Rel/Life Christianity1

Arguments for and against the existence of God

For:

• Causation argument
• Prayers are often answered
• Science explains how things came to exist but not why
• Moral evil is around because of free will
• Miracles, created by something more powerful than the laws of nature
• The existence of the conscience is unexplained

Against:

• Answered prayers can be coincidence
• No exact proof
• The story of creation is wrong
• Natural evil is present and cannot be controlled

Features of a religious upbringing and how it supports a belief in God

Baptism-

• Infant is introduced to the Church and the promises are made to bring the child up in the Christian faith

Prayer/Worship-

• Church on a regular basis to encourage the faith
• Bible stories are taught in a factual way
• The person's childhood memories will be of Christian occassions such as Easter

Faith School-

• Surrounds the child with a strong Christian community and encouraged to make a personal commitment

Discussions about Faith-

• Everything is supporting the faith
• Lessons are taught using faith as a reason

Religious experiences and how they lead to a belief in God

Numinous Experience-

• When something completely astonishes you that you don't have the words to describe it (the natural world)
• It is so powerful that it convinces the person that God must have designed it

Miracle-

• Something which seems to break a law of science and makes you think only God could have done it

Conversion-

• When someone who previouly didn't believe in God changes and begins to believe God exists
• Confronted with a choice of whether to believe or not

An Answered Prayer-

• God must exist to have answered the prayer and is interested in them personally

The Design Argument

Paley argued that the world, and everything in it, is far more complex and so the universe must have been designed the greatest possible being, God.

For:

• Interdependance in the human body (e.g. the immune system)
• Interdependance in nature (food chains)
• Complexity of nature (elements such as the spiral galaxy and environmental processes)

Against:

• Problem of evil (designing of humans was not perfect in terms of behaviour)
• Design faults (Disease, problems with eyesight etc)
• Survival of the fittest (No need for a God)

The Causation Argument

Nothing can happen by itself so everything that happens must be caused by something else

The universe could not have 'just happened' by itself

A very powerful force must have caused the universe

This cause must have been God

This means God must exist

Faults with the Causation Argument

• The theory is counterintuative. If everything has a creator, how could God create himself
• There is no reason as to why the first creator has to be God
• There is no reason as to why the universe can't create itself if God supposedly can

How do Christians interpret the scientific theories and the stories of creation?

Literalists

• Take the Bible literally (believe it's the word of God)
• Believe the universe was created in 6 days
• All living things existed from the beginning of the world
• They reject all scientific discoveries such as evolution and the Big Bang

Non-Literalists

• Understood in a mythical sense
• Bible provides important information but are not factually accurate
• Still believe God created evolution and the Big Bang
• They belive the 6 days in Genesis should be interpreted as periods of time that took thousands of years

Beliefs that all Christians agree on:

• The creation of the world and life was not an accident but intended
• God created the world and everything in it for a purpose
• The world was created perfect
• Humans were created in the 'image of God' and given responsibilities within the world- Stewards of the Earth (stewardship)

Unanswered Prayers

No answer= God does not exist, God isn't omnibenevolent or omnipotent etc, God does not love everyone equally

Why a loving God should never say yes:

• Impossible- if two people asked to be the richest they would cancel each other out
• Greed- promotes one of the seven deadly sins
• People would be religious but only turn to God for selfish reasons
• Unsafe- prayers with bad intentions

Christian response to evil and suffering

• God will give you the power to cope
• Only a temporary suffering (eternal life in heaven)
• Test from God
• Moral evil= Free will
• Without bad experiences, we won't appreciate the good (strengthens us)
• Part of God's plan