Christian Philosophy Who is in charge Objectivity Christian 1 There is a God 2 There is a plan for the universe 3 Salvation and eternal life belief in God 1 Revelation scripture 2 Faith Tertuelian 165 225 AD a I believe because it is absurd 3 Reason Augustine 354 430 AD Faith and reason conflict Middle man between Aquinas and Tertuelian Hippo In Africa Monica Augustine s mother Christian Thomas Aquinas 1225 1274 Necessary for non believers to start understanding the truths of Christianity Problem of Evil 1 God is all powerful 2 God is all loving 3 Evil exists as an actual force Plan Appearance Possible to believe 2 of these but not all 3 contradiction Pelagians 1 3 God is less than all loving Manichaeans 2 3 God is less than all powerful Augustine all 3 Evil does not exist as an actual force God is using this to convert this into a better world from Plato Ambrose 1 Mountain Valley Recognize and appreciate the actual goodness 2 Test of our character Let the Lord Provide Problem of Free Will Once you say God is all powerful and all loving how do humans have any choice Augustine says God knows what we will freely choose but God does not choose for us Grace Gods undeserved gift of salvation Salvation is eternal life with God in heaven Undeserved nothing that we can do on our own God author of your life Baptism become a member of Gods community make God the author of your life Adam Eve Tree of knowledge shouldn t pride fully do life without God Original sin PRIDE The way to overcome original sin is to be baptized City of Man Allegiance is to secular authority political action in the world is what makes the world a better place power success in order to express your success in material possessions City of God Allegiance to the eternal kingdom of heaven God and God s plan to realize that God is in control and is the author of your life through the gift of grace spreading the word of salvation Heaven Creation Judgment Day Present Memories Expectations Hell Heaven Perfect physical body Perfect intellect Hell Physical torment Intellectual deprivation God doesn t condemn you to Hell you choose this when you don t commit to God Arabic Philosophy Muhammad 570 632 AD Angel Gabriel gave him spiritual inspiration happened on a number of occasions so he began to record them Qu ran Qu ran God s word breathed into and through Muhammad Began in a pilgrimage that Muhammad took from Mecca to Medina After the fall of the Roman Empire things became chaotic and unorganized Arabic influence began to spread Reason House of Wisdom centered in Baghdad Faith Chiefly interested in the translation then commentary on Greek philosophy Plato Aristotle became very influential Differences between Islamic European Philosophy 1 Less emphasis on great minds than in the west 2 Strife between reason and tradition greater no Islamic renaissance Avicenna 980 1037 ibn sina Son of a Persian government official well to do family Became a government officer also a trained physician E s s e n c e Earthly Contingent Being Necessary Being Existance Essence Unity ONE Pure Intellect No person let there be light light as opposed to darkness Verb vs Noun These indicate a multiplicity God is not a person nor a being that thinks God is pure unadulterated intellect Nature is the explosion of this Animals Humans etc Averroes 1126 1198 1 God is a necessary being His essence or true nature is to exist Existence is His essence 2 God is One incapable of multiplicity Therefore God is neither a person nor a being that thinks or wills since each of these consist of multiple parts 3 God is pure intellect blasting into the realms of lesser contingent beings A contingent being does not necessarily exist Each contingent being has an essence but its existence is an infusion of God s existence The universe was created in this initial blast of intellect 4 Contingent beings return this infusion with an act of love They are complete in their being insofar as they understand and cherish the source of their existence Christian Theology Thomas Aquinas Reason Rationalist The existence of God is provable to reason alone 1 Ontological argument reason 2 Cosmological argument reason backed by observation 3 Design argument observation backed by reason Ontological Argument Anselm 1033 1109 late Middle Ages Counter the fools That which nothing greater can be conceived humans are capable of thinking about the greatest possible being Which is greater great existence or great existence God greatest of all beings therefore God exists Empiricists Cosmological Argument Guanilo Thinking about what is greatest doesn t mean it exists at all Nothing to the ontological argument except for a fantastic flight of reason Reason constrained by EVIDENCE Limited being Unlimited being by definition nothing can be lacking from it Thomas Aquinas 1225 1274 Borrowed much from Aristotle First cause cause effect C C C C C C C E Infinite accumulation of everything that s happened in the universe Race with no starting point FIRST CAUSE must be a supernatural cause God Antinomy P1 P2 Objection Kant Why not an infinite regress C Not C Every single natural effect has a cause Design William Finding a watch but not knowing anything about it but still being able to somewhat understand it Signs from nature living things human beings etc show the proof of a cosmic watchmaker Argument Paley 1734 1805 We don t see God but we see him through his handy work David Hume 18 Criticism of the Design Argument th Century 1 Design argument is poor induction a Good induction is from like to like b Paley is taking a natural event to a SUPERnatural event external 2 Design argument is anthropo centric a Primitive 3 Why not an internal cause Why could there not be natural causes that creates the universe people etc a Natural causes trump the need for a supernatural cause Deduction Truth of the premises logically guarantees the proof of the conclusion If A then B A therefore B Induction many As are Bs This is an A this is probably a B Naturalism American Indian 15000 years ago at the end of the last glacial age a land bridge was open between Siberia and Alaska Across this land bridge Asians went across the land bridge into Alaska Then began to work their way down into the Americas Responsible for the extinction of large predators mammoths mastodons etc American Indians almost went extinct as well Adopted a land ethic realized they had to conserve their recourses Metaphysics Aesthetics Metaphysics All things are
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