The Reason for God
2009 03.01 The Reason for God
Romans 1
ANNOUNCEMENTS
RESOURCES:
The Bible (ESV Study Bible)
The Reason for God, Tim Keller
Mere Christianity, CS Lewis
The Fingerprint of God, Hugh Ross
Romans 1:
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For 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. 21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
The Hat I am wearing today: Philosopher
Today we will discuss if it is reasonable to believe in god at all.
The perspective is from an external view, therefore, most of the talk today will focus on external thought and sources. This is a departure from our norm of using the bible as our main source, but it is appropriate for today. That said, we will be looking at portion of the bible that speaks about God’s clues from the outside.
Defining “god”
This is what Wikipedia says, in a very politically correct way:
“God is most often conceived of as the supernatural creator and overseer of the universe. Theologians have ascribed a variety of attributes to the many different conceptions of God. The most common among these include omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence.”
Their concept of god points to a personal god, but that is not everyone’s concept of god:
THOUGHT CENTRAL IDEA EMPHASIS
Deism God creates, but is not present in the workings of His creation. God’s transcendence
Pantheism God is part of His creation. God’s personal immanence
Panentheism / All in God. All is one. God’s transcendent nature
Monism
Process Theology / God is in process, growing in knowledge with His creation. God’s personal nature
Open Theism
Naturalism Matter comes forth from natural processes, Matter is either eternally
without aid from any supernatural entity. existent, or it comes
In this worldview, matter and life are created by chance. into effect ex nihilo
(out of nothing).
Let me give you my definition for god: a power or persona that exists beyond natural laws that is the origin of all things
As of 2000, approximately 53% of the world's population identifies with one of the three Abrahamic religions (33% Christian, 20% Islam, <1% Judaism), 6% with Buddhism, 13% with Hinduism, 6% with traditional Chinese religion, 7% with various other religions, and less than 15% as non-religious. Most of these religious beliefs involve a god or gods. - Wiki quoting "Philosophy of Religion .info - Glossary - Theism, Atheism, and Agnosticism".
15% irreligious. That would be mainly agnostics - who claim they do not know and that there is NO way to know. The smallest piece would be atheists who would say there is no god and they are sure about that.
I am not giving these stats to browbeat atheists. I just want to give context to the subject of naturalism and athiestic thought. The vast majority of people throughout history have been theistic. Though they have not agreed on what or who god is, most people believed and believe in a higher power.
At the end of our time I will have a Q&A with a friend who used to be an atheist, but is now a Christ follower.
Origin of the Universe:
NOTE: These are all theories of origin - they are all NON-EMPIRICAL WORLDVIEWS
NONE of them can be proven - including the ones that some scientists or skeptics hold to (admit your faiths, doubt your doubts)
The Beginning was unobservable
1 - Nothing created its beginning - it just happened
Naturalism. There is nothing beyond the natural: ie: nothing supernatural. Of course, there has never been any empirical evidence of something that has come from nothing (ex nihilo in Latin)
2 - Universe has always existed - it is eternal
Oscillating universe: universe has an infinite amount of energy and expands and contracts forever and ever. Couple of problems:
1 - we have never seen a system that does not lose energy with progression. That means that a universe set up to oscillate would have run out of steam.
2 - Hang on with me here: you cannot traverse and infinite:
infinity backwards = existence - if you are on a point, you could never have gotten here b/c you would have had to have gone through an infinite amount of time before getting here - BOOM!
Some have mentioned the possibility of a multiverse - that there are many other universes, which may not have the same boundaries of laws that we have. That that could explain how life originated. Really? Really?!? Can’t test that one very easily can we? Know what that is called? FAITH. That is okay. Faith is okay. Just call it what it is.
So, some people DO believe that the universe is eternal - always existed - always will exist - it is beyond natural laws
What would that make the universe? (Pause) god. Not my god, mind you, but god nonetheless. Remember my definition at the beginning:
god: a power or persona that exists beyond natural laws that is the origin of all things
This is what many naturalistic scientists believe, though they will not call it god, nor will they worship it.
That said, there are religions center on this:
Pagans: worship the earth and the elements
Spiritual:
a - believe that god is a spiritual mystery and woven into the fabric of life
b - believe that god is all and all is god - we are a part of the bigness of the eternal universe
Star Wars talks about using the (pause) FORCE
(Recap:
Origin of the Universe:
1 - Nothing created its beginning - it just happened
2 - Universe has always existed - it is eternal)
Or,
3 - Something transcendent created it
Romans 1:
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
1 - God will not let anyone slide who does not believe in god
2 - God will not let anyone slide who does not believe in Him, the god of the bible
19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For 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.
With power, a source of power
With personality and morality, a source of ...
21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
We all worship. Worship is showing affection and adoration for something else. Committing to the way of something. We all have our passions. God says that when we do not worship Him, we worship creation: self, intellect, power, material, even beauty.
God is invisible. You cannot prove Him. But there are Fingerprints, as Hugh Ross calls them. There are CLUES as Tim Keller mentions. The clues come from philosopher Alvin Plantinga.
Clues for God - Keller (find much of this in Ch 8 of Reason)
1 - The Mysterious Bang
The question remains: “Why is there something rather than nothing?”
Most people believe in some sort of Big Bang. What that points to is a BEGINNING.
Okay, say some of you. There was a some sort of a beginning. But that does not mean it was the god of the bible. But it IS a clue.
2 - The Cosmic Welcome Mat
Most have not done the research to see how slim the margins must be for us to have life at all.
Scientist Francis Collins said:
“When you look from the perspective of a scientist at the universe, it looks as if it knew we were coming. There are 15 constants - the gravitational constant, various constants about the strong and weak nuclear force, etc - that have precise values. If any one of those constants was off by even on part in a million, or in some cases, by one part in a million million, the universe could not have actually come to the point where we see it. Matter would not have been able to coalesce, there would have been no galaxy, stars, planets or people.”
Stephen Hawking said, “The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous. I think there are clearly religious implications.” Just so I do not misrepresent him, Hawking was not talking about god… but he was talking about FAITH.
3 - The Regularity of Nature
We live in a universe that has laws and is orderly. Keller said, “many scholars have said that modern science arose in its most sustained form out of Christian civilization because of its belief in an all-powerful, personal God who created and sustains an orderly universe.”
Strangely enough, the Christian worldview is what gave the platform for science to be studied and enjoyed.
The Christian worldview was also been catalytic in the arts. Which leads us to clue #4.
4 - Moral Obligation & Human Rights
In a purely secular, naturalistic worldview there is a gaping hole: the need for morality and human rights.
Survival of the fittest: no use of compassion. Animals do not help the helpless, they crush them, and the herd remains strong.
Secular humanists can points to a democratic stance for morality/HR, but that falls short in some nations and points in history.
Yet, we have something in us that states taht we have inalienable rights that have been GIVEN to us: by a creator. That something is called the Imago Dei. It is what gives us dignity and the reason for demanding justice and morality, and enforcing it.
5 - The Clue of Beauty
Arthur Danto, art critic at The Nation
“Great art does not “hit you over the head” with a simple message, it always gives you a sense that life is not a “tale told by an idot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
The AWE factor:
Kilimanjaro
Sunset
Smile that is on my wife’s face
Beauty
Leonard Bernstein about Beethoven:
“Beethoven… turned out pieces of breath-taking rightness. Rightness - that’s the word! When you get the feeling that whatever note succeeds the last is the only possible note that can rightly happen at that instant, in that context, then chances are you’re listening to Beethoven. Our boy has the real goods, the stuff from Heaven, the power to make you feel at the finish: something is right in the world. There is something that checks throughout, that follows its own law consistently: something we can trust, that will never let us down.”
Art has a way of reflecting transcendence. Beauty shows us that there is someone behind the masterpiece, that smiles when they see that their creation affects someone else.
That is God.
Okay, so in all of this we are saying that most people believe in “god.” But that does not persuade me to believe in the god of the Bible. Come back next week.
Why don’t some believe?
1 - no proof
2 - personal disappointment with faith people
3 - personal disappointment with human condition
I want to bring up a friend.
Q&A with John Stough:
1 - What were your reasons for believing in god/higher power?
2 - What were your reasons for believing in the God of the bible?
NEXT WEEK: The Gospel
