Transcript Feason4Faith Session 2

13Who
is going to harm you if you are eager to do
good? 14But even if you should suffer for what is
right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear;
do not be frightened." 15But in your hearts set
apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give
an answer to everyone who asks you to give the
reason for the hope that you have. But do this with
gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear
conscience, so that those who speak maliciously
against your good behaviour in Christ may be
ashamed of their slander.
1 Peter 3:13-16
6So
then, just as you received Christ Jesus as
Lord, continue to live in him, 7rooted and built up
in him, strengthened in the faith as you were
taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8See
to it that no one takes you captive through hollow
and deceptive philosophy, which depends on
human tradition and the basic principles of this
world rather than on Christ. 9For in Christ all the
fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10and you
have been given fullness in Christ, who is the
head over every power and authority.
Colossians 1:6-10
3For
though we live in the world, we do not
wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we
fight with are not the weapons of the world. On
the contrary, they have divine power to
demolish strongholds. 5We demolish
arguments and every pretension that sets itself
up against the knowledge of God, and we take
captive every thought to make it obedient to
Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
http://www.lennoxevangelicalchurch.org
www.davidgalloway.co.uk
Atheism/Christianity debate
Reasonable Faith
www.reasonablefaith.org
Stand to Reason
www.str.org
All About God
www.allaboutgod.com
Bethinking
www.bethinking.org
apologia
Positive: presents a rational case for Christian truth claims.
• Natural theology
• Christian evidence
Negative: Deals with objections to those claims.
• Objections to God’s existence
• Objections to Christianity in particular
Arguments for the existence of God
Cosmological [contingency and temporal]
Teleological
Moral
Ontological
Atheist
There is no god
Agnostic – active
It cannot be known whether there is a god
Agnostic – passive
I do not know whether there is a god
The existence of God
Cosmological argument
Leibnizian
Kalām
Moral Argument
Practical points
Teleological argument
Anthropic principle
Biological origins
Abiogenesis, creation, evolution, ID
The existence of God
The existence of God
Can you prove that God exists?
Standard of proof
[2+2=4]
Mathematical proof unattainable.
Good argument
True premises – more plausible than their
negations
Intact logic
The existence of God
The existence of God
Cosmological arguments
Kalam
(Al-Ghazali 1058-1111)
Thomist
(Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274)
Leibnizian
(G W F Leibniz 1646-1716)
The existence of God
Moral argument
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
William Sorley (1855-1935) Professor of Moral
Philosophy at Cambridge
The existence of God
Teleological argument
Plato (428-348 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
William Paley (1743-1805)
in Natural Theology 1804
The
of God
Theexistence
Kalām Cosmological
Argument
Whatever begins to exist has a cause
The universe began to exist
Therefore ….
The universe has a cause
The Leibnizian Cosmological Argument
1 Every existing thing has an explanation of its
existence.
The Leibnizian Cosmological Argument
1 Every existing thing has an explanation of its
existence.
2 If the universe has an explanation of its
existence, that explanation is God.
Atheists have often asserted that if God does not
exist then the universe has no explanation.
Logically equivalent to 2 - same truth value.
The Leibnizian Cosmological Argument
1 Every existing thing has an explanation of its
existence.
2 If the universe has an explanation of its
existence, that explanation is God.
3 The universe is an existing thing
4 The universe has an explanation of its existence
[from 1 and 3]
The Leibnizian Cosmological Argument
1 Every existing thing has an explanation of its
existence.
2 If the universe has an explanation of its
existence, that explanation is God.
3 The universe is an existing thing
4 The universe has an explanation of its existence
[from 1 and 3]
It follows (from 2 and 4) that the explanation is God.
The Kalām Cosmological Argument
Whatever begins to exist has a cause
The universe began to exist
Therefore the universe has a cause.
The Kalām Cosmological Argument
Whatever begins to exist has a cause
The universe began to exist
Therefore the universe has a cause.
The universe has a beginning
1 An actually infinite number of things cannot exist.
2 A beginning less series of past events involves
an actually infinite number of things.
The universe has a beginning
1 An actually infinite number of things cannot exist.
2 A beginning less series of past events involves
an actually infinite number of things.
3 Therefore a beginning less series of past events
cannot exist.
The universe has a beginning
David Hilbert 1862-1943
The universe has a beginning
1 An actually infinite collection of things cannot
be formed by successive addition.
The universe has a beginning
1 An actually infinite collection of things cannot
be formed by successive addition.
The universe has a beginning
1 An actually infinite collection of things cannot
be formed by successive addition.
2 The series of past events is a collection of
things which has been formed by successive
addition.
The universe has a beginning
1 An actually infinite collection of things cannot
be formed by successive addition.
2 The series of past events is a collection of
things which has been formed by successive
addition.
3 The series of past events cannot be actually
infinite.
The universe has a beginning
Scientific confirmation
Steady state theory
Oscillating models
Vacuum fluctuation models
Chaotic inflationary model
Quantum Gravity models
String scenarios
Redshift
Edwin Hubble 1889 - 1953
Origin of the universe
Steady state theory
Sir Fred Hoyle
1915-2001
Origin of the universe
Oscillating model
Stephen Hawking
1942 -
Origin of the universe
Chaotic inflationary model
Andrei Linde 1948 -
Origin of the universe
String cosmology
Paul Steinhardt
The existence of God
The existence of God
The Moral Argument
If God does not exist, objective moral
values do not exist
Objective moral values do exist
Therefore ….
God exists
The existence of God
The Moral Argument
If God does not exist, objective moral
values do not exist
The existence of God
The Moral Argument
If God does not exist, objective moral
values do not exist
Objective = valid and binding
Values – good and evil
Duties – right and wrong
The existence of God
The Moral Argument
If God does not exist, objective moral
values do not exist
• Every society and culture has developed its own values.
• Who are you to judge someone else’s values?
• All values are results of social and biological evolution.
The existence of God
The Moral Argument
The Moral Code
Evil can't be real if morals are relative
“In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication,
some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to
get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, or any
justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the
properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design,
no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless
indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And
we dance to its music.”
River out of Eden
Richard Dawkins 1995
(Weidenfeld & Nicolswi)
The Moral Code
Evil can't be real if morals are relative
“In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication,
some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to
get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, or any
justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the
properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design,
no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless
indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And
we dance to its music.”
River out of Eden
Richard Dawkins 1995
(Weidenfeld & Nicolswi)
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
British philosopher,
logician,
mathematician &
advocate for social
reform
Ethics arises from the pressures of the
community on the individual. Man does
not always feel the ethical values which
are in the interests of the herd. The herd
has invented various devices to bring
the individual ethical values in line with
that of the herd so that the herd will be
able to live together in harmony.
The existence of God
The Moral Argument
If God does not exist, objective moral
values do not exist
Highly plausible
The existence of God
The Moral Argument
Objective moral values do exist
This is on a par with our belief in an external world
of physical objects.
We can detect them as a result of our moral
experience.
Most people will accept that there are some things
which are genuinely right and wrong.
The existence of God
The Moral Argument
The Moral Code
• Moral rules imply an obligation or a sense
of duty.
•Moral imperatives have an impact on
behaviour in advance.
Conscience
The Moral Code
Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written
law, show that they know his law when they
instinctively obey it, even without having heard it.
15 They demonstrate that God’s law is written in
their hearts, for their own conscience and
thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are
doing right.
Romans 2 NLT
14
The Moral Argument
Euthyphro
Dilemma
Is something good
because God
commands it or does
God command it
because it is good?
The Moral Argument
Euthyphro
Dilemma
Is something good
because God
commands it or does
God command it
because it is good?
The moral nature of
God is good.
Cosmological argument
Whatever begins to exist has a cause
The universe began to exist
Therefore ….
The universe has a cause
Moral Argument
If God does not exist, objective moral
values do not exist
Objective moral values do exist
Therefore ….
God exists
The existence of God