Sermon Tone Analysis

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