Midterm Exams Flashcards by Gino Ernesto

Accessing God’s existence is an issue because

It is not self-evident

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What is self-evident?

Direct contact with reality. Does not need proof

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Why is God’s existence fundamental?

It matters to our personal, existential, and moral life

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If there is a god

we can’t do whatever we want

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If there is no God

We can do whatever we want

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What are the 4 responses to God’s existence?

Ontologism, Fideism, Agnosticism, Atheism

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How can we know God according to Ontologists?

God is first idea and all we know comes from our knowledge of God

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Where does Fideism come from?

Fides

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What does fides mean?

Faith

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Why is man totally corrupt in nature?

Because of Sin (Fideists)

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Why a human mind can’t access God

Because the mind is sinful can’t grasp pure goodness

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What is one way to access God’s existence?

Faith and Will

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How can we use faith and will?

We make an act of faith. We simply believe

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Where does Agnosticism come from?

A/Gnos - no knowledge

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What is the response of the agnostics?

Refuse to answer the question.

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Why do agnostics refuse to answer the question of God’s existence?

There is no way to resolve the quesiton

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What are some of the strands of agnoticism?

Positivism and Logical/Neo-positivism

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Who is the father of positivism?

August Comte

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Why did August Comte said that the only things that we can know are the things that we can observe and experiment?

Because what cannot be observed or experimented does not give us knowledge or we don’t have a way of knowing

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What is the problem of God’s existence according to positivism?

We can’t observe or experiment God to know the statement is true

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What are the 2 kinds of statements according to neo-positivism?

Analytical and Synthetic

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What is analytic statement?

Statements that don’t need proof to be true (self-evident) or true by knowing what the subject is

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Why does knowing what the subject is, it indicates the predicate?

Because the predicate repeats the meaning of the subject

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What is the problem with analytic statements?

They are boring. We can’t learn anything new because they are always true

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What is synthetic statement?

Statements wherein the subject and predicate are not necessarily the same.

Does synthetic statements need to undergo observation and experimentation?

Yes!

Why is the statement God exists neither an analytic nor synthetic statement?

Because we do not know what God is, and we can't observe or experiment God

What does Atheism claim?

There is no God

What are the arguments of Atheism?

The existence of Evil, the probabilistic argument, and projection theory

What are the kinds of evil?

Evil, natural evil, moral evil, physical evil, and metaphysical evil

What is evil?

Absence of all-good

What is natural evil?

natural disasters and calamities

What is moral evil?

willful acts of human beings

What is physical evil?

bodily pain or mental suffering

Why is there no God according to atheism?

because it is logical impossible since evil exists in the world

What does the probabilistic argument say?

if the first statement is true the other statement may still be true but it is less probably true.

Who are the 2 figures of the projection theory?

Sigmund Freud (father of psychoanalysis) and Karl Marx (father of communism)

What does Freud believe about God?

God is the product of the imaginative mind and a product of our piled up frustrations against our fathers

Why is religion a neurosis according to Freud?

Because God is the product of our infantile wish of a perfect father

Why is God a product of sociological frustrations according to Marx?

Because of sociological imbalances

What are the arguments of the believers?

Fixed laws argument, eternal truths argument, and moral law argument

What does the fixed laws argument state?

If there is order in the universe, there is a mind/intelligence (God)

Why is order indicative of intelligence?

Because only a mind/intellect creates order in things, not will or pleasure

What does the eternal truths argument state?

If there are absolute truths (like math), then it came from something who is absolute (God)

What does the moral law argument state?

God is the basis of morality. If there is no God, subjective morality.

What is the fundamental law of morality?

Do good, avoid evil

What is the alternative is there is no God?

Life has no meaning

What is the basis or need for equality, justice, and dignity in a world made of molecules or cells?

The existence of God

Why does God draw close to man?

To seek, know, and love him with all his strength

What is ultimate End?

That good which completely terminates and satisfies desire

What is End?

That for the sake of which something is done

What is the ultimate end of man?

Happiness

What is happiness?

The perfectly satisfying good of an intellectual nature

Which is the PARTICULAR THING which, when possessed by man, perfectly satisfies him, or renders him perfectly happy

God

What are the 2 types of good?

Pure and unlimited good

Man's appetite/desire is perfectly satisfied by?

Pure and unlimited good

Why is it that no created good nor any sum of created goods perfectly satisfies man’s appetite/desire?

Every created and sum of good is finite or limited

What is the subjective ultimate end?

is the possession of that thing which is man’s perfectly satisfying good.

Why does God perfectly satisfy man?

Because God is the infinite good

"Thou hast made us for thyself, O God, and our heart is not at rest until it rest in thee".

St. Austin

What is the objective ultimate end?

is that THING which is man’s perfectly satiating good

What is the abstract ultimate end?

Happiness or universal good

What are the concrete ultimate end of man?

Objectively: God, Subjectively: Beatific Vision

Why is the desire for God written in the human heart?

because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself.

Why is man a religious being?

Due to different religious expressions

What is the definition of religion according to Cicero?

“relegere” meaning “to observe attentively”, observance of compliance of rituals.

What is the definition of religion according to Macrobius?

“relinquere” meaning “handed on to us from the past/from our fore fathers/ ‘traditio’ meaning tradition.”

What is the definition of religion according to Lactanious?

“religare” meaning “to tie again”

What is the definition of religion according to St. Augustine?

“re-eligere” meaning to “to elect” or “to choose”. Because when we sin we choose what we want to do

What is the real definition of religion according to St. Thomas Aquinas

“Est essential liter recta, ordination hominis ad Deum” meaning “is essentially the right ordination/ordering of man to God.”

What are the 2 important definition of experience?

As noun and experiential

What is experience as noun?

Universalized experience

What is experience?

is a personal immediate knowledge of an internal or external activity.

What is experience as experiential?

Subjective; can't be verified by others

What is religious experience?

it is an immediate knowledge of the transcendent obtained by lived relationship with the divine.

What are the different types of beliefs in God?

Polytheism, Henotheism, Monotheism (theism), Pantheism, Panentheism

What is henotheism?

recognizes a plurality of gods, but restricts allegiance to one god

What is polytheism?

Plurality of personal gods

Monotheism (theism)

One God exists

What is Pantheism?

God is identical with nature or universe as a whole

What is panentheism?

God is not identical with the universe but must be seen as including the universe

What are the near east religions?

Judaism, Islam, Christianity

What are the far east religions?

Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Confucianism

What is the focus of near east religions?

God as personal and intervenes. Union with God

What is the focus of the far east religions?

Religious experience as mystical. Divine as impersonal, state of being, and cosmic reality. Focus is on man, God does not intervene.

What is ascesis?

Concentration of the mind

Why is there religious diversity?

We can't completely grasp God. Knowledge of God is prone to error