Believing in God(or not)

THEISm – THEre IS a GodAtheism – God DOES NOT exist

AGNOsticism – (A ..G.. No) Don’t know if there is a God

Arguments for believing in God

Design Paley said no-one would believe a

watch just go there by chance, it’s too complex (it has purpose and design).

The world too is full of complex things, like the human eye and DNA.

These too must have been designed by someone i.e. God.

Another argument for

First Cause Aquinas said everything that happens

(every effect) in the universe has a cause. This creates a cause and effect ‘domino

chain’ If you go back to the start of the universe

something must have caused it That 1st cause was God – only

He is powerful enough to cause

Something so big

Religious ExperiencesInvolve a feeling of God’s presence

A feeling of AWE and WONDER of

something GREATER than you

When someone feels god has

ACTED in their life to change their BELIEFS

An act which breaks the LAWS OF NATURE and

can only be explained by GOD

Religious Experiences

All religious experiences convince BELIEVERS that GOD EXISTS because only he is POWERFUL enough to do these amazing ACTS and cause SUCH FEELINGS

Lord, please help my nan get

better.

Oooh, that pain in my back has

gone!

Religious upbringingas a reason why people believe.. Taken to church –

surrounded by believers Sunday school – taught God

exists Taught to pray and read

Bible at home Go to religious school –

Assemblies & RE lessons All make it natural to

assume God exists

Reasons against believing

Design? explained by Evolution (the scientific idea that

animals have become more complex over millions of years)

(Christian Responses: Some say evolution is wrong (because some

plants and animals couldn’t have developed in small steps, e.g. the Venus fly trap) and Genesis is true

Others say Genesis tells us why God made the world not literally how he did it, so evolution and the bible are both true)

First Cause? If everything has a CAUSE, what caused God? The universe could be ETERNAL (it’s always

been there) The Big Bang is a better SCIENTIFIC

explanation

Answered prayer? Unanswered prayer:

Why does God not answer so millions of prayers to end suffering? e.g. famine or people dying of disease. This could lead to believing God isn’t there or doesn’t care.

Reverse the ‘for’ arguments

Think: Could God answer all prayers? Prayers to

win the lottery or for your football team to win? Is

NO sometimes an answer to prayer?

More reasons against believing

Evil and Suffering

The Problem

Christians believe God is omni-benevolent (all good/kind) so he must want to stop evil and suffering

and omnipotent (all powerful) so he must have the power to stop it

The fact that he doesn’t means he mustn’t exist

He’s also supposed to be Omniscient, which means he must have known that creating the world would result in all this evil

Christian Reponses toEvil

The Fall - the world was created perfect, but evil entered it when Adam and EVE chose to sin and go against God’s rules

Christians try to help out by setting up charities to relieve suffering, like Christian Aid.

Cont…

Free Will (the idea that humans are free to make

their own choices) – God wanted people that would follow him out of CHOICE, not robots. Some people use their FREE WILL to disobey him and do moral evil.

Christ understands our pain, because He himself suffered on the cross

The Media and God

Yes They make religion more

appealing with human interest stories

They may contain evidence of religious experiences (e.g. Arthur White’s conversion) or Miracles (e.g. stories of healings)

No They are boring and

irrelevant to most people Some religious

documentary programmes question belief in God (e.g. “The Tsunami – where was God?”

Religious programmes are about religious practice NOT whether God exists

Do religious programmes like ‘Songs of Praise’ and

‘Heart of the Matter’Support belief in God