Religious people refer to God as...
Omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent
Invisible
Uncaring
What does proof mean?
Something is 100% correct and cannot be disregarded
Evidence that guarantees the truth of something
Evidence that doesn't remove all areas of doubt in the mind
What are the problems when proving God's existence?
God cannot be proved by physical senses as would mean God is limited to being something that is physical.
Religious experiences cannot be evidence as it is not valid for other people.
Some people may find ways to destroy any evidence suggesting God exists.
What is the First Cause Argument?
An argument that disregards God's existence, and puts to shame all theories that try to prove God exists.
It is a proof for the existence of God based on the idea that there had to be an uncaused cause that made everything happen.
It is a proof for the existence of God based on the idea that there is so much design and purpose in the universe that it could not have happened by accident.
St Thomas Aquinas drew up ____ way(s) to prove the existence of God
1
2
3
Which are strengths of the cosmological argument?
Many people use this as a starting point of who initiated the Big Bang.
If God is perfect, why is the universe made full of imperfections?
Things could work differently outside the world.
There must be pure existence for anything to happen - love, knowledge and power are all in God.
Aquinas used the analogy of an arrow and a target to explain the design argument.
What are the challenges to the Design Argument?
Richard Dawkins used the digger wasp example of natural evil.
There aren't any challenges because the world is a perfect place.
If there was a God, he would have made a better job of creating things.
What is a religious experience?
It is a unique awareness of an outside supreme being.
It is when God reveals himself to people telling them that they are going to heaven.
It is when you suddenly change from one religion to the other.
Can religious experiences make differences to people?
Yes - they are often used as a basis for their own acceptance of faith. For example, many people accepted the resurrection of Jesus as a fact based on the experience of the early disciples and their claims to have seen the Risen Christ
No - they are difficult for people to understand let alone express, so others cannot make sense of religious experiences at all, so immediately disregard them.
Yes - the accuracy of people's descriptions of religious experiences can convert people into believing in a religion.
Which are accounts of religious experiences?
The Call of Jeremiah, Julian of Norwich, Bernadette of Lourdes
Muhammad, Isaiah, Peter
Mother Theresa, MLK, Gandhi
Valid religious experiences come unexpectedly.
What is faith?
It is believing in one God, and disregarding any other religion.
A commitment to something that goes beyond proof and knowledge, especially used about God and religion.
Has the same meaning as 'knowledge'.
Proving God would still allow human freedom.
Choose two arguments used against God's existence
Evolution
So much pain and suffering in the world
We haven't seen God ever, so he can't possibly exist
