Unit 3.1 - Believing In God Flashcards
How a religious upbringing may lead a person to believe in God
1) Catholic school–> Would be taught event from a religious viewpoint as being factual.
2) Going to Church or Sunday School–> Worshipping a God becomes a naturally acceptable.
3) Praying as a family–> Parents wouldn’t pray if they thought it was not real.Makes prayer normal and leads to belief in God.
4) Confirmation–>.children go on preparation courses and these sacraments help them understand their religion more.
Against Catholic Upbringing
- Children have no choice other than to listen and believe.
- It takes away they’re right to religious freedom-to be able to choose their own religion.
- This could work against community cohesion and children could think that other religions are wrong.
How a religious experience may lead a person to believe in God
1) Miracles–> breaks the law of science, which means the only answer in God. It makes you believe in him as it show that he has acted on earth.
2) Conversion–> Makes you feel as if god has called you. He exists, as you experience gods presence.
3) Numinous–> presence of something greater than you can only be god. he exists.
4) Prayer–> Answered prayers, shows that god is listening to you, feel gods presence. He exists.
Against religious experiences proving existence of God
- Numinous-the feeling is from surroundings, not necessarily from God
- There are more unanswered prayers than answered prayers.
- Miracles can be explained; Jesus might not have fully died at the cross, was just recovered rather than resurrected.
The Design Argument
1) Watch is really complex ,which means that it must have been designed, which shows that it must have a designer.
2) The world is very complex and each part fits together, such as in DNA. This means that the world must have been designed, and that it must have a designer, which must be God.
- Beauty-the world can’t be so beautiful just by chance; it must have been designed by a loving designer, which must be God.
- Newton’s Thumb-every thumb is unique, which means that it must have been designed with love and individual care by a designer, which must be God.
Against the argument from design
- The argument only proves that the universe has a designer, it doesn’t prove that it is God.
- The evidence for design can be explained by science, without God.
- The argument ignores the lack of design in the world, such as volcanoes and earthquakes.
Causation Argument
1) Nothing happens by itself, everything needs a cause
2) Therefore the universe must have a cause.
3) Only God could have caused a universe to come about.
4) Therefore, there must be a God.
Against the argument from causation
- If everything has a cause, so must God-there’s no reason why it should stop at God.
- Matter could be eternal-neither created nor destroyed, and so the process of causes goes back forever; there is no first cause.
- The first cause might not be God; it could be an evil god or any type of creator.
Scientific explanations of the origins of the world
1) Matter is eternal, can’t be created nor destroyed, so God couldn’t have created it. This leads to atheism or agnosticism.
2) The Big Bang occurred 15 billion years ago and red shift proves that the universe is still expanding.
3) It was a combination of gases that formed life.
4) There is evidence of evolution, proven by fossil records and by Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
How a scientific explanations may lead a person to non-belief in God.
- An omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient God wouldn’t be wasteful and kill species such as the dinosaurs before humans came to be in the world.
- The world, universe and origins of humans can be explained by science without reference to God. The Big Bang could have been an accident; there is no empirical evidence of it being caused by God.
- If God had created the world, he would made it so that he was the only explanation for it, but there are many explanations without him in.
Christian Responses to scientific explanations
- They believe that God created the laws of science; the Big Bang had to be at the right second.
- Science follows the main points of the Bible; evolution and the creation story. A day for God could have been thousands, millions or billions of years for us.
- Science and God are right.
Unanswered prayers and non-belief
1) If a person can’t feel God’s presence while praying it could lead them to believe that he isn’t listening and that he isn’t there, and therefore that he does not exist.
2) If he is omnibenevolent, he should answer prayers to show he cares, and there is evidence of him answering others’ prayers. If he doesn’t answer the person’s prayers then this could lead them to believe that he is not omnibenevolent and that therefore there is not omnibenevolent God listening.
3) If the person is praying for bad things not to happen, such as a child dying from cancer, and the child dies, then it can lead them to believe that God doesn’t care.
4) If a person is praying for honourable, good things, such as the end of human suffering, it could lead to non-belief if the prayer is unanswered, as they could believe that God is not omnipotent and not powerful enough to answer their prayer.
Christian Response to unanswered prayers
- If the person is praying for selfish things, such as passing exams without having revised, God could let the person fail in order so that the person works harder next time.
- If an ill person dies even when others have prayed against it, it could be that God wants the person to go to heaven. It may go against his plans.
- God is like a parent; he gives us what we need rather than what we want.
How Evil & Suffering may lead a person to non-belief in God.
1) If God was omnibenevolent, he would want to end all types of evil, and yet it still exists, which leads people to believe that there is no omnibenevolent God.
2) If God was omniscient, he would know how to end it, and yet it hasn’t ended.
3) If God was omnipotent, he would be powerful enough to end evil and he should have known that it would emerge from creation.
Christian Responses to the problem of Evil & Suffering.
- Free will-evil and suffering was caused by human choices, not God.
- Life is a test, in order for God to see whether people are worthy of going to heaven.
- Service-it is an opportunity for people to show love of others; to donate, be doctors, nurses etc.
- This isn’t heaven, and so none can expect this world to be perfect.
- It helps us grow-it makes us better people as we are better at forgiveness and less judgemental.
