The existence of God

What god is like

Omnipotent - all powerful,

Omniscient - all knowing

Benevolent - all loving

Eternal - without beginning or end

Immanent - he is involved with our lives

The trinity

The father

The son

The Holy Spirit

Christians believe God was Jesus in human form and he rose from the dead to show his power over death

Protector and creator

Presence of God that is with them all the time

In Anglican Church, in confirmation the candidate is asked if they believe and trust in the father, his son and his holy spirit

Unitarianism is a Christian belief that states God is one being and that Jesus was the son of God, but not literally God.

Jehovah’s Witness believes that God is a single being and his personal name is Jehovah.

God’s relationship with the world

The world is dependant on God because he caused all things to exist and ensures that everything is provided for the Earth

God created the world ex nihilo (out of nothing) if he created it from a pre existing matter then it might suggest him not being unique in being eternal

God’s relationship with humanity

‘Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness’ - sets humans apart from the rest of creation. There is a unique link

He gave humans power of his creation, and the responsibility of looking after it. No other creature is given this role

The Ten Commandments - helps humans understand how to live a good life

Life and death of Jesus

Jesus came to earth to teach people about God’s love and to show people how to live in obedience to God

He died as a sacrifice for human sin, and repaired the relationship between humans and god, which Adam and Eve broke

God’s goodness

Creation - god creates the world to be good. And provides all that is needed to sustain the world

God gives humanity rules about how to live a good life for example he gave Moses the ten commander nets. God wants people to act in a certain way

God will judge all humans when they die, god knows and sees everything therefore he is able to judge fairly

God chooses to offer humans forgivness

Euthyphro dilema

Whether something is morally good because God has commanded it, or if something is good simply because God had commanded it. If God commands things because they are good then this suggests that goodness exists separately from God

Challenges to God’s goodness

Flooding of the world, Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac, God might be showing his anger, jelaous and lack of justic when he commands people to destroy other lands in order to take land for themselves

Evil as a result of human sin

Evil as a lesson

Evil as a test

Evil was brought into the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and took the apple from the tree of knowledge.

Evil is necessary for us to understand goodness. We can know be aware of the Goodness if God. However it does not explain the suffering of babies.

It is a test for faith for believers and a punishment for the wicked.

The design argument

P1. Universe is ordered for a purpose (the human eye)

P2. Order for a purpose cannot be a result of chance (watch)

P3. Order for a purpose must be the product of an intelligent designer

C1. Nature is the product of an intelligent designer

C2. God is the intelligent designer, as he is the only possible candidate because of the scale and scope of nature

Cruelty is the part of a natural order of things, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The cruelty must be a bad design in nature, if the designer is God then he would be a cruel Hod

Evolution (fossils) could be luck, doesn’t know the origin of nature. Watch is mechanical, nature is biological. It could have been chance

Yes but some things are ordered for a purpose but their are some things which aren’t ordered for a purpose e.g natural evil

The moral argument

P1. Is absolute moral laws exist, then God exists

P2. Absolute moral laws exist

C. God exists

Cultures have all created moral laws, e.g do not murder-Cultural relativism. No universal moral law

Moral laws come from somewhere other than God, like many - categorical imperatives. The best candidate is natural laws, these laws exists but naturally

Cosmological argument

P1. Everything that comes into being must have a cause. Human birth

P2. Infinite regress of causes is impossible - can’t go on forever. We know every effect has a cause but it can’t have an iconise number of causes

IC. There must be an uncashed first cause

C. The first cause is God as he is eternal

We get this from the bible, because it says God is Stendhal, the bible is true if God exists. Circular reasoning

Experiencing God

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