Essay Questions Flashcards
Explain the steps of the teleological argument
- William paley argued the purpose for design is a plan to make something excluding the purpose for design is a plan to make something encluding the purpose for creation, intelligence,imagination and ambition
- William paley believed that a watch is too complex
- Therefore, it can’t be manufactured and must have a watchmaker
-He likened to an eye - and argued that an eye is too complex to be made by chance
- therefore, it must have a designer and this designer is God
Explain the steps of cosmological argument (5 points)
- in ordinary things,there is logical cause and effect cycle that doesn’t explain why things came to be.
- Everything that exists has a cause
- the universe exits
- Therfore the universe must have a cause
- That cause must be God therefore God exists
Explain how the concept of the devil attempts to solve the problem of evil
- lucifer was one of God’s arch angels and was greedy and power hungry.
-Sp God allowed him to leave because he gave everyone free will
-Lucifer caused havoc on earth and now he goes around deceiving people - Lucifer is the devil
-The devil is the reason we commit sin
-For example, in the story of Adam and Eve, the devil tries to tempt eve into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of Good and evil
-At this moment, he was in the form of a snake and eve then convinced Adam to eat the fruit
-The consequences of that was Adam and Eve being banished from the garden of Eden and falling out of harmony with God
-The devil wanted to be like God
Explain how irenaus’s theodicy attempts to solve the problem of evil(7 points)
- irenaus believed God gave us free will which was an act of his love
- he also believed God deliberately did not make a perfect world without suffering
- without suffering we would not be presented with the opportunity that allows us to learn and grow spiritually
-Suffering develops character
-Ireanus focused on the book of job and psalms
-We have the potiential to become like God but we are not like God
-In the book of psalms it is written “it’s the good that have suffered “
Explain how Augustine’s theodicy solves the problem of evil
- Augustine believed when God created the world he created it perfectly good because God is perfectly good
-Augustine based his ideas of the story of creation which marked the beginning of the world
-Genesis talks about how the lord made the sky,waters,sea and land,food and the universe and then created Adam and Eve
-they lived in a state of perfection and happiness that didn’t need change
-Harmony is the garden of Eden because God provided them with everything Adam and Eve needed to live a care free life
-The only commandment that God gave Adam and Eve was to never eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil
-It’s in our nature to know right from wrong
-When Adam and Eve ate the fruit and were tempted by the serpent aka lucifer
-Harmony was destroyed and what was a perfect world was corrupted by sin and death - Augustine also believed God being perfectly good did not create evil
-Evil is not a thing it’s self,it is only in absense of good - there is only evil in this world because humans have turned away and sinned and we are born with the original sin because of Adam and Eve
-the existence of evil is the price we pay for free will
-Their disobedience had turned a perfect world or an imperfect because they gave in to temptation
-Augustine’s attempt to understand the existence of evil is soul -deciding this means whether you go to be,k depends on your soul
Explain two different challenges to the cosmological argument
- immanuel Kant believed that the principle of cause and effect forced on experiences by the mind so it it not truly real
- so cause and effect can only apply to things we have experienced which does not conclude the creation of the universe
- all the argument proves is a cause
- it fails to prove the existence of God in traditional terms
-Bertrand Russell said the universe is just there, that is all
-We don’t need why because it’s a brute fact
Explain how the story of job attempts to solve the problem of evil
The story of job shows humans have long struggled with the question, why does god allow suffering particularly for good people.Suffering is not a punishment.God is in control,God has a plan - even though there are many things humans can’t understand.Job was a happy man and satan believed if bad things happened he wouldn’t praise God,This was the bet.Disaster then struck. However job didn’t blame god this happened twice then he started to curse God.One of his friends suggested it could be a punishment from God so job then speaks to God and god never explains why he suffered but job seems satifified that whatever happened has happened because it was God’s plan.Everything was restored back to normal
