Say What Series: Is there a God

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Say What? Series Is there a God?

• Bill Akright
• B.S. Mathematics
• M.S. Industrial Engineering

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Can Gods Existence be Proved?

• Proof is a rather subjective commodity.
• Gods existence cannot be proved in a
  mathematical or scientific sense.
• Instead we should ask if belief in Gods
  existence is reasonable.

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Life Without God?

• Each of us will one day grow old, die, and our
  bodies disintegrate. What then?
• If the moral and the immoral eventually come to
  the same end, what does it matter how we live our
  lives?

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Life Without God?

• No species, ours included, possesses a
• purpose beyond the imperatives created by its
• genetic historywe have no particular place
• to go.
• E. O. Wilson

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Life Without God?

• There are only three types of people those who
• have found God and serve him those who have not
• found God and seek him, and those who live not
• seeking, or finding him. The first are rational
  and
• happy the second unhappy and rational, and the
• third foolish and unhappy.
• Blaise Pascal

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Evidence for God

• The Cosmological Argument
• The Teleological Argument
• The Moral Argument

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Cosmological Argument Why Is There Something
Rather than Nothing?

• The universe had a beginning.
• Anything that had a beginning must have been
  caused by something else.
• Therefore the universe was caused by something
  else (a Creator).

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Cosmologys Big BangHorrendous space
kablooieCalvin

• The universe began as a particle that
• was infinitely dense and occupied no
• space.

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Cosmologys Big Bang

• Something must be eternal
• The material universe had a beginning and,
  therefore, is not eternal
• Something immaterial, spiritual, or supernatural
  MUST be eternal

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Reactions

• Philosophically, the notion of a beginning is
• repugnant to me. . . . I should like to find a
  genuine
• loophole. We must allow evolution an infinite
  
• time to get started.
• Sir Arthur Eddington
• It is simpler to postulate creation ex nihilo-
  divine
• will constituting nature out of nothingness.
• Edmund Whitaker

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For the scientist who has lived by his faith in
the power of reason, the story ends like a bad
dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance
he is about to conquer the highest peak as he
pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted
by a band of theologians who have been sitting
there for centuries. Robert Jastrow
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Teleological Argument Is the Universe and Life
Designed?
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Is the Universe and Life Designed?
I think that the most impressive arguments for
Gods existence are those that are supported by
recent scientific discoveriesI think the
argument to Intelligent Design is enormously
stronger than it was when I first met it.
Anthony Flew Anthony Flew - legendary
British philosopher and atheist and has been
an icon and champion for unbelievers for decades.
His change of mind is significant news, not only
about his personal journey, but also about the
persuasive power of the arguments modern theists
have been using to challenge atheistic
naturalism.
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A Just Right Universe

• 51 Fine-tuned Parameters to our Galaxy, Solar
• System, and Planet

• Distance from the sun
• Size, temperature, type of sun
• Size, axial tilt, rotation speed, moon,
  composition of earth
• Stability of Jupiter and Saturn
• Jupiter acts as a comet and asteroid magnet
  shielding earth from catastrophic collisions.

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A Just Right Universe

• Our sun is located between spiral arms of the
  Milky Way Galaxy
• Fewer stars
• less harmful radiation and disruptive gravity
• Less gas and dust
• we can see the rest of the galaxy and universe
• Probability that just one planet in the Universe
  is suitable for life?
• 10 -166 x 10 22 1 in 10 144
• 1 in 10 166 - Probability of all 123 fine-tuned
  Universal parameters occurring by chance
• 10 22 - Upper limit for planets in the universe

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A Just Right Universe

• 1 in 10161
• The probability of a single protein molecule
  being arranged by chance using all atoms on earth
  and allowing all the time since the world began.
• 1 in 10119,879
• Probability for a minimum set of the required 239
  protein molecules for the smallest theoretical
  life.
• 10119,879 Years
• Average time it would take to get a set of such
  proteins.
• Dr. James Coppedge

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A Just Right Universe
If we need an atheist for a debate, I go to the
philosophy department. The physics department
isnt much use. Robert
Griffiths
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A Just Right Universe
As we survey all the evidence, the thought
insistently arises that some supernatural agency
- or rather Agency - must be involved. Is it
possible that suddenly, without intending to, we
have stumbled upon scientific proof of the
existence of a Supreme Being?
George Greenstein
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Irreducible Complexity

• Mike Behe introduced the concept of irreducible
  complexity in his book, Darwins Black Box.
• Something is irreducibly complex if it is
  composed of two or more necessary parts.
• Remove one part and function is not just impaired
  but destroyed.
• A mousetrap is irreducibly complex.

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Darwins Black Box

• Behe showed that the cell, Darwins Black Box, is
  filled with irreducibly complex molecular
  machines that could not be built by natural
  selection.
• Over 100 molecular motors are now known to exist
  inside the cell with very specific analogies to
  human designed motors.

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Cellular High-Tech Factory

• Artificial languages and decoding
• Central memory banks
• Precision control of automatic assembly
• Proofreading and quality control
• Prefabrication and modular construction
• Complete replication system
• 10-3 times smaller than our best computers

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• It seems to me that Richard Dawkins constantly
• overlooks the fact that Darwin himself, in the
• fourteenth chapter of The Origin of Species,
  pointed
• out that his whole argument began with a being
• which already possessed reproductive powers. This
  
• is the creature the evolution of which a truly
• comprehensive theory of evolution must give some
• account. Darwin himself was well aware that he
  had
• not produced such an account. It now seems to me
• that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA
  
• research have provided materials for a new and
• enormously powerful argument to design.
• Anthony Flew

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The Moral Argument Is There a Law Written on Our
Hearts?

• Moral laws imply a Moral Law Giver.
• There is an objective moral law.
• Therefore, there is a Moral Law Giver

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Moral Laws Imply a Moral Lawgiver

• Moral Laws are different from natural laws.
• Moral laws describe what ought to be not what is.
• Human beings all over the earth, have this
• curious idea that they ought to behave in a
• certain way, and cannot really get rid of it.
• C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity

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There Is an Objective Moral Law

• If no set of moral ideas were truer or better
  than any other,
• there would be no sense in preferring civilized
  morality to
• savage morality, or Christian morality to Nazi
  morality. In
• fact, of course, we all do believe that some
  moralities are
• better than others. . . . The moment you say that
  one set of
• moral ideas can be better than another, you are,
  in fact,
• measuring them both by a standard . . . comparing
  them both
• with some Real Morality, admitting that there is
  such a thing
• as a real right, independent of what people
  think, and that
• some peoples ideas get nearer to that real Right
  than
• others.
• C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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There is an Objective Moral Law

• Was September 11th wrong? For all people and all
  time?
• But if there is such a universal, objective moral
  law, then there must be a Moral Law Giver.

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Summary

• Life without God is absurd.
• The universe requires a sufficient Cause.
• The design of the universe and living things
  implies a designer.
• Our universal sense of right and wrong implies a
  Law Giver.
• Therefore belief in God is reasonable.

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A God Who Has Made Himself Known

• I am very much impressed with physicist Gerald
• Schroeders comments on Genesis. That this
  biblical
• account might be scientifically accurate raises
  the
• possibility that it is revelation.
• Anthony Flew

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A God Who Has Made Himself Known in Creation

• For since the creation of the world His
  invisible attributes, His eternal
• power and divine nature, have been clearly seen,
  being understood
• through what has been made, so that they are
  without excuse.  For even
• though they knew God, they did not honor Him as
  God or give thanks, but
• they became futile in their speculations, and
  their foolish heart was
• darkened.  Professing to be wise, they became
  fools, and exchanged
• the glory of the incorruptible God for an image
  in the form of corruptible
• man and of birds and four-footed animals and
  crawling creatures.
• Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of
  their hearts to impurity, so
• that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
  For they exchanged
• the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and
  served the creature rather
• than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
• Romans 120-25

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A God Who Has Made Himself Known through Scripture

• Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed
• in the presence of the disciples, which are not
• written in this book  but these have been
  written so
• that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
  the Son
• of God and that believing you may have life in
  His
• name.
• John 2031-32

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A God Who Has Made Himself Known in the Person of
Jesus

• In the past God spoke to our forefathers through
  the
• prophets at many times and in various ways, but
  in these last
• days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he
  appointed heir
• of all things, and through whom he made the
  universe. The
• Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact
• representation of his being, sustaining all
  things by his
• powerful word.
• Hebrews 11-3

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A God Who Has Made Himself Known

• There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of
  every man
• which cannot be filled by any created thing, but
  only by God,
• the Creator, made known through Jesus.
• Blaise Pascal
• Behold, I stand at the door and knock if anyone
  hears My
• voice and opens the door, I will come in to him
  and will dine
• with him, and he with Me.
• Revelation 320

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Say What? Series Is there a God?
Further questionscontact Bill Akright Email
akright4_at_insightbb.com Website
http//www.bethanycentral.org/resources/ For a
copy of this presentation, click on Apologetics
Resources folder and select Evidence for God.