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.
He backs this statement up with numerous facts and hypothetical situations that could’ve happen if the US government had not invaded Iraq. Being an anti-theist, Dr. Hitchens is very much against the use of God in politics. The Tea Party, on the other hand, is trying to “put God back into the United States of America.” He sees Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky both as great men and he no longer considers himself a socialist but rather a Marxist. Marx states that: “Man created God, God did not create Man.” Dr. Hitchens gets his conclusion, “God did not create man, we created God,” from Karl Marx’s statement: “Man makes religion, religion does not make man…” Many members of the Tea Party focus on just the “fiscal” issues facing the government, however, they do not believe in the beliefs of Marx, Lenin or Trotsky. Dr. Hitchens was also recently diagnosed esophageal cancer.
E) It is important for Christians to believe in miracles discuss this statement. I believe it is important for Christians to believe in miracles because in the Bible many miracles are mentioned and by a Christian disagreeing with this they’re denying a part of their faith and so if a Christian did not agree that miracles exist how is it that they can claim they are a Christian? Christians most of the time would never disagree with the existence of miracles because for example, many people claimed that Jesus was not the Messiah or Son of God and therefore the only real proof Jesus had was that he performed miracles and by denying that miracles actually happened then you are in theory denying that Jesus was the Messiah. That is why, in my opinion it is essential for Christians to believe in Miracles otherwise they are practically denying half of there faith and the thing that separates Christianity from Judaism. Christians could argue that they believe Jesus was still the Messiah and everything he stood for is what they believe in but maybe the authenticity of miracles today can be questioned as there is no Jesus around to prove them being performed by a Deity just as the definition says there should be.
Soren Kierkegaard, a protestant Fideist, saw the biblical figure of Abraham as a hero and an example of the fideist position; this is because against all moral and ethical qualities, Abraham was willing to go against any kind of reason and sacrifice his own under the will of God. Strong rationalism and Fideism are the two extremes of each concept, the middle ground between those two is Critical Rationalism, believing that a balanced life allows for both reason and faith. Some things can be known by reason alone, whereas other things must be known by faith. History and reason through the bible will explain to us that Jesus lived and preached the kingdom of God, also performing
The United States of America was not founded on Christian principles but on the enlightened principle of human rights, that all people are created equal, and endowed with certain rights, among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Many of the Founding Fathers were practicing Christians but they also saw Christianity becoming increasingly associated with systems of political oppression. They believed any one religion should not be forced upon its citizens and they made religious freedom the cornerstone of faith in the new republic. Their ideals are rooted in enlightenment ideals, trust of reason over revelation and emphasis on natural rights. They were part of the Age of Enlightenment that began in Europe and later came to the American colonies.
The Case for the Cosmological Argument One of the shortcomings of McCloskey’s case against theism is his accusation that the cosmological and teleological arguments cannot definitively establish the proof of God. McCloskey is completely missing the mark by implying that Christians have to have definitive proof to feel confident about theism. The goal of validating Christianity is not to provide 100% proof that there is a God, yet the objective of believing in theism is to provide conclusive evidence that God exists, in conjunction with faith. Shani Itzkowitz wrote in a Baltimore Jewish Times periodical, “The consensus is that faith in God is a non-scientific matter which can only be spoken of in terms of a leap of faith,’ Rabbi [Yisroel Roll] said.” The study of epistemology shows that providing an unarguable scientific explanation to a question is a very challenging proposition. Justified true belief can be interpreted differently for different individuals.
Inverse to Puritan and Calvinist faith, deism favored science over the bible, something that would have been shunned a century before. They refused to accept Jesus’s divinity, but acknowledged a transcendent entity that created the known universe. This entity trusted the morality of man to keep the world from becoming unglued. Deism led to the creation of Unitarianism, one of the new religions during this time period. Unitarianists believed that God manifested himself in only one person instead of the orthodox Holy Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit).
To have faith in someone on past knowledge, according to McCloskey, is reasonable however; it is unreasonable to have faith in God as we have no past knowledge of God. Theists base their knowledge of God on the revelations that He has given us, the Bible, and the
Friedrich Nietzsche shares little tidbits of his person opinions through out these aphorisms. It seems to me that many of the readings shared in this section focus in on the religious beliefs of Christianity and he shares his many differences with the church. Areas covered in this reading are topics suck as: Thoughts on the meaning of life, Truth and Untruth, Will to Power, On Interpretation, and Perspectivism. “Thoughts on life” is a section that is very comparable to predestination. “Will to Power” is a section that is parallel to “Thoughts on Life” because is discusses an individuals will to become powerful and make a personal stand for themselves.
I ask firstly, what has Aquinas actually proved? He certainly proved that there was an unchanged changer, an unmoved mover and an uncaused cause. If the argument is accepted then what he has proven is accepted too. Although, he hasn’t proved that the ‘God’ we as majority humans believe in is in fact the ‘God’ that is the cause. Leibniz once said that ‘the Christian who already believes, Aquinas has proven that God exists’, I agree with this.