Many people wrestle with the profound question about the existence of God. In this slideshow, Dr. Boa unpacks some key arguments for His existence. www.kenboa.org

1. 1
Is There Really a
God?
© Dr. Ken Boa and Bill Ibsen 2007. All Rights
Reserved.
1

2. 2
Maybe
- Agnosticism
2
Three Options
Is There Really a God?
No
- Atheism
Yes
- Theism

3. 3
Is There Really a God?
Option I: God Does Not Exist
Option II: God May Exist
Option III: God Does Exist
What About Evolution?
3

4. 4
Option I:
God Does Not Exist
4

5. 55
All Knowledge
My Knowledge

6. 66
Feb. 2007 “Thousands
of new species found”

7. 77
What Do We Know?
We use only a small percentage of our total mental capacity
100% of our mental capacity is a paltry fraction of 100% of
all knowledge
Unreasonable: “I know that God does not exist”
Statement requires omniscience to confirm

8. 88

9. 9
no god = no meaning
9
Your birth, life, and death
Nothingness Nothingness
Nothingness
Time

10. 1010
Implications of No God
An atheistic cosmos denies any
meaning, value, or purpose
Man is merely “dust in the wind”
All is meaningless awaiting the
eventual endless cosmic night

11. 1111
Implications of No God
No basis for morality (right/wrong;
good/bad)
Man is the product of an accidental
combination of molecules in an
impersonal universe
Honesty, brotherhood, love have no
more cosmic significance than
treachery, selfishness, hatred, and
prejudice

12. 1212
Implications of No God
No basis for human purpose
An impersonal universe is bereft of
purpose or plan
Moves only toward decay, disorder, and
death
It is Macbeth’s “tale told by an idiot, full
of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Human aspirations are mocked by
silence

13. 13
Living Consistently
Few have come to grips with the logical implications of
atheism
No atheist can live consistently with these implications
All of us act as though human existence has meaning, purpose,
and dignity
Presupposes an infinite-personal Creator
If God is dead, man is as good as dead
13

14. 14
Option II:
God May Exist
14

15. 15
Agnosticism: An Intellectual
Virtue?
15
Has science rendered God
unnecessary?
Some view agnosticism as
an intellectual virtue
“A man persuaded against
his will is of the same opinion
still”

16. 16
“Proof”
What kind of proof?
How much proof?
Scientific proof demands a
repeatable and controllable
experiment
16

17. 1717
“I didn’t see any God out there”
- Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

18. 1818
Knowledge Unattainable by
Science
Knowledge residing outside the scope of scientific inquiry:
Historical knowledge
Philosophical knowledge
Moral knowledge
Aesthetic knowledge
Personal knowledge
Religious knowledge

19. 19
Verdicts in Courts of Law
Based upon legal historical proof, not scientific proof
A preponderance of credible evidence in civil cases
Conviction “beyond a reasonable doubt” in criminal cases
Not “beyond a shadow of a doubt”
100% proof is rarely attainable
Goal: sufficient evidence, not exhaustive evidence
19

20. 20
Sufficient Evidence
Direct evidence of the senses
Indirect evidence of cause/effect
A sufficient cause must exist to account
for the effects of the natural universe:
Order and design
Personal beings
Morality
20

21. 21
The Most Basic Philosophical
Question
“Why is there something rather
than nothing?”
“Why does anything exist at all?”
21
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz
(1646 - 1716)
Jean-Paul Sartre
(1905 - 1980)

22. 22
The “If Proposition”
If anything now exists,
something must be eternal,
or else something not
eternal must have emerged
from nothing.
22
Whirlpool Galaxy and NGC 5195

23. 23
The “If Proposition”
Only four possible answers to the “If
Proposition”:
The universe is an illusion
The universe is eternal
The universe emerged from nothing
The universe was created by an
eternal Being
23
Whirlpool Galaxy and NGC 5195

24. 24
1. The Universe is an Illusion
This position is self-defeating; lacks rational coherence
“It is an objective fact that there are no facts”
“This sentence is incorrect”
This position lacks factual correspondence
It requires rejecting all evidence from the five senses
No one can live consistently with this position
24

25. 2525
Jim Carrey, The Truman Show, 1998

26. 2626
2. The Universe is Eternal
If true, then the universe accounts for its
own existence
Not contingent because it is infinitely old
Scientifically this position is now
unacceptable
Cosmogony
Hydrogen
2nd Law of Thermodynamics
Physical evidence of decay

27. 2727
present time
average energy
+ mass equivalence
density
The First Law
of Thermodynamics

28. 2828
present time
average (useful) energy
+ mass equivalence
density
The Second Law of
Thermodynamics

29. 2929
t₀ present time
average (useful) energy
+ mass equivalence
density
The First and Second Laws of
Thermodynamics

30. 30
Scientific Reasons Why the
Universe is not Eternal
The Big Bang
The abundance of hydrogen
The irreversible decay of the universe
Not absolute proof; but a contrary
position goes against all the physical
evidence
30
Enhanced Colors of the Moon

31. 31
3. The Universe Emerged from
Nothing
Absurd: Nothing comes from
nothing
Effects cannot exist without causes
31
Orion Nebula in Mapped Color

32. 32
4. The Universe was Created
By an Eternal Being
Only remaining option if the universe is real, not eternal, and
caused
Universe is an effect contingent upon a cause beyond itself
The only sufficient cause is an eternal and necessary Being
Someone or something incapable of not being, whether or not
anything else exists
Infinite regression of causes
God is eternal and self-existent
32
Leo I Dwarf Galaxy

33. 33
Option III:
God Does Exist
33

34. 34
Q uickTim e™ and a
TI FF ( Uncom pr essed) decom pr essor
ar e needed t o see t his pict ur e.
Argument from the Cosmos
34
Cause/effect reasoning
concluding the natural
universe points beyond
itself to an eternal Being for
the cause of its existence
“Cosmological” argument
for the existence of God
Based upon evidence from
the whole cosmos
Abell Cluster of Galaxies,
13 billion light years away

35. 35
Some Kind of Eternal Being
Exists
Is this Being personal or impersonal?
Narrow focus from universe to specific creation
What cause is sufficient to explain the effects of:
Order and design in the universe?
The personality of man?
The moral consciousness of man?
35

36. 36
Cosmological Argument Favors
a Personal Cause
Why would an eternal, impersonal cause produce an effect (our
universe) a finite time ago?
Impersonal causes don’t have a will
Only a personal Being could choose to create a universe a limited time ago
36
Galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163 Triangulum Galaxy

37. 37
Argument from Design
37
“Teleological” argument for
the existence of God
“telos” = end, goal
Science is built upon the
order and predictability of
the universe
Design implies a designer
We think teleologically in all
areas of life Chameleon Tongue Striking a Grasshopper
- a purposeful, well-designed eating mechanism

38. 3838
Complexity is Always Evidence
of a Designer

39. 39
Absurdity of Atheistic Evolution
Chaos produced order
Lifeless matter produced life
Chance produced intelligence
Accidents produced purpose
Randomness produced information
Philosophically absurd positions
“Natural selection” is the substitute
god
39

40. 40
Anthropological Argument
40
Evidence for the
personality of the Creator
is man’s personality
Personality: man’s intellect,
emotion, and will
Cause/effect: The
impersonal has no ability to
think, feel, or choose - how
can it cause conscious,
personal beings?

41. 41
Argument from Thought
41
The human mind cannot be
the product of an
impersonal process
A self-defeating argument
Human thought transcends
the brain and material
world
Thought about the future,
and about the process of
thinking about the future

42. 42
Argument from Aesthetics
42
A personal God is the only
adequate explanation of the
universal aesthetic experience in
man
Universal awareness/appreciation
of beauty is not reducible to
mechanical response to sensory
input
Aesthetic capacity transcends the
material world
Impersonal force is insufficient to
create this transcendent quality
Butterfly Wing

43. 43
Argument from Morality
43
Moral consciousness requires
a personal God to have any
ultimate meaning
Universal human
phenomenon
Criticism of anything betrays
an objective moral standard
Exclusive moral foundation is
the changeless character of
the personal Creator

44. 44
Summary - What Provides
Sufficient Cause for the
Universe?
An eternal, personal, and ethical God is the only sufficient cause
of:
The universe
Order and design within the universe
The personality of man
No one can live consistently with a philosophy that rules out
meaning, value, and purpose in life
Not absolute proof, but sufficient proof beyond a reasonable
doubt
44

45. 45
The Foolishness of Agnosticism
Agnosticism = non-decision
If God exists, agnosticism is eternally unwise
Gains nothing and loses everything
Biblically, agnosticism isn’t the process of reserving
judgment, but suppressing truth
45

46. 46
"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood
through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even
though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks;
but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was
darkened" (Romans 1:20-21)
46
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident
within them; for God made it evident to them" (Romans 1:18-19)
A moral, not merely intellectual issue:
External, not merely internal
evidence:

47. 47
The Proper Response
"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he
who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is
a rewarder of those who seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6).
Faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Creator of
the cosmos, the divine Word:
"No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who
is in the bosom of the Father. He has explained Him" (John 1:18)
47

48. 48
Summary
Atheism is unreasonable because it requires omniscience
If no God, then no ultimate purpose, value, or meaning
Weight of evidence is in favor of theism, not agnosticism
Applying cause/effect reasoning to the universe, order and design
in the universe, and the personality of man
The universe is not eternal, therefore contingent on an eternal
Being
This Being must be personal; impersonal Being cannot create
human thought or morality
Jesus Christ is the clearest manifestation of God in human history
48

49. 49
What About Evolution?
49

50. 50
Nontheistic Evolutionary Model
50
Nonliving systems generated life by
means of time plus chance
Microevolution (small changes)
leads to macroevolution (large
changes)
Philosophical problem: makes the
effects greater than the causes

51. 51
Nontheistic Evolutionary Model
Problem: Effects and Causes
51
Effects:
Complexity
Life
• Intelligence
• Personality
• Causes:
• Disorder

52. 52
Scientific Problems with
Nontheistic Evolution
No workable mechanism accounting for the first living cell
No workable mechanism accounting for highly complex
living systems (e.g. human brain)
52
Stem cell

53. 53
Chemical Production of a First Living
Cell Would Require a Statistical
Miracle
1. Random atoms must be formed into amino acids
2. Amino acids must link together to form chains (polypeptides)
3. Polypeptide chains must become long and form a precisely
ordered sequence (20 kinds of amino acids)
4. More complex proteins must be produced
5. Very long and highly ordered molecular chains (DNA) must
be formed
6. An enormously complex chemical factory must be produced
53

54. 54
Q uickTim e™ and a
TI FF ( Uncom pr essed) decom pr essor
ar e needed t o see t his pict ur e.
54

55. 5555
Factory Complexity

56. 56
The Improbability of Information by
Chance
“Give me a million monkeys over a million years, and they’ll be able to write
Shakespeare’s Tempest!”
- George Bernard Shaw
Shaw
56

57. 57
# of 4-Letter
Words in
Sequence
1 2 3 4
Time
~12
Second
s
~ 5
Days
~ 100
Years
~ 100
Billion
Years
57
The Improbability of Information by
Chance

58. 5858
Primordial Soup Theory
Ultraviolet Light
Oxygen-free
Atomosphere

59. 5959

60. 60
Hypothetical Primordial
Soup in Ideal Conditions
60
Amino Acid Bond Chances
Dipeptide 1 in 100
Tripeptide 1 in 10,000
Polypeptide of 10 amino acids
1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000
(100 quintillion)

61. 61
Amino Acids Come in Left and
Right-Handed Forms
61
One right-handed amino acid will
destroy this entire chain
Chances for a chain of 400 left-handed amino acids
(Coming up tails 400 times in a row)
1 in 10120

62. 62
Q uickTim e™ and a
TI FF ( LZW) decom pr essor
ar e needed t o see t his pict ur e.
Letters
4- Letter Alphabet
Chapter
Book
Word
Sentence
62

63. 63
Q uickTim e™ and a
TI FF ( Uncom pr essed) decom pr essor
ar e needed t o see t his pict ur e.
Cellular Factory
Consists of
10 million
million atoms
63

64. 64
Q uickTim e™ and a
TI FF ( Uncom pr essed) decom pr essor
ar e needed t o see t his pict ur e.
Cell: High-Tech Factory
Artificial languages and decoding systems
Memory banks: info storage and retrieval
Control systems: regulating auto self-assembly
Assembly processes involving prefabrication and modular
construction
Complete self-replication of its entire structure within a few
hours!
64

65. 65
Every Chemical Reaction is
Reversible
65
Q uickTim e™ and a
TI FF ( Uncom pr essed) decom pr essor
ar e needed t o see t his pict ur e.
A polypeptide bond of 4 amino acids
can easily break down in to
4 separate amino acids

66. 66
Second Law of
Thermodynamics
66
All natural processes cause a net increase in entropy
(disorder) and a net loss of useful energy
Any system left to itself will decay and degenerate
Protein-building requires pre-existing machinery capable of
translating raw energy into highly organized forms
Life only comes from life; complexity only from complexity
Spontaneous generation of life goes against all experience
and evidence

67. 67
Design Requires a Designer
67
“Teleology is a lady without whom no biologist can exist;
yet he is ashamed to be seen with her in public”

68. 6868
The End

69. 6969
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70. 7070
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