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neurologyYou need to know

• Paley's design argument is an a posteriori analogical argument which claims that the order, complexity and apparent purpose in the world are like the parts of a watch, so they point to an intelligent designer, namely God.
• Hume criticises the design argument by arguing that the universe is not sufficiently like a machine for the analogy to be strong, that order could arise by chance or other causes, and that an imperfect world cannot prove a perfect God.
• Anselm's ontological argument is an a priori argument which defines God as the greatest conceivable being and claims that such a being must exist in reality because existence in reality is greater than existence only in the mind.
• Gaunilo objects to Anselm by using the parody of a perfect island to show that defining something as perfect does not make it real, and Kant argues that existence is not a real predicate that adds a quality to a being.
• Aquinas' Third Way is a cosmological argument from contingency which states that contingent beings exist but cannot explain their own existence, so there must be a necessary being on which all contingent beings depend.
• Hume and Russell criticise cosmological arguments by denying that causal reasoning about the universe proves God, questioning the move from parts to whole, and suggesting that the universe may simply be a brute fact.
• The design and cosmological arguments are based on observation and are a posteriori, whereas the ontological argument is based on thought alone and is a priori, and this difference affects whether they are seen as proofs or as support for faith.
• Moral evil refers to suffering caused by human choices, natural evil refers to suffering caused by natural processes, the logical problem claims that evil is incompatible with an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God, and the evidential problem claims that evil makes God's existence unlikely.
• Hick's soul-making theodicy says that God allows suffering so humans can develop moral and spiritual virtues in an environment with epistemic distance, the free will defence says that evil results from the misuse of genuine human freedom, and Griffin's process theodicy says that God persuades creation but does not have coercive omnipotence.
• Religious experiences can include corporeal, imaginative and intellectual visions, Otto's numinous experience of the wholly other, and mystical experiences described by James and Stace as a direct, non-sensuous union with the divine, but their credibility is challenged by subjectivity, alternative scientific explanations and lack of public verification.
• Swinburne's principle of credulity says that experiences should generally be accepted as genuine unless there is good reason to doubt them, and his principle of testimony says that reports of experiences should generally be believed unless there is evidence against them.
• Religious language is cognitive if it makes factual truth claims and non-cognitive if it mainly expresses attitudes, commitments or ways of seeing the world.
• The verification principle claims that a statement is meaningful only if it is analytic or empirically verifiable, and the falsification principle claims that a genuine assertion must be open to being shown false, so both challenge the meaningfulness of many religious statements.
• Hick's idea of eschatological verification argues that some religious claims can be verified after death, Hare's blik theory treats religious utterances as expressions of an unfalsifiable worldview, and Wittgenstein's language games claim that religious language gains meaning from its use within a form of life.
• Tillich argues that religious language is symbolic because it points beyond itself to ultimate reality, Aquinas argues that language about God is analogical rather than literal or completely different, and the Via Negativa says that God is best described by stating what God is not.
• A realist view of miracles treats them as objective acts of God in the world, an anti-realist view treats them as events given religious meaning by believers, Hume argues that miracle claims are less credible than the possibility of error or deceit in testimony, and Wiles argues that God does not intervene selectively to break natural laws.
• Descartes argues that the soul or mind is distinct from the body because the thinking self can be known with certainty even when the body is doubted, and this dualism raises questions about how body and soul interact and whether personal identity can continue after death.
• Aquinas' natural moral law is a deontological theory based on human purpose and the primary precepts of preserving life, reproducing, educating offspring, living in society and worshipping God, the principle of double effect permits a bad side effect if it is not intended and there is a proportionate reason, and proportionalism allows exceptions to rules when there is a sufficiently serious reason.
• Situation ethics is a teleological theory which judges each case by the most loving outcome according to agape, whereas Aristotle's virtue ethics focuses on forming a virtuous character and using practical wisdom to achieve eudaimonia, so these theories can reach different judgements about actions such as lying and theft.
• Divine Command Theory says that right is what God commands and wrong is what God forbids, Bentham's utilitarian naturalism judges actions by the pleasure and pain they produce, intuitionism says that basic moral truths are self-evident, Kant judges actions by duty and the categorical imperative, and views of conscience and moral responsibility differ according to whether people are seen as free, determined or both.

• Distinguish between a priori and a posteriori arguments, correctly locating Paley, Anselm and Aquinas and identifying their main premises and conclusions.
• Evaluate the strength of arguments for God's existence by testing the quality of analogy, the logic of the reasoning, the meaning of key concepts such as necessity and contingency, and whether the conclusion supports the God of classical theism.
• Differentiate natural evil from moral evil and assess whether Hick's soul-making theodicy, the free will defence or Griffin's process theodicy best addresses the logical or evidential problem of evil.
• Classify accounts of religious experience as visions, numinous experiences or mystical experiences, and judge their credibility by weighing alternative explanations against Swinburne's principles of credulity and testimony.
• Analyse examples of religious language from cognitive and non-cognitive perspectives, applying verification, falsification, eschatological verification, blik, language games, symbol, analogy and Via Negativa accurately.
• Compare scholars' views by identifying at least one clear agreement, one clear disagreement and the significance of each position for religious belief, for example Hume and Wiles on miracles or Bentham and Kant on moral decision making.
• Apply natural moral law, proportionalism, situation ethics and virtue ethics to cases involving theft, lying, abortion, euthanasia, embryo research and animal use, justifying a conclusion from the theory's own principles.
• Construct reasoned judgements about free will, moral responsibility and conscience, using terms such as libertarianism, hard determinism and compatibilism accurately and linking conclusions to reward and punishment.
• Use specialist terminology precisely in extended responses, including terms such as theodicy, numinous, contingency, cognitive, non-cognitive, deontological and teleological.