Questions tagged [christianity]
Christianity is a religious belief, historically based on Jewish roots. The central tenet of this religion is the belief that Jesus is the Son of God.
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According to bishop Berkeley how does trinitarian doctrine "God the Son (Jesus Christ)" apply to his subjective idealism? [closed]
Since Christian doctrine of Trinity defines: one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons:God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three ...
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Is Christianity testable?
In a debate between John Lennox and Peter Atkins on the topic "Can science explain everything?", at minute 44:47 John Lennox claims:
Lennox: "And the major reason why I believe that ...
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On the claim that science is an offspring of Christian thought?
The claim that science is an offspring of Christian thought is often made in Christian-atheist debates. Theists argue that Christianity provided the necessary foundation for science to develop, such ...
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Decades ago Dr. Eugene Scott said, "God's knowledge is a function of his power. He can know whatever he wants to know." Is this coherent?
Dr. Eugene Scott said, "God's knowledge is a function of his power. He can know whatever he wants to know." Is this coherent? I thought this was a noncontroversial statement, but I was told ...
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Can the Christian God be a Utilitarian?
I've been entertaining the idea that the Christian God might be utilitarian, after noticing many correlations between things that the Christian God commands or desires and things that promote ...
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(For Christian Moral Theologians) What is the third moral principle that forbids gender change? [closed]
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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How do we forgive our debtors?
Lord's prayer says:
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
In this sentence it seems assumed that we are capable to forgive "our debtors". I do not understand how we ...
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Atheists who follow the teachings of Jesus [closed]
I'm an atheist who believes in much (not all) of the teachings of Jesus. Are there other Atheist/philosophers who discuss the teachings of Jesus from an atheistic perspective?
user64314
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Why is natural law ethics based on what happens in most cases? (St. Thomas Aquinas)
Summa Theologica II-II q. 154 a. 2:
Nor does it matter if a man having knowledge of a woman by
fornication, make sufficient provision for the upbringing of the
child: because a matter that comes ...
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The apparent and partial "sui-deicide" of the Christian god
For this topic and question, I've tried finding and learning from other sources online (for reasons of unintentional duplication here but more-so the intentional avoidance of posting something ...
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Question about the Thomistic view of God's attributes
According to Thomism, God's essence must be identical with his attributes, lest God has real attributes he is dependent upon for his being and "compose" his essence, compromising God's ...
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Is it a contradiction to believe God is both transcendent and omnipresent?
From a classical theistic perspective, God both transcends time and space, yet is also present everywhere. But how can God be both outside time and space and yet be present everywhere?
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Why does God have the property of Goodness?
Consider the following premise.
Every existing thing has an explanation of its existence (either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause).
God is sometimes viewed as existing by His ...
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Is infinity an imperfect and unsubstantial epiphenomenon of the finite?
To my mind the concepts of the finite and the infinite are equally mysterious.
But recently I was surprised to encounter the view that infinity may be something different from what I have ...
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Does Actus Purus (pure act) necessitate that God is his attributes / God has no real attributes
If Actus Purus is true, does this mean that God is his attributes (his essence is identical to his attributes) or that God has no real attributes (simply virtually predications of the one essence). If ...
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How's Hegel's conception of Geist different from the bible's conception of the holy spirit?
I was seeing a documentary on Christianity, in it many times the word "Holy spirit" was mentioned with subtext that it was something written in the bible. I had previously heard Hegel came ...
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impact of different Christian theologies on the psyche [closed]
I am afraid I do not have the expertise to form this question correctly, but I will give it a try: I want to understand how each of the different Christian theologies that exist (Evangelical ...
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How does existence preceding essence not preclude the possibility of bad faith?
How does existence preceding essence not preclude the possibility of bad faith? In what sense is it possible to act inauthentically if there is no authenticity other than what we make for ourselves?
I ...
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According to trinitarians, why can't there be multiple human persons who share one human substance?
According to trinitarians, if there can be three divine persons within the Godhead who share one divine substance, why can't there be multiple human persons who share one human substance?
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What is Plotinus' theory (of graduationism) that inspired Augustine about?
I want to know what Plotinus' gradualism is exactly about. I've heard in a lecture about Augustine being inspired by that theory, but can't seem to find anything about this. Is this gradualism just ...
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Absolute Divine Simplicity (ADS) and the Triune Godhead
Though apparent, the framework of the Triune Godhead appears logically incoherent in juxtaposition to the Absolute Divine Simplicity model.
Looking through the works of Thomas Aquinas, who is the most ...
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How again can 2 actions be morally different when they have exactly the same effect (if they can)?
(i have something to ask on meta stackexchange or maths meta stackexchange, but I want to ask a philosophy thing first. In fact, I may not even need to ask on meta stackexchange after this.)
I could ...
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Does the "sin that dwelleth in me" corresponds to kundalini?
In the Letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul writes about "sin" as some entity that dwells in the human body.
Now, I do believe that this entity corresponds to kundalini.
sin entered into ...
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Did any Christian philosopher explained why monotheism is better than polytheism?
Did any Christian philosopher explain why monotheism is better than polytheism as they rejected polytheism and accepted monotheism?
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A simple way to explain the argument from efficient causes for the existence of god according to Aquinas? [closed]
According to Aquinas but not originally, I'm not exactly sure whose theory it was that Aquinas reworded.
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Are there any publications that attempt to give a formal ontological definition of the Christian Trinity?
Are there any publications in the field of Philosophy of Religion that have attempted to provide a formal ontological definition of the Christian God as portrayed by the doctrine of the Trinity?
Take ...
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Can someone explain omnipotence to me?
My understanding and I assume most Christians believe that omnipotence means the ability to do anything, even the logically impossible things because we believe God transcends logic. Colossians 1:16 ...
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Overlap between Timaeus and original sin in Christianity
I just finished reading Timaeus by Plato (Desmond Lee translation). Overall, my impression is this text is based much more in mythology and religion than other dialogues by Plato that I've read. It ...
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How common is the notion of God taking a break from work?
In Judeo-Christian tradition, the day when God finished creating the earth is the day of rest.
“and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. ”
Does this idea appear in other ...
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Problem with origin of evil
It is often defended by Christians that evil exists because god gave us free will. And god gave us free will basically because he wanted to be truly loved. Not just "loved" by "mindless ...
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Can the concept of the Trinity be logically supported as the belief in one God rather than three Gods?
Christianity has its roots in Judaism, as such some of the teachings in the Old Testament have carried into and are reaffirmed in the New Testament, one such being is the monotheistic belief in one ...
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Did Augustine try to prove God's existence using Set Theory?
Some time ago I heard a professor of mine describe Augustine's Confessions as an attempt to prove God's existence using set theory. I didn't get a chance to ask him more of what he meant, and ...
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In which points do Neoplatonic ideas differ from Christianity?
I've been reading some topics about the influence of Neoplatonism in Christianity.
Some topics I read said that, although Neoplatonic ideas influenced Christianity a lot, there are some divergence ...
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How can God be in the genus of efficient causes?
In Summa Theologica I q. 3 a. 5 "Whether God is contained in a genus?", Aquinas says that if God were in a genus, it would be the genus of "being," but being cannot be the genus of anything (cf. ...
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Is "practical atheism" really so different from "practical christianity?"
First time questioner here! Apologies if this is not specific enough/would better belong on a different StackExchange.
If one takes a second to peruse any number of Christian apologetics books, the ...
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Is process philosophy at odds with orthodox Christian theology?
Process philosophy regards change, as opposed to stasis, as the basis of reality. Does this contradict orthodox Christian theology, such as Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and the various Protestant ...
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How to evaluate the impersonal God and the personal God? [closed]
How to evaluate the impersonal God and the personal God?
Aristotle holds the former view, while Aquinas, Islam and Judaism in the Middle Ages hold the latter view.
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Can any Christian action truly be morally good?
If someone does a morally good action because they fear God, which is a selfish motive, surely this means it is not a morally selfless action.
In the same way, if any morally good action is not ...
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Are there any scholarly critiques of Edward Feser's work?
Have there been any critiques of Feser in academia, particularly philosophy of religion? I'd also like to see if there have been critiques of Aristotelian-Thomism which is what Feser's framework is ...
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What is the difference between the Umma and the Ecclesia?
What is the difference between the Umma and the Ecclesia?
I’m looking for answers only from people who are versed in comparative theology and can give proper, well-thought-out explanations, not just ...
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What are all attributes of God and what is the manner of knowing them according to Aquinas?
What are all of the divine attributes, and in which way is each of them predicted of God (univocal, equivocal or analogical way; if in an analogical way, what kind of analogy)?
An answer should be ...
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Why Christianity did not evolve into "strict" monothiesm? [closed]
Answering Jewish / Muslim objections to their faith, Christians frequently appeals to historical research, which illustrates that existence of "semi-god" or godly king etc. was not a strange thing to ...
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The Full Scope of Sloth [closed]
Disclaimer one: I am not a Christian, nor do I have any religious agendas with this post.
Disclaimer two: This is a quite lengthy post, with a considerable amount of preliminary stuff, and also a few ...
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The concept of eudaimonia
The usual definitions of eudaimonia as "happiness" or "flourishing" or the like, don't seem to fit the actual translation of the word. The word means "a good spirit," where "spirit" has semi-mystical ...
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Do those who deny a univocal understanding of "God is good" conflate sense and connotation?
Several theologians following Aquinas have said that when we say things like "God is good" that this must mean something different to when we call other things good; this is called analogical use of ...
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Does God still know what He has forgotten?
The following is from the Christian text Hebrews 10:15-17: [my emphasis]
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
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Who is Kierkegaard's knight of faith?
I have hardship to understand who the knight of faith is after reading an exerpt from Fear and Trembling:
"The tragic hero assures himself that the ethical obligation is totally present in him by ...
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Any contemporary/older philosophers who criticize the Christian concept of "preservation in the memory of others"? [closed]
I'm trying to sort out my ideas, so bear with me here if my questions is not abundantly clear.
There's a Christian understanding that when one dies, only the body dies, therefore, the spirit remains, ...
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What puts Christians off "hard determinism"?
Scott Christensen has written a book, "What about free will?" published 1995, in which two Christian positions are examined. They are, page 238, Libertarian Beliefs and Compatabilist Beliefs. However, ...
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If God created evil would that make Him evil or, the creator of evil? [duplicate]
God cannot be what He has created. So if He creates something there will be a gap between Him and His creation. That gap is defined in various ways. e.g.
God alone can create. God is holy. Evil exists....
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