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There Probably is No God? a study on Christian belief by KEN CHANT

There Probably is No God?

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There Probably is No God?. a study on Christian belief by KEN CHANT. “There’s probably no God ‒ now stop worrying and enjoy your life!” Thus the slogan that a group of atheists has paid to have emblazoned along the sides of eight hundred British buses. It has three striking absurdities ‒. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: There Probably is No God?

There Probably is No God?

a study on Christian beliefby

KEN CHANT

Page 2: There Probably is No God?

“There’s probably no God ‒ now stop worrying and enjoy your life!”

Thus the slogan that a group of atheists has paid to have emblazoned along the sides of eight hundred British buses.

It has three striking absurdities ‒

Page 3: There Probably is No God?

An Absurdity of Pleasure“Stop worrying and enjoy life!”

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The slogan presumes that life with God is joyless, and that life without God is one big laugh.

I’ve been in ministry for 55 years, and my observation has been that multitudes of people who leave God out of their lives make a ghastly mess of it!

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Look around you! Broken lives.Rampaging divorce rates.Divided homes.Rising drunkenness and addiction.An alarming suicide rate, especially among young people.

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Who else knows joy, lasting joy, unquenchable joy, like we Christians? Who else can so revel in life and rejoice in both its lavish and its simple pleasures as we do?

Our knowledge of God gives us several inestimable boons ‒

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A sense of purposeAn inner peaceAn unquenchable hopeA sense of limitless self-worthA universal and eternal family…. And many more!

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An Absurdity of Polemic“There’s probably no God ‒ now

stop worrying and enjoy your life!”

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Some 260 years ago the great Samuel Johnson asked why atheists ever bother to try to convince anyone to abandon his or her religion.

If God does not exist, then death simply means annihilation for all, whether believer or non-believer, and nothing we do in life can alter that dismal fate.

The famous lexicographer, Samuel Johnson

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Why then trouble to try to change anyone’s mind? How can it possibly matter what we believe, if in the end we all simply cease to exist?

Why do they hate a God in whom they don’t believe? Why do they fight a religion that must be (if they are right) as irrelevant as their atheism?

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Would they wage a similar war against people who believe in fairies, or little green men on Mars, or flying saucers?

Why fight an enemy who does not exist, or why struggle so hard against an imaginary foe?

A Little Green Man on Mars

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It seems likely that the militant atheist in fact does deeply believe in God, but is horrified by the idea, and so strives to eradicate it!

The Ostrich Syndrome

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An Absurdity of Probability“Probably no God, so stop worrying!”

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One must commend the honesty of the atheists, who at least refrained from stating boldly that there is no God, only that he probably does not exist.

But then, another view of the evidence would lead one to say that God probably does exist ‒ cp. Ro 1:19-21; Ps 19:1-4a).

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But consider two words in the slogan ‒1. “Probably”.

Suppose the atheist is right, what has he gained? Nothing. He will live and die and, if there truly is no God, he and we together will all vanish into dust and be as if we had never been.

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Indeed, without God, the whole of life becomes an utter futility.

But the dead will never know it! They will never know if they were right or wrong when they denied the existence of God.Neither believer nor unbeliever will be able to triumph, for all together they will be nothing more than dust blowing in the wind.

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But in the meantime, even if we Christians are deluded, we are still ahead of the atheist.

We have gained all the wonderful advantages of living in faith and in fellowship with God, who certainly seems very real to us, even if he is not!

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2. “Worrying”But who should worry? They or us?

We have no cause for worry, for if we are right, think what measureless joy will be ours when we see our God face to face!And if we are wrong, we won’t know it anyway!

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But as for the atheist, he has plenty of cause to worry, because he cannot be certain that there is no God!

And on that great day, the atheist, and those who rejected God in life, will know forever that they were wrong and must reap the consequences of their folly.

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The point is, there is nothing to gain by denying God, but many things to gain from affirming God.

And there is nothing to lose by faith, except many burdens, infinite loneliness, and deep futility in this life, and of course, if we are right, the supernal joy of paradise to come!

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So the odds are all in our favour, and atheism becomes a very poor choice.

But of course, for us all doubt has been removed by the glorious message of the gospel.

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I cannot tell just how you felt When Jesus took all your sins away,

But since that day, And since that very hour,

God has been real For I can feel his holy power. Now there are some things

That I may not know, And there are some places

That I cannot go,But I am sure of this one thing

That my God is real, And I can feel

Him deep within. Sandi Patty

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Oh! Yes, God is real, He’s very real in my soul.

Oh! Yes, God is real, For he has washed

And made me whole, And his love for me,

It’s just like pure gold. Oh! Yes, God is real

For I can feel him in my soul.

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Oh! Yes, God is real, He’s very real in my soul.

Oh! Yes, God is real, For he has washed

And made me whole. And his love for me is just like pure

gold. Oh! Yes, God is real

For I can feel him in my soul.Oh! Yes, God is real

For I can feel him in my ….I feel him in my soul!