Natural theology

In the Natural Theology, William Paley uses an example of a self-replicating watch to argue for the existence of a universal creator. He believes that the universe, like the watch, has an innate, intricate design and as such, a designer. Paley argues that if the watch were capable of creating identical copies of itself his argument would not weaken, but actually be supported. For Paley this is because the watch itself is not responsible for its design or purpose, and merely passes these aspects to the successive identical watches. However this concept hinges on the watch not being its own designer, and the designer being responsible for its current and consistent appearance. How does this idea of a static unchanging design account for the evolutionary…

they would see the purpose the object has and know it has a creator. Fifthly, the wanderer doesn’t need to have an idea of how the machine came to be. They should just be aware that the object has a purpose. Sixthly, the conclusion wouldn’t change even if, “the watch was no proof of contrivance, only a motive to induce the mind to think so” (Paley 92). Thinking this is like stumbling upon evidence to a crime scene and then only thinking of the evidence you found as a motive to make you think a…

4. Analysis of Keller’s Assimilationist View of the Relationship between Theology and Natural Science Based on aforementioned discussions, I notice that Keller acknowledges that there is not only consistency but also autonomy to a certain degree between theology and science. To be specific, for Keller, while claiming for “the reconciliation of religion and science” , she sees that theology has its own right in presenting the seemingly impersonal infinity of the cosmos as the creation of…

As natural theology developed it became understood as a means of demonstrating the existence of God through the reason and order of nature, separate from special revelation. This ideology, by replacing God’s gift of revelation with human ability, posed a severe threat to the established Protestant doctrines of the day. In 1934, Emil Brunner published his famous essay entitled Nature and Grace, supporting the viability of natural theology. Brunner’s thesis: “It is the task of our theological…

Theology is an important science that affects everyone’s life in more ways than just spiritually. The study of God gives humans the answer to questions such as why are we here, how did we get here, and what is our purpose. When talking about theology there are a lot of aspects that need to be considered. The way different people define, practice, and apply theology varies from on theologian to the next. The difference from one theologian to another is modeled by two theologians Karl Barth and…

In Collins’s textbook, The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace, Collins explain John Wesley theology of image of God based on grace, and it is his main thesis of his work in this book. Collins try to make sense of John Wesley’s understanding of grace through image of God in three shapes “natural, political, and moral images” (Collins 51). When theologians reckon with these two senses of grace that are such an integral part of Wesley’s practical theology they often map…

2.2. Theistic Evolution and the “Anthropic Thermodynamic” Principle For Russell, the broadened notion of contingency based on creatio ex nihilo makes metaphysical room for theology to speak of the creative presence of God in the beginning of the fine-tuned universe and in the development of the self-organizing universe through the 2nd law of thermodynamics within the context of contemporary quantum cosmology. Those categories of contingency based on creatio ex nihilo and creatio…

worship” (p.22) , therefore should not be stripped down to a mere ambiguity or unjustifiable concepts. Firstly we must analyse what kind of God, Moses God is before evaluating his theistic proofs. From what I can gather he is an intentional God who seeks for love from human experience and longs for human interaction with the divine. However we should only expect evidence of Gods existence ‘in a manner suitable to divine purposes” (p.40) Moser examines what he calls ‘notheistic naturalism’ as a…

usually looked at as something good. It is believed that processes evolve people and all other creation. People have even applied the idea of process to God. Process Theology uses the idea of process and intertwines it with ideas of God and even evil. This philosophy or theology tries to explain God and evil through a more modern take from ideas of Darwinian biology and Einstein’s physics. God is known in the Process theology as everlasting, creative, and even the mastermind behind process. At…

again just by being able to say that there is a greatest possible being you can say that God is that being. I also like that he uses an a priori argument so that it does come from pure reason supporting his side on the faith versus reason debate. Saint Thomas Aquinas is credited with working out the best medieval solution to the problem of faith versus reason (Aquinas). He believed that one couldn’t come to truth without having faith. He began to distinguish between the two by breaking it down…