Apologetics 1 Lesson 7 Classic Theist Arguments

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Classic Theist Arguments
• The Cosmological, Ontological, and
Teleological arguments don't prove the God of
the Bible.
• They do support a Theistic world view.

Objections
• Jesus/Paul did not use theistic arguments.
– They were addressing people with a theistic
worldview.
• The arguments are highly abstract.
– Not for everyone for sure.
• They won’t convince atheists there is a God.
– Not true, Anthony Flew went from Atheist to
Theist based on one of these arguments

“Abstract arguments have a value in assuring
thoughtful Christians that their faith has some
rational justification… Christians should begin to
understand some of these arguments, if not for their
immediate witness to nonbelievers, then for their
own confidence that when such arguments are
helpful, as with those who are philosophically
minded, they are there to be used.”
- James Sire

Ontological Argument
1. Our understanding of God is a being than which no
greater can be conceived.
2. The idea of God exists in the mind.
3. A being which exists both in the mind and in reality is
greater than a being that exists only in the mind.
4. If God only exists in the mind, then we can conceive
of a greater being—that which exists in reality.
5. We cannot be imagining something that is greater
than God.
6. Therefore, God exists.
In Proslogion by Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109)

Ontological Argument
• A being has maximal excellence in a given possible world W
if and only if it is omnipotent, omniscient and wholly good
in W; and
• A being has maximal greatness if it has maximal excellence
in every possible world.
• It is possible that there is a being that has maximal
greatness.
• Therefore, possibly, it is necessarily true that an
omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good being exists.
• Therefore, it is necessarily true that an omniscient,
omnipotent and perfectly good being exists.
• Therefore, an omniscient, omnipotent and perfectly good
being exists.
Alvin Plantinga’s version

Teleological Argument (Fine-tuning)
• Telos, Greek for purpose or ultimate end.
• The fine-tuning of the Universe is due to one
of three possibilities physical necessity,
chance, or design.
• It is not due to physical necessity or chance.
• Therefore it is due to design.

Design Argument
• William Paley, 1802, Natural Theology.
• The Watchmaker example.
• Intelligent Design proponents:
– Philip Johnson
– Hugh Ross
– William Dembski
– Michael Behe

Fine Tuning
• Strong nuclear force
• Weak nuclear force
• Gravitational force
• Electromagnetic force
• Ratio of electron to
proton mass
• Ratio of protons to
electrons
• Expansion rate of the
Universe
• Entropy levels
• Mass density
• Velocity of light
• Age of the Universe
• Initial uniformity of
radiation
• Fine structure constant
• Average distance
between stars
Hugh Ross in his book The Creator and the Cosmos, lists 35 parameters.

Against Fine-tuning
• The objection that may be raised against the
fine-tuning argument is called the multi-verse.
• “Multiple universes arise naturally from
physical laws.” Stephen Hawking
• There are so many Universes that it is likely
that one would be tuned for life.
• The multi-verse is pure speculation with no
scientific data to support it.

Cosmological Argument
• ‘Cosmos’ Greek for everything that exists.
– The Universe, more than just Space-Time
• How did the cosmos come into existence?
• The Universe cannot create itself. (Cause and
effect)
• Three version of this argument.
– Kalam
– Thomist
– Leibnizian

Kalam Cosmological Argument
• ‘Kalam’ Arabic for talk or speech.
• Starts with the premise that there are no
infinities in the Universe.
• Therefore the Universe is not infinitely old.
• If the Universe is not infinite than it had a
beginning.
• For every cause there is an effect.
• The Universe began to exist therefore it has a
cause.

Kalam Cosmological Argument
• The beginning of the Universe had to be
caused by an uncaused cause.
• The uncaused cause:
– Relies on nothing for existence.
– Has the power to create something from nothing.
– Has a will to create or not.
– Exists outside of creation.

Thomist Cosmological Argument
• Whatever is moved is moved by another.
– Think of dominos.
• Everything that comes into existence owes its
existence to something else.
• Nothing in the Universe is necessary. (It could
or could not exist.)
• But there exists something that is necessary.
• What makes the possible, possible?

Leibnizian Cosmological Argument
• Instead of causality GWF Von Leibniz argued
there must be a sufficient reason.
• Everything exists for a reason.
• The only sufficient reason for the Universe
must be found outside of the Universe.
• In a being whose existence is “self-
explanatory” and “logically necessary.”

Cosmological Argument
• Acts 17:25; Romans 1:19-20; Heb 3:4
• Review:
– Everything has a cause.
– We don’t know of anything that does not have a
cause.
– Logically there must be a cause to the universe.
• “I never asserted so absurd a proposition as
that anything might arise without a cause.”
– David Hume

“In summary, it is most reasonable to believe that
the universe had a beginning which was caused
by a timeless, immutable agent. This is not a
proof that such a being is the God of the Bible,
but it is a strong statement that the world had its
beginning by the act of a person. And this is at
the very least a good reason to believe in some
form of theism.”
- J. P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City

Uncaused First Cause
• Stephen Hawking, The Grand Design.
• Agrees the Universe looks tuned for life.
• His philosophic presupposition (bias) is for
materialism (scientific determinism), page 34.
• “Because there is a law like gravity, the
universe can and will create itself out of
nothing.” p. 180

Stephen Hawking
• “In spite of what the atheist press is telling
you, it’s looking bad for atheism today. And it
is extraordinary the lengths an atheist like
Hawking will go to avoid the obvious: God
exists.” — Frank Turek
• Ex nihilo nihil fit – From nothing, nothing
comes.
Frank Turek, Answering the Atheists, Stephen Hawking Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tVO0-zYAvE

Moral Argument
• P1: Some aspect of Morality (e.g., its objective
force) is observed. (Moral realism)
• P2: Existence of God provides a better
explanation of this feature than various
alternatives.
• Conclusion: Therefore, to the extent that (1)
is accepted, belief in God is preferable to
these alternatives.

Moral Argument
• “A moral law needs a moral lawgiver. This is not a leap;
it is a step of intelligent reflection.”
– Greg Koukl
• “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do
by nature things required by the law, they are a law for
themselves, even though they do not have the law.
They show that the requirements of the law are
written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing
witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them
and at other times even defending them.”
– Romans 2: 14-15 (NIV)

Transcendental Argument (TAG)
• P1: Logical absolutes exist.
• P2: Logical absolutes are conceptual.
• P3: Concepts exist in the mind only (they are mental).
• P4: Logical absolutes would exist even if your minds
did not.
• P5: Therefore, logical absolutes are transcendent
• P6: Since logical absolutes are transcendent and
conceptual, they must exist in a transcendent mind.
• P7: This transcendent mind is that we recognize as
God.
• Conclusion: God exists.

Transcendental Argument (TAG)
• As used by presuppositional apologetics, the
transcendental argument affirms that, in
order to make sense of the world, it is
necessary to postulate the existence of the
triune God as revealed in the Bible.
Geisler, N. L. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics

Anthropological Argument
• Based on the uniqueness of human beings.
• The cause must be greater that the effect.
• People are intelligent, therefore God must be
intelligent.
• “…Humans can hear, see, and think. Since the
cause must be like the effect, there must be a
cause (God) who can hear, see, and think.”
– Geisler and Zukeran, The Apologetics of Jesus

Need to Worship
• Idols are an implied argument for God.
– Everyone needs to worship something.
– It is futile to worship something made by humans.
– Therefore, there really is an unmade Maker who
should be worshiped.
Geisler and Zukeran, The Apologetics of Jesus p.117

Existential Argument
• We don’t need or desire what is not.
– Whatever human beings really needs really exists.
– Human beings really need God.
– Therefore God really exists.
• Nontheistic philosophers Carl Sagan and
Bertrand Russell both note that life is
meaningless without God.
– Geisler and Zukeran, The Apologetics of Jesus

Existential and Need to Worship
• Combination of the last two arguments.
– Everyone needs to worship something.
– Whatever human beings really need really exists.
• Nothing humans need does not exist.
– Therefore God exists.

Possibility That God Exists
• The very definition of God demands that God is a
necessarily existing being.
• Most opponents of theism are willing to concede
that God's existence is at least possible.
• Atheists argue that the very concept of God is
incoherent since, for example, it entails
paradoxes such as the paradox of the stone: Can
God make a stone so big that he cannot lift it?
http://www.apologetics315.com/2009/08/argument-from-possibility-of-god.html

Wishful Thinking
• Atheists argue against the existence of God
because it is simple wish fulfillment.
– “If our belief in God is a result of wish fulfillment,
then it is just as likely that nonbelief in God is a
result of wish fulfillment. The believer wants to
believe in God; the nonbeliever doesn’t want to
believe in God. The argument about whether God
exists is a draw. Neither side makes a case.”
• James Sire

Apologetics 1 Lesson 7 Classic Theist Arguments

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