Senior Religion Midterm Study Guide

personal vocation

Your calling by God

Only about you

Universal vocation

All are called to holiness

State in life vocation

Many are called to the same state

One thing Necessary

Yours and nobody else’s

Now

Organizing principle of one’s who life

Intended for the glory of God and building of the Kingdom

Charisms

Allows us to work with the Holy Spirit to collaborate in the Salvation of others for the upbuilding of the Church

extraordinary and ordinary

Deliberation

Memory

Understanding

Docility

Memory

learning from the past

ex: Have I recalled and learned from the past – don’t make a big life decision in desolation

Understanding

knowing what will align with you

ex: Have I considered how my acts with affect others and shape my character – what decision would you wished you made

Docility

openness for wisdom/advice

ex: Have I sought advice from trusted sources

Apologetics

defense of faith using reason

reasons for apologetics

1)      Obedience to God’s will

2)      Convince unbelievers

3)      Build up believers

truth

conformation of the mind to reality

Light of observation

knows physical/material truth, can be proven by science

ex: the Earth is round

Light of Reason

know abstract/immaterial truth, can be proven by philosophical reasoning

ex: the soul is immortal

Light of Faith

know revealed truth, inaccessible to human reason alone

ex: God is love

Elements of a good argument

True Premise

Good Logic

Clear Terms

True Premise

the statement/proposition, a judgement, connects terms

ex: Goldy is a fish. Fish can swim.

Good Logic

Argument/syllogism (Premise 1. Premise 2. Therefore, conclusion.)

ex: Goldy is a fish. Fish can swim. Therefore, Goldy can swim.

Clear Terms

the words, defining terms

ex: define fish

Syllogism

A method of reasoning that uses premises to build a conclusion

principle of non-contradiction

opposite ideas cannot be true at the same time and in the same respect

ex: It is not true that I am at home and at school at the same time.

Ad Hominem Fallacy

Attacking the person rather than the argument

Red Herring Fallacy

raise an irrelevant and/or distracting argument or claim

Genetic Fallacy

invalidate a belief based on its origin

Self-Referential Incoherence Fallacy

argument refutes itself

Strawman Fallacy

misrepresent your opponent’s argument and then attack the false argument

False Dichotomy Fallacy

Falsely reduces all options to two

Cosmological Proofs

demonstrates that a God exists definitively (Change/movement, Efficient Causality, Contingency, Perfection, Order)

Probable Proofs

demonstrates that it is likely/probable a God exists (Common Consent, Pascal’s Wager, Miracles, History of Church, Effects of Religious Beliefs)

Change/Movement

things move so there must be an unmoved mover

Causality

things exist so there must be an uncaused cause

Contingency

things that exist aren’t necessary so there must be a necessary being

Perfection

some things are more perfect than others, so there must be one perfect being

Order

Things work towards an end goal so there must be an intelligent being

Common consent

99% of people believe in a higher being

Paschal’s Wager

There is nothing to lose when you believe; better to “bet”

Mircale’s

hard to explain/unexplainable without a belief

History of Church

existed for 2000 years through challenges

Effects of Belief

belief makes people happy, their truth equals goodness

Existence

God has no potential and IS being -- therefore is existence

(causality, contingency)

Infinite

He is limitless = IS being -- He is the fullness of being

(change/movement, causality, perfection)

One

He is not limited by another

(change/movement, perfection)

Spiritual

He has no body and no potential because he’s limitless

(change/movement)

Eternal

He is outside of and unbound by time -- He’s unchanging

(change/movement)

Transcendent and Immanent

He is active in His creation but outside of His creation because he is the creator

(contingency, order)

Intelligent

He forms and guides creation – no barrier to knowledge

(contingency, order)

Omnipotent

He has no barriers to his power

(change/movement, order)

Good

He is being as desirable

(contingency, perfection)

Pantheism

God is only immanent and is part of creation

Deism

God is only transcendent and is distant from creation

Evil

lack of goodness that should be present

physical/natural evil

evil cause by nature

ex: cancer

moral evil

evil causes by people

ex: theft

temporal suffering

suffering that passes (result of sin or nature)

eternal suffering

consequence of personal sin (he//)

importance of understanding the problem of evil

1.       It is the ONLY argument to even claims to disprove God – it claims to prove God doesn’t exist

2.       It is universal that touches all

3.       It’s practical and tangible, not just intellectual

Christianity

The belief that Jesus Christ was God, he came down to earth, died and rose again for our salvation, and opened the doors to Heaven

Sin

infinite and personal offense against God committed by Adam and Eve