Religious experiences, The design argument and the cosmological argument

Question 1

Some private revelations are not new and only add to the final revelation

Answer 1

CCC 67

Question 2

The world is probably as we experience it to be and this is evidence towards God’s existence

Answer 2

Principle of Credulity - Richard Swinburne

Question 3

Religious experiences (miracles) break the laws of nature and so are not useful for proving the existence of God

Answer 3

David Hume

Question 4

Religious humans revert to childlike feelings and have great delusions

Answer 4

'’Wish fulfilment’’ - Sigmund Freud

Question 5

So much of the natural world appears to be deliberately designed with order and purpose

Answer 5

The design [teleological] argument - St Thomas Aquinas
Compared it to a watch - William Paley

Question 6

God making his presence clear through his creation

Answer 6

[God]’has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made’ Romans 1:20

Question 7

Who criticises the design argument since people see the world to seemingly have order?

Answer 7

Richard Dawkins - “purpose coloured spectacles”

Question 8

God being omnipotent and creating everything

Answer 8

“God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything” CCC 268

Question 9

Argues that a total explanation of everything that exists was impossible as all explanations rely on other earlier explanatons

Answer 9

Bertrand Russell - Humans should just accept the universe is here

Question 10

Where does the cosmological argument come from and what are its three principles?

Answer 10

St Thomas Aquinas
- First mover
- First cause
- Non-contingent