Theo 116: Existence of God

Question 1

Robert Jastrow on the world without a cause

Answer 1

“The universe, and everything that has ever happened in it since the beginning of time, are a grand effect without a known cause? An effect without a cause? That is not the world of science, it is a world of witchcraft . . . a medieval world that science has tried to banish.”ROBERT JASTROW

Question 2

Hebrews 3:4

Answer 2

“For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”

Question 3

Hebrews 11:3

Answer 3

“By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

Question 4

Genesis 1:1

Answer 4

“In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth.”

Question 5

Psalm 94:9 (Intelligent Designer)

Answer 5

“He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see?”

Question 6

Sir Isaac Newton on intelligent design

Answer 6

“The most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”—Sir Isaac Newton

Question 7

Sir Fred Hoyle on intelligent design

Answer 7

“A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests
that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from facts seem to be so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”

Question 8

John 5:26

Answer 8

“For just as the Father has life in Himself”

Question 9

Genesis 7:4

Answer 9

“every living thing which I have made.”

Question 10

Why is it impossible that life arised by chance

Answer 10

“The number of trial assemblies of amino acids
needed to give rise to the enzymes required for life,
and their creation by random shuffling = less than 1
in 10 to the 40,000 power.”

It’s estimated that there are only 10 to the 80th
power electrons in the entire universe!

Mathematicians say that any event in which
the chances are greater than 10 to the 50th power
is impossible.

“But the chance formation of the simplest organism is 1 in 10 to the 340 millionth power.” Harold Morowitz, biophysicist

“The chance of life evolving on any single planet,
including Earth, is 1 in 10 to the 2 billionth power.”
Carl Sagan

“One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet here we are as a result, I believe, of spontaneous generation.”

“We have seen that living beings are too improbable and too beautifully ‘designed’ to have come into existence by chance.”

Question 11

According to Carl Sagan, what are the chances of life evolving on any single planet

Answer 11

“The chance of life evolving on any single planet,
including Earth, is 1 in 10 to the 2 billionth power.”
Carl Sagan

Question 12

What is the mathematical definition of impossibility

Answer 12

Mathematicians say that any event in which
the chances are greater than 10 to the 50th power
is impossible.

Question 13

What are the chances of a simple organism arising by chance

Answer 13

“But the chance formation of the simplest organism is 1 in 10 to the 340 millionth power.” Harold Morowitz, biophysicist

Question 14

According to Darwin, what would be evidence that the theory of evolution is false?

Answer 14

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ
existed which could not possibly have been formed
by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” -
Charles Darwin

Question 15

Evidence for irriducible complexity

Answer 15

“Systems of horrendous, irreducible complexity
inhabit the cell.”—Michael Behe, biochemist

The flagellum of a bacteria

Question 16

What are 2 prerequisites to moral law:

Answer 16

Two prerequisites to moral law:
1. Consciousness
2. Freedom

Question 17

Evidence for the existence of God

Answer 17

1. The Cosmos
2. Moral Law
3. Free will
4. Irreducible complexity
5. Longing for transcendence and meaning
6. Mathematical improbabillity

Question 18

Genesis 1:27

Answer 18

“God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.”

Question 19

Stephen Hawkings on Free will

Answer 19

“Most contemporary philosophers and scientists do not believe that free will exists.” Leonid Perlovsky, Harvard mind science expert

“The molecular basis of biology shows that biological processes are governed by the laws of physics and chemistry and therefore are as determined as the orbits of the planets . . . so it seems that we are
no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion.” Stephen Hawking

Question 20

How does free will disprove materialism

Answer 20

Because if materialism or physical determinism was true then we would not have free will

“The molecular basis of biology shows that biological processes are governed by the laws of physics and chemistry and therefore are as determined as the orbits of the planets . . . so it seems that we are
no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion.” Stephen Hawking

Question 21

Genesis 2:16 -17 (Free will)

Answer 21

The Lord God commanded the man, saying,
“From any tree of the garden you may
eat freely; but from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,
for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Question 22

ROMANS 2:14-15

Answer 22

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law
do instinctively the things of the Law,
these not having the Law, are a law to themselves,
in that they show the work of the Law written
in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness
and their thoughts alternately
accusing or else defending them.”

Question 23

Millard Erickson on mans incurable religiosity

Answer 23

“Human beings are incurably religious.
For wherever we find humanity—in widely different
cultures geographically dispersed, and at all points
from the dimmest moments of recorded history
to the present—we also find religion.”
Millard Erickson

Question 24

What explains man’s innate desire to worship

Answer 24

Acts 17:26-27

“and He made from one man every nation
of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find
Him”

Question 25

C.S lewis on our desire for the transcendent

Answer 25

“The sense that in this universe we are treated
as strangers, the longing to be
acknowledged, to meet with some response,
to bridge some chasm . . .
is part of our inconsolable secret.”
C. S. LEWIS

Question 26

C.S Lewis on mans felt sense of alienation

Answer 26

“Apparently, then, our lifelong nostalgia,
our longing to be reunited with something
in the universe from which we now feel cut off,
to be on the inside of some door which we have
always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic
fancy, but the truest index of our real situation.”

Question 27

PROVERBS 3:32

Answer 27

“For the devious are an abomination to the
Lord, but He is intimate with the upright.”

Question 28

Ecclesiastes 1:13-14

Answer 28

“And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom
concerning all that has been done under heaven. It
is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with. I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.”

Question 29

C.S Lewis on the special pleading of atheism

Answer 29

“Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole
universe has no meaning, we should never
have found out that it has no meaning.”
C. S. Lewis

Question 30

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Answer 30

“He has also set eternity in their heart.”

Question 31

Ephesians 2:10

Answer 31

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Question 32

Robert Jastrow on the religion of science

Answer 32

“There is a kind of religion in science: it is the religion of a person who believes there is order and harmony in the Universe. Every event can be explained in a rational way as the product of some previous event .. This religious faith of the scientist is violated by the discovery that the world had a beginning under conditions in which the known laws of physics are not valid, and as a product of forces or circumstances we cannot discover. When that happens, the scientist has lost control. If he really examined the implications, he would be traumatized. As usual when faced with trauma, the mind reacts by ignoring the implications - in science this is known as ‘refusing to speculate’ - or trivializing the origin of the world by calling it the Big Bang, as if the Universe were a firecracker. .. At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.” p113-114, 116

Question 33

Robert Jastrow on the Theological implication of the origins of the universe

Answer 33

Robert Jastrow In response to Einstein’s comment when his equations implied a beginning of space and time “irritates me”. : “This is curiously emotional language for a discussion of some mathematical formulas. .. I suppose that idea of a beginning in time annoyed Einstein because of its theological implications.” Cited by Frank Turek on p170

Question 34

Robert Jastrow on astronomical evidence for the biblical creation account.

Answer 34

“Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements and the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same; the chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.”