Believing In God

Question 1

Definition of omnipotent

Answer 1

All powerful

Question 2

What is omniscient

Answer 2

All knowing

Question 3

What is a theist

Answer 3

Someone who believes in God

Question 4

What is an agnostic

Answer 4

Someone who is not sure if God exists

Question 5

What is an atheist

Answer 5

Someone who doesn’t believe in God

Question 6

What is a monotheist

Answer 6

Someone who believes in only one God

Question 7

What is a polytheist

Answer 7

Someone who believes in many gods, or forms of the same God

Question 8

Definition of omnipresent

Answer 8

Everywhere

Question 9

What is the design argument

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

Evidence for the design argument

Answer 10

Beauty in nature
The eye
DNA
Fibonacci sequences within nature

Question 11

What did Aquinas say about the design argument

Answer 11

The universe needs an intelligent being to keep it in order. Only God is powerful enough. Therefore God exists

Question 12

What did Paley say about the design argument

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Reasons against the design argument

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What is benevolent

Answer 14

All loving

Question 15

Reasons for the design argument

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What is the first cause argument

Answer 16

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

Question 17

What did Aquinas say about the first cause argument

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Reasons against the first cause argument

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Reasons for the first cause arguments

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What is the miracles argument

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Key details of the miracles argument

Answer 21

Events that can’t be explained, break the laws of nature or show God’s power and love

Question 22

Examples of miracles

Answer 22

Jesus turning water into wine
Fabrice Mwamba’s heart attack and survival
Miracle of stairwell B during 9/11

Question 23

Reasons against the miracles arguments

Answer 23

Miracles are difficult to prove
Why are only some people helped?
There could be scientific explanations for ‘miracles’ in the form of new discoveries

Question 24

Reasons for the miracles arguments

Answer 24

Too many accounts of miracles for them not to be real
Often investigated by religious believers and sceptics
Don’t always happen to believers

Question 25

What is the religious experience argument

Answer 25

I have experienced God, therefore God exists

Question 26

Key details about the religious experience

Answer 26

Numinous
Prayer and Meditation (Pentecostalism)
Conversion
Miracles

Question 27

Reasons against the religious experience argument

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Reasons for the religious experience argument

Answer 28

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

Question 29

What is the morality argument

Answer 29

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.

Question 30

Key details about the morality argument

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Reasons against the morality argument

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Reasons for the morality arguments

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Definition of morality

Answer 33

A sense of right and wrong that helps guide people’s behaviour

Question 34

Definition of absolute morality

Answer 34

Certain actions are wrong no matter what the consequences e.g. Murder

Question 35

Definition of relative morality

Answer 35

Some actions are performed using rules or laws as a guide e.g. Stoned to death for adultery

Question 36

Arguments against the existence of God

Answer 36

The importance of faith
Science
Presence of evil and suffering

Question 37

How does the importance of faith disprove the existence of God

Answer 37

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

Question 38

Why does science disprove the existence of God

Answer 38

Science explains things that people used God to explain in the past

Question 39

Why does the presence of evil and suffering disprove the existence of God

Answer 39

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.