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Flashcards in Belief in God Deck (16)
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1
Q

what is religious upbringing?-

A
  • Babies baptised-promise to bring children up to believe in God
  • Teach to pray-direct relationship with God
  • Take to worship-worshipping as a community shows other people who believe
  • Church school or Sunday school-teaching children in a Christian environment
2
Q

How religious upbringing leads to belief in God

A
  • children will believe what parents have told them about God because their parents have authority
  • because parents pray children will believe it is not a waste of time and the normal thing to do
  • seeing so many people worship in church will make children believe God must exist
  • at school or children’s liturgy teachers will tell children God exists and teach them bible stories
3
Q

Religious experience

A
  • Numinous feelings-the feeling of the presence of something greater than yourself
  • Conversion-when your life is changed by giving yourself to God
  • Miracles-something which breaks the laws of science making you think God must have done it
  • Prayer-an attempt to contact God, usually through words
4
Q

How religious experiences leads to belief in God

A
  • Numinous feeling-if you sense a presence greater than yourself you will believe this is God
  • Conversion-sensing that God wants you to change
  • Miracles-if there is no scientific explanation the only possible explanation is God so he must exist (evidence of miracles in the bible)
  • Prayer-answered prayers will lead to belief in God
5
Q

The design argument

A
  • There is lots of evidence of complex things in the world which appear designed e.g the eye
  • Anything that has been designed needs a designer
  • The only thing powerful enough to design earth is God
  • The earth is so beautiful is cannot be an accident, this must be God
  • The world is perfect for humans, a loving God must have designed it
6
Q

Criticisms of the design argument

A
  • No designer would have created natural evil like volcanos and earthquakes
  • Science can explain the appearance of design without needing God through evolution and natural evil
  • The argument does not explain how things like dinosaurs could have been part of a design plan for the world
  • Even if the argument worked, it would only prove that the world have a designer this may not be God
7
Q

The causation argument

A
  • everything in the world needs a cause. anything caused to exist must have something that caused it; nothing can cause itself
  • if you keep working backwards you will eventually get to the cause of the universe-the first cause
  • the only thing powerful enough to have caused the universe is God
8
Q

Criticisms of the causation argument

A
  • if everything needs a cause then who caused God
  • if matter is eternal (cannot be created or destroyed) then the progress goes on forever
  • even if there was a first cause it would not have to be God
  • if you can argue that God does not need a cause, you can also argue that the universe did not need a cause
9
Q

Scientific explanations for the universe

A
  • about 15 million years ago the Big Bang happened and formed our solar system
  • gases on the earths surface produced primitive life forms. these primitive life forms lead to the evolution of new life forms and about 2.5 million years ago, humans evolved
10
Q

Scientific explanations lead to atheism/agnosticism

A
  • science can explain where the world came from without God
  • people become agnostic because there is no need for God as an explanation anymore
  • atheists believe that science proves God does not exist because if he did there would be no other explanation for the world except God but there is (Big Bang)
  • atheists argue that proof of dinosaurs shows God does not exist because why would God create and destroy them
11
Q

How Christians respond to science

A
  • the 6 days of creation in the biblical Genesis story of creation can fit with the scientific understanding of evolution because one of Gods ‘days’ could be reference to 6 time periods including million of years of revolution
  • creationists believe the earth was created exactly as it says in the bible; they reject evolution as truth
  • creationists believe that fossils may have been put in the ground by God or humans to trick people
12
Q

Evil and suffering

A
  • Moral evil is evil which is caused by humans misusing free will. An example of moral evil is war, war causes massive suffering and is started by humans
  • Natural evil is suffering which humans have not caused. An example is earthquakes
13
Q

How evil and suffering causes people to reject belief in God

A
  • If God was omnipotent he would be able to stop all suffering
  • If God was omniscient he would know about all suffering
  • If God was benevolent he would want to stop suffering
  • If God existed evil and suffering wouldn’t but as it does exist, God mustn’t
14
Q

Christian explanations of evil and suffering

A
  • Christians believe God wants them to have the opportunity to help those suffering as Jesus taught
  • Christians believe suffering is caused by misusing free will and so is a human problem, not Gods
  • Christians believe that evil and suffering are a test to prepare us for heaven or hell
  • Christians believe that God has a reason for not removing suffering but that we cannot possibly understand it
15
Q

Unanswered prayers lead to atheism/agnosticism

A

When people pray they are attempting to contact God, many people claim to feel God when praying

  • other people may say prayers and never feel Gods presence. This makes them think they are doing something wrong or that he does not exist
  • if someone prays for something and it doesn’t happen they may feel their prayers are not being answered
  • if they do not feel Gods presence when they less they may lead to agnosticism or atheism
16
Q

Christians responses to unanswered prayers

A
  • if you pray for something selfish God will not answer your prayer
  • God may have different plans for you that go against your prayer e.g God may want a sick person to enter heaven despite prayers for good health
  • God will answer our prayers when it is the best thing for us this might not be when we want
  • Sometimes when God answers prayers the answer is ‘no’ or is different to how we would expect