Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Big Picture: Is There a God?


I have transcribed below the outline for a talk I had developed a while back. It was my attempt to pull in some of what I believe to be the iron-clad proofs that God exists from philosophy, history, and logic; along with some other details pertaining to the state of the modern church, etc. I am posting this outline here so that it may be a help to anyone looking for a quick reference, "one-stop-shop" to find information about empirical evidence for God. It is not a comprehensive document, and some of the bullet points may raise more questions than answers for you. That just means you will need to delve into the research a little more on your own. Enjoy the ride as it pertains to looking at the evidence... I know I have!

I. Introduction

· People sitting in churches often don’t really believe -- this is lukewarm Christianity
· God is real, not just an idea
· Atheism is popular and fashionable today – people need to be reminded about God
· Lets Discuss: 1.) Philosophical Evidences of God, 2.) Historical Evidences of God, 3.) Our ability to choose

II. Philosophical Evidences of God

· The Moral Argument
- that annoying right and wrong thing built into our consciousness
- does not come from evolution
- is more than learned behavior; we can teach it, but we did not invent it
- morality therefore, comes from God

· Everything has a First Cause
- There cannot be an infinite regress; something must have started everything
- Universe must have been caused (big bang, singularity theory)
- Nothing can exist without being caused, and that first cause must exist outside the thing which it caused. In other words: God!

III. Historical Evidences of God

· The Bible can be trusted. New Testament as historical documents
· Evidences that Jesus existed from NON-Biblical accounts (Josephus, Tacitus, etc.)
· New Testament does not refer to Him as “just a good man” or “a good teacher”, but something more than that
· The revelation of Jesus to humankind
- Christ was either lying about His deity, or He was crazy, or He was actually the Son of God. You make the choice.

IV. An Important Choice

· Now that we have come this far, what will you do with this information?
· God’s road-map gets us to Heaven; we are not left alone to wander aimlessly through life
. The next step is up to each of us!


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