PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION STUDY QUESTIONS 1 How have faith and reason been used to justify the truths of Christian teaching Absurdity came from faith because it is not something you can technically see To reconcile faith contradicts reason so shows magnificent God Reason is going to destroy relationship of God Reason is to be avoided God sum of all greatness perfection Which did early Christianity emphasize Early Christians focused solely on FAITH How do Augustine and Aquinas differ regarding the roles of faith and reason They disagreed that showed no justification for either Augustine said if faith and reason conflict forget reason They should not work against each other ever Aquinas said if faith and reason conflict continue to reason more God wouldn t create world where you can t reason more to solve the conflict First Cause can t have an effect without cause C C C C C Effect Self causing cause to the beginning God Prime Mover If reason yields an absurd conclusion keep reasoning KANT yields opposite conclusion he says everything has to have a cause it goes forever that s the world that fact isn t any more rational than thinking the reason for it is caused by God Either way conclusion isn t ever really rational 2 What are the circumstances of Augustine s childhood that contributed to his tormented existence Mother was super religious saint like He felt he was unable to achieve her level of human goodness He always felt guilty that he was sinful imperfect had impure thoughts etc He wrote all about it Why even after he realized the objective truth of Christianity was he unable to convert His pride he wanted to figure out religion analytically mathematically etc by himself but was unable to every fully convert Thought he could deliver himself to God after he figured it out He thought he would be the vessel for his own salvation Forever guilty hard on himself What event finally enabled him to overcome this inability Bible fell open to Let the Lord provide Realized stopped trying to replace himself in God s place in his life and let him control from now on Went onto be baptized as a Christian into God s community 3 What three beliefs were Christians supposed to accept about God s nature and the existence of evil 1 God is ALL powerful 2 God is omniovelant ALL loving 3 Evil exists We re supposed to believe these things because it s written in scripture We re supposed to accept them all but if you do you get to a contradiction If God exists He is all loving powerful and evil is supposed to exist Question why is there still evil Why did this create a paradox and how respectively did the Pelegians and Manichaeans try to resolve this Paradox Why does evil exist if God is all powerful Must reject one of the 3 but ways around it Pelegians believe if 1 3 rejected 2 Manichaeans believe if 2 3 rejected 1 What solution did Augustine eventually propose Rejects the 3rd that only the appearance of evil exists There is no force of evil just times of less good no one is really in control but God Little holes of evil in God s fabrication that he allows because it is HIS plan in the end it will make everything stronger Ambrese example Valley Mountain appearance things are good only recognized because of the bad things we only recognize appreciate good because of bad evil you can t have a valley without two mountains Why in this solution must Christians endure the appearance of evil and how is this solution compatible with human free will God knows we will freely choose but he doesn t choose for us Pride sin of thinking you re smarter than God or make decisions for yourself against Him 4 Explain the City of God and the City of Man in Augustine s theology City of God point you reach when you re in sync with God his plan you love all things holy good City of Man attracted to material things sensory objects satisfy desires etc How is one s allegiance to one or the other determined Not determined by outward acts What determines which city is yours Ex Just because I do good charitable acts doesn t mean you deserve salvation if it is a life without God Only person who can decide in the end what you do good bad is solely up to God Only God can judge your city can be determined by Him How do humans and God experience time differently and how does this explain that the just who have died are already in heaven Lots of people have died what happened to their souls Time God experiences sees world all at once time past present and future in one Every moment at same time he knows all judgment We experience time in linear fashion only present When we die judged if we go to heaven we will then experience time just like God does What is Judgment Day and what will be the fate of those alive when this occurs Bible says Judgment Day The day all will be judged together Heaven or Hell Explain the physical and intellectual rewards of heaven and the pains of hell Heaven experience all time like God bliss freedom from suffering intellectual physical perfection Hell eternal separation from God nothing but suffering pain torment psychical mental suffering 5 Cite one way in which Islamic philosophy is like Western philosophy and two ways in which it is different Alike Islamic viewed like Christians faith reason Quran like Bible was also a literal transcript of word of God Differs 1 Less emphasis on Great Minds 2 strife between Reason tradition How does God s essence flow from his existence in the creation theory of Avicenna Avicenna God is one pure intellect the only one necessary being God is One incapable of multiplicity God is neither a person nor being that thinks or wills since each of these consist of multiple parts Pure intellect blasting into realms of lesser contingent beings each contingent being has an essence but its existence is an infusion of God s existence Universe was created in this initial blast of intellect What is God s nature in this theory Cite two criticisms of Avicenna s theory developed by Averroes Averroes says Universe is God s creation eternal God is one but not pure intellect no multiplicity cant limit God Other ways to return love back to god poetry music faith are doorways to divine Intellect Will God could be a person mind Both say that necessary beings are contingent beings God must exist If everything else is contingent God didn t have to create us If you say God is one then doesn t Another sense is whole not one 6 Explain the ontological argument for God s existence as advanced by Anselm
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