Unit 2 x 1 Flashcards
What does it mean to say that God is transcendent?
God acts out of the world.
What does it mean to say that God is immanent?
God acts in the world.
What does it mean to say that God is personal?
God acts individually for every person.
Why might someone not believe in God?
- Inconsistent triad, problem of evil
- Tragedy/trauma - loss of belief
- Evolution - genesis is metaphorical
- Don’t want to believe in ultimate punishment - hell, no second chances?
- Atheist upbringing
- Who created him? Cosmological
How can a baptism lead to believing in God?
- Tradition that symbolises the story of Jesus.
- Is said to wash away ones sins, and follows the example of Jesus
- Through faith in Jesus and being ‘baptised into Christ’, one becomes a son of God
- ➡️ Grow up to believe that by being baptised they are pure and destined for heaven. Ensures faith in God
How can a confirmation lead to belief in God?
• rite of passage that means to strengthen ones belief
➡️ learn about christian responsibilities and faith in order to prepare. While learning, become ‘closer with God’ in the eyes of a Christian.
➡️ The promise that a Christian teenager is confirming is to follow God’s laws - choose to stick to their promises and have faith in God
How can attending church lead to someone believing in God?
- sermons may inspire
* hear stories and prayers and decide that belief in God is necessary because God is the only logical answer
How can going to faith school lead to someone believing in God?
• students taught by a teacher, who’s teachings are bias towards Gods existence. Other students may share their reasons for believing in God ➡️ inspire
What may someone believe in God?
- upbringing -religious family, aware of religious traditions, places of worship
- provides reassurance and hope -in a situation where they to hold on to hope and praying helps. - feel secure
- sense of community - same faith, common beliefs w friends - offer help with moral decisions
- teleological argument
What is the design argument?
- beautiful world - selflessness/kindness acts-giving to charity - DOESNT contribute to survival but still exist. A being so loving and powerful
- complicated, uniqueness - fingerprint (“in the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence”-Newton)
- perfectly created and suited for life on earth. Eg gravity (only God can create such an impeccable design for human nature)
- designed and ordered extremely well for its intended purpose - William Paley compared a watch to the world. Like a watch, all of the parts are ordered correctly by a designer and work because of the structure as a whole.
What is the cosmological argument by THOMAS AQUINAS?
- Everything must be created by something else - the universe is something.
- Either an infinite chain of causes and effect or a first un caused cause
- Infinity is only theoretical and cannot exist because life ends and nothing on the universe lasts forever. Infinity is not logically sound as nothing could have caused it if it was always here and never ending.
- something outside the infinite cause and effect chain, an uncaused cause.
- God is the only being that there is a concept of
Nietzsche - not believing in God
- Nietzsche argued that God was ‘dead’
- refused to see order - Earth’s crust is made of plates which do not fit together precisely ➡️ tremors, volcanoes, earthquakes. “How could a God who is good create a world so imperfect”
- concluded - no God, order, absolute purpose (nihilism)
What is nihilism?
The belief that there is no purpose to life.
Darwin, natural selection - no God
Charles Darwin developed theory of evolution - all life evolves by natural selection.
• the animals or plants that are best suited to their environment survive and others die out.
• according to this theory, human, animal, plant life has designed itself.
How a Christian may respond to Darwin
- Evolution might explain the process by which the natural world as we know it has been created but they still see evidence of a greater ‘intelligence’ driving forward these changes.
- The original building blocks of life on Earth also could have been caused by a greater being; God. Only adapted and changed once they were here.