Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God Summary

The human mind’s ability and innate desire to justify and explain the world and its phenomena has led to some of the most significant and world-altering discoveries and inventions, illustrated throughout the renaissance, enlightenment, scientific revolution, and industrial revolution. Logical pursuits comprise a significant capstone of human nature and progress. However, according to Rudolf Otto in The Idea of the Holy, these tendencies have created different dimensions of religion; the rational and non-rational, with the latter often times overlooked. The most significant difference between the rational and non-rational aspects of religion deal with their respective emphasis on reason and feeling. Rudolph Otto prioritizes the non-rational as offering a truer understanding of religion because he claims the core of all religious life revolves around experiences and feeling, not simply rational thought.

Thomas Pain’s catalytic words of the modern theology Thomas Pain argues for a more individualistic form of monotheism while the puritans believe that only their god should be prayed to. The puritan religion was unique from the rest of the world because they held the Sabbath in true Old Testament fashion. Thomas in his last offering to his fellow citizens of all nations does not hold back his religious believes in this very unpopular (at the time) literature. He states “In the general wreck of superstition, “false systems of government and false theology, we lose sight of morality, of humanity and of the theology that is true.”

A common questioning of a higher power beyond the physical realm lingers in society: Who and what is God?. However, many of these theological questions cannot be answered until we of course, die. Due to human’s innate curiosity to understand the forces beyond their own, especially in terms of religion, humans find their own reasons to believe in a higher power in the process of discovery. Religion is a sense of belief and worship to praise a higher power (God), and it provides a guide for human beings to have the opportunity to come together and live as one image of God’s children. “Imagine There’s No Heaven” is an article in which Salman Rushdie, the author, presents an atheistic view where religion is pointless, and a higher being is non-existent.

This book seeks to establish the premise the logic and the Bible are not mutually exclusive. In fact, one must have a good command of correct reasoning; i.e., logic, in order to be able to properly interpret the Bible. Tragically, some bemoan this even though they repeatedly use logic, improperly, to ridicule the use of logic. Thomas Be. Warren points out that logic, or correct reasoning, is critical to hermeneutics or the correct method of interpreting the Scriptures.

The quote above concerning the evil of faith is taken from an article written by Richard Dawkins and published by the American Humanist Association; it is titled Is Science a Religion?. Of course, Dawkins’ answer is no. He argues that because science is based on ‘reason’, ‘observation’ and ‘verifiable evidence’ it different from religion, which is based on faith. According to Dawkins, ‘faith is one of the world’s greatest evils’ because it is ‘belief that isn’t based on evidence’ and to Dawkins this is juvenile and reprehensible. Before continuing, there are several key terms that require clarification.

Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican priest who tries to use rational thought to give evidence to a primordial being known through most religions as God. Born sometime around the emergence of the Renaissance, there was a push to question everything and follow rational thought instead of blind faith. Despite the fact that the Catholic Church was the prime donor to the art and architecture, many people began to turn away from the religious aspects of society towards the more secular scientific part. Aquinas, trying to match the reasoning of his time, used five proofs called the Summa Theologica to provide scientific reason behind the fact that there is a God. Instead of using faith or going solely based on his beliefs, he tries to argue there has to be a God for the universe to exist.

Contingency of Being Thomas Aquinas argued for the existence of God through his understanding of science along with the help of physical evidence, unchangeable facts and logic. I will discuss Aquinas’ Third proof and how he does prove that there is a God or Gods without the need for faith and revelation. In philosophy, we often distinguish things between being necessary being and contingent beings. Necessary beings are beings that have always existed and that could have never not existed.

Sir Thomas More, the great English social philosopher, humanist and saint, once said “I die the king’s faithful servant, but Gods first” (The Thomas More Society)Thomas More was a great and notable figure in the Catholic Church because of his great actions for and to the church. More’s religious and educational journey started at a very young age; born and raised in London, More attended the best schools and through his education developed into the great scholar he is known to be in the Catholic Church. From the start, More was recognized and grew up to be a a great and remarkable scholar. Thomas More’s contributions to Catholicism, such as his famous pieces of writing and dialogues he used to defend the church led him to be a great saint

This debates with what Richard Dawkins retort of evolution by natural selection (Darwinian natural selection) (Dawkins 2009, 111-151). It seems that life-prohibiting universes are vastly more probable than life-permitting universes (Goodman and Blumberg 2002). However, because there are still many scientific unexplained phenomena and events at the present, the Bible gives the ultimate explanation that it belongs to the God 's plan as he is the creator of the universe (Aitken1968). It greatly addresses people’s doubts and fears to the unknown things. Scientist recognize the notion of an actually infinite number of things leads to self-contradictions unless people impose some wholly arbitrary rules to prevent this (Schwartz 1998, 41).

Aquinas Thomas Aquinas was a well-recognized philosopher and theologian whose main interest was to teach and share with everyone the importance of religion and the existence of God. As he was a theologian, Aquinas main focus was church. His work was popular during the Scholasticism era, which was the peak of the medieval church. Aquinas principal working tool was the way he explained his arguments based on reasoning of his own. With the help of reasoning, Aquinas could conclude God’s role in this world and in the lives of everyone.

The idea of suspension of disbelief is that you don’t use any kind of rationalization to explain the impossible, so what if you could explain religious belief with logic? Can you rationalize faith, although by definition it is not rational? According to John Cottingham, who is an English philosopher, argues there is absolutely nothing to rationalize since religion is “all about one's feeling of absolute dependence and commitment” ("Religious Faith [...]”). In an interview, he says: “It is problematic if you think the only model for reasonable belief is a scientifically based on impartial assessment from evidence.

In other words, Augustine believes faith allows one to understand. However, Aquinas also believed that humanity was fallen, but he had a much higher view of the mind itself. Basically, he believed that through careful reasoning and educated thought, a person could reach the understanding of God. In fact, one of the reasons for his novel, Summa Theologica, was to prove the existence of God.

Thousands of Christians throughout history have been martyred as a result of their belief in Jesus Christ and God’s Word, and millions in the world today question the truth of the Gospel and God’s Word. The recent Oregon and ISIS killings cause unbelievers to question why. Why would someone be willing to die for a belief in something that appears as foolishness? 1 Peter 3:15 states, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” Every believer in Christ is responsible to know why he believes what he believes.

Powerful countries like China, India, and Japan didn’t take an interest in exploring because they didn’t have a real need for it. They had all the resources for it, but since they already had a social order and the needs for the society, exploration wasn’t necessary or something that they had to worry about. For example, when China was under the Ming Dynasty they got involved in some exploring, but it never got to the point of colonization like the Europeans did. China later got rid of the ships and materials they had built for exploring since they didn't find a real outcome in it and since thought they were more powerful than the rest of the other countries they thought they didn't need exploration to learn anything of the world or from anyone

The Bible is the source of Christianity in that the Bible contains the inspired words of God and how Christians are to apply it to their lives. It is not a man-made faith arrived at by the faulty guesses of men. God chose to give man a trustworthy account of