Questions tagged [philosophy]
Philosophical approaches in theology and relationship between philosophy and faith.
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Are all Christians expected to have a "positively meaningful and reciprocal conscious relationship" with God?
For context, I'd recommend reading first the answers to What exactly would count as a "positively meaningful and reciprocal conscious relationship" between a person and a God? on Philosophy ...
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Why is it rational to love my enemies?
Matthew 5:44 KJV
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
In Buddhism, it is ...
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More examples of transubstantiation other than in the Holy Mass
Are there examples of transubstantiation that happens in other places/moments that are not in the celebration of Mass? I mean, somewhere in nature or in psychology, maybe philosophy. I am asking this ...
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Is it possible to be a worshiper of the true God without being reached/evangelized?
Upon reflecting on the answers to this question, HOW does the existence of the Universe make those who do not worship God to be "without excuse"?, I noticed that Romans 1:18-20 leaves ...
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How to refute the argument that is is possible to be saved without Jesus and do apologetics for it
I've recently thought of an argument that might undermine Christianity but I'm not sure if I simply reinvented a super old argument that already has a refutation or it's a novel one (probably not), ...
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Naive question: Origin of the Holy Ghost
I have heard that there is a lot of influence from the Greeks in the development of Christianity, the Stoics and Platonists, and the concept of logos, the Word, and Jesus. You can see this in the ...
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How does the Catholic Church reconcile its doctrine of a divine plan with the disorder and randomness of life?
In light of the teachings of the Catholic Church, which acknowledges that God created the universe according to a plan, and that everything that exists has purpose, can we understand why life, despite ...
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How do proponents of the “free-will defense” against the problem of evil explain that God can be free and immune to moral evil at the same time?
The free-will defense is an argument commonly attributed to Alvin Plantinga, who developed it as a response to the logical problem of evil. However, in developing this argument Plantinga unwittingly ...
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Do Christians believe that God chose to create the "best possible world" among multiple/infinite alternatives, by maximizing a "Goodness" function?
Do Christians (or at least a well-known subset of them) believe that God chose to create the "best possible world" among multiple/infinite alternatives, and therefore, that we are living in ...
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Can God ground his own parts?
One of the motivations behind the doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS) is that if God was composed of parts, God would depend upon those parts to exist and hence there would be something more ...
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Have any prominent Christian Intelligent Design proponents discussed the issue of a potential infinite regress of intelligent designers?
We can arrive at an infinite regress of designers as follows:
Suppose that X is so complex that it's considered to show evidence of design. Accordingly, we infer that an intelligent designer must be ...
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Is there a name for the belief that some individuals would always freely reject salvation no matter the world in which they are created?
When God created the world, He had to accept the fact that some of His creatures would sin and ultimately fail to repent and be saved (I'm assuming that universalism is false, to be clear). For ...
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What is the difference between Christian Hedonism and Utilitarianism?
In my previous question What are counterexamples to the position that Christian morality is ultimately utilitarian (i.e., that God is utilitarian)?, someone in the comments referred me to this article:...
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What are counterexamples to the position that Christian morality is ultimately utilitarian (i.e., that God is utilitarian)?
I personally believe that Christian morality is ultimately utilitarian. I see God as a utilitarian genius that is doing His best to guide His creation towards maximum utility, subject to certain ...
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Why does God punish us for our will?
This is a huge question. Do let me know if its immensity makes it off-topic for this site. I will start out my question with a quote from Schopenhauer:
A man can do what he wills, but not will what ...
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What is the third moral principle that forbids gender change?
Shortly after the beginning, Cain kills Abel. (Genesis 4:8) In light of this, God sees it fit to create a new moral rule for all of humanity.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.&...
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According to Christians who believe that God is a utilitarian, why is homosexuality suboptimal? [closed]
I'm addressing this question to Christians who believe that God is a utilitarian, that is, that God has designed His creation and attempts to guide His creatures with the aim of maximizing some divine ...
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About the spiritual soul: can animals apprehend universals?
I'm struggling with this question for a while:
It seems like dogs do know what dogs are. Is it possible for a dog to only recognize individuals and not grasp the universal concept of dog?
I thought ...
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Is there a single human nature or there are multiple human natures?
This question arose from the understanding that God being one nature and three persons. Though (I am trinitarian myself), I observe that in these discussions it is presupposed that humans have one ...
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How does Catholicism appropriate Aristotle's notion of the 'transcendent third'?
I was reading Bishop Robert Barron's article Silence and the Meaning of the Mass and came across Aristotle's "transcendent third":
The Mass is the act by which the Son of God, in union with ...
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Did Philo influence the contents of the New Testament?
Internet Encyclopedia (IE) article on Philo claims that Philo “laid the foundations for the development of Christianity … as we know it today.” It says, “Philo’s primary importance is in the ...
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Are any Christian philosophers working on an argument from causation that works with Quantum Physics?
A chat yesterday informed me that Aquinas' argument from causation was "too Newtonian" to work for modern atheists and only works in our friendly neighborhood eminently perceivable dimension....
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What are the correct pairings between the soul's faculties and the 3 transcendentals?
The three transcendentals and imago dei
Medieval scholastic theology inherited the notions of transcendentals from Greek metaphysics. CCC 41, interpreting Wis 13:5, teaches that our soul has the ...
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Is the study of God like philosophy?
I don't believe God is real. However, I figured out that it is as if God exists. I want just a yes no answer. Otherwise, I won't be able to understand the answer. It was only recently that I figured ...
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Are people who have a closer unity to God called to act by the divine?
It seems from observation that one of the hallmark signs of a higher being (one that is in close unity with the divine with respect to their actions and thoughts) is that they tend to have a ...
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What has Jerusalem to do with Athens?
Today's reading on Exodus 90 said:
The early Church writer Tertullian (~155–220 A.D.), known as the father of Western theology, once posed the question, “What has Jerusalem to do with Athens?” The ...
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Has any Christian philosopher ever argued that naturalism can be shown to be false?
From Wikipedia:
In philosophy, naturalism is the idea or belief that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe.[1]
Naturalism is not so much a special ...
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Are WLC's arguments against Relative Identity Trinitarianism valid?
In his book Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, William Lane Craig offers three arguments against Relative Identity.
The first argument regards the alleged "spurious" nature ...
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Are there Christian groups or denominations that believe that direct doxastic voluntarism is true (i.e. that atheists can choose to believe in God)?
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxastic_voluntarism:
Doxastic voluntarism is a philosophical view that people elect their own beliefs.[1] That is, that subjects have a certain amount of control ...
user50422
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Believing that Christianity is "probably" true vs. being fully convinced that Christianity is definitely true?
Most apologetic arguments for theism/Christianity are probabilistic (i.e. they are abductive in nature, rely on premises that are not necessarily true, etc.), meaning that a rational person who is ...
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How can one say that existence is good, without using Divine Revelation?
It's well known that one can prove the existence of God through the light of natural reason alone (e.g. the Five Ways). However, Divine Revelation would also show this.
It is in Divine Revelation that ...
user54757
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From a Christian perspective, what are "nonresistant nonbelievers" most likely doing wrong that prevents them from finding and believing in God?
From Nonresistant Nonbelief, by J. L. Schellenberg:
One might fail to believe in God even while God is open to a belief-entailing personal relationship if one prevents oneself from believing in God ...
user50422
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Does the bible give guidance on how one can achieve happiness?
In the mortal life, what advice does the bible give on how an individual can achieve happiness?
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How to express the Trinity in terms of category theory
I've recently been studying category theory (mathematics), in which the relations between objects are generalized to a very abstract level. I was wondering therefore if the relations between the ...
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According to Trinitarians, can a Person of the Trinity add a new nature whenever He wants to?
According to Trinitarians, the Second Person of the Trinity 'assumed' or 'took on' a human nature at incarnation. Do Trinitarians hold that the Second Person of the Trinity (or any Persons) can ...
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Is there such a thing as moral neutrality in Catholic thought?
Or in other words, is there any human act that is neither good nor evil?
For example: Eating a bowl of cereal.
I would say it is good, because it is a part of human nature to eat food, and a bowl of ...
user54757
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How do Unitarians understand the argument from God and love?
In this video from YouTuber Apologetics Squared (who has a fantastic channel, strongly encourage y'all to check it out), he makes this argument (I've reduced the video into a deductive argument):
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How is the LDS view of eternity unique?
I was once told by a member of the LDS that the mormon concept of eternity is different, that they believe in "eternal progression" or something to that effect.
Essentially from what I ...
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How do Christians rebut Matt Dillahunty's objection that the resurrection of Jesus is untestable, unfalsifiable and thus unreasonable to believe?
On April 8, 2021, during a debate between Matt Dillahunty and Catholic Apologist Trent Horn titled Is belief in the Resurrection reasonable? Trent Horn Vs Matt Dillahunty Debate, hosted by Pints With ...
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Is the Hypostatic Union a contradiction?
The law of noncontradictions states that two contradictory positions cannot be true at the same time in the same sense (e. g. the two propositions "p is the case" and "p is not the case&...
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Who teaches that God is bound by time?
Edit: The proposed duplicate cannot possibly be a duplicate, because I attempted to clarify the answer to this question in the proposed duplicate's comments, but was told to ask another official ...
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Which does St. Thomas Aquinas teach is greater, to know God or to love Him?
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, which is greater, to know God or to love Him?
It seems knowledge of God is greater, because John 17:3 says:
Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the ...
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Is there Catholic doctrine about "divine ideas"?
Augustine was a staunch advocate of the "doctrine" of divine ideas, which locates Plato's exemplary forms in the mind of God. The theory seems to have been generally adopted by Thomas ...
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Persecution in Christianity
I had a strange exchange with a user on this forum. They took a view I doubt Thomas Aquinas would have agreed with. They felt that anything that interfered with saying the Mass was persecution.
Let ...
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Is naturalistic cosmology pointing us back to viewing stars as gods (similar to how pagans did), crediting stars with giving meaning to the universe?
I ask this after seeing a documentary on BBC TV, the evening of 27 October 2021, where Professor Brian Cox started a new series on the universe. This first episode dealt with the way the universe ...
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Is there a name for a category of Christians who lack a doctrinal position in the debate about God's nature?
If a Christian considers that the burden of proof has not been adequately met by any known theological doctrines about God's nature, including mainstream ones such as Trinitarianism, Binitarianism, ...
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Can someone clarify the eastern orthodox teaching "Temps Immobile" of Fr. Alexander Schmemann?
I've been reading about Eastern Orthodox theology and one thing that caught my attention is the unusual view of time that some Eastern Orthodox theologians have, in particular Fr. Alexander Schmemann. ...
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What was the source of the concept "The Word was God " that John the Evangelist introduced in Jn 1: 1?
We read in John 1:1-2:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
Clearly, John means The Son of God for “the Word who was ...
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Why is believing the correct thing important? [closed]
Islam and Christianity (or at least the most common forms of each) seem to have in common this idea that believing the correct thing about the Nature of God, his revealed Holy Books, and perhaps a few ...
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How do Latter-day Saints respond to William Lane Craig's philosophical objections to the Mormon view of creation?
The Mormon View of Creation is the title of an episode of the Reasonable Faith Podcast, recorded on February 16, 2010, in which William Lane Craig, a renowned Christian apologist, philosopher and ...
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