...“By definition a miracle can never happen.” Discuss. The known definition of a miracle is “an extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency.” However, Peter Vardy in The Puzzle of God gave four different definitions provided by many different scholars, including Aquinas and Hume, with Hume believing they are impossible but cannot be disproved compared to Aquinas believing they are completely possible even within the system of natural activity. What a miracle is can be debated forever due to the many different interpretations of who and why they come about, with psychologists such as Freud arguing they are just an illusion and Wiles arguing that miracles do exist but not as a result of God’s will. The real question is whether the laws of nature can ever be broken and to that affect – do miracles define themselves into non-existence? The definition of a miracle provided by Hume is “a transgression of the laws of nature brought about by the volition of a deity.” He believes that miracles are simply an interposition by some invisible agent, but he however goes on to challenge this definition with his theoretical case miracles which argued that the laws of nature we experience are constant and therefore cannot be changed, In response to this, as the laws of nature cannot be defied, (if they could be broken they would not be laws), by Hume’s definition, miracles can never happen, as laws of nature...
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...April 28, 2009 Miracles: How They Do Not Violate Nature For centuries, the validity of miracles has been debated on by countless philosophers. Of these philosophers, some are religious and others both materialist and atheist. Some materialists, who argue against the existence of miracles, believe that the world is purely physical and that nothing can possibly happen outside the laws of nature. The theistic philosophers reply with the statement that science cannot explain everything simply because the art was founded by us humans who are, by definition, imperfect. So the implication shows science to have inherited man’s imperfections. Science is completely logical, but it cannot explain the nature of everything since there are always undiscovered concepts and laws to be found. Among these phenomena are miracles. Contrary to materialist beliefs, miracles do not violate the real laws of science because the laws that we are referring to are the ones that man, in all his imperfections, compiled. God created all the laws of science of which many have never yet been discovered. So logic would tell us that we cannot be for certain that supernatural events violate any natural laws, but certainly these events do not have to violate any natural law to be miracles. First off, today’s use of the word miracle is inherently misused. It is commonly used by speakers to describe a wonderful event that he believes his audience should feel the same way about. Using the word miracle and other philosophically...
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...------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- A2 Religious Studies ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- A2 PHILOSOPHY REVISION NOTES ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- The Body and Soul Introduction * Materialism is the view that the mind cannot be separated from the body * Idealism is the view that the mind is the only reality and the body is unreal. * Dualism is the view that the mind and body both exist and are linked in some way. Plato Review Plato’s distinction between body and soul in the foundation unit so that you can make comparisons with the thinking of Hick and of Dawkins. John Hick Philosophy of Religion (1973); Death and Eternal Life (1976) * The soul is a name for the moral, spiritual self formed by the interaction of genes and environment. The human is a psychophysical person with a divine purpose. * The person shall be resurrected through a divine act of recreation or reconstitution in resurrection, rather than reincarnation...
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...------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- A2 Religious Studies ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- A2 PHILOSOPHY REVISION NOTES ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- The Body and Soul Introduction * Materialism is the view that the mind cannot be separated from the body * Idealism is the view that the mind is the only reality and the body is unreal. * Dualism is the view that the mind and body both exist and are linked in some way. Plato Review Plato’s distinction between body and soul in the foundation unit so that you can make comparisons with the thinking of Hick and of Dawkins. John Hick Philosophy of Religion (1973); Death and Eternal Life (1976) * The soul is a name for the moral, spiritual self formed by the interaction of genes and environment. The human is a psychophysical person with a divine purpose. * The person shall be resurrected through a divine act of recreation or reconstitution in resurrection, rather than reincarnation...
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...A2 Religious Studies Revision Booklet To be used alongside the textbook and your classnotes. Contents G581: Philosophy of Religion Religious Language......................................................………p.1 Religious Experience........................................................…...p.7 Miracles..................................................................…………...p.12 Nature of God............................................................………...p.16 Life and Death.........................................................…………..p.20 G582: Religious Ethics Meta-ethics...........................…………………………………….p.25 Free Will and Determinism………………………………….……p.28 Conscience.......................…………………………………….…p.32 Virtue Ethics………………………………………………………..p.36 Sexual Ethics…………………………………………………...….p.40 Environment and Business Ethics……………………………….p.44 Religious Language Introduction The problems of religious language: • If we use language univocally about God, then we are limiting him / making him like a human • If we use language equivocally about God, we cannot be sure what the word means when applied to God • Are statements about God supposed to be cognitive – if so, what evidence proves / disproves them? • Are statements about God supposed to be non-cognitive – if so, do they have any meaning? The Verification...
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...The 1964 Philadelphia Phillies will always be known as the team that suffered one of the great collapses in sports history. They let a huge division lead slip away by losing ten games in a row at the end of the season. Despite the collapse, the Phillies season had its share of memorable moments, including a perfect game and a ninth-inning home run by a Phillie to win the All-Star Game. But the most remarkable moment of the entire season occurred after a game, not during it. Clay Dalrymple, a Phillie pitcher, was asked to help a blind girl who had requested a chance to walk out on the field. Dalrymple took the girl to home plate where she reached down and felt the plate. Then they walked to first base, second base, and third base before ending up at home plate once again. While Dalrymple was showing the girl around the bases, he never noticed that the fans remaining in the stadium had stopped to watch him and his companion. He just assumed that the silence in the stands meant the fans had gone home. But when the two of them finally reached home plate, the ballpark erupted. Dalrymple was shocked by the applause. When he looked up, he saw thousands of fans giving him a standing ovation. Dalrymple later told a Sports Illustrated reporter, “It was the biggest ovation I ever got.” I am convinced that we take so many things for granted in life. Sight is one of those things. For those of us who have been blessed with the ability to see, we don’t know what it is like not to see. It...
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...1Like, 1Prayer! It’s hard to move forward when you don’t know where you’re headed or why. God’s plan gives us the answers to life’s most basic questions like, "Where did I come from?" "What’s my purpose here?" And, "What happens when I die?" Knowing the answers gives us hope and helps us find peace and joy, but we can't deny the fact that one thing that makes this life so hard sometimes is that we’re out of God’s physical presence. Not only that, but we can’t remember our pre-earth life which means we have to operate by faith rather than sight. God didn’t say it would be easy, but He promised His spirit would be there when we needed Him. Even though it feels like it sometimes, we’re not alone in our journey. We tend to pray always when we are faced with such unsurmountable problems at hand and sometimes we came up with superficial ideas on our own on how to somewhat talked to God, like for example, before I think that praying or prayer itself is only a device that I should come up or formulate by myself to be able to talk to God, thus my prayer life becomes like a planned routine every day that I will recite this kind of prayers in an orderly fashion with a given amount, also I attend worship/prayer meetings that I think will help in my religious life not knowing the fact that I am doing it wrong all the time because as what St Jean of Chantal said, “The best method of prayer is not to have any, because prayer is not obtained by methods or devices but through grace.” Because...
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...AS Religious Studies [pic] PHILOSOPHY & ETHICS Revision Summary Notes Revision Notes Foundation for the Study of Religion Part One: Philosophy of Religion Plato and the Forms Influence of Socrates • Socrates said that virtue is knowledge – to know what is right is to do what is right. • All wrongdoing is the result of ignorance – nobody chooses to do wrong deliberately. • Therefore, to be moral you must have true knowledge. The problem of the One and the Many Plato was trying to find a solution to the problem that although there is underlying stability in the world (sun comes up every morning), it is constantly changing (you never step into the same river twice). 1. An old theory about this problem is that we gain all knowledge from our senses – empirically. 2. Plato disagreed with this. He said that because the world is constantly changing, our senses cannot be trusted. Plato illustrated his idea in the dialogue, ‘Meno’: Socrates sets a slave boy a mathematical problem. The slave boy knows the answer, yet he has not been taught maths. Plato suggests that the slave boy remembers the answer to the problem, which has been in his mind all along. So, according to Plato, we don't learn new things, we remember them. In other words, knowledge is innate. Plato’s Theory of the Forms Plato believed that the world was divided into: 1. Reality and; 2. Appearance |REALITY ...
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...This was a practice essay I wrote a few years ago so naturally isn't perfect as I had only just begun writing essays at this stage. A religious experience is a non-empirical event in which a person can gain knowledge and understanding, they come in a range of forms including, visions, conversion and mystical experiences. They are spontaneous events in which it can be voluntary or not. They are always unique to the individual experiencing it and is always a positive event and they have a religious element to them. A believer can have a vision a vision is an image or event in which there is a message and are always non-empirical, this could mean a number of different things depending on the believer however most are numinous this is what Otto described as a feeling of fear and fascination. A vision could gain understanding, an example of this is Julian of Norwich who determined that God is a mother she had this feeling of sudden understanding this can also be described noetic quality. An effect on the believer could also be that it reinforces faith, for example in Genesis Jacob has an imaginary vision in which he sees a stairway to heaven with angels ascending and descending and at the top sat God, this reinforced his belief and when he awoke he felt God’s presence in the place. A result of a vision could also be a social influence, this could be by discovering a healing spring such as St Bernadette who had 18 corporeal visions in which she saw the Virgin Mary who told her...
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...Did You Know: The Black Nazarene The procession of the Black Nazarene is a commemoration of the wooden statue’s transfer (traslacion) from a Recollect church in Intramuros, Manila, where it was first enshrined, to St. John the Baptist Church in Quiapo, Manila, on Jan. 9, 1787. The original statue, which shows a dark-colored Christ bent under the weight of a heavy cross, was made by an unknown Mexican sculptor. It was brought to the country by Recollect friars in 1607 and was said to have survived a fire while aboard the ship. The image was charred but was preserved, which explains its color. Filipino Catholic devotees have attributed miracles and answered prayers to the Black Nazarene. Among these is the reported cleaning up of a clogged artery of a radio operator in his 60s. This reportedly happened after he prayed to the Black Nazarene on being told he had to undergo a hugely expensive bypass surgery. Devotion to the Black Nazarene was encouraged by Pope Innocent X, who issued a papal bull establishing the Confradia de Jesus Nazareno in 1650. In the 19th century, Pope Pius VII granted indulgence to people who prayed devoutly to the Black Nazarene. There are two images of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, both hybrids of the original and the replica created by Filipino sculptor Gener Manlaqui. The one paraded every Jan. 9 has the head of the replica and the body of the original, encased in stainless steel to protect it from damage. During the procession, the image is placed...
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... Pi Patel is a Christian Hindu who underwent a series of unfortunate events. Troubles about his own name, chaotic exposure to different religious beliefs, his proximity to his family, his ultimate loss against natural causes, his strive to survive and the adequacy of his whole experience. Imagining how his life could be so surreal, there’s no part in the story that is not interesting enough to not tell. He involved everyone who made a difference in his life. His uncle, who taught him how to swim; the one who swam in the clearest of waters in a French hotel, gave the idea of his name to his own father. The name he dare corrected to his peers and professors. By memorizing every number in the equation of pi, he proved that he is pi. Complicated as it were, no matter how different your name is, challenging your belief of anything brings you closer into harnessing the essence of it. In his quotes, lines as it were, he emphasized that religion should be challenged in order for your faith to grow stronger as climbing through the metaphorical ladder to God. As Pi grew, so did his religious beliefs. Meeting or being introduced, discovering three different religions made him see that there is one god and many gods to believe in. He met Christ as his older brother dared him to drink from the holy water. He grew ever so curious as to why God would give his son to suffer humanity’s sins. His curiosity grew fonder and his questions grew more specific yet still unanswered. ...
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...Galileo’s revolutionary ideas. These professors were steeped in the Greek scientific method, which included observation to a small extent, but mostly explained the workings of nature through rational deduction from first principles, or assumptions, an entire view of the universe had been built up. Consequently, the professors embraced such misconceptions as the sun having no imperfections, the moon being a perfectly smooth sphere that shone with its own light, and the earth alone having a moon since the earth was at the center of the universe. Galileo’s recently invented telescope quickly demonstrated the incorrectness of such assumptions (Hummel, pp. 91-94). Not willing to be thwarted by Galileo, the professors decided to make the controversy religious rather than academic (Hummel, p. 92). They argued that the heliocentric (sun-centered) view contradicted scripture (e.g., Psalm 104:22 says, “The sun rises.” Therefore, the...
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...Student name: Professor: Class Name: Date of Submission The Concept of Transandence According to the Grand Inquisitor, majority of people are weak and are likened to sheep. Jesus gave it up all since he valued the freedom of faith above humanity happiness. As a result of this, the Catholic Church led by the Inquisitor reject Him. They believe that their faith is stronger than the ordinary people, and they attain a reward from God while the weak people exist for the sake. The weak cannot take the narrow road to heaven because they are afraid of freedom. (Reznor 117) Fyodor Dostoevsky is a novelist who bases his writings on Christianity. He puts themes of Christianity using an anthropological format: evil and righteous, belief and unbelief, innocence and guilt, determinism and freedom, hate and love are taken to be problems encountered by humans. He is a great thinker and a manipulator of intense philosophical questions regarding the existence of God and man. Critics argue that to him, it was purely neurotic to occupy himself in finding answers to the unanswerable. He makes a strong case against Jesus citing that He cared less about the good of humanity and that He has no love for them as He claims. In his book, Fyodor Dostoevsky depicts the grand inquisitor as an old, tall, and erect man almost in his ninety’s. The cardinal is the grand inquisitor. He burns people while the king, the cardinals, the knights, the court ladies and Seville population...
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...“Naturalism is an impression determined by the subjugation of the intellectual facts to the mechanical order of things” (Naugle 2002:96) “This is a set of beliefs and attitudes that focus on this world on the negative side it involves the assertion that there seems to be no ontologically distinct and superior realm (such as God, soul or heaven) to ground, explain, or give meaning to this world. On the positive side it affirms that extension should be focused on the events and processes of this world to provide what degree of explanation and meaning are possible to this life” (Stone 2008:1) “Religious naturalisms the type of naturalism which affirms asset of beliefs and attitudes that there are religious aspects of this world which can be appreciated within a naturalistic framework” (Stone 2008:1) “Naturalism, in recent usage, is a species of philosophical monism according to which whatever exist or happens is natural in the sense...
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...Bible Study Notes and Comments by David E. Pratte Commentary on the Gospel of John Available in print at www.lighttomypath.net/sales Other Bible Study Materials by the Author Printed books, booklets, and tracts available at www.lighttomypath.net/sales Free Bible study articles online at www.gospelway.com Free Bible courses online at www.biblestudylessons.com Free class books at www.biblestudylessons.com/classbooks Free commentaries on Bible books at www.gospelway.com/commentary Contact the author at www.gospelway.com/comments Commentary on the Gospel of John: Bible Study Notes and Comments © Copyright David E. Pratte, 2010, 2013 All rights reserved ISBN-13: 978-1492190547 ISBN-10: 1492190543 Note carefully: No teaching in any of our materials is intended or should ever be construed to justify or to in any way incite or encourage personal vengeance or physical violence against any person. “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” – 1 Corinthians 1:31 Study Notes on John Page #2 Comments on the Book of John Table of Contents Introduction............................4 John 1......................................8 John 2...................................39 John 3................................... 53 John 4...................................69 John 5...................................88 John 6................................. 109 John 7..................................134 John 8..................................153 John 9.........................
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