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Is Belief in God Reasonable? - Part 2
References:
1. Apologetics is the discipline that deals with a rational defense of the Christian faith.
2. Underlying Christianity is theism, the worldview that believes in the existence of a single, infinite, personal God who created the universe and miraculously intervenes in it from time to time. God is transcendent over the universe and immanent in it.
3. The 3 great theistic religions are Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
4. All believers in Christ are charged to be able to give reasons for their faith.
5. If God does not exist, then it is certain that belief in God is not reasonable. So the first task is to give reasons concerning the evidence for God’s existence.
6. First, in Episodes 51-55 I gave an argument from the beginning of the universe that the First Cause of the universe is identical to the God of the Bible. This conclusion is foundational for this program and cannot be overlooked.
7. In his book “Christian Apologetics” (pp. 137f Norman Geisler gave a different proof with the same conclusion.
8. Second, I appealed to William Lane Craig’s version of the moral argument in Episodes 72-73 for God’s existence. Another version is due to C. S. Lewis that shows that God is a Moral Lawgiver.
9. In his book “The Brothers Karamazov” Dostoevsky says that if God is rejected, anything goes and there is no moral restraint.
10. The moral argument starts with the simple fact of ethical experience.
11. Evolutionists attack the moral argument by insisting that all morality is nothing more than a long evolutionary development from animal instincts.
12. But this objection is a 2-edged sword: if it kills the inner moral law, then it also kills reason and the scientific method.
13. In his 1993 book “Warrant and Proper Function” the philosopher Alvin Plantinga argued that if you believe that naturalism and evolution are true, then you have a defeater of all your beliefs.
14. The next evidence for God’s existence I gave in this episode was the present evidence in nature. The most common such appeal to nature is some form of teleological or design argument. The English apologist William Paley (1743-1805) offered what has become the classic formulation of the design argument.
15. Paley insisted that if one found a watch in an empty field he would naturally and correctly conclude that it was not the result of natural forces alone, but instead it had a watchmaker. Similarly, if one studies the more complex design found in the natural world, he cannot but conclude that there is a world designer behind it.
16. Voltaire, the outspoken critic of Christianity during the Enlightenment, seemed to accept Paley’s argument. He said, “If a watch proves the existence of a watchmaker but the universe does not prove the existence of a great Architect, then I consent to be called a fool.”
This is Episode 104.
View all episodes
By Joe Mott
2.6
55 ratings
References:
1. Apologetics is the discipline that deals with a rational defense of the Christian faith.
2. Underlying Christianity is theism, the worldview that believes in the existence of a single, infinite, personal God who created the universe and miraculously intervenes in it from time to time. God is transcendent over the universe and immanent in it.
3. The 3 great theistic religions are Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
4. All believers in Christ are charged to be able to give reasons for their faith.
5. If God does not exist, then it is certain that belief in God is not reasonable. So the first task is to give reasons concerning the evidence for God’s existence.
6. First, in Episodes 51-55 I gave an argument from the beginning of the universe that the First Cause of the universe is identical to the God of the Bible. This conclusion is foundational for this program and cannot be overlooked.
7. In his book “Christian Apologetics” (pp. 137f Norman Geisler gave a different proof with the same conclusion.
8. Second, I appealed to William Lane Craig’s version of the moral argument in Episodes 72-73 for God’s existence. Another version is due to C. S. Lewis that shows that God is a Moral Lawgiver.
9. In his book “The Brothers Karamazov” Dostoevsky says that if God is rejected, anything goes and there is no moral restraint.
10. The moral argument starts with the simple fact of ethical experience.
11. Evolutionists attack the moral argument by insisting that all morality is nothing more than a long evolutionary development from animal instincts.
12. But this objection is a 2-edged sword: if it kills the inner moral law, then it also kills reason and the scientific method.
13. In his 1993 book “Warrant and Proper Function” the philosopher Alvin Plantinga argued that if you believe that naturalism and evolution are true, then you have a defeater of all your beliefs.
14. The next evidence for God’s existence I gave in this episode was the present evidence in nature. The most common such appeal to nature is some form of teleological or design argument. The English apologist William Paley (1743-1805) offered what has become the classic formulation of the design argument.
15. Paley insisted that if one found a watch in an empty field he would naturally and correctly conclude that it was not the result of natural forces alone, but instead it had a watchmaker. Similarly, if one studies the more complex design found in the natural world, he cannot but conclude that there is a world designer behind it.
16. Voltaire, the outspoken critic of Christianity during the Enlightenment, seemed to accept Paley’s argument. He said, “If a watch proves the existence of a watchmaker but the universe does not prove the existence of a great Architect, then I consent to be called a fool.”
This is Episode 104.