Mashup For Last Exam Flashcards
Simple God
Means to be unchangeable and not made up of parts which is referred to in 3 ways:
God is God-cannot be broken down, with no parts
God is Unchanging-as change involves a God not perfect
God is Immaterial-God doesn’t have a body
Eternal God
Timeless means out of time forever (Boethius, Aquinas), Everlasting means God will exists in time forever (Swinburne, Wolterstorff)
Omnipotence God
Limited Omnipotence- means God is limited to the logically possible as Aquinas says is bound by physical existence
Unlimited Omnipotence- means God can do even the logically impossible as René Descartes argues God can break the laws of physics.
Omniscient God
Omniscience refers to God knowing all past, present and future so must be eternal to see all of time
Limited Omniscience is when Gods knowledge is referred to logically possible to know
Omnibenevolent God
God is perfect, so cannot do evil and morality comes from God and everyone should strive for it
God desires for perfection, God can do evil so is more praise worthy and morality is sourced outside of God
God as a Creator
3 types of creation: Ex Nihilo out of nothing
Ex Deo out of himself and Ex Materia already pre existed
Transcendent and Immanent
Transcendent is to exists above and independent from Plato’s philosophy
Immanence of God as he exists within us and within the universe like miracles in the Old Testiment
Revealed and Natural Philosophy
Revealed- is based on God directly revealing himself through Holy Books aswell as the super natural
Natural Theology- study through observation which of nature which led deism who only accept Natural Theology
Analogy
Used to explain the meaning of something between univocal and equivocal language. Analogy of attribution of the bull with healthy urine. Analogy of proportion refers to as John Hick puts it the faithfulness of a dog/person.
Models and Qualifiers
Ian Ramsey suggested words about God are ‘models’ and ‘qualifiers’ are limits to each statement
Via Negativa
Is a form of theodicy that explains it is not possible to describe God using positives so must use the negative way so as Gods power is not restricted
Symbols
Paul Tillich was a theologian who says symbols point towards what they represent and are powerful unlike signs
Metaphor
Gerry Hughes looks at metaphors as an alternative device to talk about God for example “God is my rock”
Myths
H J Richards used creation stories as an example as they are easily retellable unlike a philosophical theory
William James: 4 fold classification for Religious Experience:
Passive Noetic Transient Ineffable
Rudolph Otto
Looks at Two aspects of numinous: overwhelming fear and awe
Love and mercy
Caroline Franks Davis has a 6 fold classification for religious experience:
1 interpreted as a religious experience 2 a physical sensation (voice/vision) 3 recipient feeling enlightenment 4 undergoes a form of transformation 5 numinous or feeling of something greater 6 ultimate reality of oneness with God
Richard Swinburne 5 types of Religious Experience
1 see Gods action in a public scene 2 a breach of natural law 3 a personal experience able to describe 4 an ineffable personal experience 5 not a specific experience but feeling of presence
3 types of Vision
Corporeal Vision where a person sees a figure
Imaginative Vision a representation through the minds eye
Intellectual Vision is a vision of knowledge or understanding of God for revelation
Aquinas identified 3 types of miracles:
Things which nature could not do.
Things nature could do.
Things nature could do but without the laws of nature.
Dependence of God
Aquinas-initial and continued existence
Fallen from God grace
Augustine looked at the original sin and how God gave humans free will to have a relationship with a God known as the ‘soul deciding theodicy’
Soul Making
John Hick argued humans develop along a soul making process developed from ideas of Irenaeus as individuals can chose a relationship with God. Like Peter Vardys analogy of King and Peasant girl
Predestined by God
John Calvin looks at this as relationship between humans and God as one which will have a relationship with God like a teacher helping those with potential (Doctrine of Divine Election)
Logical Positivist/Vienna Circle
We’re a group of scientific philosophers who used scientific reasoning and argued scholars spend lots of time talker of meaningless chatter
Strong Verification Principle
Statements about the world are only meaningful if the truth or falsity can be proven, Ayer doesn’t believe arguments for the existence of God as they are not meaningful.
Weak Verification Principle
To address problems from the strong version, as it is not always possible to prove this is meaningful and it only needs to be approved in principle by experience or observation
Falsification Principle
Inspired by Karl Popper, asserts statements about God are only meaningful if it is possible to see what could make it false like the example “all swans are white but a black swan disproves this”
John wisdom
The parable of the Gardner illustrates how Christians are in denial of gods falsity as Flew argues cannot be meaningful as statement cannot be falsified
R M Hare
Theory of ‘blicks’ as The parable of a university student is in denial despite being proved that the University dons are not trying to kill but the university student cannot except facts.
Basil Mitchell
Disagreed with the theory of blicks and suggested another parable of a resistance fighter who is in helping the enemy but I still believe to be the leader of the resistance
Braithwaite
Suggest that religious experience is a moral assertion as it changes behaviour which makes it meaningful.
Ludwig Wittenstein
Looks at language games is the meaning of words can only be understood if you are in the same game. He came up with history after watching a football match with the offside rule is only understood by people in the game.
Richard Swinburnes principle of credulity and testimony
Credulity-if someone thinks they saw God they probably did
Testimony- priming that the individual is telling the truth
V S Ramashandran
Argued figures like Saint Paul suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy after his extensive research showed a link between this and religious experiences
Michael Persinger
Is a cognitive neuroscientist who created a machine that could artificially induce a religious experience
Basil the Great Advocates
“Our intellect is weak but our tongue is even weaker”
Stephen Law
Argued the Evil God challenge of how no one believes in an evil God as there is good in the world so no one should believe of a loving God because there is natural evil in the world
