Unit 3 Section 1 Belief in God

Question 1

How does a religious upbringing lead to a belief in God?

Answer 1

1) Parents promise to teach their children about God
2) Parents teach children to pray
3) See the congregation in Church
4) Go to a Catholic school

Question 2

Name 4 religious experiences:

Answer 2

Prayer
Conversion
Miracle
Numinous

Question 3

How would a numinous experience lead to a belief in God?

Answer 3

If people feel like God is in their presence, they will believe He is real

Question 4

How would a miracle lead to a belief in God?

Answer 4

It means that God has acted on earth and whoever saw it had contact with God

Question 5

How would a conversion experience lead to a belief in God?

Answer 5

They may feel that God is calling to them alone

Question 6

How would a prayer lead to a belief in God?

Answer 6

If someone feels God is answering/listening to their prayers, they may feel more inclined to believe in Him

Question 7

What is the design argument?

Answer 7

1) The universe has been designed
2) Only God could design something so complex
3) God is real

Question 8

What is Paley’s Watch Theory?

Answer 8

Watches need to be designed but the universe is more complex than a watch so it would have had to be designed by God.

Question 9

Name 3 evidences of design in the world:

Answer 9

1) Laws of Science
2) DNA
3) Beauty of Nature

Question 10

How does the design argument not lead to a belief in God?

Answer 10

1) There is lack of design in the world, eg. disease
2) The universe can be explained by science
3) People think dinosaurs couldn’t have been part of God’s plan
4) It proves there is a designer, not God

Question 11

What is the argument from causation?

Answer 11

1) Everything has a cause
2) The first cause could only have been God
3) God must exist

Question 12

How does the argument from causation not lead to a belief in God?

Answer 12

1) God must need a cause
2) A better explanation is that matter is eternal so causes go on forever
3) The first cause doesn’t have to be God
4) Just because everything IN the universe needs a cause, doesn’t mean the UNIVERSE does

Question 13

Name 4 scientific explanations of the world:

Reasons for agnosticism and atheism

Answer 13

1) Matter is eternal
2) The Big Bang
3) The world can be explained without God so He wasn’t needed
4) Evolution

Question 14

What are the Catholic responses to the scientific explanations of the world?

Answer 14

1) God made the Big Bang happen at the right micro second
2) Only God could’ve made the laws of nature
3) Carbon wouldn’t have bonded with other atoms by choice (making life on earth)
4) One of God’s days could be billions of years

Question 15

Why might unanswered prayers lead to agnosticism/atheism?

Answer 15

1) If God were Omni-benevolent, he’d want to answer all prayers
2) If God were Omnipotent, he’d be able to answer all prayers
3) If God were Omniscient, he’d know how to answer all prayers
So, God mustn’t exist.

Question 16

How do Catholics respond to unanswered prayers?

Answer 16

1) The prayer must be selfish
2) God may have different plans for you or your family/friends
3) God is giving you what you need not want and He knows what is best for us
4) You need to have faith for it to work

Question 17

Why does evil and suffering make people doubt the existence of God?

Answer 17

1) If God doesn’t care he mustn’t be Omni-benevolent
2) If God can’t do anything, he mustn’t be Omnipotent
3) If God doesn’t know about it, he mustn’t be Omniscient
So, maybe God doesn’t exist?

Question 18

How do Catholics respond to evil and suffering?

Answer 18

1) God wants us to help those who suffer
2) God wants us to have Free Will
3) Those who suffer will have eternal paradise in Heaven
4) God has a reason for everything which we don’t understand

Question 19

What parts of Bruce Almighty offer arguments FOR the existence of God?

Answer 19

1) God is blamed for the consequences of the characters’ own actions
2) Answered prayers
3) Free Will
4) Miracles
5) Near-death experiences

Question 20

What parts of Bruce Almighty offer arguments AGAINST the existence of God?

Answer 20

1) Bruce blames God for his suffering
2) Some prayers aren’t answered even though others are
3) People don’t realise when their prayers are answered
4) Shows it’d be impossible for a God who answers all prayers to exist

Question 21

How does the design argument lead to a belief in God?

Answer 21

1) Anything designed needs a designer
2) God is omniscient
3) God is omnipotent
4) God is omnibenevolent

Question 22

How does the causation argument lead to a belief in God?

Answer 22

1) It explains why and how we are here
2) Matter is eternal but so is God
3) It fits in with the the scientific explanation that there was a first cause
4) We can’t have anything that came from nothing - it had to come from God