Divinity key words Flashcards
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Theism
Belief in the existence of a God
Atheism
Belief that no god exists
Agnosticism
Either a state of uncertainty as to whether God exists or not, or a belief that the existence of God can never be proved or disproved.
Design Argument
An attempt to use the beauty and complexity of the world to prove that God exists.
The Argument from Fine Tuning
The argument that since there are extremely delicately balanced forces in the universe which are just right to sustain life, there must be an intelligent designer (God).
God of the Gaps
A term used in criticism of the attempt to use God as an explanation only when other scientific explanations cannot be found.
Sceptism
The habit of doubting the truth or existence of things (from the Greek skeptomai meaning to think about, to search, or to look for).
Academic Scepticism
The belief that knowledge of the world gained through the senses was unreliable as it could not be trusted.
Pyrrhonian Scepticism
A radical sort of scepticism that doubted whether any claims about the world were possible.
Epistemology
That area of philosophy concerned with what can be known, and how we know what we know.
Theology
The study of the nature of God; rational inquiry into religious questions.
Natural Theology
Language used in order to persuade.
Revealed Theology
The idea that God can only be known in so far as He allows Himself to be known through Jesus Christ, and Scripture.
Hypothesis
A proposed explanation for an event or phenomenon.
Theory
A tested, well-substantiated, unifying explanation. A hypothesis grows into a theory if it has been experimentally tested on a number of occasions and still holds up.
Ockham’s razor
In a situation where there is more than one possible explanation for an event or occurrence, the explanation which makes the fewest assumptions should be preferred. Known as lex parsimoniae or ‘the law of briefness’ in Latin.
Paradigm shifts
The idea that revolutionary leaps in scientific progress cannot always be explained by the prevailing paradigm (or way of thinking). A new, competing paradigm often comes into being and causes a ‘paradigm shift’.
The verification principle
The idea that unless something can be verified then it is meaningless. Often thought to be the way science makes progress (verifying hypotheses).
The falsification principle
The idea that the best way to tell if something is scientific or not is to determine whether or not it can be falsified. Statements that claim to be scientific but that cannot be falsified are pseudo-science.
Philosophy
From the Greek words philo and sophia meaning ‘love of wisdom’. Philosophy is the study of the nature of reality, knowledge or values based on logical reasoning.
Metaphysics
The area of philosophy based on the nature of reality.
Ethics
The area of philosophy concerned with what’s right and wrong.
Ad hominem
short for argumentum ad hominem from the latin ‘argument to the person’ which refers to criticising the person making the argument rather than the content of the argument itself. Philosophers avoid this.
Principle of charity
The attempt to find the strongest version of an argument.
