D o e s

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God
D o e s
Proofs
For the Existence of
T H R E E
God
The Arguments from Existence, Intelligence, and
Morality
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Two Rational Choices for Why We are Here

1. Natural Cause there is nothing outside of this
   impersonal universe, which accidently brought
   forth mankind.

1. Supernatural/Intelligent Cause something
   outside of this universe acted with purpose to
   bring about the universe and mankind.

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Why Believe that a Supernatural Cause Exists?
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Three reasons to consider the existence of God

1. The argument from existence the cosmological
   argument

1. The argument from intelligence the teleological
   argument

1. The argument from morality the moral argument

These arguments not only prove God, but help tell
us what He is like all from General revelation
and not Special revelation
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The argument from Existence
There are three possible options

1. Something came from nothing (not rational)
2. Something came from an impersonal eternality
3. Something came from a personal eternality

Nothing can come into being from that which is
not - Demokritos, Greek Philosopher
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The Kalam Cosmological Argument (originating
cause)

• Everything that begins to exist must have a cause
• The universe began to exist
• Therefore, the universe had a cause

I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that
anything might arise without a cause. - David
Hume, Scottish Skeptic
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Did the universe have a beginning? Scientific
Proof
S U R G E

• Second Law of Thermodynamics the universe is
  running down
• Expanding Universe confirmed through Hubble
  telescope
• Radiation Echo discovered in the 1930s by Bell
  Lab scientists
• Galaxy Seeds discovered in the 1990s by COBE
  explorer
• Einsteins theory of relativity proves universe
  had a beginning

Many people do not like the idea that time has a
beginning, probably because it smacks of divine
intervention. Stephen Hawking
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Did the universe have a beginning? Philosophic
Proof

• An infinite number of days has no end
• But today is the end day of history as we know it
• Therefore, there were not an infinite number of
  days before today time had a beginning

There is a difference between the abstract of
infinite and the concrete / real infinite
(numbers vs. days)
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The Vertical Cosmological Argument (sustaining
cause)

• Everything in the universe is dependent
  (contingent)
• If every part of the universe is dependent, then
  so is the whole
• Therefore, the universe is dependent right now on
  some independent / Necessary Being for its
  present existence

"He is before all things, and in Him all things
hold together." Colossians 117 "And He ...
upholds all things by the word of His power..."
Hebrews 12-3
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Objections to the cosmological argument

• Who caused God? From Bertrand Russell Category
  mistake the argument says that everything that
  begins to exist must have a cause God has no
  beginning so He doesnt need a cause.
• An eternal creator makes no sense, but an eternal
  universe does?
• Collapsing universes? Not enough energy
  disproven by COBE.
• String theory? Still demands a beginning to
  everything.

Is it possible that suddenly, without intending
to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the
existence of a Supreme Being?

- George Greenstein, Astronomer
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The Teleological Argument (from Intelligence)
The teleological (telos, from the Greek word
which means design ) argument says that the
universe and mankind exhibit marks of
intelligence and design.

• Behind every complex design is a designer
• The universe has a complex design
• Therefore, the universe has a designer

"...as I became exposed to the law and order of
the universe, I was literally humbled by its
unerring perfection. I became convinced that
there must be a divine intent behind it all... My
experiences with science led me to God. They
challenge science to prove the existence of God.
But must we really light a candle to see the
sun? (Dr. Wernher von Braun, the father of
rocket science)
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The Teleological Argument (from Intelligence)
Two types of causes natural and intelligent
VS.
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The Teleological Argument (from Intelligence)
Three primary factors speak to the argument from
intelligence

• Anthropic Principle the Goldilocks effect
• Irreducible Complexity argument against
  macroevolution
• Specified Complexity the distinguishing mark of
  intelligence

I think the origins of the laws of nature and of
life and the Universe point clearly to an
intelligent Source.  The burden of proof is on
those who argue to the contrary. Anthony Flew,
former outspoken atheist
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Anthropic Principle Anticipatory Design
The world is finely tuned to support life in
short, someone knew man was coming. Some
examples

• Oxygen currently makes up 21 percent of the
  atmosphere. Were it 25 percent, fires would erupt
  everywhere and if it were 15 percent, humans
  would suffocate.
• If gravity was altered by 0.0000000000000000000000
  0000000000000000001 percent, the sun would not
  exist and the moon would crash into earth.
  Further, if the centrifugal force of planetary
  movements did not precisely balance the
  gravitational forces, nothing could be held in
  orbit around the sun.
• If the universe was expanding at a rate one
  millionth more slowly than it is, the temperature
  on earth would be 10,000 degrees.
• If Jupiter was not exactly where it is, earth
  would be bombarded by space material that would
  threaten life on the planet.

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Anthropic Principle Anticipatory Design
More examples

• If the thickness of the earths crust was
  greater, too much oxygen would be transferred to
  the crust to support life, and if it were
  thinner, volcanic and tectonic activity would
  make life impossible.
• The axis of the earth is set so carefully that,
  if it were altered ever so slightly, surface
  temperatures of the earth would be far too great.
  
• If water vapor levels in the atmosphere were
  greater than they are now, a runaway greenhouse
  effect would cause temperatures to rise far too
  high on the planet life would die out. And if
  they were less, an insufficient greenhouse effect
  would make the earth too cold to support life.

The initial configuration of the universe
appears to have been very carefully chosen.
Stephen Hawking, famed astronomer and atheist
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Anthropic Principle Anticipatory Design
What are the odds of the anthropic principle
occurring by chance?
Astrophysicist Hugh Ross has calculated that the
odds of all anthropic constants (122 at last
count) to be in place for any planet in the
universe by luck alone to be one chance in ten
with 138 zeros after it. This number becomes even
more incredible when one realizes there are only
1070 atoms in the entire universe. Finally,
mathematicians point out that anything which
exceeds 1050 power is the exact same thing as
zero chance.
In the absence of an absurdly-improbable
accident, the observations of modern science seem
to suggest an underlying, one might say,
supernatural plan.
Arno
Penzias, Nobel Laureate scientist
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Irreducible Complexity How low can you go?
Charles Darwin admitted that, If it could be
demonstrated that any complex organ existed,
which could not possibly have been formed by
numerous, successive, slight modifications, my
theory would absolutely break down. Scientists
now know that many such entities exist. In
Darwins time, scientists could not see into what
biochemist Dr. Michael Behe calls Darwins black
box, which is the cell. Darwin thought the cell
to be a simple structure, however time and
scientific advances have proven him wrong.
Instead, there is advanced complexity all the way
down.
. . . we must concede that there are presently
no detailed Darwinian accounts of the evolution
of any biochemical system, only a variety of
wishful speculations.

Frank Harold, Biochemist
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Specified Complexity The mark of intelligence
Darwinist Richard Dawkins admits that the message
found in just the cell nucleus of an amoeba is
more than all thirty volumes of the Encyclopedia
Britannica, with the entire amoeba itself having
as much information in its DNA as 1,000 complete
sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The
important thing to understand is that the makeup
of these entities is not random, but instead the
information is highly organized.
It is important to understand that we are not
reasoning by analogy. The sequence hypothesis
applies directly to the protein and the genetic
text as well as to written language and therefore
the treatment is mathematically identical.
Herbert P. Yockey, Biologist
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Specified Complexity
One Design One by Chance?
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Imagine the following
You know there are folks who believe these cars
were designed and built, but I know differently.
Let me tell you how they really got here. Long,
long ago, iron and glass and rubber and fabric
and plastic and wire and leather came up out of
the ground. All these components fashioned
themselves into just the right shapes in all the
proper places. Amazingly, holes evolved in just
the right places and then bolts somehow became
threaded, and then there were nuts that matched
the bolts and somehow everything screwed itself
into place very tightly. And amazingly, the
upholstery wove itself into place and over time,
seats appeared in the front where they needed to
be. You see these tires? Over many centuries they
became round and they found themselves the right
size metal wheels, filled themselves with air,
attached themselves to the car, and they began to
roll. After many more years, these things began
to multiply and when people finally found one of
these things under a tree, someone looked at it,
and said Lets call it an automobile.
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Intelligence and/or randomness one step removed
You may think that a car was built by humans but
then discover it was instead fully constructed
via an automated robotic plant with no human
intervention whatsoever. Is it then reasonable to
conclude that no intelligence is behind the car
and that the factory made itself? Of course not
the intelligence is just one step removed.
Even seemingly random operations can be built
by intelligence. For example, you could create a
software program that generates random numbers,
but there is still intelligence behind the
apparent random end result and operation.
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Objections to the Teleological Argument

• Evolution has buried God
• The world is not perfect and has natural evils
• We cant recognize intelligence we only know it
  by experience

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Evolution has buried God
Microevolution (changes within a type)? Sure.
Survival of the fittest? Sure, in animal life.
But, macroevolution? No. Evolution may explain
survival of the fittest in cases, but not arrival
of the fittest.

• Darwin acknowledged 4-5 created forms
• Reproductive capabilities were already present
  (14th chapter of Origins)
• Still doesnt answer why we have something rather
  than nothing at all.
• Explain how something works doesnt always
  explain why something is there

Often a cold shudder has run through me, and I
have asked myself whether I may have not devoted
myself to a fantasy." (Charles Darwin, Life and
Letters, 1887, Vol. 2, p. 229)
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The world is not perfect apparent flaws exist
Argued by Bertrand Russell and Stephen Jay Gould.
Two men are sitting under a large oak tree in a
garden when one man says to the other, How silly
of God to support tiny acorns with the strength
of this large oak tree, while the watermelons in
this garden are held by flimsy and leafy plants
low to the ground. Just then an acorn fell from
the tree and hit the first man on the head. After
a brief pause, the second man said, Arent you
glad that wasnt a watermelon?
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We cant recognize design only known by
experience
Initially argued by J. S. Mill. And yet, are
there some things we cant not know?
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The Moral Argument
The moral argument states that objective moral
laws, which are laws whether anyone believe them
or not, exist and come only from an unchanging
moral source.

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

Without an unchanging moral standard, everything
reverts to opinion and becomes emotive (I dont
like that)
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The Moral Argument
The need for a standard
Is this line crooked or straight?
The standard
A man does not call a line crooked unless he has
some idea of a straight line. C. S. Lewis
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The Moral Argument
Man cannot get rid of his sense of moral
obligation, no matter how hard he tries
Imagine you see someone in trouble the situation
requires risk on your part. A first voice tells
you to run and help them (preservation of
species). A second voice says, no, dont help and
protect yourself (self-preservation). But then a
third voice comes into play and tells you that
you should help. Where does that third voice
come from? Adapted from C. S. Lewis
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The Moral Argument
Can moral obligation come from an impersonal
universe?
A man said to the Universe, Sir, I
exist! Nevertheless, replied the Universe, That
fact has not created in me The slightest feeling
of obligation. - Stephen Crane
Immanuel Kant said that Morality necessitates
God. Huxley (an agnostic) stated that man lives
better when he posits there is a God.
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The Moral Argument
What intellectually honest atheists say about
right and wrong
When Darwin deduced the theory of natural
selection to explain the adaptations in which he
had previously seen the handiwork of God, he knew
that he was committing cultural murder. He
understood immediately that if natural selection
explained adaptations, and evolution by descent
were true, then the argument from design was dead
and all that went with it, namely the existence
of a personal god, free will, life after death,
immutable moral laws, and ultimate meaning in
life. William Provine, evolutionary biologist
Humans have always wondered about the meaning of
life...life has no higher purpose than to
perpetuate the survival of DNA...life has no
design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing
but blind pitiless indifference.- Richard Dawkins
A society that flinches from the fact of evil
will flinch from the act of punishment. It should
not wonder why it does not feel safe. George
Will
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Objections to the Moral Argument

• Morality is cultural
• Morality is relative
• The presence of Evil disproves a moral God
• Morality either is arbitrarily imposed by God or
  is outside of Him

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Morality is only cultural

• Is/was Widow burning in India morally OK?
• In some cultures they love their neighbors and in
  others they eat them which do you prefer?
• Does a land exist where murder is a virtue and
  thanksgiving a vice?
• Were the Nazis justified in their actions given
  the culture/power in Germany OKd their actions?
• If the majority rule that rape is OK, does that
  make it right?
• Is it OK for a culture to gratuitously torture
  innocent babies?
• If none of the above is true, then what/who is
  mankind morally obligated to? Real moral
  obligation exists, but to whom?
• Perhaps the relativists view has been influenced
  by their culture?

There is a difference in what a culture is doing
and what it ought to do a difference in
descriptive and prescriptive
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Morality is relative

• Is it ever OK to torture babies, abuse children,
  or rape someone?
• Just because we have a twilight doesnt mean we
  cant recognize day and night. What is we did the
  same thing with mathematics we do with morals?
• How does one gauge if the world is getting better
  or worse without absolutes?
• How does one settle moral disagreements without
  absolutes?
• Ends vs. Means are confused. For example,
  peace is desired, but how? This doesnt dismiss
  the absolute.
• How many spouses desire their spouse be
  relatively faithful to them, rather than
  absolutely faithful to them? Relativists cant
  live what they preach.
• The question is not Must we believe in God in
  order to live moral lives?, but Do objective
  moral values exist without God?

Why sir, if he really believes there is no
distinction between virtue and vice, let us count
our spoons before he leaves. Dr. Samuel
Johnson
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No moral God exists because Evil Exists
Recognizing Good and Evil

• To call something bad, you must know what good
  is
• But to call something good implies a moral
  framework/set of moral laws to distinguish
  between good and evil
• The moral framework must be absolute or your
  standard of good/evil can change and you will
  never know good/evil
• An absolute moral framework can only come from an
  absolute moral law giver who is changeless
• But an absolute moral law giver is who the
  atheist is trying to disprove

Rather than disproving God, the recognition of
evil demands there be a God
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Morality is arbitrary or must exist outside of God
Faulty dilemma.

• Gods nature is what grounds absolute moral
  right/wrong
• God has no obligations to anything outside of
  Himself He simply acts and what he naturally
  does is good because it comes from His nature
• However marred, man has been made in the image of
  God and knows right/wrong
• The Mind of God, not man, is the source of moral
  goodness

With me the horrid doubt always arises whether
the convictions of mans mind, which has been
developed from the mind of the lower animals, are
of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one
trust in the convictions of a monkeys mind, if
there are any convictions in such a mind?
Charles Darwin
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Two Worldviews, Two Choices

1. Natural Cause The cosmos is all there is, or
   was, or ever shall be a statement of faith.

1. Supernatural/Intelligent Cause In the
   beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth
   a statement of faith.

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The more reasonable choice? God.

• Ockhams Razor principle the naturalist needs a
  billion little miracles to bring about the
  universe/world we know whereas the believer in
  God needs only one big miracle
• The conclusion is supported by both philosophy
  and science they arrive at the same conclusion
• A personal Beginner is a much more rationale
  conclusion than a purposeless, meaningless, and
  impersonal universe accidently creating beings
  who are obsessed with purpose, meaning, and are
  full of personality.

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Do these conclusions tell us anything about God?
God may exist, but what kind of God are we
dealing with?
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What does the cosmological argument tell us of
God?

• He must be supernatural in nature.
• He must be powerful (incredibly).
• He must be eternal (self-existent no infinite
  regress of causes).
• He must be omnipresent (he created space and is
  not limited by it).
• He must be timeless and changeless (He created
  time).
• He must be immaterial because it transcends
  space/physical.
• He must be personal (impersonal cant create
  personality).
• He must be necessary as everything else depends
  on it.
• He must be infinite and singular as you cannot
  have two infinites
• He must be diverse yet have unity

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What do the teleological and moral arguments tell
us of God?

• He must be intelligent (supremely). Only
  cognitive being can produce cognitive being.
• He must be purposeful as He deliberately created
  everything.
• He must be moral (no moral law can be had without
  a giver).
• He must be caring (or no moral laws would have
  been given).

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So in summary, the God reached from these
conclusions is
Supernatural, omnipresent, immaterial (spirit),
very powerful, highly intelligent,
immortal/eternal, immutable, infinite, singular,
personal, purposeful, good/moral, caring, and
possesses both unity and diversity.
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What worldviews/faiths are affected by these
conclusions?
Agnosticism (Hard and Soft) Atheism Deism Finite
Godism Pantheism (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism,
etc.) Pluralism Polytheism Theism
Agnosticism (Hard and Soft) Atheism Deism Finite
Godism Pantheism (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism,
etc.) Pluralism Polytheism Theism
This leaves Christianity, Judaism, and Islam
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One piece of lifes puzzle is in place

• We know our origins the universe and mankind
  came from the deliberate act of a supernatural
  creator.

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God
D o e s
Proofs
For the Existence of
T H R E E
God
The Arguments from Existence, Design, and Morality