Session # 6 – Sunday May 17th Does Absolute Truth Exist?

A Basic Guide to Christian Apologetics

“No amount of evidence can convert an unbeliever to belief. That is solely the work of God. But what Geisler and Turek have done in this book should disturb anyone claiming to be an atheist…perhaps enough to persuade them to begin a search for the God who has been there all along.” ---Cal Thomas

“Once one looks at the evidence, it takes more faith to be a non-Christian than it does to be a Christian.”

 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.

 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.

 Truth about reality is knowable.  The opposite of true is false.  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)

  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 Radiation From the Big Bang Great Galaxy Seeds Einstein Theory of Relativity

At the dedication ceremony, physicist John Archibald Wheeler described the statue as "a monument to the man who united space and time into space-time...a remembrance of the man who taught us...that the universe does not go on from everlasting to everlasting, but begins with a bang”. Sculptor, Robert Berks

. • Albert Einstein 1916 • General Theory of Relativity • Universe not eternal, had a beginning. • Beginning of all time, matter, and all space.

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• Introduced a Cosmological constant (fudge factor) • Showed the universe static and avoided an absolute beginning.

• Called his findings “irritating”

Good Scientific Theories • Predict phenomena that have not yet been observed. • General Theory of Relativity

• Universe is expanding.

• 100 inch telescope • “red shift” in light of every observable galaxy • Galaxies were moving away from from us. • General Relativity was again confirmed. • Universe was expanding from a single point in the distance past.

Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, and Walter Adams (l-r) in 1931 at the Mount Wilson Observatory 100" telescope, in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California.

Cosmos = Universe 1. Everything that had a beginning had a cause 2. The universe had a beginning 3. Therefore the universe had a cause

For an argument to be true: •  Logically valid •  Premises must be true

Premise 1: Everything that had a beginning had a cause. Law of Causality. Fundamental Principle of science.

Things don’t happen without a cause.

Francis Bacon 1561-1626 Father of Modern Science

“True knowledge is knowledge by causes”

Premise 2: The universe had a beginning Did the universe have a beginning? If no, then no cause is needed. If yes, then the universe must have a cause.

Before Einstein (and other scientists) atheists could comfort themselves with the belief that the universe was eternal.

If the Universe is eternal, you don’t need a creator.

Good Scientific Theories • Predict phenomena that have not yet been observed.

* Universe is expanding. * Cosmic Background

Radiation. *Radiation Afterglow.

U – Universe Is Expanding

Matter

U – Universe Is Expanding • General Relativity predicted an expanding universe. • Eddington, Hubble and others confirm Einstein’s General Relativity Theory, proved the universe is expanding and expanding from a single point.

No Space No Time

No Matter

Universe did not emerge from existing material but from nothing.

Time-Space-Matter came into existence at the Big Bang.

Time-Space-Matter • Co-relative, interdependent of each other. • You can’t have one without the other.

Matter

Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson 1965

Detected strange radiation on their instruments while using a powerful antenna.

Bell Labs Holmdel, New Jersey. Closed 2007 Research and scientific development company

• Discovered the afterglow of the Big Bang fireball explosion! • Cosmic background radiation

• Afterglow – actually light and heat from the initial Big Bang explosion.

• Light is no longer visible because the wavelength has been stretched by the expanding universe.

• Heat can still be detected

Wavelength slightly shorter than those produced by a microwave oven.

• Predicted by three scientists - 1948

• Discovered by Penzias and Wilson less than 20 years later by accident. Both win the Nobel Prize.

“When an astronomer writers about God, his colleagues assume he is either over the hill or going bonkers. In my case it should be understood from the start that I am an agnostic in religious matters” Jastrow, God and the Astronomers

Robert Jastrow was an American astronomer, physicist and cosmologist. He was a leading NASA scientist, populist author and futurist.

“ No explanation other than the Big Bang has been found for the fireball radiation. The clincher, which has convinced almost the last Doubting Thomas, is that the radiation discovered by Penzias and Wilson has exactly the pattern of wavelengths expected for the light and heat produced in a great explosion. Supporters for the steady state theory have tried desperately to find an alternative explanation, but they have failed. At the present time, the Big Bang theory has no competitors” Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, pp. 15-16

• Scientists predicted expanding universe.

• Scientists predicted expanding Cosmic Background Radiation. • Scientists predicted slight variations or ripples in the temperature of the Cosmic Background Radiation.

• Temperature ripples enabled matter to congregate by gravitational attraction into galaxies.

• 1989 NASA COBE satellite project.

• COBE -- Cosmic Background Explorer

• 1992 COBE’s Found the ripples; scientists amazed at their precision.

• Any slight variation one way or the other, and none of us would be here today.

• George Smoot. Project Manager COBE: “If you are religious, it’s like looking at God.” “Machining marks from the creation of the universe, and the finger prints of the maker.”

• Michael Turner. Chicago Astrophysicist. “The significance of this discovery cannot be overstated; they have found the Holy Grail of Cosmology.”

• COBE observations are actually observations of the past because of the long time it takes light from distance objects to reach us.

• Light Year. Distance light travels is one year--- One Trillion miles. • 100 billion stars in our galaxy. • Average distance of 30 trillion miles between stars.

Stephen Hawking. Cambridge Astronomer. “The most important discovery of the century, if not of all time.”

• COBE pictures point to existence of matter from the early universe that will ultimately form into galaxies and cluster of galaxies.

• “Great Seeds” of galaxies as they exist today

• Theory verified to five decimal places.

• Demands an absolute beginning of time, space and matter.

“Theologians generally are delighted with the proof that the Universe had a beginning, but astronomers are curiously upset. Their reactions provide an interesting demonstration of the response of the scientific mind—supposedly a very objective mind--- when evidence uncovered by science itself leads to a conflict with the articles of faith in our profession. It turns out that the scientist behaves the way the rest of us do when our beliefs are in conflict with the evidence. We become irritated, we pretend the conflict does not exist, or we paper it over with meaningless phrases.” Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, p.16

Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity predicted:

• Demands an absolute beginning of time, space and matter.

1.  Universe Expanding 2.  Radiation Afterglow 3.  Galaxy Seeds “Ripples” slight variations of Cosmic Background

Radiation 4.  E

Whole matter of the universe began to exist at particular time in the past. An atheist must believe that the matter of the universe came from nothing and by nothing. Dr. Atkins conceded in this debate and his books that all time, all matter, and all space exploded out of nothing. Dr. Akins struggles to explain how the universe could come into existence, uncaused out of nothing. Full debate is one hour and 30 minutes. Available on YouTube.com

Craig vs. Atkins Debate 1998

Dr. Atkins: “Now we go back in time beyond the moment of creation to when there was no time, and to where there was no space…”

Dr. Atkins then describes a time before time, he asks us to imagine a swirling dust of mathematical points which recombine again and again and finally come by trial and error to form our space-time universe.

Dr. Akins - British Physical Chemistry Oxford and UCLA

Craig vs. Atkins Debate 1998

What do you do with the Second Law of Thermodynamics?

What do you do with Law of Causality?

Swirling mathematical points are not nothing. How do you explain this?

Atheists cannot explain how the universe began from absolutely nothing.

“According to the Big Bang Theory, the whole matter of the universe began to exist at a particular time in the remote past. A proponent of such a theory, at least if he is an atheist, must believe that the matter of the universe came from nothing and by nothing.”

What is the Evidence for/against the Existence of God? Atlanta, Georgia

Video. Closing Arguments

William Lane Craig Dr. Peter Atkins William F. Buckley Jr. Moderator

Next Week Session # 7 Teleological Argument / Divine Design