Existence of God

Question	Answer
Agnostic	A person who believes we cannot be sure about whether or not there is a god
Atheist	A person who does not believe in God
Theist	A person who believes in God
Personal Experience	I have seen it, so i know it exists
Reliable Experience	I have not seen it, but others have convinced me that they have
Reason	I have not seen it, but there must be a logical reason to believe it exists
Miracle	Something that is usually attributed to the supernatural or divine that cannot be explained by other means. 1. Events that break the laws of nature and cannot be explained by the sciences 2. Events in which no laws of nature are broken but a coincidence occurs at just the right time
Religious Believers on Miracles	Believers use the existence of miracles to prove the existence of God by arguing that there must be a supernatural explanation for what happened. The miracle must have been caused by something outside of God's intervention in the world. Therefore God Exists.
What is meant by a Religious Experience?	- Communicating with God throughout prayer and meditation - Feeling God's presence in worship - Feeling God's presence in nature - Experiencing a conversation - Involvement in a miracle
( FOR ) Religious experiences -	- The effect of these experiences are to great to say they did not happen - For the people that have them, they are direct proof of God's existence. - Sometimes several people experience something at the same time - they can't all be imagining it
(AGAINST) Religious Experiences	- Difficult to prove they really happened - Only real evidence is the person having the experience - People may have been mistaken, might have imagined what happened - People might have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol
Morality	Our sense of what is right and wrong
Conscience	is the inner feeling you are doing right or wrong
Does Morality prove God exists? ( NO )	- It s difficult to prove that morality even exists. - Atheists say morality is just part of human evolution, its help survive - Atheists also say that conscience is just the result of following or breaking rules of society
Does Morality prove God exists? ( YES )	- Morality may be part of our evolution, it was part of God's design for humans - When we have a guilty conscience, then it is God telling us what we have done right and wrong
Theist argue - ( KANT )	1. People have a in-built sense of morality 2. This sense comes from a source outside them 3. This source is God 4. Therefore God exists
Belief	An idea accepted as true without positive proof e.g. God exists
Proof	Any evidence that helps establish a fact or opinion
Certainty	Something established as probable, being sure of something
Probability	Something that is likely to happen or be true
First Cause Arguement	( Thomas Aquinas ) - " Everything has to come from something. You cannot make something out of nothing. Therefore there must have been a ‘First Cause’ that created the ‘something’ (the universe). That First Cause is God."
Problems with the First Cause Argument?	1. The argument depends on the universe having a beginning - if we believe the universe is infinite the argument fails 2. The Big Bang can be used against the existence of God, if you believe the universe was the result of a ' random ' event. ( It can be used to support it, if you believe that the Big Bang was the way that God created the universe.) 3. The argument says that everything has a cause, but then says that God doesn't have cause, contradicts itself. ! (However Theists say the rules would not apply to God, as he is outside our universe)
The Design ( Teleological ) Argument	( William Paley ) - " If we would find a watch, we know it must have a designer due to how complicated it was. He says the universe is even more complicated than a watch and therefore it must have a designer. That source is God ( Anthropic Principle ) - " The fact that our universe is perfect for the creation and sustaining of human life according to some scientists is proof that God exists ". IF THE UNIVERSE WAS ONE DEGREE HOTTOR OR COOLER, IT WOULD NOW HAVE BEEN CREATED !
Problems with the Design Argument	1. Some people argue that God did not design the world because no God would design a world with so many problems in it. (Believers would argue that there is an explanation for the problems, we just do not understand them yet.) 2. Even if we accept that the universe is designed, it doesn't prove that the designer was God. It may have been many Gods.

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	Created by Miraal Ali over 8 years ago