Year 8 Is It Rational To Believe In God

Question 1

What did Richard Swinburne believe ?

Answer 1

God exists because miracles.

Question 2

What is a miracle ?

Answer 2

An unexplained or impossible event that people believe is caused by God.

Question 3

What is an example of a miracle ?

Answer 3

In 2009 a man got trapped in a cave and got out by hearing god telling him which way to go.

Question 4

Why does Swinburne believe miracles are proof god exists ?

Answer 4

There have been so many miracles that no all of them are wrong /by chance

Question 5

What is the definition of rational ?

Answer 5

A belief that is logical, reasonable and based on good evidence.

Question 6

What are the 3 types of personal religious experiences ?

Answer 6

Answered prayers and seeing, hearing.

Question 7

What did John Mackie’s believe ?

Answer 7

He doesn’t believe in god because suffering is proof.

Question 8

What is an atheist ?

Answer 8

An atheist is someone’s doesn’t believe in God.

Question 9

What is moral evil ?

Answer 9

It’s caused by humans eg. Murder

Question 10

What is natural evil ?

Answer 10

Something caused by nature eg. Tsunami

Question 11

What does omnipotent mean ?

Answer 11

It means all powerful.

Question 12

What does omnibenevolent mean ?

Answer 12

All loving.

Question 13

Why does John Mackie not believe in god because of suffering ?

Answer 13

If god was omnibenevolent then he would use his omnipotence to stop all the suffering. Therefore god doesn’t exist.

Question 14

What does William Paley believe ?

Answer 14

He believes in god because of the teleological/design argument

Question 15

Why did William Paley thinks the world was like a watch ?

Answer 15

He thought the watch was so complex, all parts have a specific function, all parts work together and without one part it would not work.

Question 16

What are the 5 steps of Paley’s argument ?

Answer 16

Complex things dot appear by chance they have to be designed, the world is complex, it can’t have happened by chance, it must have been designed by an intelligent being, there is proof of god.

Question 17

What did sigmund Freud believe ?

Answer 17

God isn’t real because he believes god is a comfort blanket.

Question 18

What 3 desires did Freud think all humans share ?

Answer 18

Father- people want someone to love and protect them.
Fairness - Bad people to get punished and good to get rewarded.
Immortality - We want eternal life after death because we are good people.

Question 19

How does believing in god solve the 3 desires ?

Answer 19

God is the loving protecting father. God would reward/punish us with heaven/hell. They would give us eternal life.

Question 20

Why was Freud an atheist?

Answer 20

Freud was an atheist because he thought god was just an illusion that the idea comforted us.

Question 21

What did Thomas Aquinas believe ?

Answer 21

That god exists because their must have been a first cause.

Question 22

What is Aquinas trying to prove in his argument ?

Answer 22

He’s trying to prove God exists by saying there must have been a first cause from the chain of causes.

Question 23

What is the name of Aquinas’ argument ?

Answer 23

Cosmological argument

Question 24

How does Aquinas’ argument work ?

Answer 24

1. Everything that exists was caused by something else.
2. The chain of cause and effect goes back and back through time.
3. But there must have been a beginning - a first cause
4. The first cause must be eternal and omnipotent ( This is God )

Question 25

What does Aquinas call God ?

Answer 25

The First Cause

Question 26

Why does he call God the First Cause ?

Answer 26

He is a necessary, eternal, transcendent, existing out of our space and time but able to act within. Somebody must have started the universe. This is God.