Is there a God?

January 9, 2011

Speaker: Daniel Sweet

Big Questions: Looking to God’s Word for Answers
“…always being ready to make a defense…” I Peter 3:15

Is There A God? Genesis 1, Psalm 19, Isaiah 40

Background: Answering the claim of fear as motivator for the “god myth.”

  1. Existence as a Pointer to God: God as the self-sufficient, eternal first cause.
  2. Beauty as a Pointer to God: God as creator of joy.
  3. Expanse as a Pointer to God: God as powerfully incomprehensible.
  4. Complexity as a Pointer to God: God as infinitely wise.
  5. Order as a Pointer to God: God as author of purpose.

Conclusion: There is sufficient and overwhelming evidence in nature and logic to support the Divine origin and purpose of the universe. Therefore, all sin is an act of temporary atheism for it denies the omniscience of God or the power of God or the righteousness of God.


 

  1. Scripture Reading
  • Read Psalm 19:1-6 (Slides)
  1. Background (Title Slide – Slide 1)
  • This week, “Is there a God?”
  • Next week, “Has science disproved God?”
  • Read Genesis 1:1 (Slide 2)
  • The most important statement in the Bible and in all of life
  • If there is a God, then the implications of life, purpose, morality come together under His existence
  • If there is no God… (Slide 3)
    1. There is no life after death (Slide 4)
  • Bertrand Russell the famed mathematician and atheist wrote the following
    2. There is no right and wrong (Slide 5)
  • The issue of right and wrong and the existence of great evil
  • Book by Kimberly Smith, great evil, but the only way we can read this and look at what happened in Sudan with an understanding of good and evil, right and wrong, is if there is a standard for which we can even ask such things
  • Ravi and the gentleman with the question about taking the life of a baby
  • “I would not like what you did, but I could not say that what you did was wrong.”
  • Gasp from those listening to the discussion
  • But even in his answer “I would not like what you did…” Does not make sense if there is absolutely not right and wrong and there is no God
    3. There is no free will (Slide 6)
  • If there is not God, there is no such thing as free will, we are simply determined matter by the process of matter,
    4. There is no meaning to life (Slide 7)
  • Albert Camus “Since God does not exist, the only question left for us is the question of suicide.”
  • Camus unfortunately did just that by crashing his Porsche at high speeds in order to take his own life
  • Ideas have consequences
  • Background: Answering the claim of fear as motivator for the “god myth.”
  • The science that emerged during the Renaissance included some theories about spontaneous generation – putting sweaty underwear and some corn husks into a jar in a field and from the sweat and corn husks mice “spontaneously grew”
  • In other words, life from inert substance was easy to obtain
  • Atheists of the 18th and 19th centuries and even more modern asked the question, “Since there is no God, how is there so much religion?”
  • There answer was fear. Fear of the storm. Fear of illness. Especially fear of death
  • From this, the answer of how there is so much religion is fear
  • Paul would answer them with this statement in Acts 17
  • Read Acts 17:24-28 (Slides 8-9)
  • What is lacking in this response how fear might motivate the agnostic/atheist
  • What if we asked the question a different way, “Since there is a God, how is it that there are still atheists?”
  • The answer is the same, “Fear.” Fear of being held accountable for our actions, fear of having to submit my life to the God who made me, fear of the unknown, fear of the consequences of my own sin
  • In this debate, you cannot argue for or against God’s existence on the basis of the psychological argument of fear, because both sides can equally use the argument
  1. Five Pointers to the Existence of God
  • I. Existence as a Pointer to God: God as the self-sufficient, eternal first cause.
  • Read Psalm 100:3 (Slide 10)
  • It turns out that life is far more complex and the universe far more difficult to explain than originally thought in the 18th and 19th century (and even the 20th)
  • This is easy to see the necessity of God from the childhood question, “God made everything” “Who made God?”
  • One father in India was asked by his son, “what holds up the world” “An elephant” “what holds up the elephant” “Elephants all the way down”
  • II. Beauty as a Pointer to God: God as creator of joy.
  • Read Psalm 19:1a (Slide 11)
  • Beauty, “and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1
  • Picture of just one of billions of galaxies (Slide 12)
  • III. Expanse as a Pointer to God: God as powerfully incomprehensible.
  • Read Psalm 19:1 (Slide 13)
  • Picture of 10 thousand galaxies in one picture from Hubble (Slide 14)
  • IV. Complexity as a Pointer to God: God as infinitely wise.
  • Read Psalm 139:13-14 (Slide 15)
  • Picture of Sonogram of infant (Slide 16)
  • V.Order as a Pointer to God: God as author of purpose.
  • Read Isaiah 40:25-26 (Slide 17)
  1. Conclusion (Blank slide – Slide 9)
  • Conclusion: There is sufficient and overwhelming evidence in nature and logic to support the Divine origin and purpose of the universe. Therefore, all sin is an act of temporary atheism for it denies the omniscience of God or the power of God or the righteousness of God.

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