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1) Three reasons why we study the existence of God:
- a. It demonstrates the rational nature of our faith
- b. It fulfills a goal of apologetics: confronting unbelievers with truth
- c. The beliefs of agnostics/atheists deserve an honest answer
- 2) Why proofs:
- a.
- 3) Biblically based proofs:
- a. Biblical argument: a multitude of passages in scripture put forth Gods existence
- b. Miracle argument: because miraculous events are outside of normal human experience, there must be a non-human being who causes them
- c. Resurrection argument: Jesus was raised from the dead, thus authenticating his claim to be God
- d. Religious experience argument: countless lives have been changed based on belief in God
- 4) Philosophically based proofs:
- a. Cosmological argument: if there’s a creation there must be a creator
- b. Teleological argument: if there’s a design there must be a designer
- c. Moral argument: if there’s laws there must be a lawgiver
- d. Ontological argument: if we can consider a being greater than ourselves that being must exist
- 5) Pascal’s wager: “we lose nothing by believing in God existence”
- 6) Qualifiers to the existence of God:
- a. The strength of proofs comes from their combined strength and not the superiority of any one particular proof
- b. Proofs for Gods existence doesn’t settle the matter, they provide a basis to show that belief in God is a reasonable position
- 7) Cosmological: “cosmos” – world; “logos” – study of
- 8) 3 forms of cosmological argument:
- a. Thomist argument by st. Thomas Aquinas
- b. Leibnizan argument by gottfired liebniz
- c. Kalam argument by Islamic philosophers
- 9) Kalam argument, objectives and answers:
- a. Did the universe have a beginning or not have a beginning?
- i. Didn’t have a beginning, actual infinity is impossible
- ii. Past events cause
- iii. 2nd law of thermodynamics
- b. If the universe had a beginning was it caused or uncaused?
- i. Didn’t have a cause, uncaused events are logically impossible
- ii. Experience shows this to be true
- iii. Without causes there’d be no effects and life would cease
- c. If the universe was caused was it by a personal agent or impersonal agent?
- i. Was impersonal, presence of necessary conditions in insufficient to cause an event
- 10) Teleological: “teleos” – end or purpose; “logos” – study
- 11) Teleological argument: if there’s a design there must be a designer
- 12) History of teleological argument:
- a. Introduced in ancient Greece
- b. Used by medieval philosophers, including Thomas Aquinas
- c. Popular in the 1600s and 1700s in England, used by William paley
- d. Not prominent in the 1800s or 1900s because extensive criticism by immanual kant, david hume, and evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin
- 13) Family and examples of teleological argument:
- a. Design as order: color spectrum
- b. Design as purpose: plants make oxygen which humans need
- c. Design as simple: an apple falling from a tree and the rotation of the galaxy are both governed by the same simple laws of motion
- d. Design as complex: the arrangement of carbs, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids in DNA
- e. Design has beauty: watching the sunset
- f. Design as ability to think: makes sense of letter arrangements, thinks far beyond what is needed to survive
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14) 3 objectives and answers to teleological argument:
- a. We have to be able to observe causes: personal experience and science and associate unobserved causes with observed events
- b. Who designed the designer: the impossibility of actual infinity means that explanation can’t go on forever, there has to be a first cause somewhere
- c. If the argument is correct, it doesn’t prove the existence of a Christian God: it shows that belief in god is more reasonable than belief in the world only
- 15) Father of ontological argument: saint anselm of Canterbury
- 16) Ontological: “ontos” – being
- 17) Basics and key terms of ontological argument:
- a. Fool has 2 features:
- i. Understand the claim that God exists
- ii. Doesn’t believe that God exists
- b. Anselm claims that combination is unstable and inconsistent
- c. God is a perfect being by which none greater can be conceived
- d. More terms:
- i. Mind – a place where ideas reside
- ii. Reality – a place where things exist
- 18) Rene decartes:
- a. God alone could account for the idea of God
- b. The idea of God could come from none other than God because the idea cannot come from nothing
- c. Finite could have not notion of an infinite or nonfinite unless a necessary being of existence put it there
- 19) Two objections to the ontological argument:
- a. Ganunilo: if he could imagine a perfect island, then it must exist in reality
- b. God is false and perhaps doesn’t exist
- 20) Creed, confession, catechisms, and ex’s:
- a. Creed: a short summary of the teachings of the bible (ex. Apostles creed)
- b. Confession: longer and more comprehensive summary of the teachings of the bible (ex. Westminster confession)
- c. Catechisms: series of questions and answers developed to teach bible doctrine (ex. Westminster catechism)
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21) Apostles creed is and isn’t:
- a. Is NOT: a document written by Jesus original disciples
- b. IS: an anonymous work which summarizes the teaching of the apostles and is rooted in the Bible
- 22) Apostles creed is similar to and examples:
- a. Similar to:
- i. OT: Jewish shema
- ii. NT: peter’s declaration, baptismal formula
- 23) 3 sections of apostles creed:
- a. 1st: God the Father and our creation
- b. 2nd: God the Son and our deliverance
- c. 3rd God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification
- 24) Value of the Apostles creed:
- a. Provides a link to the church throughout history
- b. Unites believers
- c.
- d.
- 25) Apostles creed used for:
- a.
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