Unit 9 - Philosophy

Question 1

9.1 - Revelation

Answer 1

“Jesus is the culmination of God’s revelation”

Jesus “bears the stamp of his very nature”

Question 2

9.2 - Visions

Answer 2

Saul on the Road to Damascus “why do you persecute me”

Question 3

9.3 - Miracles

Answer 3

Moses parts the Red Sea “water was divided”

“Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe” - John 4:48

Question 4

9.4 - Religious experiences

Answer 4

Swinburne’s Principle of Credulity - assume true unless good evidence to disprove
Swinburne’s Principle of Testimony - believe others unless good reason not to
Freud ‘wish fulfilment’ - argued religious people revert to childlike feelings and become convinced due to desires

Question 5

9.5 - Teleological argument

Answer 5

“The skies proclaim the work of his hands”

Paley’s watch analogy shows designer

Hume says world is unique, cannot be compared to a watch

Dawkins suggests people see the world with “purpose through coloured spectacles”

Question 6

9.6 - Cosmological argument

Answer 6

Aquinas - “it is necessary to admit a first cause, to which everyone gives the name God”

Bertrand Russell argued we should accept universe as a ‘brute fact’
Observation of individual causes does not mean world has one big
cause

Aquinas - infinite regress is impossible, need a first mover

Hume - things don’t need a first cause

Question 7

9.7 - The problem of Evil and Suffering

Answer 7

Mackie - inconsistent triad
Evil is incompatible with classical definition of God

Hume - it is the best argument against God’s existence

Question 8

9.8 - Solutions to the problem of evil

Answer 8

“Unless we first know evil, we shall be unable to know good” - Lanctantius

“When I am weak, then I am strong” - St Paul
Story of Job
Catholics - “suffering draws us to the power of the cross”

St Iraneus - evil is necessary, can grow in God’s image

St Augustine - evil is caused by free will, result of the fall of Adam + Eve