Reasons%20for%20Belief

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• Reasons for Belief
• John Oakes
• Harvard University
• 10/16/09

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You are Invited!
2010 International Christian Evidence
Conference Concordia University Irvine,
CA Evolution Four Views
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Can Science and belief in God coexist?

• The Language of God

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Reasons Collins believes in God

• 1. There is something instead of nothing.
• 2. The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.
• 3. The Big Bang.
• 4. Nature does not solve the problem of why.
• 5. The existence of time.
• 6. Fine tuning of the universe. The Goldilocks
  Paradox.
• 7. Ockhams Razor.
• 8. The existence of moral law.
• I would add Because the Bible is inspired

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Accident or Design? The Anthropic Principle
William Paley
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The Teleological Argument Evidence for Design in
Nature The Anthropic Principle
Boeing 747 Design or Accident?
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Physics The Finely Tuned Universe
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Fine Tuning of the Gravitational Constant
.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000001
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Fred Hoyle on Fine-Tuning
a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics,
as well as with chemistry and biology.
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Antony Flew Considers God?

• Flew is increasingly persuaded that some sort of
  Deity brought about this universe. He says he has
  in mind something like the God of Aristotle, a
  distant, impersonal "prime mover." It might not
  even be conscious, but a mere force. In formal
  terms, he regards the existence of this minimal
  God as a hypothesis that, at present, is perhaps
  the best explanation for why a universe exists
  that can produce complex life

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Delos B. McKown Christianity is
scientifically unsupported and probably
insupportable, philosophically suspect at best
and disreputable at worst, and historically
fraudulent.
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Proposition 1

• The Bible is scientifically unsupported and
  probably insupportible

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Papyrus Ebers
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• The Ebers Papyrus
• To prevent hair from turning gray, anoint it
  with the blood of a calf which has been boiled in
  oil or with the fat of a rattlesnake.
• A mixture of six fats, namely those of the
  horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the cat,
  the snake and the ibex.... to prevent hair loss.

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Drugs of Choice included

• Lizards blood
• Swines teeth
• Putrid meat
• Moisture from Pigs ears
• Excreta from animals including human beings,
  donkeys, antelope, dogs, cats and flies

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I will not bring on you any of these
diseases... Exodus 1526 The pig... is
unclean for you...those that walk on their
paws...the weasel, the rat...are unclean for
you. Leviticus 11
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The sting of a hornet is healed by the
house-fly, crushed and applied to the wound.
The gnat, feeble creature, taking in food but
never secreting it is a specific against the
poison of the viper. An ancient Hebrew medical
manuscript.
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Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will
be unclean for seven days. He must purify
himself with the water on the third and seventh
day...take some hyssop, dip it in the water and
sprinkle the tent and furnishings and the people
who were there. Numbers 19
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Semelweiss
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Vienna, 1847

• In maternity wards one out of every six women
  dies.
• Obstetricians ascribe deaths to constipation,
  fear and poisonous air.

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Death Rate falls from 18 to 1
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Thymol (Oil of Hyssop)
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For the generations to come, every male among
you who is eight days old must be
circumcised... Genesis 1712 Vitamin
K Prothrombrin a clotting protein.
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Clotting Protein Peaks on Day Eight
Available Prothrombin
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Abrahams Experiment
Day Circumcised Number of Hebrew Boys Number of Deaths
1 823 4
3 759 6
5 693 8
7 855 3
9 770 2
11 698 4
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Proposition 1

• The Bible is scientifically unsupported and
  probably insupportible
• Genesis 1, Hebrews 113
• Response Oh really

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Proposition 2

• Christianity is philosophically suspect at best
• Delos McKown

Socrates
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Christian Philosophy/Theology

• Christian Philosophy (theology) gives a more
  realistic description of things as they are than
  materialism or postmodernism.
• Materialism denies the existence of truth,
  morality and value.
• Postmodernism says that all truth is relative.
  No particular world view is preferred.

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Naturalism/Scientism/Materialism

• The belief that the only reliable or valid
  instrument to deciding the truth or even the
  value of any proposition is the scientific
  method.
• No ethics, no morality, no supernatural, no God,
  no truth (except that found by science), no
  consciousness, no I. Justice is a figment of
  our imagination.

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Richard Dawkins

• In the universe of blind physical forces and
  genetic replication, some people are going to get
  hurt and other people are going to get lucky and
  you wont find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any
  justice. The universe we observe has precisely
  the properties we should expect if there is at
  the 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.

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Questions Science Can Answer

• When?
• What?
• Where?
• How many?
• By what means?

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Questions Science Cannot Answer(That the Bible
Does Answer)

• Why am I here?
• Is that the right thing to do?
• How valuable am I?
• Does God exist? Does God act (theism)?
• Will that God respond if I pray?
• Do supernatural events (miracles) happen?

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If the Materialist is right, then

• Religious thought is absolute nonsense. Prayer
  is chemical moving around in your brain.
• Art, Literature, Music have no intrinsic value.
• Justice is a meaningless word.
• Human rights have no basis.
• Etc.

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Naturalism is a Dangerous (Evil?) Philosophy

• If the naturalist is right then
• Good and evil are meaningless ideas.
• Stealing is not necessarily wrong.
• Any kind of sexual behavior is as right as any
  other.
• There is nothing inherently evil about genocide.
• Racism is acceptable.

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Postmodernism Cultural Relativism

• Reality is a social construction.
• Truth It is true for you, but it is not true
  for me.
• All beliefs are theory-laden (Thomas Kuhn)
• Meaning, if it exists, lies in a community of
  believers.
• Self is a construction of our society.
• No rational way to discover which is the best
  world view.

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Challenge to a Postmodernist

• How do you know the postmodern view is the
  correct one?
• If your culture does not believe in gravity try
  throwing yourself off of a high building

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The Impact of Christian Thinking on the World

• Womens rights
• Human rights
• Abolition of Slavery
• Science was created due to the Christian view of
  the world

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• Predictions Based on Christian Theology
• The universe will follow a single, unchanging
  set of laws.
• The universe will be understandable to human
  beings.
• The universe will be describable by mathematics.
• The universe will be designed so that we can
  observe it
• - (The Priveleged Planet Gonzalez and Richards)

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Christian Philosophy/The Christian World View

• Realism but not naturalism
• Genesis 131 The world/creation is good (vs
  Pythagoreanism, Platonism, neo-Platonism,
  Gnosticism, etc.)
• Genesis 11 Defeats pantheism, atheism, dualism,
  materialism/scientism, humanism, animism, all in
  one verse. (Hebrews 113)

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Christian Philosophy (cont.)

• Biblical theology solves the dual problems of
  suffering and evil.
• Evil the result of people with free will
  rebelling against God.
• Suffering is not evil. It is from God, but it
  should be dealt with by compassion.
• Nearly all compassionate works in the world are
  done by Bible believers.

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Proposition 3

• Christianity is historically fraudulent

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Ruins of Hattusha, capital of the Hittites
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The Lion Gate in Hattusha
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The Five City League, including Sodom and Gomorrah
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The Tel Dan Inscription 820 BC 2 Kings 828-29 I
Hazael killed Joram, son of Omri and I defeated
Ahaziah of the House of David
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Pilate Inscription Caesarea AD 30
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Ziggurat in Ur
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Proposition 4

• The Bible is full of myths.
• This charge is true! The Bible contains true
  myths.

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Myths Common to Nearly All Cultures

• Creation myths
• Gilgamesh (Akkadian/Sumerian)
• Popol Vuh (Mayan)
• Sutras (Hindu) etc.
• vs. Genesis 1-3
• God/man myths
• Isis and Osiris
• Mithra
• Krishna
• Eleusian Rites, etc.
• vs. Jesus

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Babylonian Creation Myth Marduk kills Tiamat
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Sutras Hindu Scripture

• The Earth sits on the back of four elephants,
  standing on a turtle, encircled by a snake,
  swimming in a bowl of milk.

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Egyptian Creation Myth
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Iroquois Creation Myth Enigorio and
Enigohahetgea Battling the Ronnongwetowanca
(Stone Giants)
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Inspiration of the BibleMessianic Prophecies
Fulfilled

• He said to them, This is what I told you while I
  was still with you Everything must be fulfilled
  that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the
  Prophets and the Psalms. Luke 2444

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Isaiah 531-13 He was despised and rejected by
men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering.
(v. 3) But he was pierced for our
transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities the punishment that brought us peace
was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
(v. 5) (John 1931-37) He was oppressed and
afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth he was
led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep
before her shearers is silent, so he did not open
his mouth. (v. 7)
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Micah 52 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathrah, though
you are small among the clans of Judah, out of
you will come for me one who will be ruler over
Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient
times. Isaiah 91,6 In the past he humbled the
land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in
the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles,
by the way of the sea, along the Jordan. For
to us a child is born And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace.
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Psalm 2216-18 Dogs have surrounded me a band
of evil men have encircled me, they have
pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my
bones (John 193-37) people stare and
gloat over me. They divide my garments among
them and cast lots for my clothing. (John
1923,24)
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Zechariah 1112,13 I told them, If you think
it best, give me my pay but if not, keep it.
so they paid me thirty pieces of silver.
(Matthew 2614-16)
And the Lord said to me, Throw it to the
potterthe handsome price at which they priced
me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and
threw them into the house of the Lord, to the
potter. (Matthew 273-8)
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Daniel 924-26 Seventy sevens are decreed for
your people and your holy city to finish
transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for
wickedness, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and
to anoint the most holy. Know and understand
this From the issuing of the decree to restore
and rebuild Jerusalem, until the Anointed One,
the ruler comes, there will be seven sevens and
sixty two sevens Decree of Artaxerxes (Ezra
712-26) 458 BC 458 BC - 490 years -32 (no
zero BC)
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According to the Old Testament, the Messiah must

• Be born in Bethlehem
• Be raised in Galilee near Nazareth
• Be despised and rejected by men
• Be meek and silent before his accusers
• Be pierced
• Be crucified
• Have his garments divided and gambled over
• Be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver
• Come to Jerusalem to make atonement for sin in
  about AD 33
• And many more.
• Was all this an accident, or did God plan all
  along for the Passion of the Christ for
  forgiveness of sins? What do you think?
• Is the Bible the Word of God or the word of men?

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If The Bible is the Word of GodWe Need to Put it
Into Practice

• Hebrews 111 Faith in what is not seen.
• John 1247-50 The Word will be our judge
• James 122-25 Put it into practice
• 2 Tim 41-5 No sentimentality. Eternal life
  is at stake.

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