Belief in God

Belief in God

Reasons For Belief In God
1. Religious Upbringing
  1. Baptism or Christening at a young age
    1. If religion has been handed down it is natural to believe.
  2. Taught to pray
    1. if you are taught to pray you will think that you must be praying to something - you may also feel God's presence or have an answered prayer
  3. Go to church
    1. Learning about God at home, Church and school makes people believe.
  4. Families celebrate Christmas and Easter
  5. Children attend a "Sunday School"
    1. At "Sunday School" or Church you are surrounded by those that believe
  6. Encouraged to lead a good Christian life
    1. In a family you are surrounded by those that believe
2. Religious Experiences
  1. Numinous
    1. Feeling of awe and wonder i.e. looking up at the starry sky convinced that God is behind it all
  2. Prayer
    1. If a prayer is answered it can strengthen a person's faith in God
  3. Miracles
    1. Can convince people that God exists e.g. surviving a plane crash
  4. Conversion
    1. Happens after an event where people believe they have experienced God and want to commit their life to God e.g. St Paul on the road to Damascus
3. Christian Responses
  1. Unanswered Prayers
    1. God hears our prayers but may not answer straight away
    2. God cannot answer all prayers at the same time - they might contradict eachother
    3. It may not be part of God's plan
    4. God may answer in a different way
    5. Might be a selfish prayer
    6. God works in mysterious ways
  2. Evil and Suffering
    1. God created people with free will, when they choose to do evil suffering happens
    2. God works in mysterious ways - reasons for evil and suffering that humans can't comprehend
    3. Life is a test - the way you react determines whether you go to heaven or hell
Reasons Against Belief In God
1. Evil and Suffering
  1. God is not powerful enough to stop it
  2. God does not love us enough to want to stop the evil
  3. God does not know what is happening in the world
2. Unanswered Prayers
  1. God not answering "good" prayers (e.g. end poverty, cure cancer) makes people believe that God does not exist or that he is not all of the things that Christians say he is.
  2. If you don't feel God's presence when you pray people may decide that God doesn't exist
3. Science
  1. Causation Argument
    1. Things do not happen by themselves - First Cause
    2. "If the universe has a beginning then something must have caused it - this must be God"
      1. What caused God?
      2. Why does the first cause have to be God - not aliens or multiple Gods?
      3. The Big Bang explains the cause of the universe - no need for God
  2. Scientific Explanation of the World
    1. Science can explain how the universe began without the need for God e.g. the Big Bang says how the universe began and Evolution explains where animals and humans came from
      1. Evidence for Big Bang = Red Shift
      2. Evidence for Evolution = Fossils

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