Critically assess the view that the conscience is the voice of God Conscience is something that is intrinsic to our everyday lives. The origin and role of the conscience is something that divides people and something that has been used to justify some very terrible acts, approaches to conscience vary, including numerous religions who claim that it is God given. This is the belief that either at conception God gave each person a conscience or that it is imparted to us at some stage to enable us to discern morally correct and incorrect actions. For some philosophers it is the actual voice of God that speaks to them through their conscience. Newman was an Anglican theologian who supported the notion that conscience is truly the voice of God, and thus developed an intuitionist understanding of how we make ethical decisions.
What is God doing in the world? Similar thoughts came from the Israelites in Zephaniah 1:12. They said God did not do good or evil. They thought God was not involved and so continued in their sin. Habakkuk is one of the good guys.
Modern Christians believe that this one god handmade all of the earth and the people in it. Gnostics, however, believe that there are two different Gods. Some Gnostics say that there is a Creator God of the Old Testament who is mean and hateful and full of wrath, and then they say there is the New Testament God who is kind and forgiving (28). Orthodox Christians will argue that there is only one God who brings both joy and pain, but those who believe in the gnostic gospels wonder why such a nice god would create such a terrible world for all humans to live in. To them, if there is a good side to the world and a bad side to the world, then there must be two gods to keep track of it all.
In discussion of Pascal’s wager, one issue has been the persuasiveness of Pascal’s argument, as well as the holes in some of his reasoning. On the one hand, Simon Blackburn argues that we know nothing about this “God” we are supposed to believe in, so we do not know whether this is a jealous God who will send people to hell for not believing in Him, or if this “God” is the Christian God that Pascal presents. Blackburn eventually states that regardless of which type of God exists, “a God that punishes belief is just as likely, and a lot more reasonable, than one that punishes disbelief.” On the other hand, Linda Zagzebski contends that Pascal does have a compelling argument, yet his reasoning is flawed. Zagzebski states that it is wrong for people to believe in God because of their self-interest, based around the fact that if they do believe in God and if he does exist, they will be rewarded with infinite gain. Furthermore, Zagzebski employs an intriguing analogy by comparing one who chooses to believe in God just for infinite gain is similar to someone who chooses a mate with a high income, and then tries to love that person.
“We need Jesus to justify and glorify us, so we find the true meaning to ourselves.” In (Romans 2;15), Paul says that the Gentiles didn’t have the law while, the Jews did, meaning that humanity has the law or not. Such in (Romans 2:12) Paul says whether or not people have sinned against the law or not, all are condemned regardless as the Jews began teaching a stronger condemnation because they had the law all along. Where it all wraps up in (Romans 4:15) Paul asserts that knowledge of the law brings wrath, the Gentiles conversely didn’t have the law. Meaning that the Jews are held to higher standards then the Gentiles. When you look at the views today, many people are believing today that we don’t need God, and he’s not who everyone thought he was.
If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?” The problem of evil poses this question: how can a God who is all-powerful, all-wise, and all-good permit so much pain, suffering, and evil in the world? How would you answer this question? week 6 Jesus and the Kingdom of God (graded) Describe some of the values Jesus had in mind when he used the phrase “Kingdom of God.” One scholar has called Jesus’s message “ethical apocalypticism.” What do you think this means in light of our discussion of apocalypticism in the text?
Naturalist do not believe in more than just matter, they look at things as if I cannot see it then it is not there. However, as a Christians, I believe in more and I know our God is out there helping us through our lives. Naturalist look at us as machines that all of our emotions and such are just reactions in our brains, but Christians believe that everything we do is the creation of God. Secular humanist and Christians are so different I use my religion to help stay in line. Secular humanist feel that religion is really a negative thing because it gives you rules to follow therefore you never really follow your deepest desires.
Augustinian theodicy argues that God created the world and it was perfect, without any evil or suffering until man’s fall and Irenaean theodicy states God is partially responsible for evil and suffering as a process of soul building. These last two rests on the free will theodicy that God isn’t the cause of evil but rather it is the abuse of human free will. [2]
As Dennis McCallum explains in The Problem of Evil, there are more than a few ways to prove or disprove God. The most interesting and well thought out argument is the attack based on the persistence of evil. This attack uses the argument that if God were good and all-powerful he would destroy evil, but since evil still exists, there is no such God. Whether this attack is saying that God is not good or that there is no God at all is unclear, but I see it as saying that there is no God. If there truly were a God who was good, why would he let all the unnecessary pain and suffering happen in the world?
God being omnipotent means that he can do anything which means he could have created a world free from evil. The idea of God being Omniscient means he has complete knowledge which again suggests that he should know how to stop evil. And God is also seen as Omnibenevolent which means he is all loving, if this is the case how does he allow his creation to suffer, she should desire to stop evil. The evidential problem of evil is the fact that God’s existence is incompatible with Evil. Augustine’s theodicy responds to the evidential problem of evil, it is based on the book ‘Genesis world made perfectly by