1. Examine the view that morality is dependant on religion. Morality is principles concerned with what is right or wrong. Those who believe that morality and religion are linked argue that morality requires religion, and all of our knowledge of right and wrong comes from God. H.P Owen said that “it is impossible to conceive of a command without also thinking of a commander” which means that if there are moral laws, then there must a lawgiver who set them.
St. Thomas Aquinas’ Search for the Truth of the Divine Being St. Thomas Aquinas asserts that man, as an intellectual agent, seeks to know the truth. The truth Aquinas is referring to is, for man to know the first truth, namely God. But it is known that man is not fully satisfied and continues to seek understanding of this first truth, and the existence of God. St. Thomas was no different, he maintained his faith in God but pursued philosophical investigations to seek a deeper understanding of the Divine Being. He believes reason and faith are the two paths to access the truths of God’s existence.
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 divine commands vary in religions but in the end, they all have in common that moral obligations depend on God. Natural law is sometimes described as being deontological because it leads to a set of rules that people have a duty to follow. It is an absolute theory of ethics and was developed by Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas says that the natural laws are universal and unchangeable and should be
The Interpersonal Model of Revelation, also known as the Indirect Model of Revelation, says that the act of revelation is best thought of as a religious experience. Because God is mysterious and of a higher order, the experience itself cannot be fully interpreted because it is like nothing that one could have ever experienced, and therefore human beings are responsible for the interpretation and distribution of this information onto others. The purpose of this revelation according to the model is to establish a relationship between the divine and the mortal. The make up of the revelation is that as time goes on, the sacred and the human will be united. This implies that the so called “truths” of faith are incomplete and that we as humans are constantly
Which Aquinas believed reflects the Eternal Law. The Natural Law refers to the moral law of God which has been built into each human nature; however it can be seen by everyone as it does not depend on belief in God as long as you use you reason when faced with a situation then you have done the
Does Morality Require a God? The view that god or a supreme being is needed in morality has been a common debate throughout history. In this essay, I will argue that morality does need a god or Supreme Being. I will discuss the Divine Command Theory, the objectiveness morality has and the special authority resulting in rewards and punishments confirming the need to have a god to command morality. The Euthyphro dilemma poses criticisms to which I will clarify from a gods command perspective that acts are only good because a perfect and all-knowing god commands it.
Religious language discusses religious and spiritual concepts. It is cognitive and conveys knowledge of what is really there. Religious language offers a correspondence theory of truth if it is thought of as being able to point to the reality that it is trying to convey. It is the language of worship – it is performative and prescriptive. Some philosophers such as Aquinas believe that it is possible to talk meaningfully, truthfully and factually about God whereas others like Ayer believe this to be impossible.
The Divine Command Theory is solely based upon what God commands. The Euthyphro Dilemma asks: does God command us to do something right because it is right, or is something right because God commands it? For example, do we love thy neighbor because God says that it is right, or is it right because God commands it? According to the Euthyphro Dilemma, there are two horns that pose trouble for the Divine Command Theory. Both horn one and horn two differ from one
What Is Religion? Who Decides? "Religion is a communication system that is constituted by supernatural beings and is related to specific patterns of behavior." -H. H. Penner "Religion is man's involvement in the meaning of his existence, and the depth of one's involvement is the depth of his religion." -James L. Christian "Religion is a sense of the sacred."