Belief in God

Revision sheet
Religious Upbringing -What?
*Babies Baptised - Promise to bring children up
to believe in God.

Religious Upbringing -Leads to BIG

*Children will believe what parents have told
them about God.

*Teach to pray - Direct relationship with God.

*Because parents pray Children will believe it is

not a waste of time.

*Take to worship - Worshiping as a community

shows other people who believe.
*Church school or Sunday school - Teaching
children in a Christian environment.
Religious Experience - What?
*Numinous feelings - The feeling of the
presence of something greater than yourself.
*Conversion - When your life is changed by
giving yourself to God.
*Miracles - Something which breaks the laws of
science making you think God must have done it.
*Prayer -An attempt to contact God, usually
through words.
The Design Argument
*There is lots of evidence of design in the
world eg) the eye.
*Anything that has been designed needs a
designer.
*The only thing powerful enough to design the
Earth is God.

*Seeing so many people worship in Church will

make children believe God exists.
*At Sunday or Church school teachers will tell
children God exists. They will believe.
Religious Experience - Leads to BIG
*Numinous feeling - If you sense a presence
greater than yourself you will believe this is
God.
*Conversion - Sensing that God wants you to
change.
*Miracles - If there is no scientific explanation
it will lead to BIG.
*Prayer - Answered prayers will lead to BIG
The Design Argument - Not believing
*No designer would have created things like
volcanoes and earthquakes.
*Science can explain the appearance of design
without needing God.
*The argument does not explain how things like
dinosaurs could have been part of a design plan
for the world.

*Therefore, God must exist!

*Even if the argument worked, it would only

prove that the world has a designer. This may
not be God.

The Causation Argument

*Everything in the world needs a cause.
Anything caused to exist must have something
that caused it; nothing can cause itself!

The Causation argument - not believing

*If everything needs a cause then who caused
God?

*If you keep working backwards you will

eventually get to the cause of the Universe the First Cause.
*The only thing powerful enough to have caused
the Universe is God.
*Therefore, God must exist!

*If matter is eternal (cannot be created or

destroyed) then the process goes on forever.
*Even if there was a First Cause it would not
have to be God.
* If you can argue that God does not need a
cause, you can also argue that the Universe did
not need a cause.

Scientific Explanations
*Matter is eternal and cannot be created or
destroyed.

Scientific explanations - Not believing

*Science can explain where the world came
from without God.

*About 15 million years ago the Big Bang

happened and formed our solar system.

*People become agnostic because there is no

need for God as an explanation anymore.

*Gases on the Earth's surface produced

primitive life forms.

*Atheists believe that science proves God does

not exist because if he did there would be no
other explanation but God.

*These primitive life forms lead to the

evolution of new life forms and about 2.5
millions years ago, humans evolved.

*Atheists argue that proof of dinosaurs shows

God does not exist because why would God
create and destroy them?

How Christians respond to science

*Some Christians believe that the main points
of the Bible and science fit together

Evil and Suffering

*Moral evil is evil which is caused by humans
misusing their free will.

*They believe both accounts are true because

one of God's days could be millions of years of
evolution.

*An example of moral evil is war. War causes

massive suffering and is started by humans.

*Creationists believe the earth was created

exactly as it says in the Bible; they reject
evolution

*Natural evil is suffering which has not been

caused by humans.
*An example is earthquakes. They cause massive
suffering but are natural occurrences.

*Creationists believe that fossils were put in

the ground by God to trick people.
How it causes people to reject BIG
*If God was omnipotent he would be able to
stop suffering.

Christian response to evil & suffering

*Christians believe God wants them to help
those who suffer as Jesus taught.

*If God was omniscient he would know about all

suffering.

*Christians believe that suffering is caused by

misusing free will and so is a human problem,
not God's.

*If God was onmi-benevolent he would want to

stop suffering.
*If God existed evil and suffering wouldn't but
as we know evil and suffering do exist, God
cannot exist.

Unanswered prayers
*When people pray they are attempting to
contact God. many people claim to feel God
when praying.
*Other people may say prayers and never feel
God's presence. This makes them think they
are doing something wrong.
*If someone prays for something and it doesn't
happen they may feel their prayers are not
being answered.
*If they do not feel God's presence when they
pray they may lead to agnosticism or atheism

*Christians believe that evil & suffering are a

test to get into heaven.
*Christians believe that God has a reason for
not removing suffering but that we cannot
possibly understand it.
Christians responses
*If you pray for something selfish God will not
answer your prayer
*God may have different plans eg God may want
a sick person to enter heaven.
*God will answer our prayers to do the best
thing for us, this might not be what we want.
*Sometimes when God answers prayers the
answer is 'no'