agnosticism | the claim that there is not enough evidence for us to know whether God does or does not exist; sometimes called religious skepticism
|
|
|
|
atheism | the claim that God does not exist
|
|
|
|
contingent being | a being whose existence depends on something outside itself, such that neither its existence nor its nonexistence is logically necessary
|
|
|
|
evidentialism | the claim that belief in God must be supported by objective evidence
|
|
|
|
fideism | the claim that religious belief must be based on faith alone and cannot be justified by appeal to either objective or subjective reasons
|
|
|
|
free will defense | the claim that God could not create creatures (such as us) who have freedom of the will but who are incapable of doing evil
|
|
|
|
greater goods defense | the claim that God allows some evil to exist because it is necessary to the achievement of a greater good
|
|
|
|
karma | in Hinduism, the moral law of cause and effect that governs our actions in the world
|
|
|
|
monotheism | the claim that one God created the world and sustains it while transcending it
|
|
|
|
moral evil | bad actions and their unfortunate results for which humans (or other moral agents) are morally responsible
|
|
|
|
natural evil | the suffering to humans and animals resulting from natural causes such as genetic defects, diseases, earthquakes, and tornadoes
|
|
|
|
natural theology | the project of attempting to provide proofs for the existence of God based on reason and experience alone
|
|
|
|
necessary being | a being who contains the reason for its existence within its own nature
|
|
|
|
nirvana | In Buddhism, an unchanging, peaceful state of mind that allows us freedom from the illusion of individuality and the limitations of the self
|
|
|
|
nonevidentialism | the claim that it is not rationally required to have objective, rational evidence for our basic beliefs and stance toward life
|
|
|
|
principle of sufficient reason | the principle that everything that exists must have a reason that explains why it exists and why it has the properties that it does
|
|
|
|
problem of evil | the difficulty of reconciling the existence of suffering and other evils in the world with the existence of God
|
|
|
|
reincarnation | the doctrine that your soul came from a previous form of existence and that when you die you will be reborn into another life
|
|
|
|
teleological argument | the argument for God's existence based on the evidence of design in the world
|
|
|
|
theodicy | the attempt to justify God's permitting evil to occur in the world
|