Existence of God

Question 1

Thomas Aquinas

Answer 1

Developed the 1st cause argument for God’s existence

Question 2

Sigmund Freud

Answer 2

Psychoanalyst
Social conditioning:What we learn from our parents and the society we are brought up remains with us throughout our life. This is where our moral knowledge comes from

Question 3

Posh name for Design argument?

Answer 3

Teleological argument

Question 4

Explain the teleological argument

Answer 4

World is too well planned to be an accident- it must have had a designer. This must be god, as an all-powerful being

Question 5

What is the anthropic principle?

Answer 5

That the universe appears to have been fine-tunes for our existence. e.g. solar systems place in galaxy, our distance from sun

Question 6

Friedrich Nietzche

Answer 6

There seems to be flaws in the universe, eg natural disasters and suffering

Question 7

Posh name for first cause argument

Answer 7

Everything follows cause and effect, but there must have been a ‘first cause’. This can only be outside of universe, therefore God, as transcendent, eternal and omnipotent

Question 8

Theist

Answer 8

someone who believes in a god

Question 9

atheist

Answer 9

someone who does not believe in God

Question 10

Agnostic

Answer 10

someone who needs further proof to believe or not in God

Question 11

Numinous experience

Answer 11

The feeling or presence of something overwhelmingly greater than yourself. Can be nature or personal, e.g. Neil Armstrong or St. Paul

Question 12

Miracle

Answer 12

An event, caused by God, that seems to break the laws of nature

Question 13

David Hume was against?

Answer 13

miracles

Question 14

David Hume said?

Answer 14

Even if the universe was designed, it not mean that God had to design it.

Question 15

William Paley’s watch analogy

Answer 15

if you find a watch in the desert, its complexity would lead you to assume it had a designer; the complexity of the universe draws to the same conclusion- God

Question 16

Unanswered prayers

Answer 16

Against: how can an omnibenevolent and omnipotent God not help those asking for it?

Question 17

Inconsistent triad

Answer 17

There is suffering, but God should be Omni: benevolent and potent. Either he isn’t those things, or does not exist.

Question 18

Faith

Answer 18

Confidence or belief in something, not needing proof

Question 19

Conscience

Answer 19

inherent sense of right or wrong, Christians say it is God

Question 20

Creation

Answer 20

Result of God’s efforts to create life. Belongs to God, humans have been given stewardship (responsibility to care for it.

Question 21

Morality

Answer 21

The inner sense of right or wrong that lead people to behave correctly (ethically)

Question 22

Theory of Evolution

Answer 22

Idea that all life on earth has developed and adapted to survive e.g. giraffe long neck. ‘survival of the fittest’ so not created as they are by god

Question 23

Big bang theory

Answer 23

scientific theory- world began with an explosion of a singularity. Universe expands as stars, galaxies and planets develop

Question 24

Charles Darwin

Answer 24

Developed theory of evolution as a result of his travels, and evidence he observed in nature.

Question 25

Examples of natural design

Answer 25

• Food chains
• Rainforests- interconnected ecosystem
• Gravity
• Heart
• Eye
• Solar system