CHRISTIANITY-- True or False?

1. CHRISTIANITY--True or False? The Case for God, the Bible and Jesus John Stewart, B.A., M.A., J.D. International Director, Ratio Christi

2. Questions • Where did the universe come from? • Does God exist? • Why are we here? • What is the purpose of humanity? • What is the future of humanity? • Can we find out the answers?

3. Why Has God become a Threat? Erin Shead, a 10-year old student in Tennessee, was told by her teacher to write about an idol she looked up to as part of a class assignment. Erin decided to write about God. She drew a diagram explaining why she "looked up to God," writing "He is the reason I am on this earth. I love [God] and Jesus, and Jesus is His earthly son.” When Erin's teacher received her written assignment, she told the young girl that she was prohibited from picking God as her idol, and demanded that she start the class assignment all over again and choose a new idol. She was also told that her assignment with God as her idol must be taken home and was not allowed to remain on school property. September 2013

4. Why Would God Be a Threat? • If there is a God, there will be accountability and justice (in this life or the next) according to what God requires • If there is a God, He becomes the measure of truth and right and wrong • If there is a God, morality is absolute, and is what He says it is

5. If there is a God and Christianity is true, why so much doubt? • America has been changing from a theistic (“God-believing”) culture to a secular culture • Our universities are no longer a marketplace for ideas (atheistic, agnostic and secular assumptions have created a hostile environment toward those who believe in God in general, and Christians in particular)

6. Richard Rorty, late professor of Philosophy, Princeton University • “...we try to arrange things so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic, religious fundamentalists will leave college with views more like our own . . .

7. So we are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable..”1

8. What Christianity Teaches • There is a God, who created the universe out of nothing • God has revealed Himself and His plan through inspired writings called the “Bible” • God’s plan involved sending His Son, Jesus, to earth to die for the sins of humanity that separate us from God (the “gospel”) • Jesus rose from the dead as proof that by believing in Him a person is forgiven of sins and given eternal life in heaven

9. What’s the Big Deal? Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis, Cambridge Professor, former atheist

10. Three Questions • Is there a God (i.e., an “Intelligent Designer” that created the universe)? • Is the Bible a reliable source of truth about God and Jesus? • Is Jesus the Savior sent from God? (i.e., is Christianity true?)

11. Truth is sometimes denied because of a closed mind • The existence of the platypus (‘duckbill”) was initially denied in England because it did not fit into scientists’ world view • A resurrection is often dismissed as being impossible before considering the evidence because of anti-supernatural bias.

12. Nietzsche, Darwin, etc. assume naturalism or atheism • Atheists, materialists and naturalists assume there is no supernatural. Thus, regardless of the evidence, they will never believe God exists.

13. Carl Sagan’s view • “The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be.” Cosmos (notice this is not a scientific statement, but is a metaphysical, i.e., religious, statement)

14. How Do We Find Answers to the Questions? • Consider the Evidence • Weigh the Evidence

15. Sequence of Presenting the Evidence • Part I--Does God exist? (If there is no God, we can reject the Bible and Jesus) • Part II--Is the Bible reliable? (If there is a God but the Bible is not reliable, then the story of Jesus is suspect, at best, and false, at worst) • Part III--Did Jesus live, die on a cross and rise from the dead? (If Jesus is not an historical person, then we can reject the teachings of Christianity)

16. What is “Evidence?” • Anything that supports an assertion • Forms of Evidence: 1. Testimony (tells) 2. Physical evidence (shows)

17. Direct Evidence Direct Evidence--where a witness testifies directly about the fact that is to be proved, based on what he claims to have seen or heard or felt with his own senses, and the only question is whether you believe the witness (“percipient witness”) Example: Assertion- “The mailman came today.” Testimony: “I saw the mailman drop off mail” Observation (“eyewitness testimony”) Documents (record of eyewitness testimony)

18. Circumstantial Evidence • Circumstantial Evidence (relies on an inference to connect the evidence to an assertion of fact) Example: Assertion- “The mailman came today.” Testimony: “I saw mail in the mail box” (an inference that the mailman had been there) DNA, fingerprints, empty tomb

19. What About “Scientific Proof?” • “Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as a scientific proof. Proofs exist only in mathematics and logic, not in science. The primary criterion and standard of evaluation of scientific theory is evidence, not proof.” Satoshi Kanazawa, Evolutionary Psychologist2

20. Limitations on Scientific Evidence Scientific Method: (1) form hypothesis; (2) repeat experiment; (3) draw data; (4) empirically verify hypothesis (e.g. “Ivory soap floats”) "The scientific method, however it is defined, is related to measurement of phenomena and experimentation or repeated observation" (The New Encyclopedia Britannica) Thus, history is outside the scope of the scientific method

21. Legal/Historical Method • “History”-- “A record of the past based upon testimony” • “Testimony” includes oral testimony, documents, artifacts • The Legal/Historical Method is used to determine events of the past (i.e., did Jesus exist) based on quality of evidence

22. In making the case for God’s existence: • I will be using expert witnesses to testify • These experts are qualified as a experts by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education • Their testimony will be in the form of quotations from their writings and speeches

23. Expert Testimony • ”A witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education" may testify and offer opinions if (a) the expert’s scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue…" Rule 702(a) of the Federal Rules of Evidence

24. Dueling Experts • What if both sides of an issue (e.g., whether God exists) have experts testifying in support of their side--how do you decide who to believe?

25. Weight of Evidence • Evidence can be weak or strong • Testimony can be reliable or unreliable (determine the quality of testimony by considering the character of the witnesses, biases, corroborating testimony, and the quality of contrary testimony) Once you’ve weighed the evidence, it is time for a verdict (Latinveredictim “to say the truth”)

26. Our Goal--Arrive at Truth • “What is truth?” Pontius Pilate, Gov. of Judea, AD 26-36 • “You can’t handle the truth” Col. Jessup, A Few Good Men • “I am the truth” Jesus of Nazareth, John 14:6 • “truth” is that which comports with reality • “truth” is not dependent on feelings or preferences

27. Attempts to Escape from Truth(“Post-Modern Double-Talk”) • “that’s your truth” (“true for you, not for me”) • All truth is relative • There is no absolute truth • Truth cannot be known • You can’t know anything for sure

28. Apply the Law of Non-Contradiction • Everything I say is a lie • I can’t speak a word of English • All truth is relative • There is no absolute truth • Truth cannot be known • It is true for you but not for me • You can’t know anything for sure

29. No One Believes and Lives as if there is No Objective Truth • If a person says “there is no truth,” it doesn’t matter whether he eat Wheaties or rat poison--there is no truth, so bon appetite! Only a fool would deny there is such a thing as poison.

30. Basic Assumptions • There is such a thing as “true” and “false” • “Truth” can be known • We have the ability to weigh evidence to determine what is true and what is false

31. Since we have both truth and lies, who is lying? “By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed.”

32. Beware of Attractively-Presented Lies “By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed.” Adoph Hitler, Mein Kampf

33. Christianity--True or False?Part I, the Case for God • What is the evidence for an intelligent designer of the universe (“God”)? • Based upon the evidence, does it take more “faith” to be an atheist than to believe in God?

34. Clarifying what “faith” is and is not • “faith” is not credulity (“believing in spite of the evidence) • “faith” is not some mysterious ability • “faith” is the gap between what we know is true and what can’t be proved (what we do when we sit on a chair or enter a building, e.g., no guaranty they won’t collapse)

35. Demonstrating that God exists is not the end of the journey • If the evidence supports that there is an Intelligent Designer of the universe, we still need to find out who this God is (e.g., the God of Hinduism, Islam or Christianity) • The Bible never tries to prove there is a God--it assumes there is a God (and says those who say there is no God are fools)

36. Three Conclusions About God • Theism (from Greek word theos meaning “God”)--God exists • Atheism--there is no God (“agnostic” means one who does not know whether God exists) • Pantheism-everything is God

37. The View of Atheists(It Takes Faith to be an Atheist) • Quentin Smith: “The most reasonable belief is that we came from nothing, by nothing and for nothing.”3 • Isaac Asimov: “Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.”4

38. Arguments Supporting God’s Existence (Be CALM) • 1. Cosmos (“universe”) had a beginning • 2. Anthropic Principle is strong evidence of a designer of the universe • 3. Life’s very existence is strong evidence of a life-giver • 4. Morality requires the existence of a moral law giver

39. Evidence for God’s Existence:(1) Cosmos had a beginning • Law of Causality: Everything that begins to exist has a cause The cosmos began to exist Therefore, the universe has a cause (God, by definition, is uncaused and eternal)

40. Evidence that the Cosmos Had a Beginning (GEARS) 1. Gas tank is not empty yet 2 Expanding universe 3. Albert Einstein’s General Relativity Theory 4. Radiation in cosmic background 5. Seeds of galaxies

41. G: Gas Tank Not Empty Yet(Second Law of Thermodynamics) • 1st Law of Thermodynamics--the amount of usable energy in the universe is finite (example-20 gallons of gas in a car) • 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (“Entropy”) the universe is running out of usable energy (the car engine is running, so the amount of gas is decreasing) (If the universe was eternal, it would have already run out of usable energy, like a car parked with the engine running--it will eventually run out of gas)

42. E: Expanding Universe • Confirmed by astronomer Edwin Hubble in the 1920s that the universe is expanding from a single point • Astronomers today conclude the rate of expansion of the universe is increasing An expanding universe from a single point is strong evidence the cosmos had a beginning

43. A: Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity • Demands an absolute beginning for time, space and matter • Demonstrates that time, space and matter are inter-dependent--one cannot exist without the other • From Einstein’s theory scientists predicted and then discovered the expanding universe, radiation afterglow and galaxy seeds.

44. Albert Einstein would have rather had an eternal universe

45. Why prefer an eternal universe? The implications (i.e., God exists) “Philosophically, the notion of a beginning of the present order of nature is repugnant to me…I should like to find a genuine loophole.”5 Albert Einstein Einstein, when he later could not longer support his wish for an eternal universe, he said he wanted “to know how God created the world.”6

46. R: Radiation in Cosmic Background 1965, Arnold Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered the afterglow (light and heat) from the creative event (“Big Bang”) that had been predicted to exist if the explosive creative event had actually occurred. Their discovery confirmed the Big Bang (i.e., that the universe began from nothing in a fireball explosion of matter)

47. S: Seeds of Galaxies “Seeds of Galaxies” refers to variations in the temperature of background radiation that allowed gravity to form galaxies from matter. Discovered in 1989, the variations show the Big Bang and expansion of the universe were perfectly calibrated to cause the right amount of matter to combine to form galaxies, but not enough to cause the universe to collapse back onto itself.

48. How significant was the discovery of seeds of galaxies? “If you’re religious, its like looking at God.”7 Astronomer George Smoot, Cosmic Background Explorer (“COBE”) project leader Smoot calls the variations in temperature, “machining marks from the creation of the universe” and “fingerprints of the maker.”8

49. How Precise did the Creation of Matter Have to Be? • Physicist P.C.W. Davies: Changes in either gravity or the weak force of one part in 10100 would have prevented a life-permitting universe.9 • Physicist Brandon Carter: The odds against the original condition of the universe being suitable for later star formation (without which planets, such as Earth, could not exist) is 1 chance in 1010(20)(one followed by a thousand billion billion zeros)10

50. Fine Tuning of the Universe • Steven Hawking: Decrease in the expansion rate in one part in a hundred thousand million million one second after the Big Bang would have caused the universe to collapse on itself.11 • Sir Roger Penrose: The Creator’s aim had to be accurate to 1 part in 10 to the power of 10123(illustrate 1040 to understand)12