God exists.

Question 32

How does the scientific explanation of the world cause people to become atheists or agnostics?

Answer 32

It can explain the world with out God and will be able to explain all of it in time.
If God did create the world, there would be no other explanation.
Agnostics say that science can explain most of the world, but not all of it.
Life was created randomly by evolution so a God isn’t needed.
The Big Bang created a universe randomly, not by God.

Question 33

The media should be not allowed to comment on religious people’s ideas on life and death. Give reasons for.

Answer 33

It could offence or upset.
The information may be wrong.
Could be seen as blasphemous.
Could stir up religious hatred.
The media should remain un biased. It should just inform with the facts and no opions.

Question 34

The media should be not allowed to comment on religious people’s ideas on life and death. Give reasons against.

Answer 34

It allows people to make informed judgment.
The human right to freedom of speech.
Debates allow for progression and development.
Religion criticises government, so they should be open to criticism.
Shows alternative views.