Philosophy Flashcards
Revelation
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
Natural revelation
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
Special revelation
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
The significance of Jesus as the culmination of revelation
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!’
Visions
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.
Corporeal visions
Physically see something
Imaginative visions
See something in their imagination
Auditory visions
Where you hear God’s voice
Why are visions important
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
Vision in the Old Testament
Genesis - Abraham
Auditory vision –
Chosen people, land, descendants
Vision in the New Testament
Matthew - Transfiguration Auditory and corporeal vision – White garments, Moses and Elijah
Non - Biblical visions - Joan of Arc
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.
How visions lead to belief in God’s existence
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.
Atheist and Humanist views on visions
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
Catholic responses to Atheist and Humanist views on visions
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
Miracle
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
Biblical miracles
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.
Lourdes
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.
How do miracles lead to God existing
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.
What miracles show Catholics today about God
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
Atheist and Humanist views about miracles
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
Catholic responses to Atheist and Humanist views on Miracles
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
Description and example of a Numinous experience
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
How Numinous experiences lead to a belief in God
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
Description and example of Conversion experiences
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
How conversion experiences lead to a belief in God
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.
Description and example of prayer
Prayer is a way of encountering and communicating with God.
How prayer leads to a belief in God
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
Saint Teresa of Avila
A prominent Catholic mystic who saw communion with God as a state of bliss in which the self is forgotten.
Alternative views/explanations on religious experiences
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
Catholic responses to alternative views on religious experiences
● 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.
St Thomas Aquinas - Design Argument
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!
William Paley - Design argument
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”
The Design Argument
● 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
Hume’s response to the design argument
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
Charles Darwin response to the Design Argument
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.
Richard Dawkins response to the Design Argument
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.
Causation/ Cosmological argument
Was set out by saint Thomas Aquinas
This argument is based on the following four assumptions:
- Everything has a CAUSE
- The Universe must have a CAUSE
- There must be an UNCAUSED CAUSE
- The UNCAUSED CAUSE is G
Strength of the cosmological argument
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)
Evidence against the Cosmological argument
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
What does the Causation/Cosmological argument reveal about the nature of God
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.
Criticism of the Causation/Cosmological argument on philosophical grounds
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.
Natural evil
The pain and suffering caused by natural disasters and processes
Moral evil
The pain and suffering caused deliberately by the free choices of human beings e.g. murder and theft
Problem of evil
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.
the two possibilities of the problem of evil
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.
Christian Biblical solutions to the Problem of Evil
● 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.
Theoretical solution to the problem of evil
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.
Practical responses to the problem of evil
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.
