The truth is out there

"THAT'S RIGHT! That's what you get! Look at you, ship all banged up! WHO'S THE MAN? HUH? WHO'S THE MAN? Wait until I get another plane! I am going to line your friends RIGHT BESIDE YOU!" ~ Captain Steven Hiller

"For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." ~ 2 Peter 1:16

Over the weekend the Discovery Channel aired a documentary called "Into the Universe" featuring astrophysicist and author Stephen Hawking. Hawking made the news by stating that it is likely that aliens exist and if they do we should not make contact with them because they could cause a threat to earth. I guess Dr. Hawking is not an E.T. fan, but more likely views aliens as they have been portrayed in films like Independence Day, Alien, Predator and Signs. Great, I guess I better have my baseball bat handy and a bunch of pitchers of water so they don't ruin my barbecue. Fortunately for me life is not some M. Night Shyamalan or Roland Emmerich movie, so I am not holding my breath that some smelly dread locked or translucent aliens will be arriving on my door step any time in the near future.

All kidding aside, what I find truly fascinating is the lengths all humans will go to, to deny the existence of God. Let's be honest; it is far more comforting to think that aliens "seeded" our planet or that all primitive culture was guided by crystal skulled aliens who benevolently gave us a jump start in our development. Amazingly these are both theories held within the scientific community. If that is the case then we are free to live life as we chose and we are only answerable to ourselves. If an all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the Universe exists then He has the right and authority to judge us and place expectations on how we chose to live. It is far more palatable to ignore this prospect and be our own version of Fox Mulder and say "the truth is out there."

Paul Copan is a Christian theologian, philosopher, apologist, and author and he has written a number of books including; "When God Goes to Starbucks: A Guide to Everyday Apologetics" and "True for You, But Not for Me: Deflating the Slogans That Leave Christians Speechless". He wrote the article below titled "The Presumptuousness of Atheism."

"Atheist Antony Flew has said that the "onus of proof must lie upon the theist."1 Unless compelling reasons for God’s existence can be given, there is the "presumption of atheism." Another atheist, Michael Scriven, considers the lack of evidence for God’s existence and the lack of evidence for Santa Claus on the same level.2 However, the presumption of atheism actually turns out to be presumptuousness.

The Christian must remember that the atheist also shares the burden of proof, which I will attempt to demonstrate below.

First, even if the theist could not muster good arguments for God’s existence, atheism still would not be shown to be true.3 The outspoken atheist Kai Nielsen recognizes this: "To show that an argument is invalid or unsound is not to show that the conclusion of the argument is false....All the proofs of God’s existence may fail, but it still may be the case that God exists."4

Second, the "presumption of atheism" demonstrates a rigging of the rules of philosophical debate in order to play into the hands of the atheist, who himself makes a truth claim. Alvin Plantinga correctly argues that the atheist does not treat the statements "God exists" and "God does not exist" in the same manner.5 The atheist assumes that if one has no evidence for God’s existence, then one is obligated to believe that God does not exist — whether or not one has evidence against God’s existence. What the atheist fails to see is that atheism is just as much a claim to know something ("God does not exist") as theism ("God exists"). Therefore, the atheist’s denial of God’s existence needs just as much substantiation as does the theist’s claim; the atheist must give plausible reasons for rejecting God’s existence.

Third, in the absence of evidence for God’s existence, agnosticism, not atheism, is the logical presumption. Even if arguments for God’s existence do not persuade, atheism should not be presumed because atheism is not neutral; pure agnosticism is. Atheism is justified only if there is sufficient evidence against God’s existence.

Fourth, to place belief in Santa Claus or mermaids and belief in God on the same level is mistaken. The issue is not that we have no good evidence for these mythical entities; rather, we have strong evidence that they do not exist. Absence of evidence is not at all the same as evidence of absence, which some atheists fail to see.

Moreover, the theist can muster credible reasons for belief in God. For example, one can argue that the contingency of the universe — in light of Big Bang cosmology, the expanding universe, and the second law of thermodynamics (which implies that the universe has been "wound up" and will eventually die a heat death) — demonstrates that the cosmos has not always been here. It could not have popped into existence uncaused, out of absolutely nothing, because we know that whatever begins to exist has a cause. A powerful First Cause like the God of theism plausibly answers the question of the universe’s origin. Also, the fine-tunedness of the universe — with complexly balanced conditions that seem tailored for life — points to the existence of an intelligent Designer.

The existence of objective morality provides further evidence for belief in God. If widow-burning or genocide is really wrong and not just cultural, then it is difficult to account for this universally binding morality, with its sense of "oughtness," on strictly naturalistic terms. (Most people can be convinced that the difference between Adolf Hitler and Mother Teresa is not simply cultural.) These and other reasons demonstrate that the believer is being quite rational — not presumptuous — in embracing belief in God."

If you are on the fence or seeking to know more about God I would encourage you to take this challenge for the next three weeks. There are 21 chapters in the Gospel of John; read one a day for three weeks and as you do this ask yourself who is Jesus and what did He come to do? Pray and ask God to reveal Himself to you through His Word. Don't exchange the truth of God for a lie, (Romans 1:25). The Truth IS out there.

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." ~ John 14:6

Source:
http://www.rzim.org/usa/usfv/tabid/436/articleid/88/cbmoduleid/1482/default.aspx

NOTES

1Antony Flew, The Presumption of Atheism (London: Pemberton, 1976), 14.
2Michael Scriven, Primary Philosophy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966), 103.
3It is important to remember that we are trying to give arguments or good reasons for God’s existence — not "proofs," which imply a mathematical certainty. All too often the atheist’s criteria of acceptability are unreasonably high. One who is genuinely seeking plausible reasons to believe in God can certainly find them.
4Kai Nielsen, Reason and Practice (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 143-44.
5Alvin Plantinga, "Reason and Belief in God," in Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff, eds., Faith and Rationality (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983), 27.