Believing In God Flashcards
Definition of omnipotent
All powerful
What is omniscient
All knowing
What is a theist
Someone who believes in God
What is an agnostic
Someone who is not sure if God exists
What is an atheist
Someone who doesn’t believe in God
What is a monotheist
Someone who believes in only one God
What is a polytheist
Someone who believes in many gods, or forms of the same God
Definition of omnipresent
Everywhere
What is the design argument
The universe is too complex to have just happened by chance. It must have been designed. Only God is powerful enough to design a universe. Therefore God exists.
Evidence for the design argument
Beauty in nature
The eye
DNA
Fibonacci sequences within nature
What did Aquinas say about the design argument
The universe needs an intelligent being to keep it in order. Only God is powerful enough. Therefore God exists
What did Paley say about the design argument
If you found a watch but didn’t know what it was, you would have to conclude it was so complex and fit for purpose it would have to have been designed. The world is the same, and only God is powerful enough to be the designer. Therefore God exists
Reasons against the design argument
Evolution could account for apparent design (Darwin)
Cruelty and suffering exists in the world, and an all loving designer would not have included it
How can attributes such as love and forgiveness be designed - yet they exist
What is benevolent
All loving
Reasons for the design argument
Natural selection doesn’t account for our ability to create art, literature or music, which have no evolutionary purpose, this suggests we were designed
God is beyond human understanding, therefore we could not understand why evil and suffering exists in the world
The complex symmetry of space, the fact that the earth orbits the sun at the correct distance
What is the first cause argument
Everything in the universe was caused to exist. The universe exists so it must have a cause. It had to be caused by something eternal, only God is eternal, therefore God caused the universe. Which means that God exists
What did Aquinas say about the first cause argument
The universe had a beginning Things can't cause themselves to exist The universe must have been caused to exist by something outside the universe The first cause must be God Therefore, God exists
Reasons against the first cause argument
Depends on the universe having a beginning
What caused God?
We can’t prove that the cause was God
Big bang theory says that the universe started from a random and spontaneous event
Reasons for the first cause arguments
Only God is outside of time and space, and therefore able to create the universe
Islam accepts scientific theories and says that they support Allah both existing and being the first cause of the universe
All religious scriptures refer to God beginning the universe-can’t all be wrong
What is the miracles argument
Something outside normal experience has happened, and there is no natural explanation for it. Only God is outside nature and could have caused this. Therefore God exists
Key details of the miracles argument
Events that can’t be explained, break the laws of nature or show God’s power and love
Examples of miracles
Jesus turning water into wine
Fabrice Mwamba’s heart attack and survival
Miracle of stairwell B during 9/11
Reasons against the miracles arguments
Miracles are difficult to prove
Why are only some people helped?
There could be scientific explanations for ‘miracles’ in the form of new discoveries
Reasons for the miracles arguments
Too many accounts of miracles for them not to be real
Often investigated by religious believers and sceptics
Don’t always happen to believers
What is the religious experience argument
I have experienced God, therefore God exists
Key details about the religious experience
Numinous
Prayer and Meditation (Pentecostalism)
Conversion
Miracles
Reasons against the religious experience argument
Difficult to prove as genuine
Could somebody be mistaken or misled?
If you are a theist already you may take an ordinary experience as a religious experience
Reasons for the religious experience argument
The influence of religious experiences are so great they must be genuine
People have direct personal proof of the existence of God, which is enough for them for them to believe that God exists
Sometimes a group of people have the same religious experience at once; they can’t all be hallucinating
What is the morality argument
People have an inbuilt sense of morality, which comes from a source outside of them. This source is God, therefore God exists
We listen to our morals over our desires. We are not always rewarded for good morality in life, we must get a reward after death, this must be going to heaven, therefore God exists.
Key details about the morality argument
Morals are our sense of right and wrong. Sometimes we follow the rules to know right from wrong, sometimes we listen to our conscience and sometimes we think about the consequences
Reasons against the morality argument
There is no proof that morals are anything but rules built up over time by society
Morals serve evolution - they keep societies together when food is scarce and are part of the survival process
Not everyone feels guilt and some people feel it more than others
Relative morals show different morals
Reasons for the morality arguments
If morality helps us survive, maybe it is part of Gods design and plan
Morals tell us how to behave so we are rewarded after death
Definition of morality
A sense of right and wrong that helps guide people’s behaviour
Definition of absolute morality
Certain actions are wrong no matter what the consequences e.g. Murder
Definition of relative morality
Some actions are performed using rules or laws as a guide e.g. Stoned to death for adultery
Arguments against the existence of God
The importance of faith
Science
Presence of evil and suffering
How does the importance of faith disprove the existence of God
It is very difficult to accept any of the five arguments if you don’t already believe in God
Atheists do not have faith, and therefore will always be able to come up with counter arguments against theist arguments
Agnostics would say that they need evidence to prove whether God exists or not, not faith
Why does science disprove the existence of God
Science explains things that people used God to explain in the past
Why does the presence of evil and suffering disprove the existence of God
Because evil and suffering exists in the world, which means that either God does not exist or he’s not as powerful as theists would like to believe
Cruelty in the animal kingdom and natural disasters are evidence of poor design
People do not always behave in moral way, creating moral evil.
