Scripture and Truth - Pt. 2
Notes
Transcript
Argument of Design
Argument of Design
We will be dealing with some arguments for the Existence of God as well as looking at the arguments against the existence of God.
Apologetics gets at the heart through the head. The head is important precisely because it is a gate to the heart. We can love only what we know.
The goal of apologetics is not victory but truth.
Reasons for God are like the car that takes you to the beach. You still have to get out of the car and jump in the water (faith). Arguments and reasons for God are not the basis for our faith.
Reasons are an important first step in opening the mind to the possibility of faith - in clearing some of the roadblocks and rubble that prevent people from taking the idea of divine revelation seriously.
We aren’t “proving” the existence of God in the modern sense of the scientific method, science measures things. God cannot be measured… How do you measure spirit?
In real life, most of our reasons amount to probabilities, not proofs. For instance, you have no proof that the building you are in is safe but you have reason to believe you have a high probability of safety because of the contractor and construction and materials.
To the atheist my reasons for the existence of God give a reason for seeking God. And if the existence of God was absolutely unreasonable then I would have no interest in seeking Him.
The atheist walked in to ask the priest to prove the existence of God, the priest said no. Then asked him, can you prove God doesn’t exist?
C. S. Lewis noted that “Nearly everyone I know who has embraced Christianity in adult life has been influenced by what seemed to him to be at least a probable argument for Theism”
C.S. Lewis and many many others of high intelligence came to Christ because others were obedient to Scripture. Who is on the other end of our obedience to give a reason for our faith.
[Scriptures]
Colossians 4:2-6 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
1 Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts revere 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,”
A major point we can’t miss:
We may do a great job of arguing that Christianity is total truth, and provide excellent arguments of reason but others will not find our message persuasive unless we give a visible demonstration of that truth in action.
Outsiders must be able to see for themselves, in the day-to-day pattern of our lives, that we do not treat Christianity as just a private retreat, a comfort blanket, a castle of fairy-tale beliefs that merely make us feel better.
Our conversations with those outside the faith must be:
Full of Grace
Seasoned with salt
Gentleness
Respect
While 47% are open to general religious conversations, 79% of the unchurched say they don’t mind their Christian friend talking about their faith.
Only 3 in 10 unchurched Americans (29%) say a Christian has ever shared with them one-on-one how a person becomes a Christian.
We as a church have been praying for God to stir our hearts to reach the unchurched and lost. This week in prayer, I felt that a hindrance in many lives is that there isn’t much excitement about their faith. (When people are excited about a new product they go tell everyone about it). Perhaps it’s an even deeper issue. Perhaps we may not be excited because we are dealing with:
Deep sense of guilt and unworthiness
Feeling a need to constantly “prove ourselves”
Sensitivity to criticism
Defensiveness
Lack of confidence in relationships
Lack of confidence and joy in prayer and worship
The root of this is Condemnation.
When living in condemnation - We will have far less motivation to live a holy life and especially
Far less motivation to share our joy and hope with others when we are overwhelmed with shame and guilt.
Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,”
There is no objective condemnation for the one in Christ.
Therefore, there should be no subjective condemnation experience.
You have entered into the same relationship with the Triune God as Jesus has. You are In Him. You are loved with the same love Jesus is loved with.
To still carry around guilt and shame, and expressing that to the world around you, is to forget what Christ has done. He is not holding an account of your sins. He wiped them away.
May your awe of God be so inspired by His grace that will say like Paul: “Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord (Psalm 130:4), we try to persuade others… we are Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ;’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:11, 20)
When condemnation leaves and joy enters, you will not be silent about it.
7 Practical tips in giving reasons and an answer for what you believe. (Not original with me, I have no original thought)
Don’t be afraid to be unpopular.
People don’t want cool, they want Jesus.
Don’t be afraid of hard questions. Don’t avoid them.
Christianity is a hard real thing with a shape of its own that we are called to conform to.
Our work is to prepare the heart and mind, not convert.
Therefore, we must know what we believe with reasons in our cultural context.
The diseases of humanity of changed but the truth hasn’t.
i.e. no objective truth or morality.
We must be lovers of truth
You can’t give what you don’t have
Therefore, we are always learning, seeking, growing.
Be a good listener
The best teachers are the best listeners. Show real interest in people, their feelings, experiences, ideas, reasons, how is their soul?
Only listeners are listened to.
72% of non-Christian Gen Z is comfortable sharing/hearing faith when “listens without judgement”
Rely on God
It’s 100% God and 100% you. It’s prayer and ministry. Always pray. Always go.
We have the upper hand, we have the truth. All truth is God’s truth.
Be optimistic
Secularism is dying
The modern world is old and on its way out
The modern ideals are tried and worn
Our message is young and full of life.
Our message: BE RECONCILED TO GOD
Well I don’t believe in God.
Argument for the existence of God:
First, what is the logical structure of a deductive argument?
Major Premise or General Principle
Minor Premise with some particular data
The conclusion follows the application of the general principle to the particular case.
Argument of Design or the Teleological Argument
Where there is design, there must be a designer
The existence of design throughout the universe
There must be a universal designer
We go to William Paley, an 18th century classical apologist.
Paley’s Watchmaker. One of the most popular forms of the argument was given by William Paley (1743–1805), the archdeacon of Carlisle.
Suppose I hit my foot on a stone while walking, I might ask how the stone came to be there, I might conclude that it has always been there.
Suppose I found a watch upon the ground, it should be inquired how the watch happened to be there, he said, “I should hardly think of the answer which I had given before, that for anything I knew the watch might have always been there… Why is it not admissible in the second case as in the fist? For this reason, and for no other, namely, that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive what we could not discover in the stone - that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose.
1. A watch shows that it was put together for an intelligent purpose (to keep time): (a) It has a spring to give it motion. (b) It has a series of wheels to transmit this motion. (c) The wheels are made of brass so that they do not rust. (d) The spring is made of steel because of the resilience of that metal. (e) The front cover is of glass so that one can see through it.
2. The world shows an even greater evidence of design than a watch: (a) The world is a greater work of art than a watch. (b) The world has more subtle and complex design than a watch. (c) The world has an endless variety of means adapted to ends.
3. Therefore, if the existence of a watch implies a watchmaker, the existence of the world implies an even greater intelligent Designer (God)
Is it possible that design happens by chance without a designer?
It was said that if you put a million monkeys at a million typewriters for a million years, one of them would eventually type out all of Hamlet by chance
But when we find Hamlet, who asks if chance and monkeys wrote it?
So why does the atheist use such an incredible improbable explanation for design in the universe
Perhaps even a stronger argument:
Because The more complex the design, the greater the intelligence required to produce it. Specified complexity - this kind of complexity is never produced by purely natural laws.
So let’s say that yes over a long enough period of time, a watch came to be.
Let’s say over a period of time, mount rushmore came to be.
But how about the most amazing complex machine in the universe: our brain.
In many ways its like a computer
Agnostic astronomer, Carl Sagan, unwittingly provided an even greater example.
He notes that the genetic information in the human brain expressed in bits is probably comparable to the total number of connections among neurons—about 100 trillion, 1014 bits.
If written out in English, say, that information would fill some 20 million volumes, as many as are stored in the world’s largest libraries.
The equivalent of 20 million books is inside the heads of every one of us.
“The brain is a very big place in a very small space,” Sagan said. He went on to note that “the neurochemistry of the brain is astonishingly busy, the circuitry of a machine more wonderful than any devised by humans.”
But if this is so, then why does the human brain not need an intelligent Creator, as does even the simplest computer?
Now suppose there were a computer that was programmed only by chance (again, no designer).
Now say you were in a plane and you heard the flight attendant say over the PA system, that there was no pilot, but don’t worry we are being flown by a computer that was programmed by a random fall of hailstones on its keyboard. Question, How much confidence would you have in this plane?
But if our brain computer has no cosmic intelligence behind the heredity and environment that program it, why should we trust it when it tells us about anything, even about the brain?
In his vivid personal testimony, Chesterton confessed: “I had always believed that the world involved magic; now I thought perhaps it involved a magician.… This world of ours has some purpose; and if there is a purpose, there is a person. I had always felt life first as a story; and if there is a story there is a storyteller”
There is a very good reason to believe in the existence of God because of argument of design. Everything was created for a purpose.