Theme C ( Existence)

• "the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence" - Issac Newton
• "Let there be light" - Bible
• 'there cannot be a design without a designer' - William Paley
• 'the Big Bang does not contradict the divine act of creation. It requires it' - Pope Francis
• "The world is saturated with beauty." - Tennant
• "The universe is just there and that's all" - Russel
• Cosmological argument :

  Coplestone:

  He said that everything in the universe is contingent so the universe has to be contingent. - Aquinas 3rd way

  This means the universe need an external explanation who is also existent. This necessary being is God.

  Russel:

  He argued that the universe is self coherent so needs no external explanation. He described it as a brute fact.

  He says if the universe has an infinite future it is also plausible to have infinite past.

  He also linked Coplestones argument to the human race. He said that's like saying if a human has a mother the whole human race has a mother which is not true.
• " a being that must and cannot not exist" - coplestone
• Objection to miracles :

  Never enough evidence

  Unreliable witnesses

  Religions depend upon miracles
• David Hume describes miracles as ‘a transgression of the laws of nature.’
• Defending evil's existence :

  Pain is a punishment

  Test of our faith

  Education of right and wrong for our souls

  Has to be bad to understand good

  Free will and devil
• General revelation: God making himself known through an indirect, ordinary, common human experience available to everyone.
• "I, the Lord reveal myself to them in visions " - Bible
• "Nothing comes from nothing." – Aristotle
• "The more I study science, the more I believe in God." – Albert Einstein
• "Where knowledge ends, religion begins." – Disraeli