EXAMINING THE EVIDENCE FOR GODS EXISTENCE The fool

EXAMINING THE EVIDENCE FOR GOD’S EXISTENCE

The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God, " They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good. Psalm 53: 1

So what keeps man from understanding who God is? 1. Personal and society’s sin – Romans 1: 21 -25 2. Satan’s blinding power – II Corinthians 4: 3 -4 3. Unwillingness to submit one’s life in obedience to Christ – John 7: 16 -17 4. God’s hiddeness and desire to be pursued – Acts 17: 26 -27

II. Five Philosophical Arguments for the Existence of God

IV. The Evidence For God Creating The Universe

The evidence for creation that the Bible offers… Remember The Teleological (meaning from design) Argument by William Paley (17431805) n Today “Intelligent Design” is the modern term for the same argument n Although the Bible technically doesn’t offer ID as proof, it does as offer it as overwhelming evidence of God creating the universe. n

The Bible on ID… n n New Testament – Romans 1: 19 -20 a. “Clearly seen” – GK. Clearly seen" - GK. Kathorao = denotes to discern clearly b. Oxymoron – invisible / clearly seen Psalm 19: 1 - "The heavens are telling. . . "

IV. What if God didn’t exist?

1. Then there would be no ultimate purpose to life

2. Then there would be no problem of evil, pain, and suffering. n n n Natural disasters – Hurricane Katrina Diseases - Cancer Man’s cruelty

3. Then there would not be moral absolutes If there is no God, then I am God. Dostoyevsky No right or wrong or evil, just moral relativism There would not be ten commandments, only one. “Don’t get caught. ”

4. Then there is no ultimate justice “…because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. ” Acts 17: 31

5. Then love would just be meaningless sentiment For, if there is no God, then one faces the problem of goodness, beauty, truth, all that is lovely in music and art, all that is admirable in character. Nothing would be special about being courageous rather than being a coward. All of it is just nothing.

6. Then there is no real value in relationships As humans we place tremendous significance on our relationships with family, friends and those we care for. Even though we seem made for relationship, it all ends up going nowhere if God doesn’t exist.

7. Then is no hope or after life Eternal annihilation is incongruent with man’s very nature. …remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Ephesians 2: 12

8. Then is no free will If a powerful enough computer could be made, all of your choices, thoughts, and actions could be predicted. Criminals were only doing what they could only have done.

9. Then there is no sanctity of human life The problem with radio debates n Abortion, euthanasia, sex outside of marriage and assisted suicides are not wrong if there is no God. n

10. Then humans would not wrestle with the above issues

VI. The Anthropic Principle

Stonehenge

Professor Dumbstuff’s new revolutionary whirlsand theory on the origin of Stonehenge

In essence, the whirlsand theory holds that over millions of years, fine particles of abrasive sand carried by multiple tornados at extreme velocities, shaped a small stone hill into what we call Stonehenge today.

No person with average intelligence would accept the whirlsand theory, or any other theory which rejected intelligent design.

What characteristics of Stonehenge point to intelligent design? 1. Stonehenge does not appear random. 2. Stonehenge appears to have a purpose 3. The building materials are not from the immediate environment 4. The probability factor favors

If on a level of complexity, Stonehenge rated a one, then the human body must rate a million. Then why does the prevailing scientific community hold to something as silly as an atheistic evolutionary model?

"What is intelligent design? " was a question on Jeopardy to which the answer was something like "a theory which is a 'rival to evolution. '" The reported category was "Smart Stuff. " It looks like ID is making its way into popular culture. (11/03)

The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.

The Amazing Human Body Systems are the most complex of the component units of the human body. A system is an organization of varying numbers and kinds of organs so arranged that together they can perform complex functions for the body. Ten major systems compose the human body:

1. Skeletal 2. Muscular 3. Nervous 4. Endocrine (Glands) 5. Cardiovascular 6. Lymphatic 7. Respiratory 8. Digestive 9. Urinary 10. Reproductive

The Cell and DNA Every living cell contains DNA which contains the “instructions” on how to build a human being n At conception, a fertilized egg contains enough information to fill a thousand books of five hundred pages, each requiring a microscope to read it. n A human body contains enough coded information that if it were printed in books would fill the Grand Canyon fifty times.

Just to pick one body part, the eye… 1. Lens 2. Retina – sees images upside down. Requires a complex chemical system which converts the photons in light to electrons, then sends it to the optic nerve. 3. Optic nerve is the “wire” to the brain 4. Visual signals go to the geniculate body where the images are first organized 5. Signals next sent to occipital cortex where image is turned right-side-up 6. Finally the signals are sent to the frontal lobes in the brain where recognition occurs

I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, And my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139: 14

The Universe and Anthropic Principle Anthropic principle: The observation that the universe has all the necessary and narrowly defined characteristics to make man and his sustained existence possible. A few examples of the universe’s fine tuning:

2. Parent star birth date n if more recent: star would not yet have reached stable burning phase n if less recent: stellar system would not yet contain enough heavy elements

4. Parent star distance from center of galaxy n if greater: not enough heavy elements to make rocky planets n if less: stellar density and radiation would he too great

5. Parent star mass n if greater: luminosity output from the star would not be sufficiently stable n if less: range of distances appropriate for life would be too narrow; tidal forces would disrupt the rotational period for a planet of the right distance

6. Parent star color n if redder: insufficient photosynthetic response n if bluer: insufficient photosynthetic response

7. Surface gravity n if stronger: planet's atmosphere would retain huge amounts of ammonia and methane n if weaker: planet's atmosphere would lose too much water

8. Distance from parent star n if farther away: too cool for a stable water cycle n if closer: too warm for a stable water cycle

9. Thickness of crust n if thicker: too much oxygen would he transferred from the atmosphere to the crust n if thinner: volcanic and tectonic activity would be too great

10. Rotation period n if longer: diurnal temperature differences would he too great n if shorter: atmospheric wind velocities would he too great

11. Gravitational interaction with a moon n if greater: tidal effects on the oceans, atmosphere, and rotational period would he too severe n if less: earth's orbital obliquity would change too much causing climatic instabilities

13. Axial tilt n if greater: surface temperature differences would be too great n if less: surface temperature differences would he too great

14. Albedo (ratio of reflected light to total amount falling on surface) n if greater: runaway ice age would develop n if less: runaway greenhouse effect would develop

15. Oxygen to nitrogen ratio in atmosphere n if larger: life functions would proceed too quickly n if smaller: life functions would proceed too slowly

16. Carbon dioxide and water vapor levels in atmosphere n if greater: runaway greenhouse effect would develop n if less: insufficient greenhouse effect

17. Ozone level in atmosphere n if greater: surface temperatures would become too low n if less: surface temperatures would he too high; too much UV radiation at surface

18. Atmospheric electric discharge rate n if greater: too much fire destruction n if less: too little nitrogen fixing in the soil

19. Seismic activity n if greater: destruction of too many life-forms n if less: nutrients on ocean floors would not be uplifted

Sir Fred Hoyle (not a Christian) described the atheistic concept that disorder gives rise to order in a rather picturesque manner. He observed that “the chance that higher forms have emerged in this way is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein. ” Hoyle, Fred (1981 b), “Hoyle on Evolution, ” Nature, Vol. 294, Nov. 12.

(For the choir director. A Psalm of David. ) The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Psalm 19: 1

VII. Arguments against the existence of God

1. Evil: Because evil exists, God cannot be all-powerful. All knowing and loving and good at the same time.

2. Pain: Because God allows pain, disease and natural disasters to exist, he cannot be all-powerful and also loving and good in the human sense of these words.

3. Injustice: Destinies are not allocated on the basis of merit or equality. They are allocated either arbitrarily, or on the principle of "to him who has, shall be given, and from him who has not shall be taken even that which he has. " It follows that God cannot be all-powerful and all-knowing and also just in the human sense of the word.

4. Multiplicity: Since the Gods of various religions differ widely in their characteristics, only one of these religions, or none, can be right about God.

5. Simplicity: Since God is invisible, and the universe is no different than if he did not exist, it is simpler to assume he does not exist. This is Occam’s Razor argument.