Phenomenology is also geared towards creating a framework for understanding religious traditions. The authors of The Sacred Quest An Invitation to the Study of Religion give multiple outlines for different things in religion, such as what a cult is defined as and what it means for something to be sacred. The phenomenological approach’s function is to also put up a firewall against literalism. This means that we want to look at how things function in a religion and how things are interpreted but we do not want to make the mistake of believing some things actually happened in the physical world. We use the phenomenological approach as a way to interpret data that we observe from several different religions.
P3: It is possible to have an experience of God. C: Therefore God must exist. This shows the inductive nature of the argument as well as the synthetic experiences it is based on. As Swinburne's proof of god through religious experience shows, there is a logical thought process that can systematically prove the existence of god if these premises are agreed upon. Some philosophers such as Ayer argue that experience cannot provide a stable base for the indication of reality because it is the interpretation of the experience that we are hearing for the experiencer, therefore we can never have concrete evidence that that is how the experience occurred.
The gifts of the Spirit are simply God enabling believers to do what He has called them to do. Once a Christian submits to the leading of the indwelling, The Holy Spirit puts himself under His influence or control. The gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit are both bestowed by God, yet they are distinct in their purpose and presentation. The gifts of the Spirit have a specific purpose; to prove a claim and to offer evidence of the Holy Spirits’ presence. The fruits of the Spirit are not for proof, but rather are evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God in the believer.
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. He says that our conscience is "the voice of God" completely distinct from our will or desires. It is an innate principle planted in us before we had the ability to reason. Newman described conscience as a 'law of the mind', but he did not see it as giving us commandments to follow. The conscience is not a set of rules, a feeling of guilt or something that we obey in order to gain a reward from God.
“ A Symbol can provide a meaningful way to talk about God.” Discuss A symbol is something that represents something else. Symbolic language is evocative in the sense that it brings strong images, memories or feelings to mind when you look at it or read it. The purpose of these strong images or feelings, like any religious language, is to generate the meaning to an individual to exactly what God is. By meaning I talk of something which corresponds to actuality. A symbol is not literally stating what something is; instead it acts like a road sign to point you in the direction of where the truth lies.
Daniel Greenblatt PHIL 1600 Evaluation of The Argument From Religious Experience By first analyzing C.B Broad’s “Argument from Religious Experience, then anaylzing how he explains the arguement, this essay will conclude that religious experiences are indeed not veridical. First and foremost it is important to note that Broad does not say that claims pertaining to the natural world from religious experience should be taken as veridical. While he does not explicitly say so, he does not consider the argument from religious experience as a confirmation of God’s existence. Broad concentrates on the credibility of the experience and any claims related to it. He states that it is logical to agree that when there is a core agreement in the religious experiences of people in different places, times, and ways of life, and when they have the same rational explanations of the experiences, it makes sense to conclude that they are all in contact with some objective aspect of reality, unless there is evidence to believe otherwise.
The divine command theory suggests that an act is right if it has ben commanded by God, and morally wrong if God has forbidden it. God has absolute authority and decides alone what is right or wrong, and human reason has no contribution to the decision. He is the most reliable source of guidance for humans and provides them with laws that they should live by. Humans just have to accept these laws and respond to God’s commands. According to Emil Brunner, the divine command theory means that by doing what God wills or commands
Exclusivism also described as particularism adopts the position that there is no knowledge of God without Christ. Karl Barth agrees with this viewpoint that salvation is only possible through Christ and includes the concept of “ultimate eschatological victory of grace over unbelief” (McGrath, 2011, p. 436). The exclusivist viewpoint aligns well with the uniqueness of the Christian faith and therefor the necessary missionary response that is part of its reality. The opposing viewpoint is that of the inclusivist approach that allows space for other religions seeing the as milestones along the way towards a faith in Christ (McGrath, 2011). According to McGrath the inclusivist viewpoint became popular in the 1890’s centered on words from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that He came to fulfill not to destroy.
This leads to the famous objection that he uses the existence of God to establish his doctrine of clear and distinct ideas, and that he uses his doctrine of clear and distinct ideas to establish the existence of God: his argument is circular. It seems that Descartes says that firstly “I am certain that God exists only because I am certain of whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive” but secondly
Even though he believe in God it still goes to show that there still may be some form of physical or verbal conflicts when two different types of religion people believe in a different “GOD”. In the speeches I read both individuals talked about what happened in their country as far as war. It felt like you can actual visualize that was going on in their time frame. • Why is that imagery effective or ineffective? Yes the imagery was very effective because although each individual believe in a type of “GOD” they still seem to have problems during their time frame.