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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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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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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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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Are there philosophical explanations for why God would allow animals to suffer due to non-human causes?
I just finished watching CosmicSkeptic's video titled Christianity's Biggest Problem, in which Alex O'Connor, the owner of the channel, presents the problem of animal suffering as the biggest ...
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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 it is possible to be one God in three persons (Jesus, Holy Ghost, and God the Father)?
1)”Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Deuteronomy 6:4
2)And the Word( Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son[a] from the ...
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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's the main contribution of William of Ockham?
I heard a Catholic Bishop talking about William of Ockham (Robert Barron) but I'm still not quite sure of some things:
What is the contribution of William of Ockham to the Church? What would sum up ...
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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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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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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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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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What is a "non-theistic" Christian?
The comments to this response suggest that there is such a thing as a Christian who does not believe in God. To me, that is rather contradictory, sort of like social networking without all of the ...
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Was William of Ockham the first sedevacantist?
Ockham (cf. this article on him by the Catholic logician Paul V. Spade) invented his dead-end nominalist philosophy in order to justify his being against the papacy (cf. Thomist John Deely's Four Ages ...
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In Aquinas's first proof of God's existence, what is the difference between accidentally and essentially ordered causal series?
I'm reading «Teología Natural» by Ángel Luis González. In the book, it is stated that St. Thomas Aquinas' viae would allow an indefinite series of causes.
He distiguishes between two causes. The ...
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What is the background of the words "notitia," "fiducia," and "assensus" and how do they relate to the biblical notion of "faith"?
The book Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (page 18) describes notitia, fiducia, and assensus as the three essential elements that make up the biblical notion of "faith."
notitia ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 all things possible with God?
Every Christian knows the saying that "With God all things are possible." But is this actually a fact?
I listened recently to a speaker, who said, that God cannot come in contact with anything ...
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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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Tackling Catholic philosophy and theology
I'd like to read and understand Catholic theology, philosophy and Tradition as best as I can.
I'm a biologist and not a philosopher/theologian -- and as such, I cannot (and thus far have not) ...
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What is the "fideism" rejected by the Catholic Church?
In philosophy, fideism seems to be used as a label to refer to epistemological approaches that tend to prioritize faith over reason. And this makes sense; after all, "fideism" is just Latin for "...
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What influence did Greco-Roman philosophy have on the doctrine of "creatio ex nihilo"?
Background
Frequently, Creationists and Theistic Evolutionists will appeal to and debate/discuss the idea of "Creatio Ex Nihilo" (Latin for "creation from nothing") with some critiquing the concept ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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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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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Was Jesus a Cynic (Greek philosophy)?
Cynicism is a school of Greek philosophy. It taught that
the purpose of life was to live in virtue, in agreement with nature. As reasoning creatures, people could gain happiness by rigorous ...
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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 ...
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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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