Millersville Bible Church Apologetics Class T he E xistence of G od

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1 Millersville Bible Church Apologetics Class T he E xistence of G od The fool says in his heart, There is no God. (Psalm 14:1) He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11b) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God s invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20) STEP #1 Moving an Atheist to an Agnostic If an individual expresses that they do not believe God exists, the first step is to understand whether or not they consider themselves an atheist (one who knows God does not exist), or an agnostic (one who does not know if God exists). Except for the most intellectually arrogant, a person can be moved from being an atheist to an agnostic with two simple questions: 1. Have you been to every corner of the universe to objectively view there is no possibility of God existing? 2. Do you know everything there is to know? Are you omniscient? Obviously, a person would have to answer no to both questions. Since they have not been everywhere in the universe and they do not know everything there is to know, they are not an atheist, but rather an agnostic. At best they must admit that they just don t know if God exists. Illustration: We can illustrate this by stating, There is no gold in Alaska. To make this statement false all one has to do is find some gold in Alaska. On the other hand to prove this statement true one must search every square inch of Alaska to determine there is no gold. Even if one were to search every square inch of Alaska there still exists the possibility they may have missed a minute particle somewhere. In other words, to determine there is 1

2 absolutely no gold in Alaska one must have perfect knowledge of Alaska. How much more difficult would it be to prove God does not exist. 1 STEP #2 Qualifying the Agnostic It is important to determine whether a person is sincere in their desire to have meaningful discourse. Antagonists will show their true colors quickly, and attempting to have a serious discussion about these matters with them will not be beneficial. Remember, though, they might not remain an antagonist forever, and much prayer should be made on their behalf. Antagonists are usually masking other serious problems they are having in their life. The important question to ask at this point is, What evidence are you prepared to accept that God exists? If they have been struggling with certain questions concerning God, this will be their opportunity to voice those specific questions. Their questions will provide insight into what they are struggling with and what you should focus on in your discussion. Most people are unaware of the arguments and may not know what to answer. If that is the case, a follow up question should be asked. "If you aren't prepared to know what evidence you will accept from me, how do you know that the evidence I give you proves that God exists"? Prayerfully, this question will open the door for future dialogue. Do not put words into their mouth. Let them wrestle with the above two questions and let them know you are willing to have further conversations once they know what evidence they are prepared to accept. THE MAIN QUESTION: How did the Universe originate? If the Universe exists, and we all agree that it does, there are only three options available to explain its origin: 1. It is eternal. Many scientists held to this view for many years, but there are very few who continue to hold to this position. Why is it not possible for the Universe to be eternal? Law of Entropy (2 nd Law of Thermodynamics). This law states that everything runs from order to disorder and from complexity to decay. Things are running down, losing energy, and wearing out. An eternal universe is a direct contradiction to this law. The evolutionary theory would have one believe that the universe is going from chaos to complexity and from disorder to order. 1 A modification of R.C. Sproul s illustration on falsification as it appears in his book, Not A Chance (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994) pp

3 If your theory is found to be against the 2 nd Law of Thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation. 2 ~ Arthur S. Eddington ~ Scripture discussed the 2 nd Law of Thermodynamics before man knew anything about it: Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail (Isaiah 51:6). In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded (Psalm 102:25-26). The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Romans 8:21). The Universe is working to make everything the same temperature. If the Universe were eternal, it would already have become one temperature throughout. There would be no freezing planets, nor no blazing suns. *Illustration of the two glasses of water, one boiling hot and one filled with ice water. If left in the same room overnight they will both become the same temperature by the next day. Since everything in the universe is not the same temperature, it cannot be eternal. 2. It is self-created. This could also be stated as Time + Chance = Everything! All theories concerning the origin of the Universe that exclude God contain the element of chance. All you have to do is study each existing idea concerning the origin of the Universe that excludes God and it will be plain to see that chance played a role. In fact these scientist do not shy away from the fact that chance plays a significant role for it is their only explanation of how original matter came to be. 1 st Law of Thermodynamics. Simply stated it means out of nothing, comes nothing. Infinite Regression This term asks the same question over and over again, Where did that come from? Eventually, in the category of self-creation it will come down to chance. What are the chances of something coming out of nothing? No chance! What Is Chance? 2 Arthur S. Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (New York: Macmillan, 1930), 74. 3

4 Chance alone is at the source of every innovation, of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance, absolutely free but blind, [is] at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution. 3 Biologist Jacques Monod, Nobel Prize Winner Four and a half billion years ago, the young planet Earth was a mass of cosmic dust and particles. It was almost completely engulfed by the shallow primordial seas. Powerful winds gathered random molecules from the atmosphere. Some were deposited in the seas. Tides and currents swept the molecules together. And somewhere in this ancient ocean the miracle of life began.the first organized form of primitive life was a tiny protozoan [a one-celled animal]. Millions of protozoa populated the ancient seas. These early organisms were completely self-sufficient in their sea-water world. They moved about their aquatic environment feeding on bacteria and other organisms.... From these one-celled organisms evolved all life on earth. 4 From the introduction to the Emmy award-winning PBS NOVA broadcast on evolution. Chance Is Nothing. 1. Chance is not an entity. 2. Nonentities have no power because they have no being. 3. To say that something happens or is caused by chance is to suggest attributing instrumental power to nothing. 4. Something caused by nothing is in effect self-created. 5. The concept of self-creation is irrational and violates the law of noncontradiction To persist in theories of self-creation one must reject logic and rationality. 6 This all works together with the Law of Cause and Effect. Simply stated, Every effect has a cause. In other words, every event that takes place or every object we witness came about by some cause. Summary: Illegitimate use of the word chance: Chance caused something to happen. Legitimate use of the word chance: Chance refers to something that has happened with a cause, but that cause is presently unknown to us. Or, chance can simply refer to probabilities such as a coin toss, roulette, slot machines, etc 3 Jacques Monod, Chance and Necessity (New York: Vintage Books, 1972), NOVA: The Miracle of Life, photographed by Lennart Nilsson, videotape (Boston: WGBH Educational Foundation, 1986, [Swedish Television Corp., 1982]. For a brief discussion related to this matter, see Philip Johnson, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds, The law simply states that A cannot be A and non-a (-A) at the same time and in the same relationship. Something can be A and B at the same time, but not in the same relationship. I can be a father (A) and a son (B) at the same time, but not in the same relationship. 6 R.C. Sproul, Not A Chance (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1994),

5 Illustration: Sir Fred Hoyle s illustration of the junkyard and the 747. Even if the components existed, what are the chances (probabilities) that they would form themselves into a functional 747? Statistical experts tell us that if anything is power it will never happen. Sir Fred Hoyle gave the probability of a single cell coming into existence at 10 40,000 power. That is ten with 40,000 zeros after it. Chance (probability) requires ten billion tries on the average to count to ten. 7 Dr. James Coppedge, expert in the science of statistical probability In an experiment using ten similar coins numbered one through ten, chance will succeed on the average only once in ten billion attempts to get the number one followed in order by all the rest. Coppedge explains that if a person could draw and record one coin every five seconds day and night, it would still take more that 1,500 years for chance, on average, to succeed just once in counting to ten. 8 He goes on to demonstrate the difference intelligence makes by documenting that a child can do in minutes what chance would take a millennium to do. Chance really doesn t have a chance when compared with the intelligent purpose of even a child. 9 To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree possible. 10 ~ Charles Darwin ~ Nothing cannot create something! In light of this it is necessary to recognize that creation came about by some other means than chance (a non-entity) or self-creation (a contradiction). That something is God! 3. It was created by God. The most scientific thing that was ever written concerning the origin of the universe is found in Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. What about God? God is self-existent, not self-created. Being eternal, God is not an effect. He is the cause. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Psalm 90:2 7 James F. Coppedge, Evolution: Possible or Impossible? (Northridge, CA: Probability Research in Molecular Biology, 1993), Ibid., Ibid., Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. As in Robert Maynard Hutchins, ed., Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 49, Darwin (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 85. 5

6 For since the creation of the world God s invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:20 *Illustration: If you are thinking that it could have been created by super intelligent aliens from another galaxy you again run into the problem of infinite regression. Irreducible Complexity means that in order for even the simplest of living organisms to survive all the necessary parts must be present initially as well as instructions telling the parts what to do. This term, coined by Dr. Michael Behe, summarizes the problem for those who refuse to believe that intelligence is at the heart of life in the Universe. Illustration: The irreducible complexity of something as simple as a mousetrap. It has five parts: o Tightly wound spring o Hammer bar o Trip o Catch o Base on which it all is attached Each one of these parts is necessary for the mousetrap to function according to its intended purpose. Take away just one part and the mousetrap can no longer function as a mousetrap. Evolution rises and falls on the issue of Natural Selection (the survival of the fittest). The logic of Natural Selection is very demanding. Natural Selection by definition can only make changes that provide an advantage to aid survival. This being said, Natural Selection could not have functioned before the existence of the first living cell. It is only capable of working on organisms capable of replicating themselves (cells with DNA that pass genetic changes onto future generations). Without DNA there is no selfreplication, but without self-replication, there is no Natural Selection. You can t use Natural Selection to explain the origin of DNA without assuming the existence of the very thing you are trying to explain. 6