knowledge of gods existence Flashcards
(13 cards)
what is this topic actually about
what sort of knowledge Christian belief should be based on. The two main options are faith and reason.
Most theologians agree that faith should be the foundation for belief in God, but there is considerable debate over the appropriate place, if any, of reason when it comes to belief in God.
what is natural theology
gaining knowledge through powers of human reason
the theory that knowledge of God can be gained by the power of the human mind. It has two main forms:
Natural theology through reasoning about the natural world - God’s revelation is present in his creation and human reason has the ability to discover it. This resulting in knowledge of God based on reason. This is typically a catholic view.
Natural theology through sensing God - is defended by some, including protestant theologians who are sceptical of the power of reason to know God.
some people think natural and revealed theology can both help but some think only revealed can be realiable
robert Boyle (familar for his great work in science and theology) wrote in terms of ‘two great books’ - the natural world and the bible which were both created by the same ‘author’. the words of the bible and science are complementary each enhancing the other as a means by which people can deepen their understanding of God
william paley was an advocate of natural theology
the bible too offers the view that the natural world demonstrates truths about God . in psalms the writer looks at the sky and sees clear evidence of god - ‘lord, our lord. how majestic is your name in all the earth’ - psalm 8:3-9
paul in his letter to the romans expressed that human experience and reason easily lead to knowledge of God - paul argues that people have made god angry because they have ignored the obvious fact of gods existence - ‘for since the creation of the world gods invisble qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen’
aquinas natural theology
Aquinas accepted that human reason could never know or understand God’s infinite divine nature. However, he argued that human reason can gain lesser knowledge of God, including:
God’s existence: through the teleological (design) and cosmological arguments.
God’s moral law through natural law theory.
God’s nature by analogy, through the analogies of attribution and proportion.
Aquinas thought that reason could not provide an absolute proof that God existed, since that would make faith and revelation useless.
Aquinas argued that meditating on God’s works in creation leads to us reflecting on God’s wisdom, admiring his power, having reverence for God in our hearts and love for God’s goodness in our souls. This is because if the goodness, beauty and wonder of creation, which represent a tiny proportion of God’s goodness, are so delightful to the human mind, then they will attract us even more strongly to God’s total goodness. So, natural theology can support faith.
This approach of viewing reason as a valid basis for supporting faith is typically a Catholic view:
“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth” – Pope John Paul II.
from seeing that the world is in a constant of change due to cause and effect, we can work out that there must be ‘an uncaused cause’
and from observing that everything in the world depends on something there must be something which depends on nothing at all but exists necessarily.
richard swinburne also put forward the view that our human reason and powers of observation provide us with solid grounds for their being a God. swinburne argues that we have good reason to think that the world shows signs of order, regularity and purpose so reeason therefore leads us to an intelligent being who is the creator.
augustine and Karl barth on original sin
bonaventura
franciscan monk from the 13th century
considered the question of how God can be known in his work ‘the minds road to God’
he believed that human mind had at least three different ways of knowing
1. ‘eye of the flesh’ - empiricism - this means the ‘eye’ by which we gain knowledge of the physical world
2. the ‘eye of reason’ way of knowing that lets us work out mathematical and philisophical truths through the use of logic
3. the ‘eye of contemplation’ - way of knowing which allows us to come to a knowledge of god beyond experiecne and reason but through faith
john Polkinghorne a cambridge physicist and also an ordained anglican preist, also used bonavonturas metaphor. he often writes about ‘binocular vision’ or looking through 2 different eyes. science through 1 eye which shows him the physical world and its laws and the second eye which he understands spritual truths about god.
he argues that both eyes need to work together to give a complete picture in all its dimensions. he argues its foolish of religous people to ignore science and equally for people to ignore the possibility of God.
natural theology as arising from an innate human sense of the divine
some thinkers argue that a sense of the divine is an intrinsic part of human nature.
one arguement of this comes from the roman philsopher Cicero - notes that in all cultures and all times in history, people have had a sense that there is an infinite being who is in control of the universe. cultures which did not know about eachother nevertheless often develop religous beliefs which are remarkably similar.
places in the bible which seem to support this idea that people are born with a sense for God - in genesis god creates people in his own image and breathes into adam with his own breath, suggesting that there might be a ‘spark’ of divinity in each human life, which could be interpreted to mean that there is something in human beings which is designed to seek and respond to God.
john Calvin, the 16th century protestant theologian claimed in his writing known as ‘institutes’ that we have a ‘sensus divinitus’ which could be translated as ‘seed of divinity’ or an innate sense of God - he wrote ‘there is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity’
he used this to argue that people have no excuse if they fail to worship God.
calvin writes that this inbuilt sense of the divine is not just available to the intelligent and educated who will be confronted with gods work as they study ‘astronomy, medicine and all of natural science’ but it is so straightforward that it can be gained by anyone ‘even the most unlearned and ignorant people’ (john Calvin institutes of the christian religion 1536)
calvin argued that the created world is a ‘mirror’ or a ‘theatre’ for God. for Calvin ‘sensus divinitus’ means that everyone is aware of God but not everyone uses this sense in the right way and some turn to idolatry in other religions and not christianty). any lack of clarity about god in the natural world comes about because of human sin, which clouds peoples understanding.
other writers talk about the ‘epistemic distance’ between people and God by which they mean the distance in knowledge and our inability to grasp and comprehend the nature of God.
usually this is attributed to god deliberately making himself obscure to people in order to preserve their free will and allow them to choose whether to have a relationship with him.
however for calvin the epistemic distance is created by human beings. god has made it impossible for people to ignore him and his will unless people choose to do so.
the idea that people are made ‘in the image of god’ has led supporters of natural theology to the view that we are made in such a way that we can appreicate and understand the beauty of the world.
simarely, supporters of natural theology argue that we have an innate sense of morality which must come from god. thinkers such as joseph butler, john henry newman and CS Lewis claim that we all have feelings of guilt. they argue that this ‘inner voice’ of conscience is evidence not only of the existence of god but of a god who makes moral demands.
natural theology as arising from the order of creation
view that god can be clearly seen in the order and beauty of creation
the pre-christian writer Cicero in his dialogue ‘on the nature of the gods 45bc’
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Revealed knowledge of God
ideas about God which god has decided to show people.
they are not ideas which people have worked out themselves but ones which have been show to people at a time and in a manner chosen by god.
does not rely on strong intellect but was available to everyone through faith. it confirmed the findings of natural theology but also uncovered further truths which were unavailable to reason alone such as the doctrine of the trinity, the truth about Jesus Christ and son of god and ideas about life after death. - these could only be known because god chose to reveal them.
christians believe that the fundamental teachings of their faith have been given by god as revelation. the English word revelation comes from the latin word ‘revelatio’ which in turn is a translation of the original greek of the New Testament where the word is ‘apocalypis’. these words mean ‘unveiling’, ‘uncovering’ or ‘making clear something that was hidden’
immediate and mediate revelation
immediate revelation is understood as that in which god makes himself directly known to people. the prophets are said to have had immediate revelation of god, when god gave them the exact words to give to their listeners. Abraham had immediate revelation of god when god told him to sacarfice his son Isaac. moses had immediate when god spoke to him out of the burning bush in exodus. everyone who met jesus had immediate revelation
mediate revelation is when people learn about god and gain knowledge less directly. those who listened to moses and trusted him to take them out of slavery into the promiseland had mediate revelation.
those who heard the words of the prophets had mediate and so did those who learned about jesus from people who had met him.
the bible is considered mediate revelation by most christians where the words of those who had immediate revelation are preserved.
however for some christians the bible is immediate, where every word comes directly from god dictating to those who wrote it down.
revelation through faith and gods grace
fuller knowledge of god can be gained by revelation through faith and by gods grace in giving knowledge of himself through the Holy Spirit.
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How revelation is understood in the bible
through the beauty of the world - according to the bible, the existence, creativty and wisdom of god is obvious everywhere. - psalm 19 - ‘the heavens declare the glory of god; the skies proclaim the work of his hands’
through the events of history - the events of history are seen as the work of God so recalling the past can give more understanding of what god wants eg in the book of jeremiah the prophet summarises how the people of israel have ignored the things god has done for them through hisort and so bought punishment on themselves - ‘you bought your people Israel out of egypt with signs and wonders….. but they did not obey you…… so you brogh disaster on them’
through traditional wisdom -
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Study of acts 17:16-34
this passage from the New Testament is interesting to study in the contexts of natural and revealed theology, because it combines elements of both.
