More Bible Economics!

1
(No Transcript)
2
Register?

• If you would like to receive notes, updates,
• evaluation forms, etc. (no requests for money
  
• or time!)
• Link tinyurl.com/gnr-sfu

3
People of faith are often portrayed as
ignorant illogical, weak-minded
Blind Faith
Faith Without Reason
4
Well, Lets Accept the Atheist Challenge
Is it Reasonable To Believe God Exists?
5
To be REASONABLE means that an argument for
God rests on reasonable assumptions, and
does not violate any rules of logic.
Come now, and let us reason together, says
the Lord
Isaiah, 118
6
Three Arguments for Gods Existence

1. Cosmological Argument

a. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
b. The Universe began to exist.
c. Therefore, the Universe had a cause.
7
a. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
This is a fundamental academic idea.
How did the bone break?
What Caused the Financial Crisis?
8
?
?
No Tree comes from Nothing!
9
To believe that something begins to exist
spontaneously and without a cause, is to
believe in
Hocus pocus
If existence can have no cause, then why not
all the time?
10

• Cosmological Argument
• a. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
• b. The universe began to exist.

Unless you believe the universe is infinite.
11
Bertrand Russel
The Universe is just there, and thats all.
BBC, 1948
Infinity is an idea, not a reality.
12
The Universe is not infinite because
Philosophical - cant be an infinite number
of things or past events.
Cosmological - Gorde, Goth/Vilenkin Theorem
any expanding universe (or multiverse) cant
have an eternal path.
Physics a. Big Bang universe had a starting
point. (General Theory ?U. is expanding,
red shift in light from distant galaxies, etc.).
b. Second Law thermo dynamics it all winds
down, so if there was an infinite past we
would not be here.
We live in a finite universe, not an infinite
one.
13

• Cosmological Argument
• a. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
• b. The universe began to exist.
• THEREFORE

c. The universe had a cause.
14
What can we say about this cause?
Must be uncaused
Must be changeless, timeless, immaterial
Must transcend space, time, and all things
natural
Must be extremely powerful.
Must be personal because a will caused things
to come into existence.
15
What is this Cause?
God!
In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and
the Earth
16
2. The Moral Argument For God
a. If God does not exist, objective moral
values do not exist.
a. Objective moral values do exist.
c. Therefore, God does exist.
17

• If God does not exist, objective
• moral values do not exist.

• If we are alone as humans, then

• All values are subjective and depend on personal
• opinions.

• we can easily come up with subjective theories
• of the existence of values.

- This is a fundamental secular principle.
18
b. Objective moral values exist.
Do we believe there is truth independent of us?
The Holocaust was wrong
Most believe this to be objectively true, even
though Nazis think otherwise.
There is no Objective, Absolute Truth!
- Is that true?
19
c. Therefore, God exists.
Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image,
according to our likeness
Genesis 126
20
The Reciprocal Argument The Problem of Evil.

• If there is evil in the world, then there cannot
  be
• a good and all powerful God.

My argument against God was that the universe
seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got
this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call
a line crooked unless he has some idea of a
straight line. What was I comparing this universe
with when I called it unjust?... C.S. Lewis

• By the same logic, if there is objective evil,
  there
• must be an objective good God.

21
3. The Design Argument of Fine Tuning
What is Fine Tuning?
22
The universe is fine tuned on about 40
parameters -strength of gravity - atomic
weak force -tilt of earth, size of moon
-distance from sun, placement in galaxy -
constant universe expansion, mass. - ratios of
gases etc.
Small change means no life.
23

• The Design Argument of Fine Tuning.
• a. Fine tuning is caused by chance,
• necessity, or design.

b. It is not caused by necessity or chance.
c. Therefore it is caused by design.
24
So What? Does it matter if God
Exists?
25
If there probably is no God, then
maybe there is a God, then
Maybe I should start worrying!
26
Is it possible though, to be an Academic/Scientist
, and also be a believer in God?
Lecture 2 Are Science and Faith
In Conflict? Next Time