Is God a Delusion? -- Part 1

(the image seen here is known to cosmologists as "the eye of God"...wow...some beautiful stuff out there and we have just begun searching)

Delusion: a false belief or opinion

I have two questions I'm considering today:

1) Are there any good reasons to believe that belief in God is false (a delusion)?

2) Are there any good reasons to believe that belief in God is true?

The first question is one which I welcome the non-believing community to answer. I'd enjoy hearing what you have to say in response to question #1.

The second question is one which I, as a believer, should be expected to have a response for, as the Bible says, "in season and out of season be prepared to give a response for the hope that is in you."

So here is my first good reason (others will follow) why belief in God is the right choice:

#1 -- God is the best explanation of the origin of the universe.

Ask yourself, why does the universe exist? Or better, why does anything exist? Typically and historically, but not exclusively, atheists have argued here that the universe is "eternal and uncaused." I believe there are good reasons to doubt this is the case.

A) because the idea of an infinite past seems absurd...infinity may exist in our minds as a concept, however it does not exist in reality.

B) because modern science opposes this view with increasing magnitude...David Hilbert, one of the great mathematicians of the 20th Century said, "the infinite is nowhere to be found in reality. It neither exists in nature, nor provides a legitimate basis for rational thought. The role that remains for the infinite to play is solely that of an idea."

Therefore, the number of past events in the universe must be finite. Therefore the universe must be finite. Therefore, there must have been a beginning.

Adding to this, the scientific data from the fields of Astronomy and Astrophysics agree. In fact, today we have strong evidence that the universe is not eternal in the past but instead had an absolute beginning approximately some 13 to 15 billion years ago in a cataclysmic event that modern scientists refer to as the "Big Bang."

(Please keep in mind that I am not quoting from the Bible as a source for scientific data in this article, yet some of the concepts coming from science will sound eerily similar to what the Bible says happened--makes me wonder????)

What makes the above "Big Bang" explanation so startling is that it represents the origin of the universe from literally nothing. Yes, even some of the most well respected scientists in the world can be quoted as believing that all matter and energy, even physical space and time, came into being in one cataclysmic event known as the Big Bang. One such scientist, the physicist PCW Davies said, "the coming into being of the universe as discussed in modern science is not just a matter of imposing some sort of organization upon a previous incoherent state, but literally the coming into being of all physical things from nothing."

Although other alternate theories exist, none have commended themselves to the scientific community as more plausible than the above described Big Bang theory.

In 2003, three outstanding and well-respected cosmologists, Arvin Borde, Allen Guth, and Alexander Vilenkin, together are said to have proved the above theory and referred to this proof as applying to any universe. Vilenkin writes, "it is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men, and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man. With the proof now in place cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past eternal universe. There is no escape, they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning."

Anthony Kenney of Oxford University writes, "a proponent of the Big Bang theory, at least if he is an atheist, must believe that the universe come from nothing and by nothing."

But, does such a notion make any sense? Surely not!

In philosophical terms, the out-of-nothing reality comes into a head on collision with the most successful ontological commitment in the history of science, namely the metaphysical principle that out of nothing, nothing comes.

Therefore, we must ask--why does the universe exist?

The only possible response to this question is that there must have been a first cause. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. The universe exists. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

There is so much more to add to this, but in the blogosphere I have already exceeded the average readerships attention span so I'll quit with this one final thought...wow, I'm starting to feel like the Bible was well ahead of its time. Cosmology is just now catching up to what the Bible says in its first four words..."in the beginning God."

Help Brad & Jayme Pesnell Adopt baby Phoebe

My Eyes Cannot See--Part 2

Consider this simple illustration. Imagine a person is wandering in the woods and happens upon a funny object barely sticking out of the ground. As their curiosity leads them, they begin to dig around the object in order to pull it out of the ground for closer examination. Upon unearthing the object, they see it to be relatively square, with a glass screen and some knobs on one side and some sort of cord coming out of the other side. Just below the screen are the letters, S-O-N-Y. After examining the outside more closely, they decide to open it up and peer inside. With a rock, they crack the plastic shell that encases the innermost parts, and to their amazement, they happen upon a wide assortment of small and colorful parts, all attached together on green sheets of plastic and forming what looks like some sort of maze on each sheet.

 

So, what is it that they found? They found a television made by the Sony Corporation. Is there any doubt when listening to the illustration as to whether this object had a designer? No, not at all. What if the setting were one hundred or even five hundred years ago? What would the discoverers of this object think? Would they ever think it just appeared in the forest by chance? No, it is obvious that, no matter who finds it from whatever time period in human history, this object has a designer. Someone, something, somehow made it.

 

Now a television is made up of roughly three thousand individual parts to make up the whole set. That may seem like a lot, until one considers other designed things such as trees, birds, eyes, and the human body itself. God, the great Designer, has many wonderful accomplishments at which humanity can marvel, but the human body is truly His masterpiece. Whereas a TV set is composed of three thousand individual parts, the human body is a composite of a myriad of different parts as well. Consider that the human body is a collection of approximately ten thousand trillion atoms.[1] That is a ten with twelve more zeros following. That is a number that exceeds the number of stars that science believes to exist in the whole universe. In addition, consider that, “Each human cell is made up of a trillion atoms. The body contains between 10 and 100 trillion cells. We tear down and rebuild over a trillion cells every day. Each cell is remarkable in its own miniaturized way, with electric fields, protein factories, and hundreds of ATP energy motors 200 times smaller than a pinhead.”[2] With this sort of complexity in view, is it reasonable to argue that, if a television set is clearly a designed object, then the human body absolutely must be the work of a designer also. In truth, thinking otherwise would be utterly foolish.[3]

 

Every human body is a miracle, which exceeds human comprehension. The complexity and harmony of the body’s programmed functions are simply staggering to the mind. The Bible teaches that God made humans in His very image.[4] Further, the Bible says that God created humans a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor.[5] The Bible is correct. Take courage today, knowing that the biblical descriptions of humanity’s specialness and God’s creative prowess are accurate revelations from the Lord.

 

The statistical odds of the theory of evolution are in the realm of 1X10¹¹⁷. For those of you counting, that is a 1 with 117 zeros after it! The general consensus of mathematicians is that such numbers are useless, because beyond the number 1X10⁵⁵ you are talking about numbers that are absolutely absurd. Peace today!

 

 

(1) Richard A. Swenson, More than Meets the Eye: Fascinating Glimpses of God’s Power and Design (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2000), 94.

 

(2) Ibid.

 

(3) Psalm 14:1

(4) Genesis 1:26

 

(5) Psalm 8:5; and Hebrews 2:7

My Eyes Cannot See--Part 1

I believed the Gospel (the good news about Jesus Christ), became a Christian, was forgiven, became a citizen of heaven, and became an alien in this world on September 15, 1982. To say the least, this exciting event is a special memory to this day. On the following day, I spotted a neighborhood friend playing on the sidewalk outside of my home. While he was enjoying his own personal reenactment of World War II with some little green men on one side of the pavement and some little grey men on the other, I was skipping toward him with gleeful news. After a few polite comments about how cool he had set his army men up, the time had come for the big revelation.

“Guess what?” was the first question asked, to which he simply replied, “what?” The conversation quickly proceeded from there to the telling of my conversion experience in detail, including the nervousness felt, the walk down the aisle, and the words used to pray and ask the Lord Jesus for salvation. After the testimony was complete, I was stunned to hear my little friend speaking scornfully by saying, “that’s so silly. You don’t really believe in God or heaven do you? Don’t you know that our astronauts have been way up in space and they haven’t seen anything at all? I know it’s true because my daddy said so.”

From the perspective of a nine-year-old, he had presented a troublesome point. How does a Christian explain away the fact that God Himself is not presently visible to the human eye? This question, however, is not merely child’s play. Great thinkers and writers in modern times are wrestling with such thoughts. Many wonderful Christian writers were once of the same opinion as this writer’s nine-year-old friend. Popular Christian authors such as Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, and Patrick Glynn all currently write in the field of Christian apologetics, yet at one time, they did not believe in God at all. So, what changed their minds? Reality changed their minds. They began to study diligently, with an open-mind, the teaching of the Christian faith. The more they scrutinized Scriptures, the more they came to believe in them.

Don't give up on the most important book in history and the most important person in history. It is illogical, ignorant, and arrogant to ignore Jesus and the Bible. Check it out thoroughly for yourself...then decide. You'll be glad you did!

Pray for the President...and your pastor!

Peter Drucker, the late leadership guru, said that the four hardest jobs in America (and not necessarily in order, he added) are: president of the United States, a university chancellor, a hospital CEO, and a church pastor.

Jimmy Draper, former president of the Lifeway Research Group, notes that for every 20 people who go into the pastorate only one retires from the ministry. Can you name any other profession where there is a 95 percent drop-off rate? Most don’t make it to retirement in the ministry because they are either fired, have a moral failure or just burned out and give up.

Pastors have the second-highest divorce rate of any profession. 48% of them think their job is detrimental to their family’s well-being. Another 46% will experience a burnout or a depression that will make them leave the ministry. 70 % say their self-esteem is lower now than when they started their position.

I'm not bringing this before you just because "I are one." I'm saying it because as a young pastor I have had way to many conversations with young and old pastors who are miserable. This should not be. I do, however, understand it in part. The church in America is suffering (70-80% are in decline) and men generally find their self worth in their success at work. Thus, pastors deal with feelings of failure and insignificance even when many within their churches express deep affection to them on a regular basis. In fact, the only pastors I speak with that are incredibly enthusiastic about life and their work are those who are seeing success and growth in their churches.

Therefore, if you are serving or attending a church that has plateaued in attendance or is in decline then there is a very good chance your pastor needs your encouragement on a consistent basis...he carries quite a load of responsibility on those small shoulders of his. Also, if you know of individuals within your church who are highly critical of your pastor then I have one question for you..."what are YOU doing to shut them up?"

Have you ever tried to sleep with a barking dog outside your window??? It does not make for very good rest does it? Neither do pastor's get any rest when church family members are constantly complaining about this or that. He hears their words in his sleep and he is robbed of peace and rest. Pastors have truly been called to shepherd their congregations and many, if not most, take this responsibility very seriously. Therefore, it is hard to carry the weight of others complaints and frustrations around constantly. And, add that the church is in decline or stagnant and you have the makings of what Jimmy Draper described above--burn out, fall out, fire out, or quit out.

So, pray for your pastor today...and maybe send him a card or an email letting him know you've got his back...and while your at it, pray for the president too...his job ain't that easy either!

Faith Based: Are Atheists and Christians so Different After All?

Here is my quandary: Where did "energy" come from?

It seems there are four possible answers:

1) Energy does not exist
2) Energy is eternal = no beginning and no end
3) Energy appeared spontaneously from nothing
4) Energy was created by intelligence (God is a possibility here)

For the sake of making the argument soundly we must define FAITH!

Faith is the evidence of things not seen or the evidence of things not KNOWN or SEEN.

None of the previous points, or any combination of thereof, can be proven by facts, logic, reason, or scientific inquiry or reproduction. Therefore all four points or any combination of them are purely philosophic. So yes, all four points or any combination thereof are based upon faith.

Knowing this it seems apparent that none of these points or any combination of them should be taught in a science class. Instead, these points should be taught in a philosophy class as "faith-based" concepts.

PROBLEM: Science tells us that energy cannot be created or destroyed. So what then is the "Origin of Energy" or the "Singularity" or the "Big Bang" that science so readily presents as fact? The same question could be asked about other scientific notions which are likewise assumed by science such as time, space, and motion.

While I applaud the faith of my atheist, humanist, naturalist and Darwinian friends, I still marvel at their utter inability to understand their own faith-based system of thought. OK...so maybe they don't get it because they believe that one day science will prove all their basic assumptions to be true...yet that again falls clearly within the realm of faith.

More honesty is needed in the dialogue about origins, so here is my honest approach to the subject:

Any of the four points above, and possibly an infinite number of points after that can explain the existence of energy and matter in the universe. I must concede here that I stand firmly on the notion that everything must come from something. That something, in my worldview is GOD.

Consider the following. Which of the following statements explains the origin of God?

1) God has always existed
2) God was created from another being
3) God was created from the consciousness of man (not a joke; this is a popular view)
4) God was created from nothingness

What do you think the answer is???

Possibly the best answer is, "I don't know what, when, where, or how the origin of energy occurred." The same answer could be given in reference to God.

Anyone who is truly intellectually honest must agree that the origin of energy ideas presented by science must fall within the realm of theory and thus are no different than faith-based ideas found within philosophical arguments. That is why I argue that much of science belongs in the philosophy classroom...not the science classroom. If they were honest, most naturalists would have to admit that they "HOPE" or "BELIEVE" that Quantum Physics or Quantum Mechanics will someday have the answer for them. Interestingly, Creationists have hope and faith that someday GOD will reveal the answers to everyone to see once and for all.

Here is a little more perspective for our Western mindsets to consider:

Some people really do not believe the physical world exists. Others, like the Hindus, believe that everything is eternal--no beginning and no end. Still others believe everything came from nothing, spontaneously without the help of an intelligent power. This last concept seems the most insane to me (though not believing in the physical universe seems pretty crazy too...just saying). It seems to me that sane thinkers allow their minds to conform to reality, whereas insane thinkers allow reality to conform to their minds. Ahhhhh...and there lies the rub.

If we are being truly honest...the modern Darwinian naturalist must see the Christian as insane and the modern Christian must do likewise. So, in reality someone in the equation may truly be crazy...LOL.

In the end...I applaud your faith...no matter what side of the argument you find yourself standing with...and that is the point of this little mental blogging exercise...to show how everyone--even those who demand that they are not--are persons of faith. Of what faith are you??? Peace today!

Is Christianity Failing in America?

On a casual evening eating out in 2000, my wife and I ran into a former student. The chance encounter occurred at a restaurant where she was working to support herself through college. She sat down, clearly stressed and upset, and explained that she was experiencing difficulty in her life and needed advice. She reported that she was pregnant out-of-wedlock and that the father wanted nothing to do with the child or her. Then she explained that she was leaning toward aborting the child due to the pressure from her family and her current life situation.

Here is a young lady who attended church regularly, whose Christian parents brought her to church, and who was active in a youth ministry program throughout her high school years. How could this happen? According to researchers, 70 to 88 percent of Christian teens are leaving the church by their second year in college.[1] These findings correlate with the experiences of the young lady in the story above. In fact, since graduation she had invested a year of her life in a sexual relationship with a non-Christian, abandoned the church, and demonstrated a worldview that was anything but biblical.[2]

Unfortunately, her story is not an isolated incident. The syncretism displayed by her abandonment of the biblical principle of the sanctity of human life is pervasive in modern Christianity. This blending of the biblical worldview with the secular worldview has reached epidemic proportions. Every year in America, 4.5 million other teenagers turn twenty years of age, just like this young lady.[3] Will their biblical worldview hold up under the pressure of a culture gone secular? Disappointingly, research says no.[4]

In their upbringing, most Christian students today face similar challenges. Modern Christian parents rear their children in homes where their faith is compartmentalized and relegated primarily to the church setting. In other words, the advancement of their faith is not central in the home where it should belong. Nothing less than a revival of home-based biblical worldview training is necessary to counter this overwhelming epidemic. My hope for the next generation of Christian youth is that a generation of Christian parents will realize their God-given responsibility to “bring [their children] up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4b).

In order for that hope to become reality, parents need to inform themselves of the dangers and equip themselves to fulfill their responsibilities to their children. After becoming engaged with the issues, and convinced of the urgency of the fight, Christian parents will begin anew to take on the mantle of the responsibility for the spiritual training of their children. Resources are needed and are currently being created by myself and many others to equip parents for such an effort.

More to come on this subject soon!
_________________________

[1] Pinkney, in his Report to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, reported that 70 percent of teenagers involved in church youth groups stop attending church within two years of their high school graduation. Additionally, see the 2002 Report of the Southern Baptist Council on Family Life, which reported that 88 percent of the children in evangelical homes leave church at the age of eighteen. T. C. Pinkney, Report to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee (Nashville: Southern Baptist Convention), September 18, 2001.

[2] Imagine a chart of circles within circles. The innermost circle is a person's worldview (beliefs). Next is their values or practices, next is their morality and behavior and the outermost circle represents culture or society. A visual such as this is helpful to demonstrate how one's worldview can effect culture as well as being helpful to demonstrate how good parenting can positively effect the life of a child through the teaching of right beliefs (Truth).

[3] Ron Luce, Battle Cry for a Generation: The Fight to Save America’s Youth (Colorado Springs: Cook Communications Ministries, 2005), 33.

[4] Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 36; and Douglas L. Flor and Nancy Flanagan Knapp, “Transmission and Transaction: Predicting Adolescents’ Internalization of Parental Religious Values,” Journal of Family Psychology 15, no. 4 (2001): 628.

An Atheist's Perspective on Evangelical Christians

I was impressed with an article I read this morning. The title is, "As an Atheist I Truly Believe Africa Needs God."

Follow the link here to read it for yourself: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece

The author is Matthew Parris and he deserves some kuddos for his honesty and willingness to publish news without personal bias...this is hard to do regardless of which side of the fence you dwell on. Please take the time to read the article. I hope you find it as insightful and helpful as I did.