SERIES: WHY FAITH MAKES SENSE
Lesson 2 of 7: The God Who Cannot Be Banished
Watch with others on Facebook Wednesdays at 7pm.
Key Scriptures for this Study: Psalm 19:1-4; Romans 1:18-32; Acts 17:22-34*
1. One’s worldview is the intellectual framework by means of which we consciously or unconsciously interpret, evaluate, and react to the world we encounter. How does the opening story of a little girl and her daddy looking at the stars illustrate that causality is a natural (intuitive) assumption of human beings?
2. The Causal Argument (aka Cosmological Argument) builds off the notion that the human mind looks for a sufficient explanatory reason for the real world we encounter. Is there anything “tricky” about that assumption? Why does the discussion of physicalism from Lesson 1 have particular importance here?
3. The so-called Big Bang Theory of origins presumes a starting point for the physical world and challenges the long-held view that the physical universe is eternal (i.e., has always been here). Why is this modern scientific account of origins important? Is it in any way inconsistent with the biblical account of creation? Many Christians read Genesis 1:1-2 as a poetic account of science’s Big Bang, with the shaping up of the cosmos for human habitation beginning at Genesis 1:3ff. Is that account of things unreasonable?
4. The video describes people walking through a forest, coming on a campsite, and reasoning about the WHO and WHY of its presence there. Do you see the parallel in this analogy to reasoning about the WHO and WHY of our habitable Planet Earth in the Cosmic Forest?
5. Rubel names three things he considers impossible hurdles for physicalism: Nothing to Something (i.e., non-living matter); Something to Life; Life to Intelligent Beings. What is your evaluation of this sort of reasoning? Does it make sense to you?
6. The Design Argument (aka Teleological Argument) takes a second logical step in arguing for God’s existence by adding the concept of intelligent design to causality. God is not only the best and most reasonable explanation that the cosmos exists but that it exists with all the signs of purposeful design. What was William Paley’s well-known form of this argument?
7. This video refers to a change of mind by the well-known atheist Antony Flew on the question of God’s existence. If you are interested in reading his own account of how science made him change his view, you might want to get his book There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. A summary of the story can be found online here:
https://thinkingmatters.org.nz/2009/09/eminent-atheist-changes-his-mind-the-antony-flew-story/.
*Suggestion: If you use this video for personal, class, or small-group study, please view the video in its entirety, then read and reflect on the “Key Scriptures” as they relate to the video, and then work through the questions above. This process is likely to generate the greatest value for your study.