RS Unit 3.1

• Have religious sacraments such as Baptism, Holy Communion
• Go to church usually every week to pray and worship God
• Send their children to Catholic school where they'll meet other Catholic children
• Teach their children to pray to God

in God

• Their parents will teach their children about God and they're likely to believe what their parents tell them
• Teaching them to pray to God will lead to belief because their parents won't waste their time praying to nothing
• Seeing many people worshipping God when they go to Mass will make them believe in God
• They're taught that God exists in Catholic school and they will believe it because their teachers tell them it's true

• Numinous - religious buildings or stars may create the feeling of the presence of something greater which they feel is God. This awareness is likely to lead in belief in God
• Conversion - people have the feeling of being 'born again.' Leads to belief as God is calling them to do something.
• Miracles - experiencing an event that breaks the laws of science will make you look for an explanation and if it can only be explained as a miracle then you will believe in God.
• Prayer - an answered prayer will make the person feel that God has listened to them. Then they will believe that he is real as what they're asked for becomes reality.

in God

• Anything that has been designed needs a designer
• Plenty of evidence that the world has been designed (for e.g, laws of science)
• If the world has been designed, it must have a designer
• Only possible designer for something so complex and amazing is God

• No designer would have created things like volcanoes and earthquakes
• Doesn't refer to dinosaurs and how they could've been part of a design plan for the world
• Only proves there is a designer but not that God is the designer

• Everything in the world has a cause (for e.g, water turns to ice at 0 degrees)
• Everything must be caused by something because you can't cause your own existence
• The Universe must have a first cause
• Only possible first cause is God

in God

• If everything needs a cause then God must have a cause too. The process shouldn't stop at God
• Matter itself is eternal and never created. The processes of causes could go on forever
• First cause could've been any creator, not a God of a particular religion

agnosticism/atheism

• Provides explanations for the world and humans without the need of God
• Theory of evolution explains how organisms have become so complex without God
• The Big Bang Theory explains how the world came about without God. Red shift in other galaxies is evidence that the universe is still expanding from the Big Bang
• Evidence is available for all Science explanations so they're more believable

• Only God could've made the Big Bang at the exact microsecond to form the universe
• Only God could've made the scientific laws of the Universe
• Only God could've made the gases on Eath react in such a way to form life
• "Let there be light" is a reference to the Big Bang, which God could've created

• They may not feel God's presence during prayer and feel that their prayers aren't being listened to. Therefore they feel that no one is there so God isn't real.
• Religious people believe that prayers are answered and that God answers other prayers. So if their prayers are unanswered then they may feel rejected by God or that he doesn't exist.
• If someone has been a good Catholic their whole life and they pray for God to cure their sick child and they die, they may lose faith.
• If a person's prayer for ending human suffering is unanswered then they may feel that God doesn't exist if he lets these sufferings happen.

• If you pray for something selfish like asking God to let you pass an exam without putting in any work, then God will let you fail. Although it appears like an unanswered prayer, God is teaching you to work harder.
• God may have different plans so the prayer isn't answered in the way you would expect.
• God is meant to be a father so he will only give you what you need and not what you want.
• Catholics believe that God will answer all prayers in the best way for them so they must trust what happens, even if it's different from their expectations.

• If God is omnipotent then he must be able to remove evil and suffering from the world.
• If God is omni-benevolent he must want to remove evil and suffering.
• If God is omniscient he must've known that evil and suffering would come from creating the universe. Therefore he should've created the universe in a way that avoided evil and suffering.
• Therefore the presence of evil and suffering proves he's either not omni-benevolent or he doesn't exist.

• Suffering is the result of the misuse of free will - this isn't God's fault.
• Suffering gives us a chance to be better and more charitable people. God will reward the good people with everlasting life.
• Good can come from suffering as there's no good without bad.
• Catholics claim that God has a reason for not using his power to remove evil and suffering but humans can't understand it. God is divine and there's no way humans can understand God's thoughts.