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Analogy:
Likening something to something else in order to bring out the meaning of the original. Aquinas believes that religious language is always analogical. When we say ’God is good’, it is an analogy for the transcendent and overwhelming goodness of God, which we cannot properly comprehend.
Analogical arguments
Paley’s design qua purpose argument links the design of a watch with the design of the universe.
Analytic statement
a statement that requires only the words within it to verify whether it is true or false; true by definition alone
Anti-realist
The view that we cannot have knowledge of a mind-independent world, as any phenomena we observe are then interpreted through the mind. Therefore to speak of an unobservable ‘something’ such as the power of the divine has no cognitive content.
Apophatic Way:
Also known as via negativa, argues that as human language is wholly inadequate to describe God, we can speak of him only in terms of what he is not. Associated with Proclus, John Scotus Eriugena and Moses Maimonides, among others.
A Posteriori:
That which can be known to be true only through sense experience. ‘There is a cat in this room’ can only be determined to be true by observation, directly or indirectly.
A Priori:
That which is knowable without reference to sense experience. The truth of ‘A square has fours sides’ or ‘2 + 2 = 4’, follows from the definition of the terms, not from knowledge of things in the world. A priori does not mean ‘innate’.
Augustine’s Theodicy
God creates a good world and evil is not a thing rather Evil is a ‘privation of the good’
Big Bang Theory:
The theory that the universe was the result of an initial explosion from a singularity. Red shift gives evidence for this initial explosion. It should not be confused with evolutionary theory.
Blik
Term used by R. M. Hare to describe a religious frame of reference within which everything is interpreted
Body/Soul Distinction:
The notion that body and soul are ontologically and qualitatively different.
Cataphatic Way:
Also known as via positiva, which believes that despite the obvious limitations of human language, something positive can be said about God and his nature. St. Thomas Aquinas supports this view.
Cognitive Language:
Language about which it is appropriate to ask whether it is true or false. ‘Cognitive’ is not a synonym for ‘true’. ‘Paris is the capital of Vietnam’ is cognitive but false.
Contingent
depending on something else
Contingent Existence:
Existence which occurs as a result of dependence on some other entity, such as human existence being dependent on prior existence of parents.
Conversion Experience:
Normally, but not necessarily, religious, involving an experience which leads to complete redirection of a person’s life, as with St. Paul. The experience may be sudden and dramatic or more gradual.
A form of empirical religious experience, ie they are experienced through the senses (eg sight, touch, and hearing).
Corporate Religious Experience:
Experience affecting a group of people rather than just a single individual. The Toronto Blessing is a documented though controversial example.
Cosmology
an account or theory of the origin and development of the universe
Cosmological Argument:
Any argument which argues to the existence of God from elements of the world, such as causation and dependency. The first three of Aquinas’ Five Ways are often described as his Cosmological Argument.
Creatio ex Nihilo:
‘Creation from nothing’. The view that God created the universe by an act of will from no pre-existing materials.
Credulity
The willingness to believe in something in the absence of reasonable proof.
Darwinism:
The argument, developed principally by Charles Darwin, that living beings evolve (randomly) through adaptation and natural selection.
Deductive arguments
depend only on logic and not on experience; if the premises are true, then the conclusion is proved
Disembodied Existence:
Purely spiritual existence, usually post-mortem.
Empiricism
the belief that knowledge is gained through the senses and evidence that can be tested
Efficient Cause:
In Aristotle’s cosmology, that which brings something about. The sculptor is the efficient cause in the making of a statue.
Eschatological Verification
A phrase coined by Hick for the idea that some statements will be proved true after death, such as claims about an afterlife. ‘Eschatological’ refers to the end times or ‘eschaton’.
Evil
That which is contrary to God’s will; cause of suffering; the moral opposite of good.
Faith
A belief in something or somebody. In terms of religious faith can also imply an attitude of trust or assent to some knowledge as true which atheists argue are unproved assertions.
Falsification:
Devised by Karl Popper as a criterion of demarcation between the scientific and non-scientific. It argues that science advances by proving theories false and devising better ones.
Final Cause:
Aristotle’s concept of purpose – that for which a thing exists. For Aristotle, the universe is entirely purposive.
Formal Cause:
For Aristotle, that which gives things its structure – this material is a table because it has the form (shape and characteristics) of a table.
Forms:
Plato’s theory that everything on earth is an inferior copy of Ideal Forms in a permanent spiritual reality. Thus there are forms not only of objects such as tables and chairs, but also of concepts such as number or beauty. The highest form is the Form of the Good.
Hermeneutics:
The science and art of textual interpretation.
Imaginative vision
Vision seen in the mind, usually through a dream experience.
Inductive arguments
cannot prove, but try to persuade by providing evidence from human experience in support of the conclusion
Infinite regress
a chain going infinitely back in time with no beginning
Intellectual vision
A vision without any visual image, an ‘illumination of the soul’ which is seen with the ‘eye’ of the mind. Those who experience them claim to ‘see things as they really are.’ They are hard to describe using language as they are a form of mystical experience.
Intelligent Design:
A modern theory which argues that certain features of living things are best explained by the conscious design of an intelligent being and not by random processes such as natural selection. Michael Behe is perhaps the best-known advocate.
Irreducible Complexity:
The argument of supporters of Intelligent Design that some biological phenomena have a structure which cannot be explained by any evolutionary cause.
J Mackie’s Inconsistent Triad
Mackie suggested a triad of evil existing God being all powerful and God being all loving which he says are a contradiction
Language games
The name given by Wittgenstein to his claim language has meaning within a particular social context. Each context is governed by rules, in the same way that a game is governed by rules. The meaning of a statement is defined by the context in which it is used.
Material Cause:
For Aristotle, the stuff or substance necessary for something to be. This is a table because the stuff of the table exists.
Materialism:
The belief that the only existents are physical beings.
Miracle:
An unexpected event demonstrating the specific power of God. For Hume this always entails a breach of the natural laws of physics, but Aquinas and others emphasise the religious meaning of such events saying that there is no requirement for natural laws to be broken.
Monism:
The belief that there is no body/soul distinction and the two are one entity.
Moral Evil:
Evil brought about, directly or indirectly, as a result of human choices.
Mystical experiences
Mystical experiences or systematic meditation, which cause a heightened awareness of the divine or an ultimate reality.
Myth:
A presentation of deeper truth through the medium of story.
Natural Evil:
Evil found in nature, such as plagues, earthquakes, hurricanes etc. Sometimes referred to as suffering, this is evil which is not the consequence of specific human action.
Necessary Existence:
This idea, sometimes referred to as ‘aseity’, refers to a being whose existence depends on no other being.
Necessary
the opposite of contingent; a being that has no cause and depends on nothing for its continued existence
Non-Cognitive Language:
Language about which it is inappropriate to ask whether it is true or false. This includes, for instance, such things as prayers, curses, poetry etc.
Non-propositional faith and revelation:
Often described as ‘faith in’. This is the faith of personal encounter, as when one says ‘I believe in him.’ In religious terms this means that God reveals himself, with faith trust in that self-revelation.
‘Numinous ‘Experience:
According to Rudolf Otto, an experience which reveals the ‘Wholly Other.’ This presents itself as mysterium tremendum et fascinans. (‘a tremendous and fascinating mystery’).
Objective
not influenced by personal feelings or emotions
Ontological Argument
Anselm’s argument God is the greatest possible being
Omnipotence:
All-powerful. This is normally understood in relation to God, meaning that he can do anything logically possible. To say that God could not make square circles would be logically impossible, and thus would not limit God.
Omnipresence:
The belief that God is everywhere, and all times, and everything is present to God.
Omniscience:
‘All-knowing’. The belief that God knows everything including the truth of every possible true proposition.
Ontological Argument:
An argument for the existence of God which draws on no sense experience but which attempts to argue his existence from reflection on his definition alone. Famous examples were developed by St. Anslem, Descartes and several modern philosophers.
Ontology
dealing with the nature of being
Phenomenon:
That which is presented to us in sense experience. Kant, the most significant Phenomenalist, argues that we can never know the world as it is, only as it is presented to us in sense experience.
Prime Mover:
In Aristotle’s cosmology, the Final Cause of the Universe, drawing everything towards himself by attraction. He is indifferent to the universe and not a creator in the sense of maker of things.
The principle of testimony and credulity
Swinburne's idea that we should normally accept Testimony- if we know people to be trustworthy and credulity- we should accept our own experiences
Problem of Evil
the logical problem evil is thought to cause for traditional ideas about Gods nature
Proof
Evidence or argument establishing a fact or the truth of a statement. In philosophy, this means there is sufficient evidence or argument to support the truth of a proposition.
Propositional and non-propositional revelation.
'Proposition' indicates that the revelations are facts from God or about God ‘non’ that they may only seem facts.
Propositional faith and revelation:
In this view, faith is seen as acceptance of truths revealed by God, as propositions to be accepted. Such truths might be the words of scripture, the Creeds, church doctrines or the Confessions of the Reformers. Sometimes referred to as ‘Belief that …(x is a true proposition).’
Process theodicy
God is not all powerful and cannot intervene to stop suffering but partners with us to work towards a better world
Reincarnation:
The soul moves on death into a new and different body.
Religious experience
A personal experience of the divine.
Religious experience types
conversion, prayer, meditation, mysticism, numinous.
Realist
Scientific theories can give us true descriptions of the world and knowledge of things that we believe to exist but cannot observe. The world is ‘mind-independent’ and exists in and of itself regardless of our beliefs. about it.
Reason
The use of logic to come to a conclusion.
Religious experience
an encounter with the divine- variously of ineffability, noetic, transience, passivity.
Resurrection:
The belief that after death we are raised body and soul to new life. This is the belief of mainstream Christianity.
Revelation:
God’s showing of himself to humankind. This may be propositional or non-propositions. (q.v)
Soul
The ‘essence’ of the person. The nature of the soul is much debated but it is generally considered to be spiritual rather physical and it is usually distinguished from the body and the mind.
Soul making
A concept that describes how suffering helps humans develop morally.
Substance Dualism:
The idea that body and soul(psyche) are wholly different substances, of different nature. The view is found most strongly in Descartes, but rejected by Anscombe, Geach and Ryle, among others.
Subjective
based on or influenced by personal feelings or emotions
Synthetic statement
a statement that requires external information, usually empirical data, to verify whether it is true or false
The First Way – Motion Argument
iNothing can move itself, since nothing can be both mover and moved, yet things are in motion; an infinite chain of movers that has no beginning can have no successive or ultimate movers; there must therefore be a first mover that causes motion in all things, and this we call God
The Second Way – Causes and Effects Argument
God is the first cause of all that exists
THe Third Way - contingency and Necessity
God is the necessary cause of the contingent universe
The Fifth Way - from the governance of the universe
Aquinas argument from the regularity of the universe is an argument to the design thus designer of the universe.
A defence of the justice and goodness of God in the light of evil.
Teleological Argument:
Often known as the Design Argument, argues that the universe fits together so well that it must have had a Designer. Paley is the most famous advocate. Aquinas argues differently, from the purpose discerned in the universe, while Richard Swinburne argues from the underlying simplicity of the physical laws of the universe.
Symbol:
Something which represents something else. For Paul Tillich, religious language consists of symbols (including the words we use), which do not merely represent God but participate in his reality.
Testimony
The reports of witnesses.
Theodicy:
Any attempt to justify the goodness of God in the face of the problem of evil.
Verifiable
capable of being shown to be true, through the use of evidence
Verification:
Devised by the Vienna Circle, argues that any proposition which is not a tautology or not empirically verifiable is meaningless. The strong verification principle demanded conclusive verification, but as this ruled out all science (as no sense experience can ever be conclusively proven), later verificationists, notably A.J. Ayer, substituted weak verification, which demands only that one needed to state what experience would make the truth of the proposition probable.
Via Negativa:
Also known as the apophatic way, argues that as human language is wholly inadequate to describe God, we can speak of him only in terms of what he is not.
Via Positiva:
Also known as the cataphatic way (q.v), believes that it is possible to speak in positive ways about God, despite the limitations of human languages.
Founded in 1924 b
The accepted Buddhist scriptures.
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