‘Faith is all that is necessary to gain knowledge of God’ Discuss.
Introduction
Define: Natural theology- Drawing conclusions about the nature and activity of God by using reason
and observing the world.
Revealed theology- Ideas about God which God has decided to show people. They cannot be worked
out by themselves but are shown in a time and manner chosen by God.
Importance: If faith is all we need to gain knowledge of God, it should be relatively attainable/fairly
simply to understand.
Scholars: Dawkins, Hume
Conclusion: Faith is not all that is necessary to gain knowledge of God.
Paragraph 1
Point: Faith is all that is necessary to gain knowledge of God.
Argument: Faith for Dawkins, is an insufficient reason for believing anything. In his view it is
equivalent to saying ‘I have just decided to believe this on the basis of very little evidence, and now
that I have decided, I refuse to think about it further.’ Dawkins likens belief in God to belief in the
tooth fairy or belief that there is a teapot orbiting Mars- these beliefs cannot be conclusively
disproved but there is no evidence to support them, and therefore no good reason to commit to
them.
Counterargument: Others argue, however, that sufficient reason for believing something does not
have to depend solely on the kind of evidence that is available to sense experience and to rational
argument. There are many aspects of life where we have insufficient empirical or rational evidence
on which to base our decisions. We cannot know with any certainty whether we are free to make
our own decisions or whether we are entirely determined by external factors; we cannot know
whether the world we think we inhabit is ‘real’ or whether it is all illusory. We cannot guarantee that
the sun will rise tomorrow morning. The balance of probability, based on our past experiences, leads
us to carry on our daily lives without being in a permanent state of doubt. However, our faith that
the future will resemble the past and that our past experiences act as some kind of guarantee is not
supported by firm evidence.
Paragraph 2
Point: Faith is not all that is necessary to gain knowledge of God.
Argument: David Hume claimed ‘A wise man…proportions his belief to the evidence’ (An Enquiry
Concerning Human Understanding, 1739-1740). Hume made this claim in the context of his
discussion on miracles; his argument was that rather than allowing faith or superstition or anything
else to cloud our judgement, we should look at the evidence before us and decide on that basis what
would be appropriate to believe.
Introduction
Define: Natural theology- Drawing conclusions about the nature and activity of God by using reason
and observing the world.
Revealed theology- Ideas about God which God has decided to show people. They cannot be worked
out by themselves but are shown in a time and manner chosen by God.
Importance: If faith is all we need to gain knowledge of God, it should be relatively attainable/fairly
simply to understand.
Scholars: Dawkins, Hume
Conclusion: Faith is not all that is necessary to gain knowledge of God.
Paragraph 1
Point: Faith is all that is necessary to gain knowledge of God.
Argument: Faith for Dawkins, is an insufficient reason for believing anything. In his view it is
equivalent to saying ‘I have just decided to believe this on the basis of very little evidence, and now
that I have decided, I refuse to think about it further.’ Dawkins likens belief in God to belief in the
tooth fairy or belief that there is a teapot orbiting Mars- these beliefs cannot be conclusively
disproved but there is no evidence to support them, and therefore no good reason to commit to
them.
Counterargument: Others argue, however, that sufficient reason for believing something does not
have to depend solely on the kind of evidence that is available to sense experience and to rational
argument. There are many aspects of life where we have insufficient empirical or rational evidence
on which to base our decisions. We cannot know with any certainty whether we are free to make
our own decisions or whether we are entirely determined by external factors; we cannot know
whether the world we think we inhabit is ‘real’ or whether it is all illusory. We cannot guarantee that
the sun will rise tomorrow morning. The balance of probability, based on our past experiences, leads
us to carry on our daily lives without being in a permanent state of doubt. However, our faith that
the future will resemble the past and that our past experiences act as some kind of guarantee is not
supported by firm evidence.
Paragraph 2
Point: Faith is not all that is necessary to gain knowledge of God.
Argument: David Hume claimed ‘A wise man…proportions his belief to the evidence’ (An Enquiry
Concerning Human Understanding, 1739-1740). Hume made this claim in the context of his
discussion on miracles; his argument was that rather than allowing faith or superstition or anything
else to cloud our judgement, we should look at the evidence before us and decide on that basis what
would be appropriate to believe.
