this past week at the rising Matt spoke through the existence for God…this was a part of a bigger series called THE TRUTH. our goal through this series is to begin dialogue with students about the truth in who God is and what He calls us to. here’s a short look at what he walked through…
3 Truths that point to a creator:
1) Evidence from Cosmology, or the Kalam proof:
-Cosmology: Fancy way of studying the universe time/space/light ect…
-Origen: is from Muslim philosophers that wanted to prove that God created the universe before modern science could point to a creator.
The Evidence (3 claims):
1) Whatever begins to exist has to have a cause.
2) The universe began to exist.
3) Therefore the universe has a cause.
The claims explained:
1) What ever begins to exist has to have a cause.
-Nothing in the universe causes its self.
-Any thing in the universe, earth, or on a microscopic level that has a beginning comes into existence on its own (from nothing).
Example me and you:
2) The Universe began to exist.
-How can you prove this?
A) Einstein’s theory of relativity: 1915
-This was the first time that someone purposed that the universe isn’t eternal and infinite. Relativity shows us that the universe is either being stretched, or collapsing on its self.
B) Einstein’s theory was proven true by a man named Edwin Hubble 1929 (the Hubble Telescope Guy)
-Hubble looked through a telescope and noticed red shift in starts. This showed Hubble and the entire scientific community that the everything in space is expanding.
-If as time goes on things are expanding then if you played that backwards you would see that everything is coming together, to a beginning point.
3) Therefore the universe has a cause.
-We know that anything with a beginning and a cause needs a beginner.
-The most logical conclusion is that this cause was and intelligent designer.
-Skeptics are left to say:
-The universe doesn’t need a cause. This argument uses logic we do not accept in any other place in life. You don’t hear a noise and think nothing caused it… Why the Universe then?
-What about God doesn’t he have to have a cause? No…This evidence applies to things with a beginning. A transcendent God doesn’t need a beginning.
2) Evidence of Fine Tuning:
-The evidence of fine tuning shows us that the universe contains 100’s of finely tuned variables that support human life.
-The most reasonable thing to assume is that these variables were set in place by an intelligent designer
Examples:
Earth/Space:
-Right now the earth is flying through space at 167,000 mph.
-As it does its maintaining human life no one is flying off the edge, the water isn’t drying up, and there’s an atmosphere holding in the oxygen we need to survive.
-The earth is 93 million miles away from the sun. If it were 92 or 94 million miles no life would exist.
-As it rotates there are to forces of gravity acting on it. The sun is pulling 60% and the moon is pulling at 40%. This causes the earth to tilt at an angle of 23.5 degrees. The earth is the only planet in our solar system that does this. If this tilt was a degree in either direction it would not support human life.
-Hydrogen must convert .007 (one 7thousanth) of its mass to helium constantly. .006 NO LIFE .008 NO LIFE.
-OCEANS are 3.4% salt…This is the same amount that’s in the human blood stream. If it were 4% or 2% there would be no life on earth.
-Our atmosphere is 21% oxygen. If it were 23% or 19% NO LIFE.
-The gravitational constant is 10 to the 36 power. That is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. If it were one integer off NO LIFE in the universe.
-Its almost as if there are hundreds of dials set to just the right levels that allow life to exist.
-To think this happened by chance takes even more faith than believing that an intelligent designer.
Cells and DNA:
-Cells are amazing. Every second your body produces 2 to 10 million red blood cells. In your body there are billions of cells.
-Your body replaces these cells on about a 2 month cycle. This means 2 months from now the matter that makes up you won’t exist…as you.
-how then does your body know to make more of the right kind of cell?
-Answer: DNA.
-Each cell in your body has about 6 feet of DNA coiled up inside of it. IF you stretched all of it out it would be about 80 billion miles. It would stretch from earth to sun 400 times.
-This DNA stores information in four letter codes A,G,C,T. This information tells your cells exactly what to do.
-Bill Gates, “DNA is clearly a computer…and it is more complex than anything my company has ever made.
-Scientists say that DNA has been found in the earliest cells and life forms that we have access to.
-This makes us ask, where this code came from.
-If you were walking through a field and came across a fully functioning lap top. You would not say that it got there by chance or slowly put its self together. You would know that something designed it.
-The same proof points to the existence of an intelligent designer.
-Incredible odds are associated with all of this coming together.
3) Evidence of Morality and Intangibles:
-The claim: Things like a moral standards and intangible qualities (relationship, justice, beauty, music and preference that point to something beyond us that designed the universe.
Morality:
-Several things point to the fact that there is an absolute moral code.
1) There are many cultures from different places that follow the same basic set of moral principles (don’t murder, rape, harm those who are gracious to you…
2) When we argue, use the ought, desire fairness, we unintentionally refer to a standard of the way things should be.
3) When you realize that some sets of morality are better than others you are using a universal standard that judges between two sets of morality.
-ex. the treatment of African Americans in the United States.
-The question becomes where did this standard come from.
-There is no fairness, or right and wrong gene in our DNA.
-This moral code runs contrary to the principles of evolution.
Answer: This code that transcends the human condition has been around forever and was given to us by a transcendent God.
Intangibles:
There are several things that make no sense in an evolutionary understanding of the earth.
-Relationships, Justice, Beauty.
-why would we need these?
-It just so happens that these are the 3 themes of the Bible…and it just so happens that any time things are wrong on earth these 3 are missing? And it just so happens a bunch of ancient Jews had this figured out 6,000 years ago.
-Music why does some sound good and some sound bad, why do we all notice rhythm?
-Preference.
Ex. Circles. Speaking about preference makes even a devout atheist talk about things other than fact.
check back at this spot to see what’s going on…what we’re talking about…SO you can talk to your student(s) about who God is and the implications of His existence and the reality that a God this creative and BIG can move on our behalf.
