Term
main features of catholic upbringing
catholic parents more likely to: |
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Definition
1. have their babies baptized and promise to bring up their kids to believe in God+be good Catholics
2. teach their kids prayers+about the saints+the church
3.take their kids church where they will learn how to worship God
4. send their kids to a catholic school where the NC+RE is taught in a cc environment |
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Term
| HOW A CATHOLIC UPBRINGING MAY LEAD TO BELIEF IN GOD |
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Definition
1. their Catholic parents will have told them about God as part of their promises to bring them up as Catholics + young children believe what their parents tell them.
2. catholic parents teach their kids how to pray to god + about the lives of Jesus' disciples+other saints of the church. this shows that prayer is natural+ an important part of their lives+encourages children to believe in god.
3. going to church and seeing people praying to god is likely to make them think that God must exists.
4. going to child liturgy's would support belief in GOD because children would learn why Catholics believe in God+what they believe about them. |
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Term
| catholic upbringing is good |
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Definition
~ a catholic upbringing helps to keep a family together as parents+children join together for catholic activities
~a catholic upbringing gives children an understanding of what is right or wrong+gives them good morals
~a catholic upbringing gives children a sense of belonging+community, giving them emotional stability. |
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Term
| catholic upbringing is bad |
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Definition
~a catholic upbringing means children are brought up following a religion they have not chosen themselves
~ some people think that a Catholic upbringing can take away a child's human right to freedom of religion
~a catholic upbringing may work against community cohesion by making catholic children think followers of other religions r wrong |
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Term
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Definition
If someone has a numinous experience, it may lead them to believe in God because the experience will make them feel that God is real. If you become aware of a presence greater than you, you are likely to believe that that presence is god and so you will believe in him |
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Term
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Definition
| if someone has a conversion experience, that will lead them to believe in God because they will feel that God is calling them to do something for him |
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Term
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Definition
| Miracles can lead to belief in God because, if a miracle has really happened, it means that god has acted on earth and that the people witnessing it have had a direct contact with God. if atheists or agnostics cannot find an explanation for a miracle, it may lead them to believe in God |
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Term
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Definition
| if the person praying to god feels god is listening to the prayer, then they have a religious experience through prayer and are sure that god exists. e.g. when someones private prayer is answered |
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Term
| RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE DOES NOT IMPROVE GOD'S EXISTENCE |
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Definition
~ a numinous experience is caused by your surroundings, whether a church or the stars, and may have nothing to do with god.
~ all miracles can be explained. for example, Jesus may not have been dead when he was taken down from the cross and so he just recovered rather than rising from the dead.
~ there are more unanswered prayers than answered prayers, so they surely prove god does not exist. |
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Term
| HOW THE APPEARANCE OF DESIGN MAY LEAD TO, OR SUPPORT, BELIEF IN GOD |
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Definition
1. anything that has been designed needs a designer.
2. there is plenty of evidence that the world has been designed
3.if the world has been designed, the world must have a designer
4. the only possible designer of the world would be God
5. therefore, the appearance of design in the world proves that god exists
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Term
| HOW THE APPEARANCE OF DESIGN MAY NOT LEAD TO BELIEF IN GOD |
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Definition
1. the argument ignores the evidence of lack of design in the universe e.g volcanoes
2. all the evidence for design can be explained by science without needing even to think of God
3. the argument does not refer to the existence of dinosaurs, which must have been part of a design plan for the world
4. the argument only proves that the universe has a designer, not god. the designer could be anything.
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Term
| WHY SOME PEOPLE DISAGREE WITH THE ARGUMENT OF CAUSATION |
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Definition
1. why should the causes stop at God? If everything needs a cause then God must need a cause.
2. a better explanation is that the matter of the Universe itself is eternal and so the process of causes goes on forever.
3. even if the First Cause were to exist it would not have to be God, it could be any sort of creator.
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Term
| causation proves that God exists |
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Definition
~ the argument makes sense of ourselves+the universe because it explains how and why we are here.
~ the argument fits in with science which tells us that every effect has a cause+so the universe must have a cause(god).
~ we believe that things must have started off, they must have a beginning or first cause; and the argument explains that God started off the universe
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Term
| SCIENCE EXPLANATIONS OF THE WORLD |
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Definition
1. matter is eternal, it can either be created nor destroyed, it can only be changed
2. about 15 billion years ago, the matter of the universe became so compressed that it produced a huge explosion
3. any change that is better suited to living in the environment will survive and reproduce
4. the genetic structure of these life forms were produces changes.
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Term
| EVIDENCE FOR THE BIG BANG |
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Definition
| the Red Shift Effect where the red shift in light from other galaxies is evidence that the universe is expanding. |
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Term
| HOW SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION OF THE WORLD MAY LEAD TO ATHEISM |
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Definition
1. science can explain where the world came from and here humans came from without any references to God.
2. there is no God because they believe that, if God exists, he must have made the world and he must be the only explanation of the world.
3. scientific explanation of the world and humans without reference to God is proof to such people that God does not exist
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Term
| HOW CATHOLICS RESPOND TO UNANSWERED PRAYERS |
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Definition
1. if you pray for selfish thing such as praying to God to pass an exam without any work, God will let you fail the exam so you could work hard next time.
2. just like a human parent, God may answer our prayers by giving us what we need rather than what we had asked for.
3. Catholics believe that God loves people and so they believe God's love will answer their prayers in the best possible way, even though it may not look like a direct answer.
4. your prayer may not be answered in the way you expect because god has different plans
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Term
| UNANSWERED PRAYERS PROVE THERE IS NO GOD |
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Definition
~ Christians believe that God is their loving heavenly Father who will answer their prayers, so if he does not answer them, he cannot exist.
~ Christians are told about answered prayers. a good god would not answer a few prayers for a cure and not answer lots of prayers for a cure. therefore it is unlikely that God exists.
~ if there was a god, he would answer the prayers of good religious people, and there would be no more wars. the prayers of such people are clearly not answered, so god cannot exist
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Term
| EVIL AND SUFFERING MAY LEAD TO AGNOSTICISM OR ATHEIST |
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Definition
1. if God is omnipotent, he must be able to remove evil+suffering
2. if God is omni-benevolent, he must want to remove evil+suffering from the world because they cause so much unhappiness.
3. it follows that, if God exists, there should be no evil or suffering in the world.
4. as there is evil+suffering in the world, either God is not omnipotent, or god is not omni-benevolent, or god does not exist.
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Term
| HOW CATHOLICS RESPOND TO THE PROBLEM OF EVIL+SUFFERING |
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Definition
1ST RESPONSE.
Catholics believe from the bible that God must have a reason for allowing evil and suffering, but humans cannot understand it, so the correct response of Catholics is to follow the example of Jesus and fight against evil and suffering as Jesus did by praying for those who suffer and by helping those who suffer |
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Term
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Definition
| Catholics claim that, by giving humans free will, God created a world in which evil and suffering will come about through humans misusing their freewill. so evil and suffering is a problem caused by humans, not God |
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Term
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Definition
| Catholics believe that the evil and suffering involved in this life are not a problem, because this life is a prep for paradise. if people are to improve their souls, they need to face e+s in order to become good, kind and loving. God cannot remove e+s if he is going to give people the chance to become good people. in the end, he will show the his omni-benevolence and omnipotence by rewarding the good in heaven |
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Term
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Definition
| Catholics claim that God has a reason for not using his power to remove e+s, but humans cannot understand it. God is divine and there is no way humans can understand his thoughts. |
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Term
| EVIL AND SUFFERING PROVES THAT GOD DOES NOT EXIST |
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Definition
~ if god is omnipotent, he must be able to remove e+s from the world. if god is omni-benevolent, he must want to remove e+s from the world. if god exists, there should be no e+s but there is so god does not exist.
~ a good God would not have designed a world with floods etc. these cannot be blamed on humans and so they have evidence that God did not make the world and so does not exist.
~ an all-powerful God would not allow evil humans like Hitler to cause so much suffering, so as individual humans have caused lots of suffering , god cannot exist
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