The Problem of God
“The Problem of Science”
Romans 1:16-23

Problem
	A question raised for inquiry, consideration, or solution to an intricate unsettling question.

The problem of…

	Science
		Hasn’t the study of science disproved the existence of God?
		Wasn’t there a big bang 13.7 billion years ago where all time & energy came into 			existence, so we don’t need God?
		Is that true?

	God’s existence
		The debate centers on the question of evidence.
		Are there evidences, proofs, or clues of the existence of an all-powerful, eternal, 			infinite God?

	The Bible
		Skeptics doubt the legitimacy of the Bible.
		They have doubts about its accuracy, trustworthiness & truthfulness.
		Isn’t the Bible outdated, irrelevant & mythological?
	
	The Christ (Jesus)
		What about Boreas, Mithras, Dionysus, Krishna?
		All gods that pre-date Jesus and have the same characteristics:
			Born on December 25
			Crucified
			Raised from the dead on the 3rd day
			Performed miracles
			Walked on water
			Fed 5,000
			Called: The Lamb of God, The Light of the World
		Isn’t Jesus just a copycat?

	Evil & suffering
		Doesn’t suffering & evil in the world point to the fact that a loving, powerful, good God 			doesn’t exist?

	Hell
		Is there a place where people go that don’t believe the right things and burn forever & 			ever because God sends them there?

	Hypocrisy & sex
		What about all the people that claim to be Christians and yet their lives seemingly are 			no different than anyone else? They seem so hypocritical.
		People were burned as witches?
		People were killed because they represent another religious mindset?
		Isn’t God anti-sex?

	Exclusivity
		Christianity or being a follower of Jesus can’t be:
			Just something passed down from our parents
			Because you grew up in church and you don’t know anything else
			Feeling good to know there’s some cosmic helper
			A crutch in a difficult time of your life so you believe

Desired conclusion…
	Challenge you to doubt your doubts
	See evidence, reason, and belief that lead to faith
	That Christianity is not only the most truthful, but also the most hopeful for all people

Science vs. Faith
	Science - Truth, evidence, reason
	Faith - Hopeful thinking, legend, unreasonable

Secularism
	Arose during the Enlightenment - 1600-1800 A.D.
	Popular thinkers: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking
	50 homeless people fed as a stipulation of last will 

Cultural myth - Secularism
	There is no God
	No spiritual reality beyond what we can test (naturalism)
	Spiritual beliefs should be marginalized (not reasonable)
	Has proven religious beliefs to be false by science & technology
	Science & naturalistic evolution provide answers to origin, meaning, morality & destiny

“Faith is like a mental illness, a great cop out, the excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate
	evidence.” - Richard Dawkins

“We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their
	beliefs are extremely common, we call them religious. Otherwise, they are likely to be called mad,
	delusional, or psychotic.” - Sam Harris

Dichotomy of science
	Science is about thinking, evidence, and rational justification
	Christianity ignores reason, evidence, and clings to non-rationality

Is this true?

What if…
	Faith and reason are not opposed to each other, but actually belong together in beautiful
		symmetry and make sense of the evidence?
	It is not spiritual versus logical, but both?
	The deeper you go into science, the evidence isn’t pointing away from God, but actually
		pointing toward God?
	There is no such thing as “blind faith?”

The Problem of science…
	1. Christianity is not against science
		
		The Plantinga Effect
			Alvin Plantinga - greatest living philosopher/theist argues for God at such a high & 				convincing level
			“In philosophy, it became almost overnight, ‘academically respectable’ to argue to 				theism.” - Quentin Smith

		Atheists speak of the church’s persecution of science.
			Galileo - died of natural causes in 1642
			Giordano Bruno - theological heresies on the Trinity

		Christianity challenges us to experiment with what we see, believing that there is
			order & uniformity to the universe.
				Animism - deifies nature
				Buddhism - universe itself is an illusion
				Polytheistic religions - events are the actions of the gods
				Judaism & Islam - focus on law; not reason
				Christianity - the garden that modern science grew in

The Problem of science…
	2. Everyone has faith

	“It is not that the methods of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation
		of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence
		to material causes…we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” - Richard C. Lewontin

	“Richard Lewontin is driven by philosophy, not facts. His ‘faith’ predetermines his science.”
		- Nancy Pearcey

	“We must all admit we have faith-commitments, and we are all people of faith. The real
		question is: What is the content of my set of beliefs? And flowing from that: What is
		that content based on? And finally: Is my faith position the most valid to hold if I
		were to carefully examine all the best available evidence?” - Mark Clark

The Problem of science…
	3. Naturalistic evolution has flaws

	The scientific conclusion of evolution has given origin, meaning, morality & destiny;
		therefore, we don’t need God!

	Really?

	Problem with evolution…
		1. There is no proof that evolution leads to no God
		2. No evidence for first cause, complexity of the eye, Cambrian explosion, or
			missing links in fossil records

		“The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade
			secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have
			data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference.”
			- Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard atheist paleontologist

		3. Cognitive faculties are for survival and to pass on the gene pool
	
		“Unless human reasoning is valid, no science can be true. If my mental processes
			are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my brain, I have no reason
			to supposed that my beliefs are true and hence I have no reason for supposing
			my brain to be composed of atoms.” - C.S. Lewis

		“Within me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of a man’s mind,
			which has been developed from the mind of lower animals, are of any value or
			at all trustworthy. Would anyone trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if
			there are any convictions in such a mind?” - Charles Darwin

The deeper one goes into science, the more evidence there is for a mind, something beyond us;
	the divine - God!

What if science actually points humanity to God?

Romans 1:16-23

God is wooing us through all He has made, saying: “I want to know you. Here I am!”

Further Reading
 
The Language of God - Francis S. Collins
 
Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism - Alvin Plantinga
 
The Gospel in a Pluralist Society - Lesslie Newbigin
 
The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence that Points Toward God
- Lee Strobel
 
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism - Timothy Keller
 
Total Truth - Nancy Pearcey
 
Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions - Kenneth Richard Samples
 
A Shot of Faith (to the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists
- Mitch Stokes