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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Can Bayes' theorem be used non-fallaciously to argue for miracles?
NOTE: Originally this was a sub-question asked within Did Thomas Bayes truly develop Bayes' theorem in an effort to rebut David Hume's arguments against miracles?, but some commenters ...
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Did Thomas Bayes truly develop Bayes' theorem in an effort to rebut David Hume's arguments against miracles?
Perhaps this is a question better suited for Skeptics.SE, but it has a significant overlap with philosophy nonetheless. The context is this article:
Bayes’ theorem began as a defense of Christianity
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Anything that can be felt, is therefore real
Greetings
I have recently been reading the lyrical meanings of a song, and other people's interpretations.
With a small background in Philosophy, I took notice of a simple statement in someone's ...
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How can a God of classical theism be both omnipotent and unable to do evil (assuming divine simplicity)?
Consider a very powerful agent (call him Bob), who can do everything possible, except for turning on my TV. For Bob (maybe due to his nature) it is impossible to turn on my TV. Nobody would call Bob ...
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How can God gives us free will and yet be the creator and originator of everything at the same time? [closed]
Religious people say we have free will in that god has the knowledge of whatever will happen but he doesn't cause our actions, we have a choice. I did an act of sin out of my own choice; god was only ...
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How can religious conception of choice be consistent with the notion of omnipotent, all powerful God? [duplicate]
Religious people say we have free will in that god has knowledge of whatever will happen but he doesn't make us do sin. I did an act of sin out of my own choice; god was just already aware of the ...
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Are the subjective experience of the "inner witness of the Holy Spirit" and the subjective experience of an external world of equal epistemic value? [closed]
In 1998, Dr William Lane Craig debated Professor Keith M. Parsons at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX. The topic of the debate was "Why I Am/Am Not a Christian." After the debate ...
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Do gnostic valentinians contribute their sect nowadays? [closed]
Why did people abandon Valentinian teachings and why isn't it practiced today?
Here are links to who Valentinus was, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentinus_(Gnostic), and a summary of his views: ...
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Was Pontius Pilate justified in his actions? [closed]
Was Pontius Pilate justified in his sentencing of Jesus to the cross?
Some, like the Ethiopian church view him as a saint, while others believe that he is in hell. Pontius Pilate was given the sudden ...
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Who/what are some good introductions into Christian philosophy?
I am open to book suggestions, YouTube pages or anything with a community for Bible-believing academics.
thank you in advance
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If Plato openly wrote his books about politics, did he not believe in the proposed Noble Lie policy?
If Plato openly spoke of the Noble Lie proposal, in what he took to be quite an imperfect society whose change he hoped and perhaps even worked towards, would he have himself really thought that the ...
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Is the Skeptic's Prayer a valid scientific experiment?
The "Skeptic's Prayer" is introduced on page 411 of Handbook of Catholic Apologetics: Reasoned Answers to Questions of Faith, by Peter Kreeft & Fr. Ronald Tacelli.
The Skeptic's Prayer
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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?
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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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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 should we evaluate the impersonal God and the personal God?
Aristotle holds the former view, while Christianity, as well as Islam and Judaism advocate for the latter.
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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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