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Post by Jesse Morrell on Feb 21, 2009 20:35:23 GMT -5
ARGUMENT FOR GOD'S EXISTENCE
My argument for God's existence was that finite existences require an infinite cause. Effects cannot be greater than their cause, since we are conscious, intelligent, moral beings, our Cause must be a conscious, intelligent, moral Being.
We could not exist without a cause. We began to exist. We are finite. Every event needs to have a cause. Every finite existence, that has a beginning, needs to have a cause. You cannot have an event without a cause. Therefore there must be a self-existent cause, an eternal first cause, that created us. The proof of the infinite is the existence of the finite.
And since effects cannot be greater than their cause, our cause must be alive, conscious, intelligent, moral, etc, because we ourselves are alive, conscious, intelligent, and moral. We cannot be greater than our cause.
ARGUMENT FOR THE BIBLE
My argument for the reliability of the Bible is the credibility of the witnesses. The Bible is essentially a book of testimony. Any testimony a witness gives in his own favor discredits his testimony. Any testimony a witness gives contrary to his favor or well-being gives credit to his testimony. The authors of the Bible testified to what they saw and heard. Their testimony put their lives and the lives of their loved ones in danger. Many of them were martyred. You could not ask for more credible witnesses, or more reliable testimonies.
The authors of the Bible didn't merely write about what they believed or hoped, but they wrote about what they claimed to have seen and heard. For example, multiple authors wrote about seeing Jesus heal the sick, walk on water, rise from the dead, etc. They said that they heard Jesus claim to be the Son of God sent to die for our sins. They not only claimed to have seen and hear this, but they were willing to suffer and die terrible deaths for this testimony. We must conclude that their testimony is credible and true. We have no reason to affirm that they did not see and hear these things.
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Feb 21, 2009 20:41:07 GMT -5
When I was on campus recently, one of the students suggested that the "big bang" was the cause of the universe. I explained how the "big bang" does not quality as the first cause of the universe. A "big bang" is an event. Events have beginnings. Anything that has a beginning needs to have a cause. It is impossible to have an event without a cause. Therefore, the "big bang" cannot be the first cause of the universe.
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Post by fs on Feb 22, 2009 7:51:02 GMT -5
This is a great article. Stick to stuff like this instead of nationalized health care and Obama!
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Feb 22, 2009 9:51:24 GMT -5
In essence:
God's eternal existence is a necessary precondition of life and all finite existence, without which neither life nor anything finite could exist at all.
Why should my religious beliefs be intelligent but not my political views? I think that both our religious and political views should make sense.
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Feb 22, 2009 10:06:12 GMT -5
This is from my newsletter that I'm working on. It is about UNC Charlotte:
One of the students suggested that the "big bang" was the cause of the universe. I explained how the "big bang" does not quality as the first cause of the universe. A "big bang" is an event. Events have beginnings. Anything that has a beginning needs to have a cause. It is impossible to have an event without a cause. Therefore, the "big bang" cannot be the first cause of the universe. If a "big bang" occurred at all (I don't believe it did) it would need to have a cause and therefore the "big bang" could not have been the first cause of the universe.
I explained that the first cause of the universe must be self-existent, eternal, or infinite. If it was not self-existent, it would have had a beginning. If it had a beginning, it would need a cause. Therefore the first cause of the universe must be self-existent, eternal, or infinite.
I brought to their attention the principle that effects cannot be greater than their cause. We are alive, conscious, intelligent, moral, and free. Therefore our cause must be alive, conscious, intelligent, moral, and free. Otherwise, effects are greater than their cause and that is impossible. A cause can only be an adequate cause of the effects if the cause is equal to, or greater than, the effects produced. Life can only come from life. Consciousness can only come from consciousness. Intelligence can only come from intelligence. Free moral beings can only come from a free moral being. There is a living God who made the Heavens and the Earth in the beginning.
God's eternal existence is a necessary precondition of life and all finite existence, without which neither life nor anything finite could exist at all. The proof of the existence of the infinite is the existence of the finite. The proof that there is a living infinite being is the existence of living finite beings, since the existence of living finite beings is dependent upon a living infinite being who created or caused them.
Once it was established that the universe must have had an eternal first cause and that the eternal first cause of the universe must be alive, conscious, intelligent, moral, and free, the question was asked by the students, "Which God is the true God? How do we know the Bible is true?"
I argued that the Bible is essentially a book of testimonies. Multiple biblical authors, or witnesses, have written down their testimony of what they have seen and heard. The question of "How do we know the Bible is true?" is really a question of "how do we know the testimony of these witnesses is credible?" I said that any testimony a witness gives in his own favor discredits his testimony. A testimony that a witness gives, which is not in his favor, but is actually to his hurt, gives credibility to his testimony. Upon that principle I went on to establish the credibility of the testimonies recorded in the Bible.
The prophets and apostles were put at odds with both the religious world and the political world because of the testimony which they publicly offered. The prophets and the apostles not only suffered but also gave their blood in maryrdom for their witness. These men died, not merely for what they believed in, but for what they claimed to have seen and heard. You could not ask for a more credible witness. A more credible testimony is not possible than what we find in the Bible.
The only logical conclusion is that Jesus Christ really did walk on water, heal the sick, and cast out devils. Jesus Christ really did die for our sins and rise from the dead. Jesus Christ really is God in the flesh, incarnated to save the world of lost sinners!
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Post by fs on Feb 22, 2009 10:13:41 GMT -5
They try to ignore the historical references outside the bible that give it sustainability as well, such as the writing of the one historian, what was it, Josephus.....
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Post by thegooddoctorwho on Mar 13, 2009 12:10:33 GMT -5
See, the thing is, existence doesn't appear to be as simple as (1 cause -> 1 effect. Another cause -> another effect) but instead it is a vast and complex chain of multiple causes and multiple effects. The effects are themselves causes of other effects, and multiple factors can combine to cause one or many effects.
We (being intelligent, moral, artistic, etc.) are not greater than our cause if our "cause" happens to be "everything that happened since the beginning of this universe." You ask what happened to cause the "big bang," did you not? Well, some things I can think of off hand would include: the massive pressure and gravity of all the matter in the universe being compressed into a single point (the black hole) building up over an astronomical stretch of time. What caused it to be there in the first place? The compression of a previous universe, which may happen to our universe as well. Where did that universe come from? Another big bang. Everything that happened in all previous universes would have also been "causes" of everything that has happened so far in the present one.
The fact that we never observe matter or energy being created or destroyed (only converted from one form to another) has led us to believe that they are never created or destroyed. Perhaps matter and energy have always existed and always will, and thus the universe has always existed and always will.
If you can believe that God is infinite and doesn't need a creator, you have admitted a belief that not EVERYTHING needs a creator. Why believe that the universe is any different? What if the universe is infinite and didn't need a creator to exist, and what is more plausible about an infinite being than an infinite existence?
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