RE Revision

Agnosticism - Not sure on your opinion of existence on God

Atheism - Believing that God doesn't exist

Benevolent - The belief that God is all good and loving

Causation - The idea that everything has been caused (started) by something else

Conversion - When your life changes by giving yourself to God (or other religions)

Design - The idea that something has been made for a purpose

Miracle - An event that breaks the law of science which can only be done by God

Moral Evil - Actions done by humans that cause suffering: murder

Natural Evil - Things that cause suffering but has nothing to do with humans: volcanoes

Numinous - The feeling of the presence of something greater than you

Omnipotent - The belief that God is all powerful

Omniscient - The belief that God knows all happenings in present and future

Theodicy - A specific branch of philosophy that attempts to reconcile the extistance of evil or suffering in the world with the belief in an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent God: for example the problem of evil

Prayer - An attempt to contact God, usually through words

People believe in God for a number of reasons:

1. God created the world

2. God created people and animals

3. They had a religious upbringing

4. They had a religious experience

5. Appearence of design in the world

6. Causation

7. The search for meaning and purpose

8. The presence of religion

People don't believe in God for a number of reasons:

1. He makes people suffer

2. Prayers don't always come true

3. People have seen and heard of non religious explainations of the world

4. People have had non religious explainations of miracles

5. Unanswered prayers

6. People have experienced evil and suffering

7. No religious experiences

Religious Experiences:
Some people say it's difficult to know if you have had a religious experience or not. Others say that a religious experience is one that changes your life, forever. They believe a real religious experience will give you knowledge and awareness of God.

Example: A dream that contained a religious experience

Miracles:
Miracles give people faith that there is a God and that it can change you or your life forever. They are also known to make people feel good and happy. Miracles also contain problems, such as: There may be a scientific or medical explaination, they could go wrong or it happened by chance.

Example: Healing of the paralysed man

Why do people Prayer?
1. Communication 4. Forgiveness
2. Worries 5. Faith in God
3. Commitment

ACTS
A - Adoration (Psalms)
C - Confession (Forgiveness of sins)
T - Thanks giving (Grace)
S - Supplication (Help and courage through tough times)

Where can people prayer and what can they use?
- Church, Home, In groups, Hospitals, most Christians with prayer anywhere necessary
- The rosary, Icons, Crosses and Crucifixes, Incense, Candles and the Bible all help when people wish to prayer.

Causation is the process in which one thing causes another.

If we look at things in life we can see that they have a cause, eg. Ice is caused by a drop in temperature.
Anything caused to exist must be caused to exist by something else because you cannot cause your own existence!
You cannot keep going back and back with causes because if you did you would have infinate regression!
The only possible first cause of the universe is God, therefore God must exist!

Example: A process of causation could be:
Bread ---> Into the toaster to cook ---> Toast!

The design argument is that the watch wouldn't be here if God didn't create the world.

Suffering can be caused by Moral or Natural evil (next 2 cards)

Think about:

- If God is good, then why is there evil and suffering in the world?

- Perhaps God isn't all good after all?

- Perhaps God created the world and left us all alone?

There are many connotations which many people believe. Some believe it's good and many believe it's bad.

Natural evil is caused in the natural world which doesn't involve humans.

This could include:
- Floods
- Landslides
- Earthquakes
- Volcanoes
- Cancer

How does this cause problems?
This causes problems as it makes Christians question whether God is really there, If he was there, why doesn't he stop these from happening and stop us all from suffering? Some people believe that God is there and he is giving us these natural evil things so we can learn how to deal with things. Everyone has their own opinion on this.

Moral Evil is caused by humans (Nothing natural).

This could include:
- Murder
- ****
- Abuse
- Broken Bones
- War

Why does this cause problems?
This causes problems as it makes people wonder why God made people like this to make other people suffer. Some people believe it's a good thing so the bad people get noticed and charged or jailed and the good people know that life isn't all that easy and that there are many things to face.