3.3.1

Natural Knowledge

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God’s Existence as an Innate Human Sense of the Divine

Roman philosopher Cicero noted all cultures have a sense of an infinite being that is in control of the universe. Many have argued this to be true across many cultures at all times in history.

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Humans in the image of God

  • The idea that human beings are made in the image of God comes from the first book in the Bible, Genesis.
  • In Genesis 1:26-27 it states,
    • ‘Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them’.
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'Imago dei'

  • Due to this Biblical verse, Catholics often use the Latin term ‘imago dei’ to describe the relationship between God and humans.
  • Many scholars use this belief to argue that because humans are created ‘imago dei’, they have an inbuilt desire to know God.
    • This includes human openness to beauty and goodness as aspects of God.
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John Calvin

  • It is argued that we naturally recognise and understand that beauty comes from God.
    • In the 16th-century, Protestant theologian John Calvin claimed we have an innate sense of the divine.
  • He made this claim in Institutes of the Christian Religion.
  • Calvin coined the term 'sensus divinitatis'. This can be translated as a 'seed of divinity', or an innate sense of God.
  • Sensus divinitas can be experienced in 3 ways:
    • The conscience, beauty, and intellectual ability.
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Calvin - quote

  • 'That there exists in the human mind and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity [sensus divinitatis], we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his Godhead…. …this is not a doctrine which is first learned at school, but one as to which every man is, from the womb, his own master; one which nature herself allows no individual to forget." (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion)
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Innate knowledge

  • This means humans have an intellectual ability to reflect on and recognise God’s existence.
  • Calvin took the view that the beauty of the world is clear evidence of the existence of God.
    • This shows our human openness to beauty and goodness as aspects of God.
  • Calvin argues every human being is born with a knowledge that God exists and that we are accountable to him.
  • Calvin learned the concept of innate knowledge of God from St. Paul, especially from the first two chapters of Romans.

God’s Existence in the Order of Creation

What can be known of God can be seen in the apparent design and purpose of nature.

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William Paley

  • William Paley (1743 – 1805) argued that the complexity of the world suggests there is a purpose to it.
    • This suggests there must be a designer, which he said is God.
  • Paley used a watch to illustrate his point.
  • If Paley came across a mechanical watch on the ground, he would assume that its complex parts fitted together for a purpose.
    • The watch had not come into existence by chance. There must be a watchmaker
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Paley's analogy

  • Paley went on to reason the world is much more complex than a watch.
    • For example look at the design of the cells of a leaf, the fin of a fish, photosynthesis.
  • So, the designer of the world must be much more complex than a watchmaker.
    • Only God can be the designer of the world as He is seen to be omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent.
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Thomas Aquinas

  • In the 13th Century, Thomas Aquinas put forward the cosmological argument.
  • This looked at the chain of cause and effect in the world.
    • In particular, Aquinas looked at the cause and effect seen in the order of creation.
  • He concluded that natural theology was important in demonstrating reasonability in Christian belief.
  • Because the universe exists, something must have caused it to exist. Aquinas argued that God created existence.
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The Bible

  • The Bible also offers the view that the natural world demonstrates truths about God.
    • In the book of Psalms, the writer looks up at the night sky and sees clear evidence of the existence of God and of God's relationship with humanity.
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Bible - quote

  • 'When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
    'You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!'
    (Psalm 8: 3-9)
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Richard Swinburne

  • Richard Swinburne argues that our human reason and powers of observation support the probability that there is a God.

Jump to other topics

1Philosophy of Religion

1.1Ancient Philosophical Influences: Plato

1.2Ancient Philosophical Influences: Aristotle

1.3Ancient Philosophical Influences: Soul, Mind, Body

1.4The Existence of God - Arguments from Observation

1.5The Existence of God - Arguments from Reason

1.6Religious Experience

1.7The Problem of Evil

1.8The Nature & Attributes of God

1.9Religious Language: Negative, Analogical, Symbolic

1.10Religious Language: 20th Century Perspective

2Religion & Ethics

3Developments in Christian Thought

3.1Saint Augustine's Teachings

3.2Death & the Afterlife

3.3Knowledge of God's Existence

3.4The Person of Jesus Christ

3.5Christian Moral Principles

3.6Christian Moral Action

3.7Development - Pluralism & Theology

3.8Development - Pluralism & Society

3.9Gender & Society

3.10Gender & Theology

3.11Challenges

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