Philosophy

Question 1

Revelation

Answer 1

Revelation literally means to unveil / uncover/ make something known.

Catholics believe that God has gradually unveiled aspects of his being and his commandments through natural and special revelation

Question 2

Natural revelation

Answer 2

Revelation literally means to unveil / uncover/ make something known.

Catholics believe that God has gradually unveiled aspects of his being and his commandments through natural and special revelation

Question 3

Special revelation

Answer 3

The Bible is the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The Ten Commandments reveal the will of God for his people.
God speaks through his prophets.
The fullness of God’s revelation is found in the person of Jesus Christ - he is God’s word made flesh

Question 4

The significance of Jesus as the culmination of revelation

Answer 4

Catholics believe that God’s revelation culminated in the incarnation- God becoming flesh.

This means that all of the small revelations in the Old Testament are summed up in the life of Jesus and also made clearer and fuller.

The Catholic Church teaches us that there can be no further revelation of God after Jesus.

This means that although there were religions formed after the time of Jesus, such as Islam and Sikhism, Catholics cannot agree with all that they teach because, God’s final truth came in Jesus.

The revelation of Jesus shows that ‘God acts with love!’

Question 5

Visions

Answer 5

Vision is something seen in a dream, trance or religious ecstasy.

Catholics believe that God can use our mental faculties to communicate truths to us.

Question 6

Corporeal visions

Answer 6

Physically see something

Question 7

Imaginative visions

Answer 7

See something in their imagination

Question 8

Auditory visions

Answer 8

Where you hear God’s voice

Question 9

Why are visions important

Answer 9

They show God cares and can intervene.

● They prove that Christ, Mary and saints have a continued and active presence in the world.

● They show that it is worthwhile to pray to Christ, Mary and saints.

● They prompt greater faith and action from peopl

Question 10

Vision in the Old Testament

Answer 10

Genesis - Abraham

Auditory vision –

Chosen people, land, descendants

Question 11

Vision in the New Testament

Answer 11

Matthew - Transfiguration Auditory and corporeal vision – White garments, Moses and Elijah

Question 12

Non - Biblical visions - Joan of Arc

Answer 12

1424 - French peasant girl had visions of St Michael, St Catherine and St Margaret.

● They told her she must force the English from her French homeland.

● She was later captured and sold to the English, burnt her at the stake as a heretic in 1431.

● She became a saint in 1920.

● She believed that she saw reality in her visions.

● Catholics believe this because her claims have been investigated three times by the Vatican.

Question 13

How visions lead to belief in God’s existence

Answer 13

They know enough about the person having the vision to know that they must be telling the truth and if they are then the vision could only come from God.

● The changes to the behaviour of the person having the vision (St Paul) make them think the vision must have come from God.

● The details of the vision (e.g. Bernadette’s knowledge of the Immaculate Conception) make them think it must have come from God.

● The message in the vision makes them think it must have come from God.

Question 14

Atheist and Humanist views on visions

Answer 14

do not believe in God therefore people cannot have visions from God.

Visions can be explained by scientific enquiry. Some people suffer from mental illness and hallucinations
Those who claim to see saints - the description of the saint - correlates to images the person may have seen previously.
Visions only exist in the minds of the person having the vision

Question 15

Catholic responses to Atheist and Humanist views on visions

Answer 15

Catholics disagree with atheist and humanist views because visions are thoroughly investigated ensuring that the person having the vision was:
not suffering from any mental or physical illness not on medication or drugs
of a good moral nature and the vision has a good effect on the person
the meaning links with Bible and Church teaching

Question 16

Miracle

Answer 16

A miracle seems to break laws of science and the only explanation for which seems to be God did it.

Miracles can often be divided into healing and nature miracles

Question 17

Biblical miracles

Answer 17

Many of the miracles in the Bible happen because people have faith.

● One miracle you need to know about is the healing of the royal official’s son in John 4:43-54. This miracle shows that Jesus had the power to heal at a distance.

● Miracles lead people to believe - the official and his whole household believed in Jesus because of this miracle.

● Jesus performed miracles as a sign he was the Son of God.

Question 18

Lourdes

Answer 18

Lourdes - In 1858 Bernadette Soubirous saw the virgin Mary in Lourdes - 28 apparitions.

In one of the apparitions the vision said “I am the Immaculate Conception”. In another the apparition led Bernadette to a grotto where a spring appeared.

Many miracles have taken place in Lourdes and is a pilgrimage site for many Catholics.

Question 19

How do miracles lead to God existing

Answer 19

It means that God has acted on the earth and that people witnessing it have had direct contact with God, so he must exist.

● God must have performed the miracle and to perform it he must exist.

● There is usually no logical or natural explanation - therefore it will lead to belief in God.

Question 20

What miracles show Catholics today about God

Answer 20

God is active in the world.

● God cares for his people and he uses miracles to help strengthen faith

● God’s nature is love so he sends miracles out of love

Question 21

Atheist and Humanist views about miracles

Answer 21

Could be coincidences.
● Unexplainable now but could be explained in the future. ‘God of the Gaps’ argument.
● Just because we can’t explain something does not mean it is down to God.
● If God did perform miracles, why doesn’t he stop hunger and poverty.
● Religious witnesses read too much into a situation and would naturally turn to “God did it” as they believe in God.
● Many miracles in the past (Biblical miracles) can be explained now

Question 22

Catholic responses to Atheist and Humanist views on Miracles

Answer 22

Biblical miracles did happen as they are in the Bible and the Bible is authenticated by God.
● Miracles used to canonise a saint did happen as they are thoroughly examined scientifically to show they were in fact miracles.
● You need faith to allow for miracles to happen
● God may have a reason (omniscient) for not answering every request.
● There were so many miracles in the Bible - therefore it is not unreasonable to expect them to happen today

Question 23

Description and example of a Numinous experience

Answer 23

The feeling of the presence of God which fills a person with awe and wonder. For Catholics it is a reminder of the omnipresence of God; it may also confirm God’s role as creator and designer of the world; the experiences often build faith, or give people a sense of encouragemen

Question 24

How Numinous experiences lead to a belief in God

Answer 24

The feeling of the presence of God which fills a person with awe and wonder. For Catholics it is a reminder of the omnipresence of God; it may also confirm God’s role as creator and designer of the world; the experiences often build faith, or give people a sense of encouragement

Question 25

Description and example of Conversion experiences

Answer 25

Is used to describe an experience of God which is so great that the person experiencing it wants to change their life and commit themselves to God. It is sometimes called a regenerative experience because it gives a feeling of being

Question 26

How conversion experiences lead to a belief in God

Answer 26

The transformation involved in a conversion experience prompts the person to commence a lifestyle that is radically different from their previous life.
It is a response to God calling them, like St Paul.

Question 27

Description and example of prayer

Answer 27

Prayer is a way of encountering and communicating with God.

Question 28

How prayer leads to a belief in God

Answer 28

If a person praying to God feels that God is listening to the prayer, then they have a religious experience through prayer, they are sure that God exists e.g. praying for healing from an illness

Question 29

Saint Teresa of Avila

Answer 29

A prominent Catholic mystic who saw communion with God as a state of bliss in which the self is forgotten.

Question 30

Alternative views/explanations on religious experiences

Answer 30

Lack of evidence - scientific methods can’t prove religious experience

Hallucinations - they can be caused by stress, anxiety or grief and be mistaken for visions

Question 31

Catholic responses to alternative views on religious experiences

Answer 31

● As an omnipotent being God is not bound by the laws of nature, so it is to be expected that miracles of religious experiences can and do break them.

● Just because an experience leaves no evidence, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Many Catholics believe that faith does not require proof.

● Catholics do not disagree that drugs, hallucinations, and wish fulfilment can have similar effects to religious experience.

Question 32

St Thomas Aquinas - Design Argument

Answer 32

St Thomas Aquinas wrote at length about the Design Argument as one of ‘Five Ways’ to prove the existence of God.

● Everything in the natural world follows natural laws, even if they possess no intelligence. (E.g. Gravity, the regular movement of the stars etc).

● By following these laws, they fulfil some purpose or end goal (telos).

● They couldn’t do this by themselves (as they ‘lack knowledge)’, so must be directed by an ‘intelligent being’ - GOD!

Question 33

William Paley - Design argument

Answer 33

Paley applied the same question to the Universe and argued for the evidence of God’s existence through design in complexity.

● Paley argues for the evidence of God’s existence through design in purpose.

● The Universe also appears to have been designed to fulfil some purpose e.g. bees pollinating flowers or the human eye.

● Uses the analogy of the “watch and the watch maker”

Question 34

The Design Argument

Answer 34

● Suggests purpose for human lives which strengthens faith.

● Philosophers say a designer must be omnipotent and omniscient which supports the Catholic view of God.

● It provides a complete explanation of the design of the Universe.

● It encourages scientific examination of the universe by bringing science and religion to agreement.

● It encourages and deepens the study of science and nature.

● Attempts by science to discover the underlying rules of the universe make sense if they were created by an intelligent designer

Question 35

Hume’s response to the design argument

Answer 35

The world is very faulty and imperfect compared to a superior standard. The existence of evil and suffering are either signs the God is a poor designer, or that there is no designer.
● It was only the first rude effort of some infant deity, who afterwards abandoned it, ashamed of his lame performance. Catholics would argue that humans can learn goodness from their experience of suffering and evil

Question 36

Charles Darwin response to the Design Argument

Answer 36

Evolution as an explanation of order and purpose. Design is only ‘apparent design’.
● Evolution suggests that complex organisms have developed through genetic mutation and natural selection and not through design. If the universe is designed, why have there been so many design failures? Catholics would argue that science suggests the world could not exist as it currently does without the specific evolution that has taken place, therefore it must have been directed.

Question 37

Richard Dawkins response to the Design Argument

Answer 37

Richard Dawkins suggests that
● People see the world with ‘purpose coloured spectacles’: they only see order because they look for it. Catholics would argue that science and evidence support the concept of order.

Question 38

Causation/ Cosmological argument

Answer 38

Was set out by saint Thomas Aquinas

This argument is based on the following four assumptions:

1. Everything has a CAUSE
2. The Universe must have a CAUSE
3. There must be an UNCAUSED CAUSE
4. The UNCAUSED CAUSE is G

Question 39

Strength of the cosmological argument

Answer 39

It is based on our own experience that everything in our universe has a cause.
● It is more logical than the alternative which is that there was no prime mover (first cause).
● It is compatible with scientific thinking. (e.g. the Big Bang Theory)

Question 40

Evidence against the Cosmological argument

Answer 40

The impossibility of a total explanation - can we really explain EVERYTHING?
● Just because everything IN the Universe has a cause, does the Universe itself really need a cause?
● The prime mover does not have to be God.
● Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) provided many of these arguments against the cosmological argument

Question 41

What does the Causation/Cosmological argument reveal about the nature of God

Answer 41

That God is omnipotent. This means that God is all powerful. His power is limitless as he created the Universe.

Of all the divine attributes, only God’s omnipotence is named in the Creed. God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything. CCC 268

Catholics believe that the cosmological argument

● disproves arguments that the Universe does not need a

cause.

● provides a full explanation for why everything exists.

Question 42

Criticism of the Causation/Cosmological argument on philosophical grounds

Answer 42

There is no evidence / proof.

● Don’t believe in God.

● It is contradictory to claim everything has a cause but God doesn’t.

● It is not because we cannot imagine infinite regress that it doesn’t exist (e.g. numbers).

● The Big Bang was the first cause.

● It may take a long time but one day scientists will be able to explain the existence of the universe without needing God.

Question 43

Natural evil

Answer 43

The pain and suffering caused by natural disasters and processes

Question 44

Moral evil

Answer 44

The pain and suffering caused deliberately by the free choices of human beings e.g. murder and theft

Question 45

Problem of evil

Answer 45

This causes problems for Catholics because if God is

● omnipotent, he has the power to stop suffering;

● omniscient, he is aware of its existence in the world;

● omnibenevolent he would care and not want us to suffer.

Question 46

the two possibilities of the problem of evil

Answer 46

God cannot be all-loving
● God cannot be all-knowing
● God cannot be all-powerful
or
● God does not exist

David Hume argued that the ‘problem of evil’ is ‘the rock of atheism,’ that is it is the strongest argument against the existence of God.

Question 47

Christian Biblical solutions to the Problem of Evil

Answer 47

● The Book of Job – God allows Job to be tested and tormented by Satan. Suffering and the reasons for it cannot always be understood by humans. God suggests it is arrogant to assume they can: “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?” (Job 40:2)

● Psalms – make it clear that God is omniscient (Psalm 147:5), omnipotent (Psalm 135:6) and omnibenevolent (Psalm

100:5). Psalm 119 teaches Christians that they can learn from their previous suffering, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn thy statutes.”

● New Testament – The New Testament reveals a God who suffered in Jesus. For Catholics, the answer to the problem of evil has Christ at the heart of the answer: that there must be a higher purpose to suffering, which may not be understood by humans.

Question 48

Theoretical solution to the problem of evil

Answer 48

Evil is introduced into the World by the free choice of Eve and Adam (humans) to disobey God. Humans may choose the use of reason over faith and trust in God.

● This world is a vale of soul-making – Some argue that God deliberately allows us to suffer to bring about a greater good. In the midst of suffering there are opportunities to do good, or to do bad, to choose the right way or the wrong

way. In this way, pain and suffering are the tools God uses to shape us into better people.

Question 49

Practical responses to the problem of evil

Answer 49

Prayer – Christians can share their suffering with God in prayer. We pray for those suffering in Mass in prayers of intercession and we ask God to help those in need.

● Charity – Catholics believe we should put faith into action and that helping others is like helping Christ. Those who help others will be rewarded with a place in heaven (Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Matthew 25:31-46).

● Responses: Christians have a duty to respond by developing positive qualities like compassion, kindness and courage. They can help by praying and doing charitable work.

➢ This is not a ‘solution’, as suffering is a reality of life and we have the choice to respond practically to help with the consequences. For some Christians they see prayer as the only meaningful response.