Apologetics Final

Our awareness of imperfection in love w receive is a reason to doubt God's existence.

The primary mission of the Church is to continue Christ's mission of salvation on earth

Jesus performed miracles by His own power, unlike earlier prophets who invoked the power of God.

The term philosophy comes from the Greek for "scientific certainty"

Myths appeal to us because they avoid symbols.

St. Thomas Aquinas used logical reasoning to prove there must be one uncaused being which created everything else

It makes logical sense that Jesus would est. a guiding and stabilizing authority ending once the Apostles were dead

Science has the same goal as religion: to understand the world as it really is

Many believe the Shroud is a Medieval forgery because a 1988 carbon-14 test dated it at 1350

The Catholic understanding of faith and reason is that they are opposed, and that faith contradicts reason.

Atheists say they cannot be sure whether or not God exists, while agnostics assert He does not exist

Love proceeds naturally to empathy

Feeling dissatisfied or angry by injustice is a sign of our desire for transcendental goodness or justice.

The blood on the Shroud is type A, with male DNA

Entropy means that every physical system, including our universe, and even a multiverse

Various world religions share some common characteristics but differ on how to make sense of them

NASA consultant Dr. Callahan reported the image of Our Lady Guadalupe shows perfectly symmetrical brushstrokes

God is Love seems to be a commonplace expression today, just as it was for Jesus' first listeners

Clear evidence exists that consciousness continues to exist after brain death.

Our experience of God is personal

The Borde-Vilenkin-Guth Proof has provided evidence for a beginning of the universe.

Contradictory things can all be true

The Church requires two documented, scientifically verified miracles before declaring someone is a saint

Mention of Jesus' reputation in the Talmud is notable because of this work's negative tone toward Jesus.

Worship includes public praise and prayer

In Aquinas' First Way, motion means "change"

Jesus associated Himself with the sacrificial lamb of the Passover

God's love is a spiritual reality, but is not made present to us in our human experiece

The Parable of the Prodigal Son shows us that God's law places mercy above justice

St. Paul lists hundreds of witnesses to the Resurrection, but implies none were still living to confirm what they saw

Calling a man the Lord would have been blasphemous in the eyes of other Jews

Similarities exist between reports from NDE's and the revelation and life of Jesus.

All the Gospels show the Apostles as initially doubtful of the Resurrection

Forty-five of the 58 pollen grains are from the Sea of Tranquility region about 2000 years ago

Christianity defines the love of God in a way very similar to other world religions

Without the Lutheran Church, there would not be any version of the Bible today.

Exorcisms were a relatively unimportant part of Jesus' ministry

The term "consecration" refers to rare external signs of Jesus' presence in the Eucharist (hosts that bleed)

The most striking sign given by Our Lady was on Juan Diego's hat, an imprinted image of Mary

Christianity was much more successful than other messianic movements of the time

The history of the Shroud of Turin is uncertain since 1349, when it was in France.

Jesus claimed to be God

If someone doesn't understand a philosophical proof, the proof is not valid

Using reason alone, we can know there is one creator who is the source of transcendental love, truth, beauty, goodness

There are three specific stories of Jesus raising the dead in the Gospels

Einstein believed that the universe gives us reason to believe in God.

Fr. Lemaitre theorized that galaxies were moving away form one another in fixed space.

During the Last Supper, Jesus uses the Greek word soma for body, which means the physical, corporeal body

St. Paul was the spokesman for the Church at Pentecost and afterwards

John the Baptist is the definitive source of our relationship with God

Christians bring others to Christ because people deserve to know about God's love

The Apostles performed miracles in Jesus' name

Jesus restores sight to Bartimaeus, and tells him his faith has made him well.

The possible future discovery of alien life in the universe must cause us to reevaluate our belief in God

During the sacred meal, Jesus broke the ritual bread, and took the cup of wine

Studies of patients with dementia/Alzheimers indicate consciousness is dependent on the brain.

Since there is an objective reality of God and His plan for us, religious texts need to be interpreted for ourselves

A son asking for his inheritance while his parents were still living was seen as reasonable in Jesus' time

St. James wrote that faith without works is valid

Human beings show awareness of perfect beauty when we strive for ever greater forms of perfection, art, music, poetry...

Jesus telling us to call God Father is important because names were seen as speaking to the heart of one's nature

Reports from NDE's that can be independently verified are considered true.

Archetypes are symbols that are specific to one culture

One of the weaknesses of NDE studies is that there is little or no similarity between them.

Jesus lived in a time when there was no religious division

Efficient causes can go on infinitely into the past

About 50,000 people gathered to witness the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, seen by people within 40km radius

We can know the image was not painted, dyed, because the image is uniform throughout the layers of the cloth

Jesus' enemies denied that he performed miracles

Given the trillions of stars/billions of galaxies, it's likely a number of planets would favor life