3. Theism
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Summary of Last Week’s Lesson:
Summary of Last Week’s Lesson:
(1:37) QA with Sean McDowell: https://app.rightnowmedia.org/en/player/video/326912?session=326914
Two approaches to truth:
Two approaches to truth:
Moral relativism is the belief that morality is not absolute and universal but rather conditioned by culture. No one system of belief is, therefore, superior to others or objectively “right.”
Moral relativism is the belief that morality is not absolute and universal but rather conditioned by culture. No one system of belief is, therefore, superior to others or objectively “right.”
Moral Objectivism is the belief that there is a universal, unchanging, transcendent standard of right and wrong, truth and falsehood.
Moral Objectivism is the belief that there is a universal, unchanging, transcendent standard of right and wrong, truth and falsehood.
(4:00) QA with Sean McDowell: https://app.rightnowmedia.org/en/player/video/326912?session=326915
What are some arguments that you’ve heard for why people think God doesn’t exist?
What are some of the best arguments you’ve heard for why God does exist?
Arguments for the existence of God:
The Moral Argument
The Moral Argument
From General Revelation
From General Revelation
from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity
When someone feels that they have been wronged by another, they often argue their case and try to show the other person their wrongdoing.
Mere Christianity 1. The Law of Human Nature
Now what interests me about all these remarks is that the man who makes them is not merely saying that the other man’s behaviour does not happen to please him.
Mere Christianity 1. The Law of Human Nature
...
Mere Christianity 4. What Lies Behind the Law
The Law of Human Nature, or of Right and Wrong, must be something above and beyond the actual facts of human behaviour. In this case, besides the actual facts, you have something else—a real law which we did not invent and which we know we ought to obey.
Lewis’ basic argument is that if this Natural Law was not created by us but is imposed upon us by an outside force or being, then this force or being that imposes Natural Law must itself not be natural. It must be above and beyond our natural powers of observation—it must be “supernatural.”
The existence of a Natural Law implies the existence of a Supernatural Law-Giver.
Mere Christianity 4. What Lies Behind the Law
If there was a controlling power outside the universe, it could not show itself to us as one of the facts inside the universe—no more than the architect of a house could actually be a wall or staircase or fireplace in that house. The only way in which we could expect it to show itself would be inside ourselves as an influence or a command trying to get us to behave in a certain way. And that is just what we do find inside ourselves.
If there is an objective moral law—and there clearly is such a thing—then what created that moral law must be as Lewis says:
Mere Christianity 4. What Lies Behind the Law
what is behind the universe is more like a mind than it is like anything else we know. That is to say, it is conscious, and has purposes, and prefers one thing to another. And on this view it made the universe, partly for purposes we do not know, but partly, at any rate, in order to produce creatures like itself—I mean, like itself to the extent of having minds.
The Moral Argument doesn’t quite get us to the God of the Bible, but it does get us to recognize that some sort of conscious being is required to explain the existence of morality.
Summary of the Moral Argument:
Morality is rooted in universal absolute truths of right and wrong that we call Natural Law.
Nothing in the natural realm can adequately explain Natural Law.
There must be a Supernatural Law-Giver.
The Moral Argument in Scripture
The Moral Argument in Scripture
14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
The Teleological Argument
The Teleological Argument
From the Greek word telos, meaning goal, end, or purpose.
First articulated by Thomas Aquinas in the 1200’s in his classic work Summa Theologica:
“The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result. Hence it is plain that not fortuitously, but designedly, do they achieve their end.
Now whatever lacks intelligence cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is shot to its mark by the archer. Therefore some intelligent beings exist by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.”
Intelligent Design
Intelligent Design
When we find a watch in the woods, we do not assume that the watch created itself. Its complexity and the information contained in it all demonstrate that it was designed by an intelligent being to serve a purpose, namely, to tell time.
Similarly, when we look at DNA, we see the same thing—information encoded for a purpose. Since cells and microorganisms and chemicals do not themselves think or plan—they are not ‘intelligent’—this information had to be encoded by a designer.
Irreducible Complexity
Irreducible Complexity
Molecular machines are considered to be irreducibly complex. An irreducibly complex machine is made of a number of essential parts, and all these parts must be present for it to function properly. If even one of these parts is missing the machine is non-functional. Evolution, which supposedly works in a stepwise fashion over long periods of time, can’t form these complex machines.
Evolution is not goal-oriented; it cannot work towards a specific outcome. If a part of the machine would happen to form by random chance mutation (which itself is not plausible, see “Are Mutations Part of the ‘Engine’ of Evolution?”), but the other parts of the machine were not formed at the same time, then the organism containing that individual part (by itself non-functional) would not have a particular survival advantage and would not be selected for.
Since the part offers no advantage to the organism, it would likely be lost from the population, and evolution would be back to square one in forming the parts for the machine. There is essentially no way to collect the parts over time because the individual parts do not have a function (without the other parts) and do not give the organism a survival advantage. Remember, all the necessary parts must be present for the machine to be functional and convey a survival advantage that could be selected for.
Answers in Genesis, Dr. Georgia Purdom, https://answersingenesis.org/, “The End of Irreducible Complexity?”
God’s purpose (telos) revealed in Scripture
God’s purpose (telos) revealed in Scripture
7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
24 Then comes the end (telos), when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (telos).”
Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and of Thy wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee,—man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that Thou “resistest the proproud,”—yet man, this part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee.
Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for
Cosmological Arguments
Cosmological Arguments
From the Greek word kosmos, meaning ‘universe’
“The cosmological argument reasons from the nature of the world as temporary and contingent to the conclusion that an eternal, necessary being must exist...Since the notion of something emerging from an absolute nothing is generally considered absurd, the principal options are that either the universe is eternal or it is the product of an eternal and necessary being.”
Boa, Kenneth, and Robert M. Bowman Jr. Faith Has Its Reasons: Integrative Approaches to Defending the Christian Faith. Westmont, IL: IVP, 2012, 99.
There cannot be an infinite regression of causes. Even if we accept that the universe in its current form began with the Big Bang, what caused the Big Bang?
The only way out of that cycle of infinite regressions is to pose something or someone that is un-caused, un-created, eternal, and self-existing...which sounds a lot like God!
Everything that exists must have a cause
Therefore, there must be a first cause
Thomas Aquinas’ Cosmological Arguments:
Thomas Aquinas’ Cosmological Arguments:
The “Unmoved Mover”—all things in motion need a mover, but there must be something unmoved that begins other things in motion.
The “Unmoved Mover”—all things in motion need a mover, but there must be something unmoved that begins other things in motion.
When we look at the planets and galaxies in motion, an obvious question arises—who set them in motion?
The “Uncaused Cause”—all effects must have causes, but there cannot be an infinite series of causes into the past.
The “Uncaused Cause”—all effects must have causes, but there cannot be an infinite series of causes into the past.
Even if you accept naturalistic explanations for the origins of life on earth, there comes a point in the past where you can no longer offer a naturalistic explanation.
Science is the study of the natural world through natural means of observation and experimentation. The law of conservation of mass states that matter cannot be created or destroyed in chemical reactions, only rearranged and transformed. This means all the matter that exists now has existed up until the point in which it came into being.
We can describe the rearrangement and transformation of matter through time using science, but there is no way within the discipline of science to explain its creation. Something had to create matter.
Imagine you were oil trapped inside of an engine. You could look around you and see the various components of the engine and perhaps even explain how they work and function together. But, even if you could perfectly explain every single function of that engine and vehicle from your internal perspective, you could never explain how that engine was turned on (let alone created!) merely by the explanations of the process you observe around you. You can trace back the chain of events to the turn of the key, but nothing within that system could tell you how that key got turned, or how that engine came into existence. For that, you have to look to something beyond the car and its internal processes.
Argument from Contingency—all things exist in dependence on something else (contingent); therefore there must be something that is absolutely independent (necessary).
Argument from Contingency—all things exist in dependence on something else (contingent); therefore there must be something that is absolutely independent (necessary).
Everything in the Universe is contingent. Nothing that exists in the universe had to exist. This points to someone or something that is necessary and must exist.
This is very similar and related to the “uncaused cause” argument
Argument from Perfection—there appears to be an increasing degree of perfection among things; therefore there must be a being who is the height of perfection.
Argument from Perfection—there appears to be an increasing degree of perfection among things; therefore there must be a being who is the height of perfection.
Cosmological Arguments from Scripture
Cosmological Arguments from Scripture
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
We often think of Creation as the world outside of us, but we are also created beings and therefore part of Creation. Thus, our own consciences and hearts are part of God’s self-revelation.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
John Calvin even argued that the existence of God is so inscribed upon the hearts of men that they cannot reasonably deny it.
Institutes of the Christian Religion 1. The Character of This Natural Endowment
There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity.
Arguments from Scripture
Arguments from Scripture
God has revealed himself to us in his Word.
God has revealed himself to us in his Word.
Scripture points us to God
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets...
Scripture is not like any other book ever written. It does something that other books don’t do.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
We will talk about the trustworthiness of Scripture later, but one of the main reasons we believe Scripture is reliable and trustworthy is because of the fruit we see from it in our own lives. It lays bare our motives, reveals our hearts, and produces holiness in our lives as we read it and live it.
Is. 55:10-11; I Thess. 2:13; Jn 17:17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21
God has revealed himself to us in Christ.
God has revealed himself to us in Christ.
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the ages.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
We know that God exists because of what we know about Jesus. Jesus reveals the character of God to us.
We will get into Christology and how we know that Jesus is God later, but for now, it’s important to realize that our knowledge of Jesus confirms and reinforces our belief in God.
And, given the worldwide impact of Jesus of Nazareth and the overwhelming evidence for his historicity, any worldview that does not have an adequate explanation for Jesus Christ is insufficient.
