Catechism Of The Catholic Church; Imprimi Potest +Joseph ...



Worksheet 1: Understanding a world view

Catechism Of The Catholic Church; Imprimi Potest +Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Sydney.. St. Paul’s Publications, 1994

Part 1: The Profession Of Faith

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1. The Desire For God

27. The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by god and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exits, it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.

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Questions

1. What aspects of human life enable one to make sense of the world?

2. In all the countless definitions provided by scholars, the only common agreement seems to be about ‘something beyond the ordinary’ – religion has a transcendent dimension – and that religion helps in some way to map a course through life’s obstacles and limitations of human existence. Living Religion p15

i. What are life’s “obstacles and limitations?”

ii. Why do humans seek “something beyond the ordinary?”

iii. Should we see religion as a ‘fill-in-the-gaps’ approach to life?

iv. Why is “love” so important to human understanding?

Worksheet 2: Understanding a world view

Catechism Of The Catholic Church; Imprimi Potest +Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Sydney.. St. Paul’s Publications, 1994

Part 1: The Profession Of Faith

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28. In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behaviour; in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being:

From one ancestor (God) made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him- though indeed He is not far from each one of us. For “in him we live and move and have our being.” GS 19. 1

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Questions

1. What expressions of “religious beliefs and behaviours” is the Catechism referring to in 28?

2. What is meant by the term ‘ambiguity’ in the context of the passage?

3. Why is religious expression considered universal?

4. Explain, in your own words, what Genesis 19 is saying.

5. What makes humanity a spiritual creature?

Worksheet 3: Understanding a world view

Catechism Of The Catholic Church; Imprimi Potest +Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Sydney.. St. Paul’s Publications, 1994

Part 1: The Profession Of Faith

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33. The human person: With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the “seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material,” can have its origin only in God.

GS 18.1

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Questions

1. Is the print that, “man questions” a universal truth?

2. Is there a significance that this extract comes from the Catholic Catechism?

3. How does a human, “discern signs?”

4. Why is the idea of a soul the, “seed of eternity?”

5. What universal observations in terms of a world view can be made from this extract?

6.

Worksheet 4: Understanding a world view

Catechism Of The Catholic Church; Imprimi Potest +Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Sydney.. St. Paul’s Publications, 1994

Part 1: The Profession Of Faith

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47. The Church teaches that the one true God, our creator and Lord, can be known with certainty from his works, by the natural light of human reason

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Cloze passage

One of the most remarkable 1 ___________________ in the history of ideas is that most of the world’s 2. ___________________ found their fundamental and enduring forms at about the same time. In the short span of a few centuries (approximately 800 to 400 BCE) a new calibre of religious 3. ___________________ became established in the traditions in China, India and the Middle East. All over the world, almost simultaneously, without any region knowing of the activity in other regions, religious traditions everywhere secured a new 4. ___________________ and clarity of

5. ___________________ into the biggest questions of life, the universe and everything. With this 6. ___________________ of consciousness into the basic forms they continue to maintain today.

All over the world, wherever people were 7. ___________________ suddenly they began to make sense of human life and death in the light of a higher and more

8. ___________________ reality. In that period around 500 BCE, human consciousness passed over a threshold and reached into the realm of 9. ________________ in every sense. Karl 10. ___________________, who coined the phrase ‘Axial Period’ to refer to this extraordinary time, says,

What is new about this age, in all three areas of the world, is that man becomes conscious of Being as a whole, of himself and his limitation’, and in the face of those limits ‘he strives for liberation and redemption.’ (The Origin and Goal of History; p2)

enduring depth advance coincidences insight universality writing religions Jaspers consciousness

Group 1

Defining the term ‘supernatural.’

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

The term supernatural comes from the Latin ‘super’ – exceeding and the word ‘nature’

As an adjective;

• Refers to or relating to existence outside the natural world

(Extramundane, extrasensory, metaphysical, miraculous, preternatural, superhuman, superphysical, supersensible, transcendental, unearthly)

• Attributed to a power that seems to violate or go beyond natural forces

(Preternatural, unnatural, unusual)

• Relating to a deity

• Relating to the immediate exercise of divine power; is miraculous

As a noun

Supernatural forces and events and beings collectively; the occult

Wikipedia

The supernatural comprises forces and phenomena that cannot be perceived by natural or empirical senses, and whose understanding may be said to lie with religious, magical or otherwise mysterious explanation – yet remains firmly outside of the realm of science. The term supernatural is often used interchangeably with paranormal or preternatural the latter typically limited to an adjective for describing abilities which appear to exceed possible bounds.

Supernatural claims assert phenomena beyond the realm of current scientific understanding, and may likewise be in direct conflict with scientific concepts of possibility or plausibility. The supernatural concept is generally identified with religion or other belief systems – though there is much debate as to whether a supernatural is necessary for religion, or that religion is necessary for holding a concept of the supernatural.

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Group 2

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

Views on the supernatural

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The supernatural as distinct from nature

In this, the most common view, the term supernatural is contrasted with the term natural, which presumes that some events occur according to natural laws, and others do not, because they are caused by forces external to nature. In essence, the world is seen as operating according to natural law “normally” until a force external such as God interferes.

The supernatural as sovereign over nature

Other people, particularly in Eastern Christianity, deny any distinction between Natural; and Supernatural. According to this view, because god is sovereign, all events are directly caused by Him. The only meaningful distinction that remains is events which God causes to happen regularly, and events which God causes to happen rarely.

Group 3

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

The supernatural as manifested through nature

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A view, held by men such as Albert Einstein, asserts that god makes himself known through the beauty and order of nature, but is not a personal God concerned with human moral activity, and does not violate the laws of nature which He created.

The supernatural as a higher nature

Others assert that events that appear to us to be supernatural occur according to natural laws which we do not yet understand. In contrast to the supernaturalists, they assert that all things operate according to a law of nature. In contrast to atheists, they assert that god, miracles, or other supernatural phenomena are real, verifiable, and part of the laws of nature that we do not yet understand.

Group 4

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

The supernatural as a human coping mechanism

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There are those that believe, particularly among the sceptical academic community, that all events have natural and have only natural causes. They believe that human beings ascribe supernatural attributes to purely natural events in an attempt to cope with fear and / or ignorance.

What examples can you develop?

Group 5

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

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It should be noted there may be a persistent link between supernaturalism, the paranormal, and the desire for immortality.

Can you site examples?

Group 6

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

Arguments in favour of supernaturality.

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2.

Believers argue that many of history’s greatest scientists, including Galileo, Isaac Newton, Gregor Mendel and Albert Einstein, appear to have believed firmly in a GOD behind the universe (Still Einstein explicitly denied the existence of the supernatural and an afterlife)

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Newton Mendel Galileo

Some believers also acknowledge that, because freedom of speech on religious matters is a relatively recent development, it would have been impossible for many of the great scientists, such as Galileo, to express doubts about the existence of a deity, let alone to openly avow atheism.

Group 7

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

Arguments for supernaturality

3.

Believers conclude that some people have invented religions to help them cope with frightening and unexplainable phenomena; others have come to believe in supernatural phenomena through intellectually honest means, having been persuaded by reason, evidence and experience that the universe cannot be explained by naturalistic explanations alone, but it is best understood by acknowledging the supernatural.

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4.

Some of the modern biblical scholarships are based on the assumption that the supernatural does not exist, or that God is far less involved in the world than commonly supposed (deism). Many theists believe that this biases the results, and is of itself equivalent to a religious position.

The Jews do not accept the claims made in the Christian New Testament; similarly Christians do not accept the supernatural claims made by the Qur’an

Group 8

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

Arguments against supernaturality

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2.

Our knowledge of the world is continuously increasing. Some phenomena, once assumed supernatural, can today be explained by scientific theories, while others could be dismissed as myths. Volcanoes were considered deities and natural calamites the actions of the gods. People sacrificed animals and even other people to please their gods. If current understanding is the gauge of supernaturality, its realm is ever decreasing and very subjective.

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Group 9

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

Arguments against supernaturality

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3.

Science does not claim that phenomena contradicting our intuitive view of the world are impossible to occur. Scientist’s study such phenomena each day. In fact some scientific theories, such as quantum mechanics, are much more counterintuitive than any supernatural concept.

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Many claimed supernatural phenomena VANISH WHEN THEY ARE CLOSELY EXAMINED. There have been, for example, various studies in astrology, most of them with negative results. A single positive result cannot outweigh many negative ones, as it can be expected by mere chance.

4.

Supernaturality is a remnant of a static world. It comes from a time, when the growth of human knowledge was barely noticeable within a human lifetime. The Aristotelian Mechanics were considered valid for more than a thousand years. At that time human knowledge seemed static and anything exceeding it seemed to be from a different world. Even today people still tyr to describe the world by unchanging laws of nature and declare that anything beyond this framework is inaccessible to human understanding.

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Group 10

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

Alleged instances of supernaturalisation

• In the Hebrew Bible, plagues and other misfortunes are described as signs of God’s anger or vengeance.

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• J. Keir Howard of the Diocese of Wellington Institute of Theology, New Zealand, notes that,

Until there was any proper understanding of the causative factors in disease and the actual disease themselves, there was a tendency to see sickness as a result of divine visitations and punishment for wrongdoing.

• English Protestants believed that the defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588 was a sign of god’s favour for their cause

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• Some fundamentalist American Christians have interpreted the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York on 11 Sept. 2001 as a sign of God’s anger at various and sundry things, including secularism.

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• Some Muslims interpreted the loss of the space shuttle Columbia whose crew included an Israeli Jew and an Indian-American Hindu, as a sign of God’s anger at America, Israel and Hinduism.

• In Japan the scattering of the aggressive Mogul-Korean fleets in 1274 and 1281 was attributed to the Kamikaze or divine wind.

Group 11

Task

Read the information below and create a succinct summary, in your own words, that can be presented to the class.

Dualism

Philosophy of the mind

The view that the mental and the physical have a fundamentally different nature as an answer to the mind-body problem

Idealism

(philosophy)

any theory positing the primacy of the spirit, mind, or language over matter. It includes claiming that thought has some crucial role in making the world the way it is.

Vitalism

The doctrine that life cannot be explained solely by mechanism. Often, the non-material element is referred to as the soul, the vital spark or a kind of energy.

Naturalism

Rejects the validity of explanations or theories making use of entities inaccessible to natural science

Materialism

The view that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are comprised of material. Materialism is typically contrasted with dualism, idealism and vitalism.

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The supernatural as magic

Since the belief in magic is very old and held a great power over the minds and imagination of earlier generations long before the concept of experimental science, some historians of conjuring and magic think the supernatural is a surviving form of magic. In the human quest for understanding and survival, magic may be seen as a complement to science. Both science and magic stem from the human imagination, observation and contemplation: but whereas science requires time, resources, boundless curiosity, and flexibility, magic provides an immediate solution, more appealing to the unscientific mind, and requiring little or no resources.

1.

Many people note that the complexities and mysteries of the universe cannot be explained by naturalistic explanations alone and argue that it is equally reasonable to presume that a person or persons controls the unexplained as to presume that no person does, because neither explanation is verifiable or falsifiable until all phenomena have been explained. Believer’s note that it is unlikely that all phenomena will e explained soon. Believers conclude that, for the moment anyway, theistic and atheistic interpretations of unexplained phenomena are on equal intellectual and philosophical footing.

Some of the young people wanted Church to be more exciting!

1.

While the exact definition varies, any concept of supernaturality requires that supernatural phenomena are not accessible by the scientific method. Contrary to common prejudices science is not restricted to experiments in a laboratory, but can be based on any from of experience. If a phenomenon is by definition outside the realm of science, it therefore cannot be experienced and has by definition no impact on our lives. Our lifespan, for example, does affect us and any factors increasing or decreasing it can be studied scientifically. This view is supported by the immense success of science. Scientific medicine proved much more successful in increasing the lifespan of people, than anything based on the supernatural.

Science only happens when you are not watching!

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