Happiness
Something that you enjoy for its own sake.
What is intrinsic value?
Unconditional love, mystery, being
What three qualities does Theologian, Michael Himes, attribute to God?
Our ability to choose or to reject what is right.
What is free will?
Ontology
What is the study of existence or being?
A cause and effect chain that reaches into the past indefinitely.
What is an infinite regress?
Imperfectly
According to Aquinas, how can we know God while on Earth?
Aquinas' Cosmological Argument by Degrees
Which Cosmological argument points to the fact that we attribute value based on whatever is at the top of a given scale of values?
Why be good if you don't have to be?
What is the question that Plato and Glaucon debate in their dialogue?
Efficient Cause
What is the force that shapes material into form?
Inductive Reasoning
What kind of reasoning uses individual observations to add up to a general truth?
Wealth, reputation, pleasure
What would Aquinas see as an unreliable basis for happiness?
Agape
What is the Greek name for unconditional love that is divine in nature?
Believing in God is a good bet: you have nothing to lose and potentially everything to gain.
What is Pascal's Wager?
Final Cause
What is the purpose for which something exists?
United in one human nature while we live. Separated only at death.
What is the Catholic understanding of how the body and soul relate to each other?
To be happy by knowing God (imperfectly now and perfectly after death).
What is the purpose of life according to Aquinas?
There must be a necessary being who created those who depend on others for their existence.
What is Aquinas' Cosmological Argument from Contingency?
Not knowing if God exists.
What is agnosticism?
I begin with a general idea from which I extract logical truths that follow.
What is deductive reasoning?
Our tendency to be cut off from God (mystery, love, and presence) and to therefore misuse our freedom.
What is Original Sin?
A person volunteers not because they enjoy it but because they want to improve their resume.
What is an example of instrumental value?
In Catholicism, our ability to perceive the design placed in creation by God.
What is intellect?
Any person would commit horrible acts if given unlimited power. We needs laws to control ourselves.
What is Glaucon's perspective in his dialogue with Plato?
What is the basic idea behind Anselm's Ontological Argument for God's Existence?
The universe was created by an intelligent force, as seen in the laws of science.
What is the Catholic Church's perspective on creation?