In Edward Taylor’s Preface to God’s Determination, Taylor’s lyrical depiction of God’s creation describes God’s supernatural creation of the universe. Through the poem Taylor asks questions to stir the imagination of the audience and make them wonder how such a complex and magnificent world could be derived from nothing. In the conclusion he states that only by God’s infinite power could such a marvelous creation be derived.
In line one, “Infinity, when all things it beheld,” Taylor implies that God is Infinite and has always existed. In line two, he suggests that everything that exists was created from nothing at all. In the third line, “Upon what Base was fixed the Lath wherein” he is asking upon what base was this earth built on, but he capitalizes the word Base as if to symbolize that the base or foundation is God. “He turned this Globe,” In the beginning of line four Taylor simply states that, “He,” once again capitalized referring to God, “Turned this Globe,” where he is
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who did this? or who is He? Taylor questions who is responsible for such marvels, which of course is a question that has been previously answered in the preface by Taylor’s biblical allusions. Taylor’s literal response to this series of questions finally comes in the twentieth line of the preface, “It’s Only Might Almighty this did do,” where he refers to God as, “Almighty.” Line twenty-one yet again recognizes that it was God’s hand that created such marvels. Line twenty-two, “His Glorious Handiwork not made by hands,” simple says that the glorious work of his hands no work of man could ever compete with.
All this being said this preface was simply a work of praise to God and the creation he has blessed us with. Edward Taylor’s Biblical beliefs are very evident in this piece with his many references to the bible and to the beauty of God’s
The intricacy of a simple time telling device has sparked controversy about the creation of the universe. In William Paley’s “The Analogical Teleological Argument” he argues that the universe must have been created by a universe maker, God, due to its complexity. However, David Hume, provides an empiricist objection by arguing that one cannot prove the existence of a universe maker due to lack of experience regarding the creation of a universe. Ultimately, I will argue that Paley’s argument by design is not sufficient for proving God 's existence because, as individuals, we cannot assume that the world works the way we wish it.
Brown demonstrated the deity of Christ by focusing on Him as the Son of God and Word of God, who shares in the divine nature, and who revealed Himself to His people in the Old Testament (15-37). I enjoyed Brown’s treatment of the apparent conflict between the passages which declare that no one has seen God with the other passages which clearly state that God was seen by Abraham, Moses, and Jacob (27-34). As he put it, “it is Jesus the Messiah—the divine Son, the image of the invisible God, the Word made flesh, the exact representation of the Father’s being—who solves the riddle and explains how someone could really see God, even though God cannot be seen.
St. Thomas Aquinas presents five arguments to demonstrate the existence of God. However, this paper focuses on the fifth argument. The fifth argument is regarded as the Teleological Argument and states that things that lack intelligence act for some end or purpose. While the fifth argument satisfies God’s existence for Aquinas, some contemporary readers would argue that Aquinas neglects the laws of physics. Others argue that Aquinas allows a loophole in his argument so that the Catholic conception of God is not the only intelligent designer.
Throughout our course we have read and considered many ideas, however for the duration of this paper I will focus on two core ideas. These are the ideas that God is the first efficient cause and whether God is good. For the duration of this paper I will look at Aquinas’s five ways, Hume’s refutation of God being the efficient cause. Also Dostoevsky’s and Hume’s explanation that God is not good because of the abundance of pain. Throughout the class what I have come to learn and was most impacted by is that God is not what we prescribe him to be in our different religions. Also the arguments that always stood out for me were the arguments of Hume and his skepticism. It is my goal through this paper to explain that God is not the entity
To further illustrate how Dourley’s concept of a "deity-creating function" does not relegate god to a mental creation, consider the ...
The goal of this book review on Engaging God’s World written by Cornelius Plantinga Jr. is to examine his ideas on redemption, vocation in the Kingdom of God, and to explore his thoughts on Christian education as described in the book’s epilogue. Cornelius Plantinga Jr. discusses several key notes regarding redemption, such as salvation. Vocation in the Kingdom of God is another subject he touches on in relation to the way God works within His Kingdom connecting us to the ‘King of Kings’ as his ambassadors on earth. Lastly, Plantinga explains his view on how Christian education is important to sustain ourselves, earth now, and the New Earth.
Polkinghorne describes as “…see[ing] the world as creation is to believe that the mind of God lies behind its marvelous order and the will of God behind its fruitful history.” (555). He also believes that it is the human mind that makes the necessary and sometimes illogical leaps that has made science possible, and although science cannot explain the mind, it can be explained because humans are made in God’s image. These leaps are made so that humans can have some understanding of the world they live in, and even to see the universe as a creation and see the intelligent design woven into its fabric is not establishing that the divine being that created the universe plays with each part separately. Polkinghorne sees this as assuming God as a “grand Ordainer”, which does not control everything, but instead gives it the potential, within
Plantinga’s (2002) book Engaging God’s World consists of five parts: “Longing and Hope,” “Creation,” “The Fall,” “Redemption,” and “Vocation in the Kingdom of God.” Throughout the work, Plantinga references public speakers and activists, lyricists, philosophers, saints, and authors to help his audience connect to his perspective.
...s distributed in Theology 101 at the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle on 22 April 2008.
Upon contrasting the nature of the supernatural phenomena in the old testament and the new testament it becomes evident that within the bible there is a remarkable progressive shift in the nature of the biblical god, and most importantly his relationship with humanity. It is this evolution of the biblical god or more accurately the biblical concept of god that forms that results in the changing role of the supernatural in the bible.
... is playing favorites in whom he wants to grant salvation to while they are alive on Earth, there is no incentive for anyone to care. If God is so merciful, then these Calvinistic Puritan doctrines should not exist and everyone should be granted spiritual salvation and grace while they are alive on earth at all times. Edward Taylor’s arguments and symbolic imagery of the beauty of God and how gracious he is are highly questionable and shoddy – similar to God and Puritan theology.
In William Paley’s paradigm, the world is perfectly designed by a benevolent God who purposefully created everything and “superadded pleasure to animal sensations” (RP 47 ). Paley strongly believes the existence of a God who is wise and benevolent enough to create everything on earth with happiness and a purpose. For Paley, science is a tool to complement the greatness of religion and prove the importance of Design (RP 46). In order to support his paradigm, Paley illustrates the contrivance and work of God in nature with the methodological assumption of First Cause (the belief in the existence of God) and Final Cause (the belief that a God creates an object with a purpose). Additionally, the metaphysical assumption of a close, active God underlies the paradigm as a premise that influences e...
...of the entire Earth and Humans shown in the text of the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good”. God approved of what he had made and felt it was the perfect creation of Earth.
Through out history there have been questions of where we come from and how we got here. It all comes down to the question of God’s existence. God’s existence has never been questioned during the times of when Christianity, Judaism and Islam were born. The question of God’s existence comes from our new way of thinking after these religions. Science has made us think of how things work in our world and brings Gods existence into question. There were no scientific studies done during the days of Jesus to prove that God exists, so where did the people in history get this idea of God from? Many philosophers have been questioning and giving their ideas of God and his existence. The ideas that we may have of God is usually connected with religion and our beliefs. One philosopher that touches on this topic is Descartes. Descartes gives his ideas on God’s existence and his out look on our selves compared to God. Most religions believe that there is a God and that he has created everything around us. Everyone has a different answer to this question that they think is the right one. Throughout this paper, I will be discussing God’s existence, while looking at Descartes ideas and through different perspectives of whether or not God exist as well.
When God created the world “by faith is we understand that the world were framed by the word of God, so that the things which we see how did not come into being out of things which had previously appeared” (Athanasius...