Class # 4 Sunday May 3rd. Does Absoulte Truth Exist? A Basic Guide to Christian Apologetics

1. Session # 4 – Sunday May 3rd
Does Absolute Truth Exist?
A Basic Guide to Christian Apologetics

2. Session # 4 – Sunday May 3rd
Does Absolute Truth Exist?
A Basic Guide to Christian Apologetics
Hey All: We had a great time on
Sunday morning. For those who
attended, thanks and here is the
PowerPoint we used on Sunday.
For all of you who were not able
attend class, please remember that
the PowerPoint does not include my
lecture, and comments or the
discussion that took place in class.
However, the PowerPoint should be
a good outline for you.
See you all next Sunday for “ In the
Beginning There Was a Great SURGE”

3. Skeptic or Seeker?

4. Understanding / Good Teaching
A Personal Story

5. Understanding / Good Teaching
A Personal Story

6. Understanding / Good Teaching
This small open star cluster lies in the core of the large emission
nebula in Sagittarius, about 8,000 light-years away
from Earth.
Logic
Science

7. French mathematician, physicist, inventor,
writer and Christian philosopher
People almost invariably arrive
at their beliefs not on the basis
of proof but on the basis of
what they find attractive.
Blaise Pascal

8. REVIEW SESSION
Can We Handle the Truth?
 Truth is absolute, exclusive and knowable.
 To deny absolute truth and its know-ability is
self-defeating. Any statement that is
un-affirmable (contradicts itself) must be false.
 Truth is not dependent on our feelings or
preferences. Something is true whether we
like it or not.
 Major religions do not “all teach the same
things.”

9. REVIEW SESSION
Can We Handle the Truth?
People often get their beliefs from
their parents, friends, childhood
religion, feelings, or culture. While
such beliefs could be true, it’s possible
they may not be.
We can use philosophical principles,
including those found in logic and
science, to test the truth of beliefs.

10. How Is Truth Known?
By what process do we
discover truths about our
world?
How do we investigate
how truth itself can be
known?

11. How Is Truth Known?
Is there such a thing as
knowable evidence for an
unseen God?

12. Self-Evident Laws of Logic
“First Principles”
First Principles are not proved by
other principles.
First Principles are inherent in the
nature of reality, thus they are
self-evident.

13. Self-Evident Laws of Logic
“First Principles”
First Principles allow us to learn
about reality.
First Principles help us discover
truth.

14. Two First Principles of Logic
Law of Non-Contradiction:
Contradictory claims cannot
both be true at the same time in
the same sense.
Law of the Excluded Middle:
Something either is or is not.

15. Two First Principles of Logic
1. Law of Non-Contradiction

16. Two First Principles of Logic
2. Law of the Excluded Middle

17. Examples
Self-Evident Laws of Logic
“First Principles”
Examples
 “God exists or God does not exist”
 “Jesus rose from the dead or he did
not.”
Law of the Excluded Middle:
Something either is or is not.

18. Examples
Self-Evident Laws of Logic
“First Principles”
 “First Principles” help us discover truth;
they alone cannot tell us whether or not a
particular proposition is true.

19. Logical Argument
1. All men are mortal.
2. Spencer is a man.
3. Therefore Spencer is mortal.
 Only works if all the premises are true.
 Are all men mortal? Can we prove this
with 100% certainty.
 Maybe Spencer is not a man.

20. Logical Argument
1. All men are mortal.
2. Spencer is a man.
3. Therefore Spencer is mortal.
 Logic tells us this a valid conclusion if all the
premises are true.
 Logic alone cannot tell us one way or the
other if these premises are 100% true.

21. Valid Argument. NOT TRUE
1. All men are four-legged reptiles.
2. Zachary is a man.
3. Therefore Zachary is a four-legged
reptile.
Argument is valid (logically).
Conclusion follows from the premises.
Conclusion is false because the first
premise is false.

22. Logic Can Only Get Us So Far
Argument can be logically sound but
still be false because the premises are
false and don’t correspond to reality.
Logic can tell us that an argument is
false, but it cannot tell us by itself
which premises are true.

23. Logic Can Only Get Us So Far
Deduction & Observations
Scientific Method: is the process by
which scientists, collectively and
over time, endeavor to construct an
accurate (that is, reliable,
consistent and non-arbitrary)
representation of the world.

25. Induction / Deduction
 Induction: drawing general conclusions
from specific observations.
(Scientific Method).
 Deduction: process of lining up premises
in an argument and arriving at a valid
conclusion. (Logic)

26. 100% or Beyond Reasonable Doubt
Most conclusions based on induction
cannot be considered absolutely
(100%) certain but only highly
probable.
Examples: Gravity is based on
induction. No one has observed all
objects in creation falling to the
ground.

27. 100% or Beyond Reasonable Doubt
 Are all humans mortal? Highly probable
but not 100% certain. You haven’t
observe all men die or know if this will
be the case in the future.
 Atheists want Christianity to explain
everything about God down to the last
detail, and they want 100% proof of
these details. However, they don’t
expect this in any other aspects of life.

29. 100% or Beyond Reasonable Doubt
 In most cases we will not have
complete or perfect information, but
we often have enough to make
reasonably certain conclusions on most
questions in life.
 We can be sure beyond a reasonable
doubt, but not beyond all doubts.
 Examples: gravity and death.

30.  Why do we assume that a book is an effect of a
human mind?
 Observation: Experience tells you a book is an
effect from some pre-existing intelligence
(author).
 We have never seen wind, rain or another natural
force produce a book. You have only observed
people do so.
 Did not witness the book being written, you
conclude it has at least one author.
Observation, Induction, and Deduction
Case Study. “A Book”

31.  1. All books have at least one author (premise based on
inductive investigation).
 2. I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist is a book.
(premise based on observation).
 3. Therefore, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
has at least one author (conclusion).
 Argument: Valid – Deduction.
 Argument: True – Premises are true.
 Premises are true because they have been verified
through observation and induction.
Observation, Induction and Deduction
Deductive Argument

32. A book requires pre-existing human
intelligence. Are there observable
effects that seem to require some kind
of
pre-existing supernatural intelligence?
Are there effects that we can observe
that point to God?
Two Big Questions

33. Question
 So how do we use induction and
observation to investigate an
un-observable being called God?
Answer
 We use induction to investigate God
the same way we use it to investigate
other things we can’t see –by
observing their effects.
How Are Truths About God Known?
Does God Exist?

34. Are there effects we can observe
that point to God?
Yes. First effect is the Universe itself.
 Truths about God can be known by His
effects, which we can observe.
 Observations (induction) we draw reasonable
conclusions (deductions) about the existence
and nature of God.

35. The Twelve Points That Show
Christianity Is True
 1. Truth about reality is knowable.
 2. The opposite of true is false.
 3. It is true that the theistic God exists. This
is evidenced by the :
a. Beginning of the universe
(Cosmological Argument)
b. Design of the universe
(Teleological Argument / Anthropic
Principle
c. Design of Life (Teleological Argument)
d. Moral Law (Moral Argument

36. Does Science Argue for or Against God?

37. Does-God-Exist-4-New-Arguments

38. Next Week – May 10th
Session 5
 It is true that the theistic God exists.
This is evidenced by the :
a. Beginning of the universe
(Cosmological Argument)
 S.U.R.G.E.
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Universe is Expanding

39. In the Beginning There Was a Great SURGE
Science without religion is lame;
religion without science is
blind.”
Albert Einstein

40. Cosmological Argument
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Universe is Expanding
Radiation from the Big Bang
Great Galaxy Seeds
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
S.
U.
R.
G.
E.