Sons of Galilee​

Is there a God?

 

   “The heavens declare the glory of God;
           the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

 

    Day after day they pour forth speech;
           night after night they reveal knowledge.

    They have no speech, they use no words;
           no sound is heard from them.

     Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
           their words to the ends of the world.”

                                    -Psalm 19:1-2

 

“Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe-a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.”

                                         -Albert Einstein

 

The Universe, the Solar system, the Earth, Life, and consciousness all share something in common; they demonstrate intelligent design. Creation reads like a script whose only author could be God Himself. The following things are linked through the unaccountable ability to defy any human theory of origin:

 

-Existence (& beginning) of the Universe  

-Irreducible complexity  

-Second Law of Thermodynamics

-Water on Earth  

-Fine tuning of Physics  

-Fine tuning of Earth to Support life

-Abrupt appearance in Fossils  

-Formation of life: “Law of Biogenesis”  

-Design of living things

-Genetic information  

-Sexual Reproduction  

-Human Consciousness   

-Human Language

 

Even the simple things in nature display inconceivably complex inner workings. The Universe is so interwoven with the inexplicable balance of astute practical function and astonishing beauty that it could only be from the mind of a Master Engineer, a Master Mathematician, a Master Architect, and Master Artist. From the frightening grandeur of nebulae, to the restrained exacting power of the sun and stars, to the masterful, deliberate brilliance of the genetic codes revealed by even the smallest living things; everything in concert points to a source far greater than themselves.

 

"There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all....It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe....The impression of design is overwhelming".

                            -Paul Davies (British astrophysicist)

 

"We are, by astronomical standards, a pampered, cosseted, cherished group of creatures.. If the Universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in."

                           -John O'Keefe (astronomer NASA)

 

"Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say 'supernatural') plan." 

                            -Arno Penzias (Nobel Prize in physics)

 

"Here is the cosmological proof of the existence of God – the design argument of Paley – updated and refurbished. The fine tuning of the universe provides prima facie evidence of deistic design. Take your choice: blind chance that requires multitudes of universes or design that requires only one.... Many scientists, when they admit their views, incline toward the teleological or design argument."

                            -Ed Harrison (cosmologist)

 

“For me, the idea of creation is not conceivable without invoking the necessity of design. One cannot be exposed to the Law and order of the Universe without concluding there must be design and purpose behind it all”

                           – Werner von Braun (rocket engineer)

 

"It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design."

                           -Antony Flew (Professor of Philosophy, former atheist)

 

"When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics."

                          -Frank Tipler (Professor of Mathematical Physics)

 

"It seems to me that when confronted with the marvels of life and the universe, one must ask why and not just how. The only possible answers are religious. . . . I find a need for God in the universe and in my own life."

                           -Arthur L. Schawlow (Professor of Physics at Stanford University, Nobel                              Prize in physics)

 

 

The Aquinas Argument - (summarized by Theodore Gracyk)

Website: http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/aquinasfiveways_argumentanalysis.htm

 

The First Way: Argument from Motion

• Our senses prove that some things are in motion.

• Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion.

• Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion.

• Nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality in the same respect (i.e., if both actual and potential, it is actual in one respect and potential in another).

• Therefore nothing can move itself.

• Therefore each thing in motion is moved by something else.

• The sequence of motion cannot extend ad infinitum.

• Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.

 

The Second Way: Argument from Efficient Causes

• We perceive a series of efficient causes of things in the world.

• Nothing exists prior to itself.

• Therefore nothing is the efficient cause of itself.

• If a previous efficient cause does not exist, neither does the thing that results.

• Therefore if the first thing in a series does not exist, nothing in the series exists.

• The series of efficient causes cannot extend ad infinitum into the past, for then there would be no things existing now.

• Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God.

 

The Third Way: Argument from Possibility and Necessity (Reductio argument)

• We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, that come into being and go out of being i.e., contingent beings.

• Assume that every being is a contingent being.

• For each contingent being, there is a time it does not exist.

• Therefore it is impossible for these always to exist.

• Therefore there could have been a time when no things existed.

• Therefore at that time there would have been nothing to bring the currently existing contingent beings into existence.

• Therefore, nothing would be in existence now.

• We have reached an absurd result from assuming that every being is a contingent being.

• Therefore not every being is a contingent being.

• Therefore some being exists of its own necessity, and does not receive its existence from another being, but rather causes them. This all men speak of as God.

 

The Fourth Way: Argument from Gradation of Being

• There is a gradation to be found in things: some are better or worse than others.

• Predications of degree require reference to the “uttermost” case (e.g., a thing is said to be hotter according as it more nearly resembles that which is hottest).

• The maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus.

• Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.

 

The Fifth Way: Argument from Design

• We see that natural bodies work toward some goal, and do not do so by chance.

• Most natural things lack knowledge.  

• But as an arrow reaches its target because it is directed by an archer, what lacks intelligence achieves goals by being directed by something intelligence.

• Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.

 

Creation and our own conscience bear witness to a creator and God. This article is far too limited in space to explore all the world’s religions. Thus in order to review the main point you will need to see “Who is Jesus?”. I will let this final quote about Jesus’ disciples speak for itself. Remember the disciples were in a unique position to know whether what they said was true or not. World famous Harvard Law professor Simon Greenleaf, who penned the legal classic “Treatise on the Law of Evidence” set out to disprove the Gospel, and came to the below conclusion, please read it carefully:

 

“The great truths which the apostles declared were that Christ had risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin and faith in Him, could men hope for salvation. This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not only under the greatest discouragements, but in the face of the most appalling errors that can be presented to the mind of man. Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal.

His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of His disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them. Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths.

Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage. They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead.” 
                                             -Simon Greenleaf (Harvard Law Professor)

 

 

Please see "How do I know the Gospel is True?" for more information