Synoptic Links

Ancient Philosophical Influences

The Problem of Evil

Arguments Based on Observation

The Nature or Attributes of God

Soul, Mind and Body

Plato = Substance dualist
The body is a cage for the soul.
The soul originates from the world of the forms which is where all our knowledge comes from.
Tri-partite soul. Appetitive, spirited, rational.

Aristotle = monist
Hierarchy of souls. Vegetative, sensitive/appetitive, rational
Axes and eyes example

Arguments Based on Observation

Aquinas' cosmological argument was inspired buy Aquinas' ideas of a prime mover being an uncaused cause in order to avoid infinite regression.

Death and the Afterlife

Plato's Myth of Er
When people die their souls are punished/rewarded according to their actions in life. They can then choose what to be re-incarnated as. Ends up as a cycle of punishment and reward.
Only philosopher kings can break the cycle.

Aristotle
Your soul does not live on after death.
Possibly some unknown part of you lives on

Richard Dawkins
Soul one - similar to Plato's idea of the soul. He rejects this
Soul two - similar to Aristotle's idea of the soul. He accepts this

Gender and Society/Theology

Plato believed women were defective men. Men who failed in their previous life

Aristotle believed that women were inferior to men based on empirical evidence. (At that time women were believed to simply be vessels of childbearing. Men were the ones who were actively creating sperm for conception. While women are passive

Religious Experience

Some religious experiences such as seeing being in awe of beautiful sunset can be used as an argument based on observations. (William Paley uses his observations of the world to justify the existence of God)

The Nature or Attributes of God

If you can can infer things about a creator by looking at their artwork then by looking at the world around us we can find out about the nature and attributes of God

Religious Language

Moses Maimonides - You can only refer to God using via negativa, so arguments based of observation that claim God is something by observing the world cannot be used.

Aquinas - You can use analogical language when describing God.

Knowledge Of God's Existence

Karl Barth - Because of the fall we have no points of contact with God. This means we can't use our own reason to understand and know God's teachings. This also means that we can't discover and learn about Go by observing the world it must be explicitly revealed to us.

John Calvin - Humans are born with 'semen religionis' which grants them an innate sense of divine. If humans have a natural ability that allows that allows them to understand God then it follows that humans can use their reason and observations to understand God

Religious Pluralism

John Hick - The same observations of the world can draw people to different conclusions about God (elephant example). Hick concluded that all religions have value, but it could be argued that arguments based off of observation are unreliable

The Problem of Evil

John Stuart-Mill - From observing nature we can see that its actions are more evil than human sin so we can use our observations to show that God does not fit in with the Judeo-Christian idea of God

Twentieth-Century Perspectives and Philosophical Comparisons

Anthony Flew - "Death by a thousand qualifications" Theodicies keep qualifying God and justifying God till he no longer resembles the orignal idea of God they strated out with

Ancient Philosophical Influences

Maybe a Judeo-Christian God can't be justified in the face of evil and suffering. It could be better to see God as Aristotle did as the 'prime mover' who causes everything to happen yet has no interest in our world

The Nature or Attributes of God

Descartes - God can do the logically impossible
If God can do the logically impossible then why did he not create a world with no suffering where we can still learn from our actions

Aquinas and Augustine - God can do everything that is logically possible. Therefore no conflicts within problem of evil

Vardy - God is self-limiting for our sake. Therefore no conflicts within the problem of evil

Augustine's Teachings on Human Nature

Humans are selfish broken creatures because of the fall and original sin which is why they are being punished. It is not that God does not love us, but because we are recieving our just punishment.

God even granting us his grace and allowing some humans to achieve the summum bonnum is an example of his omni-benevolence

Death and the Afterlife

If there is a physical hell included in the original design of creation then it implies that God already knew that humans were going to sin, which implicates God.

John Calvin - Double Pre-Destination. God chooses who goes to heaven and to hell. If this is true then it suggests that God may not be so omni-benevolent after all

John Hick - Universalism. We all get called to heaven. We go through cucles of life until we finally reach heaven. One lifetime is too short.

Origen - Hell is only temporary. Wicked souls only stay long enough for the souls to be purified. So the existence of hell may not be enough to state that God is not omnibenevolent

Ancient Philosophical Influences

Platos and Aristotles 'form of the good' and 'prime mover' respectively influenced current Christian ideas of what God is like.
For example, being the start of time, being the ultimate embodiment of good.

Knowledge of God

Aquinas - We are unable to fully describe and comprehend God's attributes because of an epistemic distance

Religious Language

Aquinas - Better to 'mystify' God than work out his exact nature

Person of Jesus Christ

Jesus is an example of God's omnibenevolence

Vardy - If God did not purposefully limit himself he would not be able to live on earth as fully human through Jesus

Arguments Based On Reason

Anselm - God is that which nothing greater can be thought of

Descartes - God is the sum of all perfections