Philosophy and Ethics: God's Existence Flashcards
1
Q
What are the two types of revelation ?
A
- natural revelation
- special revelation
2
Q
What is natural revelation ?
A
- revelation of God’s nature through creation
[] awe for the beauty and vastness of creation
[] emotions/spirituality
[] complexity and beauty of nature - used in conjunction with the design argument as proof of God
3
Q
What is special revelation ?
A
revelation of God in things like holy books (the Bible)
4
Q
Why do Christians believe special revelation proves the existence of God ?
A
- Bible inspired by Holy Spirit, so comes from God and thus reveals God
- Church teaches that God speaks through the testaments, showing character and commands
- Bible contains God’s laws on how to behave; authority
- Bible brings people closer to God by learning about God’s desires and care for humanity
5
Q
Give a quote from the CCC discussing the Catholic belief that the Bible is the inspired word of God
A
“though [God] acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever He wanted written, and no more.”
6
Q
Why is the incarnation described as the culmination of revelation ?
A
- God’s final revelation of himself to humanity through Jesus, as His message reached its highest point in Jesus
- all small revelations in Old Testament summed up in Jesus, as well as made clearer and fuller
7
Q
Why can’t Christians agree with all that other religions formed after Jesus’ life teach ?
A
believe that Jesus was God’s final revelation, so any further “revelation” of God taught in other religions cannot be accepted
8
Q
What does the revelation in Christ show Catholics about God’s nature ?
A
- God is love
- God is forgiving
- God meets people where they are
[] Jesus dining and making friends with sinners and lepers and the homeless - God loves humanity so much he sacrificed himself for them
9
Q
“The Son is… the exact representation of his being”
A
Bible, letter to the Hebrews
10
Q
“Yet, if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for the Christian faith gradually to grasp”
A
Catechism of the Catholic Church
11
Q
What is a vision ?
A
something seen in a dream, trance or religious ecstasy, giving a religious message
12
Q
Why are authentic visions (verified by the Catholic Church) important for Catholics ?
A
- show that God can intervene in the modern world
- show that God still cares about humans
- authenticate some aspect of the Christian message
- prove that Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints have a continuing and active presence in religion
- show that prayer is worthwhile
13
Q
Give one example of a vision in the Old Testament
A
- Abraham’s auditory vision of God telling him he will have children
- “a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir…. Look up at the sky and count the stars… So shall your offspring be”
14
Q
Give two examples of visions in the New Testament
A
- St Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus, which converted him to Christianity
- the apostles’ vision of God and the prophets speaking to Jesus at the transfiguration
15
Q
Name 2 post-Biblical visions
A
- St Joan of Arc’s visions which led her to drive the English out of France
- St Bernadette of Lourdes
16
Q
Why might visions convince some people to convert to Christianity ?
A
- might know enough about the person themselves that they are convinced it is telling the truth and thus must be from God
- changes to behaviour of the vision-haver may convince them that the vision is from God
- details of the vision may convince them it’s from God
- the message in the vision is believed to be from God
17
Q
What may visions show about God’s nature ?
A
- God is still at work in the world (omnipresent)
- God loves and is concerned for the world
- God has the power to change lives through visions
- God is still communicating the revelation to humans
18
Q
Describe Atheist and Humanist attitudes to visions
A
- don’t believe in God, so can’t be real
- visions may be a result of extreme stress, mental illness, drugs or medication
- the figures in visual visions are based on images seen by the visionary in religious iconography, and not strictly true to what the figure would have looked like in reality, so visions are only based on what is in the visionary’s head, thus prove nothing
19
Q
Describe the Catholic response to Atheist and Humanist views on visions
A
- the Catholic Church investigates thoroughly any claim of vision to see if it:
[] agreed with the message of the Church
[] was NOT a result of medication, stress, drugs, illness or any other external factors
[] benefitted the visionary and Catholics in general - if all of these conditions are met, the vision is declared genuine, and so must be true
20
Q
What is a miracle ?
A
An event breaking the laws of science, thus only understandable through God
21
Q
What do miracles demonstrate about God’s nature ?
A
- omnipotent, as only God may break the laws of nature that he established
- God is active in his creation
- God cares about humanity and uses miracles to strengthen people’s faith
[] sends miracles from a place of love because God is love
22
Q
What does the CCC say about miracles ?
A
“The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him”
23
Q
Name 3 Biblical miracles
A
- parting of the Red Sea by Moses
- Jesus healing the blind and sick
- feeding of the 5000
24
Q
Describe the non-Biblical visions of St Bernadette of Lourdes
A
- had 18 visions of the Virgin Mary
- Mary called herself the “Immaculate Conception”
- led Bernadette to a small grotto with a miraculous spring that appeared
[] nowadays, people report healing miracles happening when in contact with or drinking the water
25
Why may miracles lead to a belief in God ?
- there is no scientific explanation for miracles, so must be the work of God
- give direct contact with God
[] religious experience
26
Give some Atheist and Humanist attitudes towards miracles proving the existence of God
- all religions claim to have visions, so do not prove anything about one specific religion
- miracles of the past must be speculated, as people back then didn't have the scientific knowledge or technology available to investigate any possible natural causes behind miracles
- reporting of miracles rely on witness accounts; witnesses may be biased, make mistakes or even lie, so are unreliable
- some past miracles, like the parting of the Red Sea, can now be explained, for example by tectonic activity
- miracles must break the laws of nature, but these laws are based off of entire lives' worth of experiences; by saying that miracles exist, it is being said that the evidence for these miracles are stronger than the entire life experiences of humans, which is often not the case
- it doesn't make sense that miracles are only used to heal a couple sick people here and there; why not end suffering ?
27
Describe the Catholic response to Atheist and Humanist attitudes regarding the validity of miracles
- can rely on truth of Biblical miracles because the Bible is the word of God, which must be true
- miracles are authenticated by the Church many times and thoroughly, so must be true
- if God used miracles to end suffering, life would be totally different; instead he uses them to signify his presence and strengthen people's faith in him
28
What is a religious experience ?
an event giving people the feeling of direct contact with God
29
Name the different types of religious experiences
- visions
- miracles
- conversion experiences
- prayers THAT HAVE BEEN ANSWERED
- numinous experiences (feeling the presence of God)
30
What is a conversion experience ?
- an experience of God so powerful that one converts to Christianity
- St Paul
- Raymond Nader
[] was in a Christian militia in Lebanon
[] went to pray in the chapel of St Charbel and was surrounded by warmth and light that burned him when he touched it
[] left his work in the militia to work in a Christian peace-bringing TV station
31
What is a numinous experience ?
- feeling the direct presence of God through feeling awe at the beauty and complexity of life and religion
- experience of the transcendent (something beyond human existence and the material world)
32
How is prayer a religious experience ?
- the desire to pray in itself is a religious experience
- feeling as though God is listening to or has answered one's prayers
- makes the prayer sure that God exists
33
What is the Catholic teaching on the validity of religious experiences ?
- must reflect the Church's message
- must not add to or improve on the revelation in Christ, as this was God's "definitive" revelation, as described in the CCC
34
Why do people believe that religious experiences are proof of God's existence ?
- numinous experiences must be caused by something (God) so God must exist
- if a miracle happens, scientific laws must be broken, proving the existence of God
- if a person has a conversion experience that completely changes their life, then God must have caused this experience, so exists
- prayers can only be answered by God, thus God exists
35
Describe some Atheist and Humanist attitudes to religious experiences
- do not believe in God, so these experiences can't be derived from God
- instead, are from normal experiences that people interpret as religious
- other than miracles, religious experiences have no existence outside of the mind, so can never be fully verified by anyone
- if religious experiences were real, everyone would have them
- numinous experiences are caused by people's surroundings and mental state, not God directly
- all miracles can be explained in some way so don't prove anything
- more unanswered prayers than answered ones, thus the unanswered prayers prove God doesn't exist
- followers of all religions claim these experiences, so cannot prove one particular religion
36
What is the Catholic Church's response to Atheist and Humanist attitudes towards religious experiences ?
- Catholic Church teaches that there is an innate spiritual sense in each person and so even if someone doesn't believe in God, they have some awareness of the mystery of life
- when non-believers seek peace, justice and meaning, they are seeking God without realising it
- thus, everyone HAS had religious experiences; they just don't recognise them
37
Give the quote from the CCC on the nature of humans to seek God
"The desire for God is written in the human heart... and God never ceases to draw man to himself"
38
What is the design argument ?
The argument that God exists as the designer of the world, as the complexity and intricacy of the world could not have come about randomly, but rather by design
39
Who made the design argument ?
William Paley
40
What was William Paley's justification for the design argument ?
- if walking through desert in the middle of nowhere and found a watch, would think that it has a designer and it came from someone somewhere BECAUSE it has a very complex mechanism specifically designed for a function
- in the same way, if something as relatively simple in design like a watch needs a designer, the much more complex and vast universe must also need a designer
- this designer is God
41
Give some evidence for the design argument
- laws of the universe involve complex concepts and things working in harmony together
- the scientific method is dependent on order and structure, which God created
- DNA's structure and it's universal application to all living beings seems to indicate a design or blueprint for the structure of organisms
- evolution may not be a random process, rather, driven by a designer (God)
- evidence of design in the beauties of nature, like ones that an artist would spend long amounts of time to design
42
What does the design argument show about the nature of God ?
- God wants humans to use their own powers of deduction to understand the world as well as his revelation
- God's existence can be demonstrated by his creation
- universe works on fixed logic designed by God, enabling humans to discover God's creation and design through science; could be a way of working out God's revelation
- God is the Creator and keeps creation in existence
43
Give a quote from the CCC supporting the idea that God's nature is apparent through creation
"the existence of God the Creator can be known with certainty through his works by the light of human reason."
44
Describe the reasons why Humanists and Atheists may reject the design argument
- argument ignores the apparent lack of design in the world, eg. natural disaster, disease and organs with no specific function (appendix)
- all evidence for design can be explained by science without need to consider God
- the argument only proves that the universe has a designer, but not that it is good or God specifically
45
What is the Catholic response to Atheist and Humanist rejections of the design argument ?
- these rejections are based on the belief that the universe came about by chance, which the Church instead views as through the order of a creator
- Church argues that believing the universe came through chance takes just as much, if not more faith than believing in God
46
What is the cosmological argument ?
argument for God's existence based on the idea that everything is in motion, and there is something that has caused this motion, and that causation is God
- put forward by ST THOMAS AQUINAS in Summa Theologica
47
Describe the cosmological argument
the way of motion:
- everything in the universe is in motion
- nothing can be in motion unless set in motion by something else
- this can't go on infinitely, otherwise there will be no first mover
- this first mover is God
the way of causation:
- everything seems to have a cause
- there must be a first efficient cause, which is God
the way of contingency:
- all material things are contingent (not completely necessary to exist at any given time)
- if everything is contingent, at one point nothing existed
- but things do exist now, so there must be one non-contingent being whose existence is necessary to life as we know it, and this is God
48
Give some evidence for the cosmological argument
- the universe's most basic principle is cause and effect; every action has a reaction
- modern science is predicated off of cause and effect
- every effect has a cause, thus, the universe must have a very first cause, which is God
49
What does the cosmological argument imply about the nature of God ?
- God is the origin of everything, the "unmoved mover"
- God is both within and beyond the universe
- God is a mystery
50
Describe some Atheist and Humanist rejections of the cosmological argument
- if everything needs a cause, why shouldn't God also need a cause ?
- it is possible that matter itself is eternal and was never created, meaning there is no need for a first cause
- just because everything IN the universe needs an explanation does not mean that the universe itself needs one also; it may have just existed forever
- even if there was a first cause, it wouldn't have to be the Christian God
51
Describe the Catholic response to Atheist and Humanist rejections of the cosmological argument
- to say that the Big Bang and the universe's creation came about by chance is more unbelievable than God
- the universe is too vast and complex and abides by too many laws to have appeared by chance, thus there must be a reason
- humans are preciously unique with an immortal soul, taught by the Church that the soul cannot be examined effectively by science, and only by God
52
Define the two types of evil and suffering
- moral evil
[] suffering caused by humans as a result of misuse of free will
[] these are sins, as they are against God's instructions for how humans should behave
- natural suffering
[] (human) suffering caused by natural disasters etc., not by humans
53
Why do evil and suffering contradict Catholic beliefs about God ?
- if God was truly omnipotent, could easily remove evil and suffering from the world
- if God was truly omnibenevolent, wouldn't want humans to suffer
- if God was truly omniscient, would have created the world in a way that avoided suffering
thus, since none of these have been done, God must not be either omnipotent, omniscient or omnibenevolent, or a combination of the three, or does not exist entirely
54
Why might the contradictions raised by the problem of evil and suffering lead some Christians to examine or reject their belief in God ?
- challenge their beliefs about God
- these beliefs come from the Bible and magisterium, so also leads to challenging the authority of these
- some people believe that a good God wouldn't have designed a world with natural evils, so easier to believe that God doesn't exist
- some people believe that a good God wouldn't allow humans to cause so much suffering
55
Give the Bible quote warning humans against questioning God's reasons for his decisions about creation
"Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker... Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?'"
56
Name the ways in which Catholics respond to the problem of evil and suffering
- prayer for those suffering (prayers of intercession)
- charity (CAFOD, etc.)
- looking at examples from the Bible on God's reasons for suffering (book of Job)
- looking at theoretical responses to evil and suffering; eg. suffering is not God's fault because he created humans with free will
- practical responses, like directly helping those suffering and following in Jesus' footsteps in this way
57
Describe the Biblical responses to the problem of evil and suffering
Job:
- no point in worrying about the problem of evil, as humans can't understand God's reasons for doing things
- in the Book of Job, Job (a sinless, faithful worshipper of God) was tested by Satan to prove that Job didn't only worship God because his life was good
Psalms:
- show suffering is intended to be a part of life, and that suffering and joy go hand in hand
- suffering may bring believers to a deeper understanding of and connection with God
58
Describe the theoretical responses to evil and suffering
St. Augustine:
- evil/suffering isn't God's fault, as it stems from misuse of the free will that God gave to humans
- God wanted to create people who were free entirely to worship or not worship him, to live their lives by their choosing; if he didn't give the ability to choose to do evil as well as good, humans wouldn't be truly free
St Irenaeus:
- evil and suffering are not a problem, because they're part of a plan that those who suffer in this life will be rewarded in the next
[] "So the last will be first and the first will be last" - Bible
- experience of evil and suffering is necessary to become good, kind and conscious individuals who will be rewarded in heaven
- God's omnibenevolence is shown through his allowance of every person to be rewarded in heaven once suffered and become good
