By Jagrav and Rahul

 Theist - A person who believes in God  Atheist - A person who believes there is no God  Agnostic - A person who believes we cannot be sure whether God exists.  Creation - The act by which God brought the universe into being.  Religious Experience- An experience that is outside normal experience, usually the supernatural.  Morality - A system of ethics which distinguishes between right and wrong.  Conscience - The inner feeling you are doing right or wrong.  Faith - A commitment to something that goes beyond proof and knowledge.  Miracle - A seemingly impossible occurrence, usually good.

 There are three main ways by which the existence of things is proved:  1) Personal Experience.  2) Reliable Evidence.  3)Using a chain of reasoning to reach a conclusion.

Theists would argue that :  Everything that exists was caused to exist by something else.  The universe exists, so the universe was caused to exist by something else.  This ‘chain of cause and effect’ cannot go on and on forever, there must be a starting point, or ‘first cause’.  The only thing that this could be is God.  Therefore, God exists. St Thomas Aquinas’s First Cause Argument :  St Thomas Aquinas was a Christian who believed that the universe had a beginning. He argued that as things cannot cause themselves to come into existence, then the universe must have caused to exist by something outside the universe. He argued that this was God.

 The basic problem with the First Cause Argument is that is depends on the universe having a beginning, and it is possible that the universe is infinite. Also, even if we are able to prove that the universe had a beginning, we cannot prove that it was God who caused this to happen.  The Big Bang Theory: The Big Bang is a theory that many scientists would argue to how the universe came into existence. The theory states that about 13.7 billion years ago all the matter in the Universe was concentrated into a single incredibly tiny point. This began to enlarge rapidly in a hot explosion, and it is still expanding today. Atheists often use the Big Bang Theory to reject the existence of God, and that religious accounts of creation are just myths.

 The Design Argument states that the universe is too ordered and complicated to have come about by random chance; therefore, it must have been designed. A design needs to have a designer, therefore the designer of the universe is God. William Paley’s Design Argument :  Paley argued that if we found a watch, even if we did not know its function, we would know that there is evidence of design as the parts have been put together for a purpose. In the same way, if we look at the natural world, we can tell there is evidence of design.  Paley used the example of things that are just right for their purpose, such as the eye for sight and fish gills for breathing under water. He argued that things that are designed need a designer. Therefore the designer was God.

 The basic problem with the Teleological argument is that it depends on the universe having a beginning, and it is possible that the universe is infinite. Even if we are able to prove that the universe had a beginning, we cannot prove that it was God who caused it to happen.  The Theory of Evolution: Many atheists use Darwin’s theory of evolution to account for apparent design in the world. Atheists would argue that it is through evolution that features such as opposable thumb developed and not design by God. Atheists such as Richard Dawkins argue that it is evolution that has given the appearance of design, not God. Some theists argue that if humans had evolved through natural selection, then they would not need to write books, paint pictures or create music to survive. The fact that humans can do these things suggests that we are designed and, for theists, this designer is God.

 Miracle- a seemingly impossible occurrence, usually good. There are two types of miracle : 1) Events that break the laws of nature and cannot be explained by the sciences. 2) Events which no laws of nature are broken but a coincidence occurs at just the right time to cause a good outcome. A miracle could be the cure of a terminal illness or a disability that doctors cannot explain. However, to be a miracle there needs to be some religious significance or purpose to the event; such as strengthening of faith or the demonstration of God’s love. The Miracle of Stairwell B, 11 th September 2001: The miracle of stairwell B was an incident in 2001 that people believed to have been a miracle. This was when 16 people survived when the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed after the terrorist attack on 9/11. The fact that these people survived when nearly 3000 people died is regarded by many people as a miracle.

 Religious Experience- An experience that is outside normal experience, usually involving the supernatural Some theists are certain that God exists because they claim to have experienced God. A religious experience can occur to either an individual or group of people. Religious experiences that believers may claim to have had include:  Communicating with God through prayer and meditation  Feeling God’s presence in worship  Feeling the presence of God in nature  Experiencing a conversion  Involvement in a miraculous event

 When people claim to have met God personally, it’s called a religious experience.  They may claim: -communication through prayers and meditation -feeling God’s presence in worship -feeling God’s presence in nature -involvement in a miracle. -experiencing a conversion(God had contacted them directly and changed their beliefs in God). Where Rahul started

 Morality is a system of ethics which distinguishes between right and wrong.  Conscience is the inner feeling, you are doing right or wrong.  Religious believers argue that: We have an inbuilt sense of morality. This sense comes from an outside source This source is God Therefore God exists. Counter- Atheists suggest some people behave in a moral way and don’t receive a happy life. Counter Counter- Theists argue that they will be rewarded after death.

 Atheists argue that morality is just the human development through evolution.  Morality is needed to survive, people who cooperate are more likely to survive.  Atheists believe that guilt comes when someone has gone against their moral rules provided by society, religion and/or family.  Theists that agree with the theory of evolution would suggest that morality helps people to survive (God’s design for human development).  Theists also argue that guilt is God telling them they have done wrong.