Christianity Philosophy: Tommy Park Angie Lee Abby Wang

INTRODUCTION
1. Affirms Theism: The belief in a supernatural God
a. Christ-centered
b. Relies on two foundations:
b.i. Special Revelation: God’s more specific communication – through the Bible and Jesus Christ – about salvation and his nature
b.ii. General Revelation: God’s communication – through nature and conscience – regarding his existence
c. Position is established with the concurrent forces of many, starting from different and independent standpoints (James Orr)
c.i. Christians see evidences of God everywhere

SPECIAL REVELATION
1. Divine words and acts contained in the Bible about Christ Jesus
2. Destiny of humanity involves both salvation and judgment
3. Answers questions like…
a. From what must I be saved?
b. Why will judgment occur?
4. Key that opens the door to both heaven and earth ex) Bible/Scripture
5. Words of God; known to be God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
6. Degree of moral truth supports its divine inspiration
7. Through, open-minded
8. Need to be studied and conform ourselves to its teachings and messages Ex2) Jesus Christ
9. Teachings, actions and resurrection provide the cornerstone for special revelation and solid foundation for Christian theism

DESIGN AND GENERAL REVELATION (Created Order)
1. Necessary yet insufficient knowledge about the Creator
2. Can recognize ultimate truths
3. In William Paley’s Book Natural Theology, he suggests that everything proves the existence of God and a grand Designer – Argument from design: Something exists=There is a designer
a. Ex) Scientific discoveries (Excessive DNA research)
b. Ex2) Human nature – realization that moral law exists

WHAT DOES REVELATION TELL US ABOUT GOD?
1. Relationships existing between God and us
2. Redemption
3. God’s divine personality:
a. self-awareness
b. emotions
c. self-determination
4. God’s Anthropomorphic Sensibilities: Sorrowful (Genesis 6:6), Angry (Deuteronomy 1:37), compassionate (Psalm 111:4), jealous (Exodus 20:5), satisfaction (Genesis 1:4)

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERSONAL GOD
1. Sovereign in regard to his will
a. “He does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth” (Daniel 4:35)
b. He is omnipotent and exists everywhere
2. Moral
a. Distinguished between good and evil
3. Long-suffering Patience & Faithfulness
a. Ex) Willing to delay judgment for Israelites (Exodus 32)
b. Ex2) Faithful promise to save believers (John 10)
4. Triune: The belief in the one God who exists as three separate persons – Father, Son, and Spirit
5. Power
a. His Creation and Providence
b. Source of all things including the cosmos with his own mind and plan
c. He assigns destiny to every created thing

GOD AS…
1. Judge
a. Holiness is associated with judgment
b. Always fair, right, and perfect
c. God judges because all humans are sinners
c.i. Ex) Great flood (Genesis 6-7)
c.ii. Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19)
c.iii. Deaths of Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10)
c.iv. Fall of the Canaanites (Leviticus 18-20)
c.v. Fall of Israel & Judah (2 Kings 17, 2 Chronicles 36)
2. Redeemer
a. God’s mercy – provides an advocate for every individual and saves humanity from his wrath
b. Central theme: Love
b.i. “God so loved the world that he have his only begotten son, that whoever believes in his should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16)
c. God’s Love is…
c.i. Universal
c.i.1. Loves every nation, tribe, race, class, and sex
c.ii. Gracious
c.ii.1. Love sinners who are undeserving and hating
c.ii.2. Covers our sin with grace
c.iii. Sacrificial
c.iii.1. Perfect and atoning sacrifice for humanity’s sin
c.iii.2. Similar to the concept of atonement in the Old Testament; different in that the second one is eternal while the first is temporary
c.iv. Beneficial
c.iv.1. All those who receive Christ will earn eternal benefits
c.iv.2. Followers will not be condemned or captive to sin
c.iv.3. Followers will be declared righteous, redeemed, forgiven, and gifted with new eternal life

Christianity Philosophy
Tommy Park Angie Lee Abby Wang

Introduction
1. Christianity doctrine = Requirement of faith
a. Naturalism and Marxism are firmly placed in science and enlightened human experience
b. Causes assumption: Christianity cannot have its own philosophy
c. No scientific methodology or ultimately logical and material explanation
d. Cannot prove the existence of God who is beyond material realm
2. Acquiescence of the assumption (by some Christians)
a. Evading the questions by claiming the subject is beyond logic
a.i. Common excuse of some Christians that lack reasoning for their belief
a.ii. This action piles onto the statement that Christians cannot have its own philosophy
b. Misinterpretation of Colossians 2:8
b.i. “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy.”
b.ii. Misses “which depend on human tradition and the basic principles of life RATHER than on Christ.”
3. Bible’s command
a. Isaiah calls upon the adherents to actually reason together for the Lord
a.i. God wants His people to defend their faith
a.ii. Somehow implies that there is a logical method to reason God
b. Questions still remain whether or not Christianity can be defended philosophically or scientifically
4. Merits of Christianity
a. Comprehensive and complete answers to the ‘big’ questions
a.i. How did I get here?
a.ii. What do I live for?
b. Encourages and attracts people who sincerely seek truth

Faith and Epistemology
1. Epistemological problem in Christianity
a. Truth seems unable to be known without conflicting science
a.i. Christianity’s major dependence on revelation
a.ii. Miracles and supernatural events that none had experienced
b. All knowing requires faith = Scientists have faith in scientific methodology
c. All worldviews rely on their respective premises
c.i. Not scientifically valid
c.ii. Out of logic or lacking evidence
c.iii. Assumption (it is, just because.)
d. All knowledge ultimately comes down to some fundamental assumptions
e. Faith precedes reason
2. The actual crucial problem
a. “Some thinkers place their trust in a set of assumptions in their search of truth, while other thinkers place their trust in a quite different set of assumptions.” – Warren C. Young
b. Sources are not inclusive to be sources of ALL truth
b.i. Science
b.ii. Experience
b.iii. Emotion
c. Christians realize that all sources cannot be perfect
c.i. Science can be flawed and mistaken, thus imperfect
c.ii. History can be distorted, inaccurate, and unrealistic, thus imperfect
d. Biblical revelation is true because God is perfect
3. Christian Philosophy
a. Comprehends and utilizes historical evidences
b. Bases on special revelation that is perceivable
c. Abides the law of evidence
d. Has the most rational philosophy among all worldviews
e. Requires less faith, indeed, than others

Reconciling Science and Christian Philosophy
1. Dichotomy in Cosmology
a. Science – All the precise cosmological constants and measurements to sustain life on Earth were happy accidents
b. Christianity – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)
c. Most people are inclined to believe the explanation that is most plausible (in this case the creation)
2. Ironic Ally
a. Scientific method is as limited as amiable to Christianity
b. Despite the common hostility from science to religion tenets presented, science mounts good reasons that support Christianity
3. Limitation of Science => Existence of God
a. Second Law of Thermodynamics
b. Impossibility of Spontaneous Generation of Life from Non-life
c. Genetic Information Theory
d. Anthropic Principle

The Origin of Science
1. Christianity, the Mother of Modern Science
a. Science does not threaten Christianity
b. The founders of modern science were Christians (creationists)
c. Belief in creation was the moment of truth for modern science
2. Orderly Universe
a. Should universe be chaotic and disordered, there would be no philosophical basis for science
b. Orderliness of Earth directs to the teleological argument
b.i. Law of Nature
b.ii. Law of Gravity

Metaphysics: Ontology/Cosmology
1. Metaphysics of Christianity
a. ‘Mere Christianity’
b. God is the source of all things as He is the ultimate reality, the Creator, and the Designer
2. No Logos, No Cosmos
a. 1 John 1:1-4 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…”
b. Parameters of Christian Philosophy sets in one flow
b.i. God before people
b.ii. Design before creation
b.iii. Logos before Cosmos
c. Every level of cosmos explains God’s logos
c.i. Atomic
c.ii. Organic
c.iii. Human
c.iv. Galaxy
3. Irrationality of Evolution
a. Evolution – all things are results of accidents
b. Equivalent to the claim that skyscrapers can be constructed without basis, plans, and builders

Mind/Body Problem and the Mental Proof
1. Mind as proof for God
a. Mind/Body Dualism
a.i. Brain – a matter that exists in us
a.ii. Mind – something more than a matter than exists within us
a.iii. The disparateness hints that there are material matters and matters beyond material (Higher Mind – God)
b. Mind/Body Monism
b.i. Body and mind are both material
b.ii. Implausibility to explain mind as a pure material substance leads to supernatural solution
2. Realism and Supernaturalism
a. Realism – Christian philosophy; what one encounters exists dependently upon God the Creator
b. Supernaturalism – Reality is more than nature; God intervenes in the nature
3. Materialist/Naturalist Dilemma
a. Naturalist thinking about nature does not attend to the fact that they are using their mind
a.i. Mind is not merely natural
a.ii. Their thinking itself directs to something other than nature
b. Supernatural is not distant from us, it is as close as breathing and daily activities
4. Inevitability of Supernaturalism
a. Mind is not accidental
b. The more we dig into science, the more we see mental experience as familiar phenomenon
c. As individual realizes and acknowledges the existence of mind distinguished from the material matter, belief in supernatural is unavoidable

Conclusion
1. Supernaturalism > Philosophy
a. Christianity, as supernaturalism, is more than philosophy, and is a holistic worldview
b. Christianity is consistent with the Bible
2. Inevitable Choice – Materialism or Supernaturalism
3. Christian Philosophy
a. It is coherent, rational, and truthful
b. Comprises purposeful life
c. Reflection of philosophy is life after all
d. Immutable, but the world is changeable
4. Christians must understand the other worldviews so that they can meet their challenge