God | Know your history (again) | Human nature, atonement, and salvation | Holy scripture | Arguments for God |
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What is Allah?
This is the Arabic word for God.
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Who is Muhammad?
The angel Gabriel revealed God's Word to this man. And thus began what is now the fasting growing religion in the world.
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What is original sin?
This exclusively Christian idea might be a more terse phrase for a unique immoral act. Do you like apples?
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What is revelation?
This word describes the way in which human beings have received the content of holy scripture in all three major Abrahamic religions. It is difficult not to reveal the answer to this one.
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What is the ontological argument?
St. Anselm offered this argument for God that moves from the concept of God to His existence.
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What is the trinity?
This doctrine was articulated in full not in the Bible, but by the Nicene Creed in the forth century. Jews and Muslims cover your ears, lest you be offended.
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Who are the Romans?
The Babylonians were responsible for the destruction of the First Temple in 587 AD; and these people were responsible for the destruction of its second iteration in 70 AD.
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What is fitra?
Human nature is viewed as essentially good in Islam. This state of purity, innocence, and submission is often described by this Arabic word.
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What are the Gospels?
The first one of these was written 40 years after the death of Jesus. And yet, fundamentalist Christians believe that they are dead accurate in depicting Jesus' deeds and words.
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What is the teleological argument?
This type of argument for the existence of God is based on the purported design and purposefulness of the natural world. It was persuasive... that is... until Darwin came along.
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What is tawhid?
This Islamic concept defines God as one and indivisible.
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What are indulgences?
Don't confuse these with a collection of decadent desserts... These items of absolution issued by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages were at the locus of grievances listed in Martin Luther's "95 Theses".
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What is Yom Kippur?
Jewish people traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting, intensive prayer, and synagogue attendance - all for the purpose of atoning for their sins.
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What is the Torah?
Christianity call the first five books of the Old Testament the Pentateuch. Jews call these books by this name.
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What is a watch?
William Paley's argument for God compares the design and purposefulness of objects in nature with the design and purposefulness of this object. You better not be late when answering this one!
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What is Adonai?
The name "Yaweh" is thought to be too sacred to utter by Jews. As such, they often replace "Yaweh" with this name when orally mentioning God by name.
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What is God (or Jesus, Abraham, Moses,...)?
One of the (many) people the Prophet Muhammad purportedly met during the Night of the Ascent in 621 AD.
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What are yetzer hatov and yetzer hara?
These are the two conflicting inclinations of human nature, according to Judaism.
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What are Surahs?
If I cite a passage from the Quran, I will use the notation of (#: #) [e.g., (4:31). The first number refers to these "chapters" that appear in the Quran from shortest to longest.
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What is existence only in the understand (mind)?
In the ontological argument, St. Anselm specifically makes a comparison between existence in reality and this, where the former is deemed superior.
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What is death on the cross?
Unlike Jews, Muslims view Jesus in high regard. Yet, they still don't view him as God or Savior. And they also reject this Christian biographical detail about Jesus. If you don't believe me, ask substitution theorists.
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What are 40 days?
This is the number of days Jesus, after his resurrection, walked the earth before being assumed into heaven.
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What is the penal substitution theory?
According to this theory of atonement, human sin is viewed as breaking God’s moral law, thereby requiring a just God to issue punishment. However, although humans are deserving of this punishment, Jesus takes the place of humans, thereby bearing the crux of all human sin.
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What is the Talmud?
Largely put together by the efforts of rabbis during the first centuries AD, this refers to the body of Jewish civil and ceremonial law and legend comprising the Mishnah and the Gemara.
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What is motion?
In the version of the cosmological argument covered in class, St. Thomas Aquinas appeals to this fact about the universe in order to prove that there must have been a Being at the beginning.
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