There are many reasons for why Christians believe in God. Firstly, some Christians believe that the Bible itself is from God, from himself and it is the revealed word of God. Christians believe that what is in the Bible must be true as it is there in the first place. Some, Christians are literalists who take what is in the Bible word for word, however, some are liberalists and understand what is in the Bible as a metaphor, however, still proves that God exists. Additionally, some Christians believe in the ontological argument by St Anselm, which suggests that God cannot not exist and so that it is logical to believe.
The heart of Leibniz’s argument was that there must be a cause for the whole which explains the whole. Frederick Copleston would have disagreed with this statement because he believed that there has to be a necessary being which explains the contingent beings and this necessary being should contain within itself the reason for its own existence. Copleston would go on to say that this necessary being is God and God is therefore the explanation of the universe and how it came into existence. Hume would have agreed with this statement because he questioned the idea that everything has a cause. He claimed that
This argument is very important for religious believers, but has come under criticism from those who do not believe, who say that it is flawed. Gaunilo, and Immanuel Kant, feel that we will never have the answer to this question due to our human limitations, and reason. . St. Anselm’s first form of the argument is that God is “that than which none greater can be conceived”. This means that no one can think of anything that is greater than God.
November 28, 2010 RESEARCH PROJECT Stories of origin from Hebrew Scriptures Theories of creation in Judaism The problem of creation in religion and philosophy The nature of creation has been one of the major issues in the borderland where the domains of religion and philosophy meet. Religion has usually asserted that world has been created by a creator with will and purpose. With the development of theology, a doctrine of creation out of nothing was formulated, mainly to emphasise the utmost freedom of God relative to everything outside Him. Whereas religion is dependent on divine revelation, philosophy is based on human reason. The domains of religion and philosophy did not remain separated, as inquisitive minds sought to reconcile reason with revelation and belief.
Trinitarian theology is essential to the evangelic mind. We find the theme of Father, Son, and Spirit woven throughout our various Christian theologies in a masterful way. But what of the Atonement of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world? Where do we see the Trinity in God’s beautiful conclusion to his much larger redemptive story? The evangelic community seems silent when it comes to this region of theology and the Trinity.
He believes reason and faith are the two paths to access the truths of God’s existence. Faith is a trusted belief in God through scripture; it does not rest with logic and is beyond reason. But reason is a logical way of making sense of something that is not tangible. St. Thomas realized many people doubt the existence of God because there is no logic to explain God’s existence. For St. Thomas his mission in life was to prove the existence of God through reason.
Presented below will be both a brief explanation of the argument and a criticism that has been raised against the argument. The Ontological Argument was first formulated by Anslem. He begins with a reference to Psalm 14:1 (the fool hath said in his heart “there is no God”) and then presents the argument to the fool. What Anslem attempts to do with his argument is define God into existence with the use His revealed nature (ontology). Anslem starts by pointing out that God, by definition, is the greatest conceivable being (something than which nothing greater can be thought) which is agreed and understood by both believers and non-believers.
INTRODUCTION The book Truth and Tolerance by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger is one that captures and tackles the tensions that arise from rival claims to ‘the truth’ by different religions of the world. It is a response to the criticisms by modern society and non-Christian cultures against the (Catholic) Christian claim on the “Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church”. How can Christianity insist it is true in the face of other religions and philosophies making competing claims? Is Christianity not being religiously arrogant by imposing its teaching, and thus intolerant to other religions of the world? As such, central to this thesis is the theme of truth- truth in the Christian religion expressed in the faith and teaching of the Catholic Church which Ratzinger sets out to address together with the questions above.
For some, this is inevitable given the subject; for others, it suggests that religious statements are in fact empty of meaning. There have been two main types of approach to these problems. Realists take as their starting point the idea that language corresponds to reality: for every statement we make there is a state of affairs that exists if that statement is true. This is called the correspondence theory. On the other hand, anti-realists consider reality fundamentally separate from language, and insist that meaning is a matter of coherence, not correspondence: a statement achieves meaning and truth through its relationship to other ideas or activities.
Let knowledge be a cosmic and complex structure, faith is the base for this structure for it provides fundamental assumptions and without these assumptions, the structure of knowledge will disintegrate. In the first Area of Knowledge religion, faith does play a pivotal role. Faith is an essential element that is mostly inseparable from the religion. An organized religion usually consists of a person’s relationship to that which they regard as holy, sacred,