Exam I: Barbour Glossary

Question 1

Agnosticism

Answer 1

The claim that there are insufficient grounds for either belief of disbelief in any ultimate reality.

The agnostic does not deny the existence of god but denies the possibility of knowledge of god

Question 2

Anthropocentrism

Answer 2

A view of the world in which humanity is central and all other creatures serve human interests

Question 3

Cosmology

Answer 3

Religious, philosophical, or scientific beliefs about the origin, structure, and nature of the universe

Question 4

Deism

Answer 4

The belief that god created a law-abiding world and left it to run on its own

Question 5

Determinism

Answer 5

1. Natural Determinism, the claim that every event is the lawful consequence of antecedent events and is in principle predictable from knowledge of scientific laws and antecedent conditions
2. Theological Determinism, the claim that god determines everything that happens, usually combined with belief that god foresees all events

Question 6

Empiricism

Answer 6

The claim, first systematically articulated by Locke and Hume, that sensory experience is the primary source of knowledge and the justification for the truth of propositions

Question 7

Epistemology

Answer 7

Philosophical analysis of theories of knowledge and accounts of how knowledge is possible

Question 8

Existentialism

Answer 8

A twentieth-century movement that stresses human freedom, authenticity in facing finitude and death, and the distinctive character of personal existence. (in contrast to the world of impersonal objects studied in science and the abstractions of philosophical systems)

Question 9

Lamarckism

Answer 9

The theory that evolutionary changes in a species are primarily the product of changes in individual organisms acquired during their lifetime by habitual use and inherited by their descendants.

Question 10

Linguistic Analysis

Answer 10

A philosophical movement initiated in England in the 1950s holding that differing types of language (scientific, religious, moral, and so forth) serve differing functions in human life not reducible to one another.

Question 11

Materialism

Answer 11

The belief that matter is the fundamental reality in the universe and that all phenomena can in principle be explained by the laws of matter

Question 12

Metaphysics

Answer 12

Philosophical analysis of the most general characteristics and components of reality (includes dualism, idealism, materialism, neo-thomism, process philosophy)

Question 13

Model

Answer 13

An imaginative representation of characteristics of an entity that is not directly observable and that is postulated by analogs with entities in a more familiar domain. Models contribute to the formulation of scientific theories that can be tested against data and to religious concepts used to interpret historical events and religious experience.

Question 14

Natural Selection

Answer 14

The theory formulated by Darwin and Wallace that some heritable variations among members of a species confer a slight advantage in the competitive struggle for survival, resulting in a gradual modification of the characteristics of the species and the formation of new species.

Question 15

Natural Theology

Answer 15

Arguments for the existence of god based on human reason and observation, including arguments starting form evidence of design in nature of in the processes of nature (rather than from religious experience or revelation)

Question 16

Neo-Orthodoxy

Answer 16

A theological movement (initiated by Karl Barth in the 1920s in response to Protestant liberalism) that reclaims the Reformation’s emphasis on the centrality of Christ and the sovereignty of god while remaining open to modern biblical scholarship

Question 17

Pantheism

Answer 17

The view that God is identical with the totality of nature of the laws of nature or a world soul immanent in nature and not in any way transcending it

Question 18

Paradigm

Answer 18

Thomas Kuhn’s term for a cluster of conceptual, methodological, and metaphysical presuppositions embodied in a tradition of scientific research. In a paradigm shift, basic concepts are reformulated and familiar date are reinterpreted in radically new ways

Question 19

Religion

Answer 19

A tradition of shared trials, stories, experiences, beliefs, and ethical norms in which life is viewed in a wider context of meaning; most religious traditions have sacred texts of scriptures and most express belief in a higher power transcending.

Question 20

Religious Experience

Answer 20

The personal experiences characteristic of members of a religious community, including: numinous experience of the holy, mystical experience of unity, transformative experience of reorientation, courage in facing suffering and death, moral experience of obligation, and awe in response to order and creativity int he world

Question 21

Revelation

Answer 21

God’s self-disclosure (1) in the natural world, or (2) in the scriptures of a religious tradition or (3) in historical events and in the lives of persons in a religious traditions. The third view, which is defended in this volume, sees scripture as human interpretation of revelatory events rather than as itself directly revealed by god

Question 22

Teleological

Answer 22

Directed toward an end, goal, or purpose. The teleological argument claims that evidence of design in the natural world or in the processes of nature implies the presence of an intelligent Designer

Question 23

Theism

Answer 23

The view that god is a personal and purposeful eternal being transcending the world but also immanent in it

Question 24

Theology

Answer 24

Critical reflection on the beliefs of a religious community in the context of its rituals, stories, experiences, and ethical norms, especially in this volume, beliefs about god, nature, and human nature in various strands of the Christian tradition

Question 25

Theology of nature

Answer 25

Critical reflection, within a tradition based on historical revelation and religious experience, in which theological beliefs concerning nature are reformulated in the light of contemporary science. traditional ideas of creation, providence, and human nature are modified to ensure consistency with well-supported scientific theories but are not derived primarily from science.