Knowledge Of God’s Existence Flashcards
How can God be known?
key words:
- Natural theology: gaining knowledge of God through the powers of human reason and observation
- revealed theology: God choosing to reveal himself to humans directly through religious experience and scripture
- if you believe real knowledge can only be gained through empirical experience and logic, then God cannot be known as he is beyond the realm of the rational and beyond the capabilities of the human mind
- Christians do not accept that empirical experience and logical reasoning are the only methods of gaining knowledge
Bonaventura’s 3 ways of knowing:
1) the eye of the flesh: sense perception, the means by which we gain knowledge about the physical world
2) the eye of reason: the way of knowing that lets us work out mathematical and philosophical truths through logic
3) the eye of contemplation: a way of knowing which allows us to come to a knowledge of God by going beyond the scope of sense experience and reason
Natural theology
- it attempts to discover truths about the existence of God by using human experience and reason
- looking at the beauty and complexity of the world leads many to the conclusion there must be a creator God
- William Paley argues this in his teleological argument for Gods existence
- Aquinas argued we can see the world is in a constant state of change due to cause and effect, thus we can work out there must be an uncaused causer of the world
- Swinburne argues we have good reason to think that the world shows signs of order, therefore reason leads us to conclude there probably is an intelligent being we call God
- some thinkers argue a sense of the divine is an intrinsic part of human nature, Cicero argued that in all cultures regardless of time, people have come to the conclusion there must be some being who is in control of the universe
- in Genesis, God breathes into Adam his own breath suggesting there might be a spark of divinity in each human, which could be interpreted to mean there is something in humans which is designed to seek and respond to God
- Calvin argued we have a sensus divinitas, he said “there is within the human mind and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of God”
- he didn’t believe this was restricted to Christians
- he argued the created world is a mirror for God, stating “this skilful ordering of the universe is for us a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God who is otherwise invisible”
- thought any lack of clarity of God is because of human sin which clouds peoples understanding of God
- epistemic distance is the distance in knowledge and our ability to grasp and comprehend the nature of God
- usually the distance is attributed to God delivering distancing himself in order to preserve free will
- for Calvin, the distance is created by humans, God has made it impossible to ignore him unless they deliberately do so, if people claim they are unable to recognise God then this is their own fault
- conscience is also proof of Gods existence, the fact we have an inner moral sense would suggest God exists, he must have put it there
- many scholars such as Kant, claim the fact we feel guilty when we do something wrong, even in private, suggests this ‘inner voice’ is God given
Revealed theology
- ideas about God which God has decided to reveal to people, they are not ideas people could have worked out by themselves, such as life after death
- immediate revelation: when God makes himself known go people directly, prophets said to have had immediate revelation
- mediate revelation: when people learn about God indirectly, those that learnt from the prophets had mediated revelation
there are two ways to understand revelation from God:
propositional revelation:
- refers to God directly revealing truths about his nature (immediate)
- these are propositional as they are statements of fact, they are communicated from God and as such are true beyond debate or doubt
- 10 Commandments are a direct propositional revelation from God and for most Christians and Jews, they are not debatable
- Aquinas was a supporter of propositional statements who suggested faith is based on some form of knowledge which can be based on propositional revelation
- as such, propositional revelations are truths revealed by God but not demonstrable using human reason, you receive the information but don’t necessarily understand or process it
- criticisms: psychology has shown the brain does not passively receive information, we process it
- do different religions receive messages from different Gods
- even if the revelation fits in with Church teaching does not guarantee that it is genuine
non-propositional revelation:
- God does not reveal facts or truth to people; instead the religious believer recognises God acting in human experience and history (mediate)
- means Holy Books record how the revelation of God has been understood in history by religious believers
- if this is the case, then how the reader interprets the Bible is of crucial importance
- criticisms: as they are a result of human interpretation, they do not reveal any direct knowledge of God, nor are they infallible
- content of non-propositional revelation is also a matter of interpretation, same experience can lead to different reflections of it by different people
Revelation theology: through the Bible
- those who hold the propositional revelation view acknowledge the Bible as a direct revelation from God
- some fundamentalists would go as far as to state divine dictation, making the Bible inerrant (without any faults at all)
- many Christians agree that the Bible is divinely inspired, but they would not accept the idea that it is a propositional revelation from God, instead that its a non-propositional revelation as its a record human experiences of God
- the Bible has traditionally been interpreted with an authority akin to a law, however laws often seek clarification and are open to interpretation to meet new issues as society changes
- Christians therefore disagree whether the Bible is law because if the Bible is divinely inspired and inerrant, then it does not need to be reinterpreted, laws of the Bible are timeless
- but for Christians that believe it is just divinely inspired, then laws need to rhetorical adapted and updated to apply to the society they are aimed at
- if Bible is divinely inspired then there are issues of how to decipher it, e.g. contradictions between OT & NT
- ultimately it all comes down to interpretation: either Christians believe the Bible is inerrant, or Christians must appeal to the teachings of the Church and their own conscience for the right way to interpret the Bible
Revelation through faith and God’s grace
- as humans are sinful and have finite minds, natural theology is not enough to gain full knowledge of God
- a much fuller revelation of God can be gained by revelation through faith and Gods grace
faith:
- faith is usually considered to be a type of belief which is held in spite of a lack of conclusive evidence
- Aquinas wrote about the nature of faith and said faith does not have the self evident certainty empirical knowledge has
- argued you cannot have faith and scientific knowledge about the same thing as faith is about things were certainty is not available
- also felt faith differed from opinions, opinions do not have the certainty faith has
- Flew used the Parable of the Gardener, where two travellers happen upon a beautiful garden and come to the conclusion a gardener must attend to it
- one of the travellers commits fully to this belief whilst the other remains sceptical and despite all contrary evidence, the one traveller is utterly convinced their is a gardener
- Flew raises the point that no matter what happens, a believer will continue to argue that God loves them
- for non-believers, faith can be seen as a barrier to knowledge
- but Christians see faith as a virtue, they see faith as a leap that can be taken when sense experience and reason have gone as far as they can
- Christians would argue its impossible to have faith without first having knowledge as we need to fully understand something before putting faith into it
Gods grace:
- people are able to have knowledge of God through faith because of Gods grace, God gives the gift of faith snd sustains it through the Holy Spirit
- Christians talk about God in 3 main ways:
1) Father: he is the creator and parent if all humans and the whole world
2) Son: Jesus is the son of God, he came to earth as a saviour to help people find their way to God
3) Holy Spirit: God is also a spirit that gives life to the world, helps people and brings peace
- essentially, Christians are saying God is like their parent, saviour and strength all at the same time
How is revelation understood the Bible?
- through beauty of the world: the existence of creativity and wisdom is obvious everywhere we look
- through the events of history: events of history seen as the work of God, so by looking at past people can gain greater understanding of what God wants from them
- through traditional wisdom: God can be revealed through the insight of wise people
- through the word of the prophets: prophets seen as messengers of God
- through religious experiences: God is understood to reveal himself to people through personal religious experiences
- through the natural laws and design of the material world: St Paul argues theres no excuse for not knowing Gods power because its obvious in everything he has made
- through the person of Jesus: Jesus’ words are the words of God and his actions reveal the extent of Gods love
- through the Bible itself: it reveals truths about God and truths that we could not know otherwise e.g. how the world was created
- ultimately, some Christians believe the Bible is the word of God and is without errors, others believe it was written by people inspired by God, so needs to be interpreted to fit society
