These revision notes for the new OCR Religious Studies A level cover ideas about how we can gain knowledge about God. They cover natural and revealed theology with an evaluation of each. They are detailed and are to an A* standard.
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G575 - AS Developments in Christian Theology
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3: Knowledge of God’s Existence
Plato Believed we have knowledge because of prior knowledge we had from our soul's previous
existence in the world of the forms. We have the knowledge when we are born, when we
learn we are simply remembering
Aristotle Believed we gain knowledge through experience and observation. John Locke and David
Hume were also empiricists
Rationalism Learning through reason and logic e.g. Anselm's ontological argument and Descartes
Kant Believed reason and logic make sense out of our sensory experience
Religious Both observation and reason are limited to the physical world. Neither can help us to gain
views about knowledge of spiritual, supernatural or ethical truths or what sort of people we should be
gaining
knowledge
Bonaventura Believed the human mind had 3 ways of seeing:
The eye of the flesh - sense perception by which we gain knowledge about the physical
world
The eye of reason - through logic we come to philosophical and mathematical truths
The eye of contemplation - the way of knowing through which we can know God through
faith
Polkinghorne Described the 'science' eye and the 'spiritual' eye like a pair of binoculars. Both are
needed to give a complete picture and it is foolish to just look out of one
Robert Boyle The metaphor of God's 2 books. Both the natural world and the Bible are written by the
same author. Both ways have equal value when it comes to knowing about God
Natural Gaining knowledge through human observation, experience, and reason. We can move
Theology from the natural world to truths about God. As we are supposed to have a sense of the
divine we can observe God through observing human nature
Bible Quotes 'Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth'
about 'since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities...have been clearly seen, being
Natural understood from what has been made'
Theology
Similarities They both value the natural world as a means of gaining knowledge
between
scientist and
Christians
Calvin Believed the beauty of the world and order of creation was a sort of mirror of God. God is
not in nature but something of God's power, eternity care, and justice can be seen by
observing the natural world and applying reason to it
Swinburne Supports the traditional arguments for God based on reason and observation
Innate Some scholars think all humans have an innate sense of God - 'sensus divinitas' - the breath
knowledge of life. Calvin believes that any lack of clarity about God comes from human sin clouding
people's understanding of him. Other philosophers use the idea of the Epistemic distance
to explain why people are unsure about God's existence. Calvin believed that the
epistemic distance was created by people. God made it impossible to ignore him. Some
argue that our natural awareness of morality and our conscience is evidence of God's
existence.
Strengths of Our feelings of awe and wonder when looking at the world could suggest a sense of the
Natural divine
Theology The sheer number of people who have held some sort of faith suggests that there is some
sort of contact between humans and God
It is reasonable to believe that a God who loves his creation would have made it possible
for us to know him
Weaknesses Feelings of awe and wonder do not necessarily come from God
of Natural Many people use their reason to conclude that God does not exist - reason is also
Theology subjective as it not useful
Order and purpose in nature can find other explanations that don't require a God e.g.
natural selection
Natural theology is not enough on its own as many people can observe the world and
reach different conclusions from it
Nature is often cruel - what does that say about God?
Revealed Knowledge of God by means of scripture and religious experience - God deliberately and
Theology specifically revealing himself to us e.g. Moses and the burning bush
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