Theme C: Existence of God and Revelation

Question 1

What is atheist?

Answer 1

A person who believes there is no God

Question 2

What is agnostic?

Answer 2

Someone who believes there is not enough evidence to believe there is a God

Question 3

What is enlightenment?

Answer 3

The gaining of true knowledge of God or self

Question 4

What is impersonal nature?

Answer 4

God has no human characteristics

Question 5

What is ultimate reality?

Answer 5

The supreme, final, fundamental power in all reality

Question 6

What is anthropic principle?

Answer 6

The idea that the structure of the universe and its contents are for the purpose of supporting human life

Question 7

What is evolution?

Answer 7

The gradual process in which an organism develops from earlier, less complex forms of life over many generations

Question 8

What is natural selection?

Answer 8

The mechanism of evolution whereby organisms that are best adapted to their surroundings are those that survive to reproduce and pass on their successful genes

Question 9

What is random variation?

Answer 9

The chance mutation of genes that produce slight differences ion characteristics of an organism. The mutations are passed on through natural selection if they happen to help survival

Question 10

What is the Big Bang?

Answer 10

The idea that the universe began with the rapid expansion of matter from an initial point of infinite density

Question 11

What is general revelation?

Answer 11

Knowledge about God discovered by natural means, such as through observation of nature, philosophy and reasoning

Question 12

What is immanent?

Answer 12

Present or inherent as a natural and permanent part of something

Question 13

What is impersonal?

Answer 13

Not existing as a person, or having emotions or personality

Question 14

What is omnipotent?

Answer 14

All-powerful or unlimited power

Question 15

What is omniscient?

Answer 15

All-knowing or unlimited knowledge

Question 16

What is personal?

Answer 16

Having individual characteristics such as the capacity to form relationships with others and react to them

Question 17

What is special revelation?

Answer 17

Knowledge about God that is discovered by supernatural means, such as through God disclosing scriptures, miracles or visions

Question 18

What is transcendent?

Answer 18

Above and beyond. In christianity, this refers to God’s nature being beyond the limits of the physical world

Question 19

What is a vision?

Answer 19

Something seen in a dream, a trance or a religious ecstasy with a supernatural appearance that give a clear message to the person experiencing it

Question 20

Christian quote on the design argument?

Answer 20

‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ - Genesis

Question 21

Christian quote on general revelation?

Answer 21

‘The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands’ - Psalm

Question 22

Islam quote on the design argument?

Answer 22

‘It is he who created night and day, the sun and the moon, each floating in its orbit’ - Qur’an

Question 23

Islam quote on the first cause argument?

Answer 23

‘We built the skies with our power and made them vast’ - Qur’an

Question 24

Islam quote on special revelation?

Answer 24

‘It is not granted to any mortal that God shoaled speak to him except through revelation or from behind a veil’ - Qur’an

Question 25

Islam quote on general revelation?

Answer 25

‘It is he who spread out the earth, placed firm mountains and rivers on it’ - Qur’an

Question 26

What is the design argument?

Answer 26

William Paley argued that if we found a watch, even if we did not know its function, its intricate workings would show that it had been put together deliberately for a purpose. Its pieces could not have come together by themselves. Someone must have designed the watch and made it: a watch maker

Question 27

What is the first cause argument?

Answer 27

• Everything that exists or begins to exist must have a cause
• The universe exists and began to exist, so kit must have a cause too
• There had to be something eternal that was not cause by anything
• The eternal first cause is God
• Therefore God exists