How do we know what we know?

Write down three things you know because you have experienced them

Write down three things you know but have not experienced them

Tasks:

3. How do you know the three things on your

second list? What makes the evidence

satisfactory? Could you be

wrong?

4. Complete the How do we know

what we know worksheet.

REVELATION in the Christian Tradition

Can revelation be a ‘proof’ for God’s

existence?

Is it a trustworthy basis for faith?

Revelation of God’s Nature• Christians believe that

throughout history God has shown us who He is by what he does.

• E.g. in giving the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai God revealed to the Jews the kind of life He wanted them to live.

• Christians believe that throughout the Old Testament He continued to reveal himself through Kings, prophets and individuals in the way he wanted them to live.

Christian BeliefsThree different aspects

of God, otherwise known

as the Trinity.

The Father – creator, eternal, almighty God

God the son - came to earth in the form of Jesus

Holy Spirit- God as he works in the world

Immanent/TranscendentImmanent – the idea that God is present and involved in life on earth

Transcendence – beyond and outside life on earth and the universe

Most theists believe that God is incomprehensible . God is therefore outside time and space as God is the creator of the universe. Therefore God is transcendent.

Yet at the same time people believe God is involved in history (sacred books) and that they have experienced God. So therefore God is immanent.

Personal/ImpersonalReligions believe that no other

being has the force or power of

God. To think of God as personal

would mean to think of God as

having ‘human features.’ For many

religions this is unacceptable and

God is believed to be impersonal.

Most Christians believe that they

have a personal relationship with

God. Through prayer etc.

Personal nature of God – God as an individual or person with whom people can have a relationship.

Impersonal nature of God – the idea that God has no human characteristics, unknowable and mysterious, more like a force.

The Bible is a source of authority for all Christians. They recognise that the revelation of God through the Bible offers them support and structure in their lives. All Christian church services use the Bible in their worship. A passage is read and the priest or minister will explain the passage in his/her sermon. The Bible might also be used by Christians in their daily lives for private or group study or to inspire prayer. They believe that God can communicate directly with them whilst reading the Bible.

However, Christians do not always come to the same conclusions about what the Bible means in modern times. Different denominations interpret teachings in different ways and even within the same church congregation there will probably be a range of opinions about moral issues.

The Bible

What does the Bible reveal?

• That God created the world ‘ex-nihilo’ (from nothing), therefore is the CREATOR AND SUSTAINER OF ALL.

• That he is OMNIPOTENT, OMNISCIENT and BENEVOLENT

• That God cares about his created world and the people in it. He makes COVENANTS with his people. Eg. through Abraham, Noah, Jesus.

• That he sent messages through PROPHETS to guide people.

• That he became INCARNATE in Jesus.

• For many Christians the final and ultimate revelation of God was in the form of Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus was the Incarnation of God –

• quite literally God made flesh – God in a human form come to Earth to experience life as one of His own creations and so show humans the way He wants them to live.

Jesus• Jesus is also a form of revelation.

As God INCARNATE he is believed to be “fully human, fully divine”.

• Through the life and teachings of Jesus, Christians believe God reveals understands the complexities and frailties of human existence. It is also seen as a revelation of God’s ultimate love: “for God so loved the world that he gave his only son…”

• Jesus is seen as the fulfilment of the covenant

Revelation of God through scripturedifferent Christians have different views about what the scripture can

tell us about God and his plans for humanity

• The Bible is Divinely inspired. This could mean the writers of the Bible were guided by God when they were writing the Bible down

• The Bible is Divinely guided: this is the same as inspired but God speaks to the writers in some way or other – it is still the direct word of God.

• The Bible is the end result of a lot of Gods mysterious guidance throughout the ages. It is a library of stories and writings from different time periods, culture and geographical locations. Some of it is history, some poetry, letters and stories.

• The Bible is a human book, but based on the writings of people who have tried to work out what God would want throughout the ages.

• What is in the Bible is a matter of human selection – however it is still a useful book of guidance for someone trying to live a Christian life.

3 ways people treat the Bible writings

• Literally true – What the Bible says is what happened, exactly word for word. No argument – Christians who believe this are called Biblical Literalists

* Symbolically true; Biblical writings have to be understood as pointing to truths, metaphors and allegories but no to be taken literally true. People who believe this are sometimes called Biblical Liberalists

Part literal and part symbolic; Biblical writings are a mixture of things which are literally true and things that need to be interpretated. Which is which, is a matter of debate….

Question• Do you think that people read the

Bible these days? 2 mins in groups, discuss.

Strengths and limitations of this kind of Revelation

• The Bible is quite clear and can be read by anyone so its obvious what its messages are

• This means that we have God’s direct word on what he is like and how we should live our lives.

• You don’t have to guess about anything – it’s a reliable way to find out about God and what he wants for humans.

• If you understand the Bible literally then it is simple to work out the truth of what God is and what he want.

• The Bible may appear clear but it’s a complicated text. It might not be a good guide for modern living

• It may be God’s word but it might also involve human hands which have written things or selected things to include which are there for human reasons rather than God’s.

• You may not need to guess but interpretating the Bible is a complex task and so it might not be a very reliable way to find out about God or about his wants and desires.

• If you don’t understand the Bible literally then you need to work out what is truth and what is myth and so on.

Is it ‘true’?People often say ‘seeing is believing’ but religious people might reverse this and claim that only through first believing can you begin to see the truth.

All people can experience a sense or wonder at the beauty of the natural world – but religious people may claim to see even more in this than a non-believer; for them it is the work of God.

“When I look at a beautiful sunset I am filled with love and peace. I truly feel as if I am in the presence of an Almighty Creator, an artist beyond compare. I feel a sense of being connected with God; He is all around us if we choose to recognise it.”

Exam Question:

“Religious experiences are irrational. A strong faith should be based on logical reasoning.”

Discuss this statement. You should include different, supported points of view and a personal viewpoint. You must refer to Christianity in your answer. (12)

General and Special Revelation

Many people say they will only believe in God when God

reveals itself (himself/herself) to them. They say there is no

evidence that God exists.

Although there are thousands of people who claim to have ‘met’ God in some way – they are not believed by non-believers who find many reasons to say that

their account is untrue.

Think about this though – if you met God, could you prove it?

Special Revelation

Special revelation is when God reveals Himself directly to a person or group in a dream, vision or a miracle.”

NB / God has chosen those people ‘especially’ to communicate to them.

Examples of Special Revelation: St Paul

• Saul had a vision of a bright light on his way to Damascus. A voice asked why Saul why he was hunting down Christians. Saul was convinced that the light and voice were God. He changed his name to Paul and travelled the world telling people about Christianity. He wrote most of the books in the New Testament.

Example of Special Revelation: Moses

• Moses had a vision of a burning bush and a voice that told him to return to Egypt to free the Hebrew slaves.

Could also be:• Specific miracles – parting

red sea, feeding of the 5 thousand

• Dreams – as in Joseph• ‘Appearances’ – burning

bush• Speaking directly – as when

he spoke to Samuel

• By becoming human in the form of Jesus. Jesus was an example both of how to live a human life but also a glimpse of the nature of God.

• Winnie the Pooh relied on experience – he was only satisfied that there was honey all the way to the bottom of the pot when he had tested this for himself by eating all the honey.

• Sometimes experience can be mistaken – as when Pooh and Piglet went round and round the tree in the snow following footprints and they were mistakenly convinced on this evidence that they were following a dangerous animal.

• Similarly the religious experience arguments are based on claimed experiences of God – but one problem is whether these experiences are good evidence for the existence of God.

Is it a Woozle?

The argument

If someone experiences an

entity, then the entity exists

Some people have experienced

God

Therefore God exists

Brief summary of thinkers cont…

William James – (early 20th century) he categorised

religious experience and noted that the experience draws

on the common store of emotions but is directed at

something divine.

* the experience is short but intense

* you have no control over it

* it helps you see things in a different way

* it is very difficult to describe –

James said the result would be reverence, a joyful desire

to belong to God, a renewed approach to life. These fruits

are the only reliable basis for judging whether it is a

genuine experience of the divine.

Someone having a religious experience is more common than you probably think, and the experiences are similar enough to make us wonder if they are pointing to a God who chooses to reveal himself to us in this way.

The fact that such experiences almost always change people’s lives for the better – and really quite drastically – perhaps suggests that they could only come from God.

Q. Why do some people seem to have religious experiences and others do not? 1 min discuss

Testimony isn’t enough. We need to be convinced!

RICHARD SWINBURNE (1996) – argues for the case that ‘An

omnipotent and perfectly good creator will seek to interact

with his creatures and, in particular, with human persons

capable of knowing him.’

How does Swinburne classify Religious

Experiences?

Swinburne classified five types of religious experience:

PUBLIC An individual sees God or God’s action in a public object or scene e.g. seeing the face of the Virgin Mary on the moon Very unusual public event occur involving a breach of natural law e.g. the resurrection of Jesus

PRIVATE A private experience that an individual may describe using normal language e.g. the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary Experiences which cannot be described in normal language but which are nevertheless very real to those experiencing them e.g. mysticism An ongoing impression of a presence based upon no specific experience – just a sense that God is guiding one’s life

The Principle of Testimony …

Relies of the inherent trustworthiness of other people

Grounds for not believing:

Unreliable

On drugs

Suffers from delusions

Previous History

Grounds for believing:

Sound Mind

Reasonable Intelligence

Generally Reliable

So who experiences the experiences?

According to the Oxford Religious Experience research unit 25-45% of the population of Britain!

This was even irrespective of age, location or belief.

What kind of experience?

An awareness of a presence or power beyond themselves.

Question

• What would you do if you thought that God had spoken to you in a dream?

• 2mins discuss

General Revelation

“General revelation is how people generally come to know about God and believe in God.

They don’t have any special experience, but they gradually come to faith through a variety of experiences.

Examples of General Revelation

• People learn about God through reading the Bible. It teaches them how God has acted in human history, the laws that God expects humans to follow and gives people comfort in times of trouble. • Knowing God

through holy books

Examples of General Revelation

• People learn about God through their response and appreciation of the wonders and beauty of the world around them. Nature is beautiful, clever and complicated. They feel that it is so awesome and wonderful that God must have created it.

• Knowing God through nature

Strengths and limitations

• Nature points to God• A conscience might point to God• Miracles and supernatural happenings all point to

God• Hearing the voice of God can have no other

explanation than the existence of God

• Nature could just as well point to other processes (evolution)

• Conscience could just be your brain• Miracles might be just exaggerated stories or

Chinese whispers• People hear voices in their head and do some

very strange things.

Examples of General Revelation

• People learn about God through the lives and example of religious people they admire.

• Knowing God through the lives of Inspirational people

Examples of General Revelation

• People learn about God through the lives and advice of religious leaders like the Pope who study the Bible and tell their followers how they feel God would want them to live today.

• Knowing God through religious leaders

Question• Some people argue that

God seemed a lot more present in the past than He is today because he revealed himself much more directly than now.

• Others argue that God still reveals himself today – we just don’t listen so well nowadays… What do you think? INDIVIDUAL ANSWERS

Revelation through the traditions of the Church

• Christians also believe that God has revealed himself throughout the ages through the traditions of the Church. For this we need a short history lesson, very simplified.

• After Jesus died, the disciples hid away and then came out three days later to say that he had risen from the dead.

• They formed a small Jewish sect in a Roman world and had a hard time of it through persecution. Each disciple, it is said, took the new faith to different lands.

• The apostle Paul (SAUL from earlier) finally spread it to the non-Jewish (Gentile) world, explaining very Jewish ideas in ways that non-Jews would understand

• The persecutions continued until the Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire.

• One Christian Church now existed, but the leaders of the Church in important cities across the world now thought they were the true Church. Eventually two cities held the real power of the Christian Church

• Rome • Constantinople – now Istanbul in Turkey

• However the Church remained one organisation until it split in 1054 between the East – Constantinople and the West – Rome.

• It has now split into two – The Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.

• Both had their own internal disputes, but a major split came to the West in the 16th century when Martin Luther broke away from the church and so began the split between Protestants and Catholics in the West.

• The Protestant Church itself split into many groups as it is today – Baptists, Quakers, Methodists and so on.

Through out this each Church developed its own traditions and ways of doing things as well as

focussing on different aspects of belief.

• Example 1: In the Roman Catholic Church there are no women priests. This is tradition and reflects the belief that God made men and women to carry out different roles in life and also reflects the fact that Jesus did not choose any female disciples.

• However other branches of the Christian church have women priests – which Church has got it right? Which one is God revealing himself to?

• Example 2: Some Christian churches baptise babies to welcome them into the Church. Others have believers baptisms – where only adults who understand what they are doing are baptised.

• Again the tradition of infant or believers baptism says something about what these Churches believe about the nature of God. However other churches do not have baptisms at all – which Church is right?

Strengths and Limitations

• The Church has maintained its traditions for two thousand years. This is a very firm foundation to base your belief in God.

• TheCchurch is full of people who God has called to represent Him and so reveals who He is and what He wants.

• The Churches leadership has provided a stable foundation for people’s beliefs throughout its history.

• The Church has changed so much over a mere two thousand years that it cannot be a very reliable messenger of what God is and what He wants, some of its old beliefs would be unacceptable in today's world.

• The Church is an organisation of humans and as such it has all the problems associated with it. It’s teachings are far to mixed up with culture, politics and history to tell us anything meaningful about the nature of God.

• The leadership of the Church has been anything but stable and certainly not something which can reveal God to us.

Question

• Do you think that the Christian Church is as central (important) in the world today as it once was? 2 mins discuss…

Examples of General Revelation

• People learn about God through going to church and worship services. They listen to someone reading from the Bible and giving a sermon (talk) that tells them about God. The experience of worshipping together can be very powerful for some people.

• Knowing God through worship

The impact of Revelation

It is important to remember that however people say they have experienced God – it has a massive impact on the life of that person.

Often, the experience will completely change them.

Proof?There is no scientific evidence of a person’s experience being true – we cannot prove it happened by scientific means.

All we can do is listen to someone’s testimony (account of the experience) and judge the impact it had on them.

To think about

• Discuss the good and bad points of just accepting religious experiences like this?

1. If a religious experience happens to individuals – why is this difficult to prove?

2. Give one example of a religious experience other than in Christianity.

3. Why might someone find it hard to believe that you had seen God?

4. What problems could there be if you just accepted religious experiences as true without questioning it?

5. Do you think there might be a way to test religious experiences? Explain

STARTER QUESTIONS

• Can you see any problems with letting scientists investigate alleged

religious experiences?