Is It Reasonable To Believe In God?

1. Part 1 Is It Reasonable To Believe In God?

2. 5 Arguments for God’s Existence • Cosmological Argument

3. The cosmological argument is less a particular argument than an argument type. It uses a general pattern of argumentation (logos) that makes an inference from certain alleged facts about the world (cosmos) to the existence of a unique being, generally identified with or referred to as God. Among these initial facts are that the world came into being, that the world is contingent in that it could have been other than it is, or that certain beings or events in the world are causally dependent or contingent. From these facts philosophers infer either deductively or inductively that a first cause, a necessary being, an unmoved mover, or a personal being (God) exists. The cosmological argument is part of classical natural theology, whose goal has been to provide some evidence for the claim that God exists. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmological-argument/

4. The cosmological argument A type of argument for the existence of God, advanced by a number of philosophers, including Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, which maintains that, since every thing and event has a cause, there must be a first cause (God) which is itself uncaused and which causes everything else. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_argument

5. The Cosmological Argument Design demands a designer– intelligence behind it. Carl Sagan “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.” Cosmos, p. 4, 1980

6. The Cosmological Argument 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (Law of Entropy) In layman’s terms, disorder increases over time in a system. What this suggests is that the universe is winding down, not up. cf. Psalm 102:25-27

7. The Cosmological Argument Genesis 1:1-3 Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God;         And the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 33:6-9 Romans 1:18-20

8. The Cosmological Argument • The atheist has The Big Bang. • An explosion + lots and lots and lots of time ≠design • The Home Depot + explosion ≠ a house • A junkyard and a tornado ≠ a ‘57 Chevy

9. 5 Arguments for God’s Existence • Cosmological Argument • The Order of the Universe

10. The Order of the Universe • The Milky Way is a large galaxy comprising an estimated 200 billion stars (some estimates range as high as 400 billion) arrayed in the form of a disk, with a central elliptical bulge (some 12,000 light-years in diameter) of closely packed stars lying in the direction of Sagittarius. Milky Way: Size and Shape of the Milky Way — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0859648.html#ixzz1DPh9CfYz

11. The Order of the Universe The diameter of the disk is c.100,000 light-years; its average thickness is 10,000 light-years, increasing to 30,000 light-years at the nucleus. Milky Way: Size and Shape of the Milky Way — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0859648.html#ixzz1DPh9CfYz

12. The Order of the Universe • Characteristics of Earth necessary for life: • Distance from the sun. • Shape of the orbit. • Speed of rotation • Core temperature and crust thickness • Elements present • Orbit in relation to other planets. • Atmosphere

13. 5 Arguments for God’s Existence • Cosmological Argument • The Order of the Universe • The Complexity of Life

14. The Complexity of Life Psalm 139:13-14 13 For You formed my inward parts;         You covered me in my mother’s womb.14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;         Marvelous are Your works,          And that my soul knows very well.

15. The Complexity of Life In the last 30 years a number of prominent scientists have attempted to calculate the odds that a free-living, single-celled organism, such as a bacterium, might result by the chance combining of pre-existent building blocks. Harold Morowitz calculated the odds as one chance in 10100,000,000,000. Sir Fred Hoyle calculated the odds of only the proteins of an amoebae arising by chance as one chance in 1040,000.

16. The Complexity of Life ...the odds calculated by Morowitz and Hoyle are staggering. The odds led Fred Hoyle to state that the probability of spontaneous generation 'is about the same as the probability that a tornado sweeping through a junk yard could assemble a Boeing 747 from the contents therein.' Mathematicians tell us that any event with an improbability greater than one chance in 1050 is in the realm of metaphysics -- i.e. a miracle. Mark Eastman, MD, Creation by Design, T.W.F.T. Publishers, 1996, 21-22

17. The Complexity of Life Cells are the fundamental working units of every living system. All the instructions needed to direct their activities are contained within the chemical DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). DNA from all organisms is made up of the same chemical and physical components. The DNA sequence is the particular side-by-side arrangement of bases along the DNA strand (e.g., ATTCCGGA). This order spells out the exact instructions required to create a particular organism with its own unique traits.

18. The Complexity of Life The genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA. Genomes vary widely in size: the smallest known genome for a free-living organism (a bacterium) contains about 600,000 DNA base pairs, while human and mouse genomes have some 3 billion. Except for mature red blood cells, all human cells contain a complete genome. http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/info.shtml

19. The Complexity of Life We are fearfully and wonderfully MADE. • The eye • The ear • The brain • The circulatory system • The respiratory system • The reproductive system • The digestive system • The skeletal system • the immune system

20. Is it reasonable to believe in God? BELIEVE – Hebrews 11:6, John 8:24 REPENT – Acts 17:30, Luke 13:3 CONFESS – Romans 10:10, Matthew 10:32-33 BE BAPTIZED – Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16 BE FAITHFUL – Hebrews 3:12, Revelation 2:10 YES!