Knowledge of Gods existence

Question 1

How do Christians ‘know’ God

Answer 1

knowledge of god is more like the knowledge of someone, they know of god for his actions or character

Question 2

Natural vs revealed

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Natural Knowledge

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

Calvin’s sensus divintas

Answer 4

‘without knowledge of the self there is no knowledge of god’

• sense of the divine
• desire to carry out religous rituals

Question 5

Forms of knowledge

Answer 5

• scientific fact
• wisdom
• true knowledge is knowledge of God - if source of life leads to understanding of ones life

Question 6

How is the sensus divinitatis supported

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

human sense of beauty and moral goodness

Answer 7

• 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

Question 8

Intellect and ability to reflect

Answer 8

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

Question 9

How does the order of creation support natural theology

Answer 9

Two fold knowledge of God - Calvin

-as creator, the most obvious indications of his existence are design and order

Question 10

Order and design as evidence for God

Answer 10

no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory.’
- know God from creation

Question 11

Calvin - how we cant know God from reason

Answer 11

principle of accommodation: human minds are finite, so we will never know god from reason

Question 12

How does God manifest himself through creation

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

Paley and purpose

Answer 13

• watch analogy

Question 14

Criticisms of design arguments

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Response to criticisms of design argument

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Response to criticisms of design argument

Answer 16

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

Question 17

The fall and human finiteness

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

Faith and reason

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What does both faith and reason need

Answer 19

Grace

- repairs damage from fall - Calvin

Question 20

Christ

Answer 20

• 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

Question 21

Bible

Answer 21

‘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

Question 22

How do natural theologians view the bible

Answer 22

bible is a collection of experiences of god

the important knowledge of god comes from personal experience and an encounter with god

Question 23

What is the problems of original sin

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Brunner

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Barth to Brunner

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Problems with Barth

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Platinga

Answer 27

revealed theology we find reasonable justification for beliefs, and natural theology can never offer this

Question 28

What is basic knowledge

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Platinga argues

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Aetheolgical objector

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Platinga’s response to atheist

Answer 31

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
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Question 32

Critcisms of Platinga

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Problems with revealed theology

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Why is natural theology strong

Answer 34

knowledge of god is reasonable with other religions as well as scientific and philosophical views

Question 35

Criticisms of natural theology

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Response to natural theology criticisms

Answer 36

• 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

Question 37

Bonaventura

Answer 37

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

Question 38

Polinghorne

Answer 38

binocular vision’

• One eye shows the physical world
• One eye shows the purposefulness and creation of God

Question 39

Dawkins on faith

Answer 39

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.