Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
One of the arguments made by atheists against the existence of God is that there is just no hard, empirical evidence for His existence. Everything ultimately comes down to faith. One believes because one wants to believe—one has faith in God. While it is true that faith is necessary to believe in God, it is false and foolish to say that there is no evidence for God’s existence (Psalm 14:1). Why is it foolish? The reason is simple: the evidence is all around us and all we have to do is admit our own smallness in order to better see the evidence. This is the point that Fulton Sheen makes in his commentaries: whenever we are full of ourselves, of pride, of our own sense of our greatness, we miss the evidence of God’s greatness.[footnoteRef:2] We diminish Him in order to build ourselves up. By seeing the true proportion of things and the real perspective, we can instantly accept the preponderance of evidence that is all around us—from creation to the love we feel to the idea that everything had to have come from something, some infinite source, for nothing has come existence of its accord: everything has a First Cause, which is God.[footnoteRef:3] Thus, man can use his reason to come to the point of faith—but ultimately the act of faith has to be made. Faith is not something one simply possesses like a token in a pocket: it has to be lived and demonstrated. Faith is an action. I make an act of faith whenever I pray to God. Faith is a communication of belief and trust—of belief and...
To say that people who believe in God do not use reason is to make a highly subjective and grossly generalized statement that is truly wide of the mark. [2: Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ (NY: Image Books, 2008), 12.] [3: “First Cause,” Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/first-cause]
St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, used extraordinary reason during the scholastic period of the Church’s history. Aquinas showed how much of theology could be explained by using reason. Reason is the foundation of the spiritual life—not feeling or emotions or vague intuitions. Reason is the fuel of the mind. A mind that is operating without reason will end up driving the person into all sorts of problems in life. Reason is the bedrock of worship. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to always be mindful of the reasons that we have such hope—such faith. We are not to forget them, because people will want to know. People will see the joy and peace and hope that is in the heart of a Christian and they will not ask, “What feeling gave you this hope?” No, they will ask, “What reason do you have for this hope?” Reason is what drives people to act deliberately and with consideration. Reason is what faith is based upon. Religion is practiced because we have reasons to believe that through divine worship we can draw nearer to God, to reflecting His love, to honoring…
" Owen maintains that it is not important that people engage in the particular actions Jesus engaged in, like washing another's feet, but instead that people strive to express their moral duty of brotherly love, in condescension and mutual helpfulness. The fourteenth question posed by Owen is, "May not the church find out, and appoint to be observed, such religious rites as being adjoined unto the celebration of God's instituted worship,
Again, his initial attempt in forming this belief was to limit the role that man would play in determining the salvation of believers. It was important for him that the Sacrament only be received in faith of God and not through the grace of man, as it were. This is a chief distinction between Lutherans and Methodists; the latter regard the Holy Communion as symbolic of God's grace. Therefore,
Faith vs. Tradition This paper addresses the lecture on faith Vs tradition. It shows how many traditions are mistaken for faith and thus followed. It also sheds light on how these ideas have gone to twist the Muslim faith and look at Islam as an oppressor religion. The paper discuses the lecture and several other resources regarding the same topic. The confusion between faith and tradition is common in many religions. Islam
It evolved into a major part of the very fabric of society. Ambassadors from these provinces would report their sacral worship and elaborate religious practices when visiting Rome. Often, these rites and practices were woven into the religious system. The religious system in Rome and in the provinces in the time of Augustus, or Rex Gestae, was steeped in his achievements. He ordered the inscription of these achievements on
Rick Cole of Capital Christian believes that the door cannot stay closed forever, and feels that by offering different services based on music preference is an opportunity for the entire congregation to unite (Garza). Contemporary worship music began with the Jesus movement of the early 1970's and the rise of charismatic churches, and although it paralleled the growth in contemporary Christian rock and pop music, it remained separate until a
Suffering Tim Murphy Theology MA2000D The existence of human suffering poses a unique theological problem. If God is omniscient, omnipotent, and all-loving, then why does suffering exist? Indeed, this difficulty is confronted in scripture itself: perhaps the most important look into the problem of suffering comes in the Old Testament story of Job. Mainstream Christianity continues to have a variety of ways of approaching this theological question, although historically Christians had a much broader