Knowledge of Gods existence Flashcards
How do Christians ‘know’ God
knowledge of god is more like the knowledge of someone, they know of god for his actions or character
Natural vs revealed
Natural - reasonable justification and acknowledges God is defined as infinite beyond reason
Revealed - we can only know god by what he reveals, and it is harder to offer any rational justification for it being true
Natural Knowledge
- god is the creator of the universe and humans are conscious elements of that universe
- natural predisposition to know God as creator
- supported by all branches of the Church
Calvin’s sensus divintas
‘without knowledge of the self there is no knowledge of god’
- sense of the divine
- desire to carry out religous rituals
Forms of knowledge
- scientific fact
- wisdom
- true knowledge is knowledge of God - if source of life leads to understanding of ones life
How is the sensus divinitatis supported
- every human society has some form of religion, so it makes sense that we are naturally disposed
- unknown god in athens written about by st paul
- cicero’s universal consent argument which says that so many people believe that this suggests it
- the catechism says religious practices are universal so we are religious beings
human sense of beauty and moral goodness
- sense of the beauty of the world indicates that humans have an ‘openness to truth and beauty’, leading to knowledge of god
- natural law indicates a sensus divinitatis according to the catholic church
- calvin thought conscience was a god given faculty of the mind
Intellect and ability to reflect
aquinas’s five ways
- material world could not continue to exist unless there was an uncaused causer who set up the conditions of the world, sustains all material causes and orders these causes to be purposeful
- the inference from reason means that christians call this god
How does the order of creation support natural theology
Two fold knowledge of God - Calvin
-as creator, the most obvious indications of his existence are design and order
Order and design as evidence for God
no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory.’
- know God from creation
Calvin - how we cant know God from reason
principle of accommodation: human minds are finite, so we will never know god from reason
How does God manifest himself through creation
- in a way in which we understand
-same was a teacher will teach different aged kids differently
using this principle
god reveals himself in nature, like nature is a sort of a reflection of his own nature
Paley and purpose
- watch analogy
Criticisms of design arguments
nature is truly more brutal that beautiful, meaning god is cruel not loving
a more problematic argument is that darwin’s notion of evolution by natural selection means nature has no final cause but develops to survive
- nature with no purpsoe makes God redundant
Response to criticisms of design argument
Process theology
God and world in tandem and God maximises the potentials of objects at any given time
- no great end in nature as every moment is an end in itself and God is constantly involved
Response to criticisms of design argument
Process theology
God and world in tandem and God maximises the potentials of objects at any given time
- no great end in nature as every moment is an end in itself and God is constantly involved
-god loves his creation, suffers with it and desires full potential for everything
every moment in creation is a revelation of god’s participation
The fall and human finiteness
- sensus divintas as human corruption from the fall
- Adam & sin
- true knowledge is salvation i Christ
- catholic position is that the fall did not cut humans off from god, but distract their desire for him
Faith and reason
Faith needs reason and reason needs faith
-ne thing to demonstrate the existence of god, but it is another to believe it to be true
aquinas made the distinction between unformed faith, which has reasons why but not acceptance as truth, and formed faith, which accepts what is believed through intellect and trusts the resurrection
What does both faith and reason need
Grace
- repairs damage from fall - Calvin
Christ
- the bible should be read through god as faith, christ as mediator and the holy spirit which sustains the interpretation
- knowledge of god in christ cannot tell us what the essence of god is
- principle of accommodation means christ is the image or likeness of god, appearing in a way that humans can understand (accom principle)
- Jesus is mirror of divine - Calvin
- as a mediator he is the means by which sinful humans are reconciled into the knowledge and love of god
Bible
‘god is the author of sacred scripture’ and its words are ‘under the breath of the holy spirit’
- catechism warns, christianity must not be reduced to the bible, because it is a religion of a universal god
- Natural theology
How do natural theologians view the bible
bible is a collection of experiences of god
the important knowledge of god comes from personal experience and an encounter with god
What is the problems of original sin
if humans are in a state of sin, how can they know and be open to god’s grace unless god reveals himself generally in nature?
on the other hand god’s grace is not something that we can ask for and we can only know god because he chooses to let himself be known
Brunner
god’s ‘sparks of glory’ in nature provided a point of contact
humans are only damaged physically and emotionally by the fall, so the image of god in us remain intact
god communicates through nature reflecting his own but we are blinded by sin so it is no more than a point of contact
conscience and the experience of guilt makes humans aware of god’s law
through grace and renewal of material self, true knowledge of god is available to the person with faith in christ
Barth to Brunner
Decisive answer is ‘no’
completely corrupted by the fall
-may be different form animals but the fall damaged us such that it is impossible for the spiritual self to inform the material self in any way about god. barth says brunner does not take this far enough.
nature, conscience and guilt do not provide points of contact with god. they are only experienced after a person has experience god’s grace
although we are able to perceive god in nature it is not the basis for morality or salvation. this is because god’s moral commands are revealed in the bible and are different from any natural laws
Problems with Barth
many argue that barth’s harsh response was due to the rise of nazism
the nazi appeal to the natural order of society resulting in mass exterminations explains why barth was so suspicious of reason and natural law
it doesn’t necessarily make him right
many argue that brunner’s account of faith and reason is much closer to calvin and biblical traditions
Platinga
revealed theology we find reasonable justification for beliefs, and natural theology can never offer this
What is basic knowledge
unlikely there will ever been a foundation of knowledge, but a broad agreement which is reasonably considered true
basic knowledge is a belief which is held to be true because it just is so and makes sense of so many other experiences
Platinga argues
if there were no god there would be no claims to know him, but many people do claim this, so it can be counted as basic knowledge
this basic knowledge is only available to christians because only christ can remove the sin which distorts the sensus divintatis
Aetheolgical objector
evil being incompatible with the omnibenevolent god
religious experiences may be neurosis or hallucination
religious claims like miracles lack hard evidence
this objections justify considering theistic knowledge as irrational, and the conclusion of the objector is that god does not exist
Platinga’s response to atheist
no incorrigible proof of one’s belief, there can be good reasons enough to maintain it
- dont need to think if argument to prove Gods existice can refute it
belief in god’ existence is not more or less rational than an atheist’s non belief
Advertisements
Critcisms of Platinga
plantinga’s theology of god argument is not really basic, his claim is that millions of people for thousands of years have claimed to have a sense of god. this could be this many people interpreting their experience incorrectly
Problems with revealed theology
despite the best efforts of reformed epistemology there are many who consider that it falls into the error of fideism
by ruling out reason, there is no means of testing true or false religious beliefs
-roman catholic church outlawed fideism preferring a midpoint of rationalism of natural theology and the faith of revealed theology
Why is natural theology strong
knowledge of god is reasonable with other religions as well as scientific and philosophical views
Criticisms of natural theology
he challenge to natural theology is whether it justifies christian claims
critics argue that as natural theology’s tendency is to reduce these claims
then jesus was no more than a teacher and prophet
the resurrection is a symbol of hope over despair and no more
heaven is just a political goal of the world transformed
Response to natural theology criticisms
- does not rest only on reason
douglas hedley argued that while reason has its place in philosophy, the imagination is also essential - plato analogies e.t.c
imagination shares the characteristics of faith; it is intentional and conscious
-Dante; NT - Johns Gospel and Nicodemus being reborn
Bonaventura
Eye of flesh’ sense experience
- ‘Eye of reason’ – truths through reason
- ‘Eye of contemplation’ – going beyond the scope of reason and empiricism to gain knowledge of God
Polinghorne
binocular vision’
- One eye shows the physical world
- One eye shows the purposefulness and creation of God
Dawkins on faith
faith to simply be a cop out argument where people use faith to fill gaps within there knowledge with the little empirical evidence it has knowledge in God has as much standing as the tooth fairy.
