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" God of the gaps " argument has been traditionally advanced by scholarly Christians, was intended as a criticism against weak or tenuous faith, not as a statement against theism or belief in God.
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God and gaps
However, critics view irreducible complexity as a special case of the " complexity indicates design " claim, and thus see it as an argument from ignorance and God of the gaps argument.
The " God of the gaps " viewpoint has also been criticized by theologians and philosophers.
* God of the gaps
* God of the gaps
God of the gaps is a type of theological perspective in which gaps in scientific knowledge are taken to be evidence or proof of God's existence.
He chastises those Christians who point to the things that science can not yet explain —" gaps which they will fill up with God "— and urges them to embrace all nature as God's, as the work of "... an immanent God, which is the God of Evolution, is infinitely grander than the occasional wonder-worker, who is the God of an old theology.
The term gained some attention when it was used in the 1955 book Science and Christian Belief by Charles Alfred Coulson, where Coulson states: " There is no ' God of the gaps ' to take over at those strategic places where science fails ; and the reason is that gaps of this sort have the unpreventable habit of shrinking.
Bube also maintained that the God-of-the-gaps was not the same as the God of the Bible ( that is, he was not making an argument against God per se, but rather asserting there was a fundamental problem with the perception of God as existing in the gaps of present-day knowledge ).
The term " God of the gaps " is sometimes used in describing the incremental retreat of religious explanations of physical phenomena in the face of increasingly comprehensive scientific explanations for those phenomena.
One example of such an argument, which uses God as an explanation of one of the current gaps in biological science, is as follows:
The term was invented as a criticism of people who perceive that God only acts in the gaps, and who restrict God's activity to such " gaps ".
no: God of the gaps
* God of the gaps
Behe's claim that the creation of an original first cell represents a " gap " in the laws of nature needing divine intervention appears to be the problematic God of the gaps position which is subject to the gaps being filled by scientific discoveries.
God and argument
The argument from morality is an argument for the existence of God.
Both theist and nontheist philosophers have accepted that, if objective moral truths exist, then God must too exist ; the argument from moral objectivity asserts that objective moral truths do exist, and that God must exist too.
All variations of the argument from morality begin with an observation about moral thought or experiences and conclude with the existence of God.
Portrait of Immanuel Kant, who proposed an argument for the existence of God from morality
Parkinson challenges the argument from moral objectivity by arguing that, for the argument to be successful, it must be shown that morality is objective and commanded by God, rather than just a human invention.
This interpretation is supported with the argument that there is nowhere else in the book where Job express a wish for bodily resurrection, only for someone to intervene as an " umpire ", a " vindicator ", a " go ' el ", on his behalf as an impartial judge between himself and God in the present.
The cosmological argument is an argument for the existence of a First Cause ( or instead, an Uncaused cause ) to the universe, and by extension is often used as an argument for the existence of an " unconditioned " or " supreme " being, usually then identified as God.
It is also applied by the Spiritist doctrine as the main argument for the existence of God.
By simply denying that an efficient first cause is problematic, being easily explained as the creative action of an omnipotent God, medieval theologians re-purposed and enhanced Aristotle's argument, as if the intention had been to prove God's existence.
According to the argument, the existence of the Universe requires an explanation, and the creation of the Universe by a First Cause, generally assumed to be God, is that explanation.
An objection against the theist implication of the proposition is that even if one accepts the argument as a proof of a First Cause, it does not identify that First Cause with God.
The argument does not go on to ascribe to the First Cause some of the basic attributes commonly associated with, for instance, a theistic God, such as immanence or omnibenevolence.
Furthermore, even if one chooses to accept God as the First Cause, there is an argument that God's continued interaction with the Universe is not required.
Saint Thomas Aquinas ’ argument from contingency applies even if the universe had no beginning, but it would still have to be sustained in being at any particular moment by God.
Thomas Hobbes – a 17th century deist and important influence on subsequent deists – used the cosmological argument for the existence of God at several places in his writings.
It is a trilemma argument ( God is omnipotent, God is good, but Evil exists ); or more commonly seen as this quote:
Nietzsche's argument that " God is dead " coincided with his attack on the " herd mentality " of Christianity, democracy and modern collectivism ; his concept of the übermensch ; and his advocacy of the will to power as a primordial instinct, were major influences upon many of the fin-de-siècle generation.
St. Anselm's ontological argument, in its most succinct form, is as follows: " God, by definition, is that for which no greater can be conceived.
But his argument is that all men are sinners ; that they are so through original depravity ; that this original depravity may be overcome by the grace of God, and he adds that he does not know but that Mary may have had sufficient grace to overcome sin " of every sort " ( omni ex parte ).
God and has
Lucretius has remarked: `` The reason why all Mortals are so gripped by fear is that they see all sorts of things happening in the earth and sky with no discernable cause, and these they attribute to the will of God ''.
The image of God has simply disappeared.
He ascribes to the mercy of God the peace which this personal matter -- the assurance that he can physically sustain the burden of the office longer than any individual in the history of our nation has been able to do -- has brought him.
The spirit of this group was that we were -- and are -- living in a world doomed to eternal punishment, but that God through Jesus Christ has provided a way of escape for those who confess their sins and accept salvation.
Moreover, man may not supplant or frustrate the physical arrangements established by God, who through the law of rhythm has provided a natural method for the control of conception.
At the adoption, the Rev. T. F. Zimmerman, general superintendent, commented, `` The Assemblies of God has been a bulwark for fundamentalism in these modern days and has, without compromise, stood for the great truths of the Bible for which men in the past have been willing to give their lives ''.
There is an ancient and venerable tradition in the church ( which derives, however, from the heritage of the Greeks rather than from the Bible ) that God is completely independent of his creation and so has no need of men for accomplishing his work in the world.
In any event, it is an irreversible step, and if we are at all honest with ourselves, we will know we have no other alternative than to live in the world in which God has seen fit to place us.
The outcome of such an experiment has been in due time the acceptance of the Bible as the Word of God inspired in a sense utterly different from any merely human book, and with it the acceptance of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, Son of Man by the Virgin Mary, the Saviour of the world.
I praise God for the privilege of being a nurse who has that peace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The entrance to a church has been walled up, so that the congregation, most of which is in the western sector, cannot worship God there anymore.
-- those were His very first creative words -- He began the world with light -- this God still gives light to a world which man has plunged into darkness.
When that fear has been removed by faith in Jesus Christ, when we know that He is our Savior, that He has paid our debt with His blood, that He has met the demands of God's justice and thus has turned His wrath away -- when we know that, we have peace with God in our hearts ; ;
The local `` family of God '' has failed its new members through neglect and unconcern for their spiritual welfare.
In their case, the god of this world ( Satan ) has blinded their unbelieving minds, that they should not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
If you know that he ( God ) is just ( righteous ), know that everyone also who does what is just ( righteous ) has been born of him.
He who believes in the Son ( Jesus Christ, the Son of God ), has everlasting life.
God has already set the day when you will be in His hands.
The New Testament has God declaring himself to be the " Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
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