ITT: Religion

[Blueblaze]

The Doctrine of God

I. His Existence
-1. Assumed by the Scriptures
-2. Proofs of the Existence of God
--a. Universal Belief in the Existence of God
--b. Cosmological - Argument from Cause
--c. Teleological - Argument from Design
--d. Ontological - Argument from Being
--e. Anthropological - Moral Argument
--f. Argument from Congruity
--g. Argument from Scripture
II. The Nature of God (vs. Agnosticism)
III. The Attributes of God

I. His Existence
1. Taken for Granted by the Scripture Writers
It does not seem to have occurred to any of the writers of either the Old or the New Testaments to attempt to prove or to argue for the existence of God. Everywhere and at all times it is a fact taken for granted. "A God capable of proof would be no God at all" (Jacobi). He is the self-exstent One (Exodus 3:14) and the Source of all life (John 5:26).
The sublime opening of the Scriptures announces the fact of God and His existence: "In the beginning God" (Genesis 1:1). Nor is the rise or dawn of the idea of God in the mind of man depicted. Psalm 14:1: "The fool hath said in his hearth, There is no God," indicates not a disbelief in the existence, but rather in the active interest of Godin the affairs of men - He seemed to hide Himself from the affairs of men (see Job 22:12-14).
The Scriptures further recognize that men not only know of the existence of God, but have also a certain circle of ideas as to who and what He is (Romans 1:18,19).
No one but a "fool" will deny the fact of God. "What! no God? A watch, and no key for it? A watch with a main-spring broken, and no jeweler to fix it? A watch, and no repair shop? A timecard and a train, and nobody to run it? A lamp lit, and nobody to pour oil in to keep the wick burning? A garden, and no gardener? Flowers, and no florist? Conditions, and no conditioner?" He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at such absurd atheism.

Tomorrow, we will look at some of the arguments for the existence of God.

[Facetious]

Is this useless crap?

[D1st0rt]

+2 interesting, -5 flamebait

[HeavenSent]

http://www.trenchwars.org/forums/showthread.php?t=26420

[Pummel]

Why do you persist in making this type of thread?

[Saturn V]

[Facetious]

Thanks for pushing this one off the cliff, Saturn. Useless crap.

[Superted]

It's nice that you've been saved and everything Blue (whenever that was), but your attempts to preach the good word on the internet is only going to fall on deaf ears. Don't waste your energy, and your reputation.

[Subjugation]

Don't waste your energy, and your reputation.

Ummm...nah. I think his reputation is still exactly where it was prior to this thread.

OMG, DINOS FLYING OFF INTO SPACE!

[Cops]

Sycophant!

[HeavenSent]

ROFL Classic!

[Blueblaze]

2. The Arguments for the Existence of God

These arguments may not prove conclusively that God is, but they do show that in order to argue for the existence of any knowledge, thought, reason, conscience in man, we must assume that God is (Strong). It is said of the beautiful, "It may be shown, but not proved." So we say of the existence of God. These arguements are probable, not demonstrative. For this reason they supplement each other, and constitute a series of evidences which is cumulative in its nature. Though taken singly, none of them can be considerede absolutely decisive, they together furnish a corroboration of primitive conviction of God's existence, which is of great practical value, and is in itself suffcient to bind the moral actions of men. A bundle of rods may not be broken even though each one seperately may; the strength of the bundle is the strength of the whole. If in practical affairs we were to hesitate to act until we have absolute and demonstrable certainty, we should never begin to move at all
Instead of doubting everything that can be doubted, let us rather doubt nothing until we are compelled to doubt.
The late Dr. Orr said: "What we mean by the proof of God's existence is simply that there are necessary acts of thought by which we rise from the finite to the infinite, from the caused to the uncaused, from the contingent to the necessary, from the reasoninvolved in the structure of the universe to a universal and eternal reason, which is the ground of all, from the morality in conscience to a moral Lawgiver and Judge. In this connection the theoretical proofs constitute an inseperable unity-'constitute together,' as Dr. Stirling declares, 'but the undulations of a single wave, which wave is but a natural rise and ascent to God, on the part of man's own thought, with man's own experience and consciousness as the object before him.'"
Religion was not produced by proofs of God's existence, and will not be destroyed by its insufficiency to some minds. Religion existed before argument; in fact, it is the preciousness of religion that leads to the seeking for all possible confirmations of the reality of God.
a) Universality of Belief in the Existence of God
(1) The Fact Stated and Proven:
Man everywhere believes in the existence of a supreme Being or being to whom he is morally responsible and to whom propitation needs to be made.
Such belief may be crudely, even grotesquely stated and manifested, but the reality of the fact is no more invalidated by such crudeness than the existence of a father is invalidated by the crude attempts of a child to draw a picture of its father.
It has been claimed by some that there are or were tribes in inland Africa that possessed no idea or concept of God. Moffat, Livingstone's father-in-law, made such a claim, but Livingstone, after a thorough study of the customs and languages of such tribes, conclusively showed that Moffat was wrong.
Nor should the existence of such few tribes, even if granted, violate the fact we are here considering, any more than the existence of some few men who are blind, lame, deaf, and dumb would make untrue the statement and fact that man is a seeing, hearing, speaking, and walking creature. The fact that some nations do not have the multiplication table does no violence to arithmetic.
Concerning so-called atheists in Christian lands: it may be questioned if there are really any such beings. Hume, known as a famous skeptic, is reported to have said to Ferguson, as together they looked up into the starry sky: "Adam, there is a God." Voltaire, the atheist, prayed to God in a thunderstorm. Ingersoll, when charged with being an atheist, indignantly refuted the charge, saying: "I am not an atheist; I do not say that there is no God; I am an agnostic; I do not know that there is a God." "I thank God that I am an atheist," were the opening words of an argument to disprove the existence of God. A new concert to atheism was once heard to say to a coterie of unbelievers: "I have gotten rid of the idea of a supreme Being, and I thank God for it."

(2) Whence Comes This Universal Belief in the Existence of God?
aa) Not from outside sources, such as reason, tradition, or even the Scriptures
Not from reason or arguement, for many who believe in God have not given any time to reasoning and arguing the question; some, indeed, intellectually, could not. Others who have great powers of intellect, and who have reasoned and argued on the subject are professed disbelievers in God. Belief in God is not the result of logical arguments, else the Bible would have given us proofs.
Nor did this universal belief come from traditiion, for "Tradition" says Dr. Patton, "can perpetuate only what has been originated."
Nor can it be said that this belief came from the Scriptures even, for, as has been well said, unless a man had a knowledge of the God from whom the Scriptures came, the revelation itself could have no authority for him. The very idea of Scripture as a revelation presupposes belief in a God who can make it - Newman Smith. Revelation must assume the existence of God.
bb) This universal belief comes from within man.
All the evidence points to the conclusive fact that this universal faith in the existence of God is innate in man, and comes from rational intuition.
(3) The Weight and Force of this Argument
The fact that all men everywhere believe in the existence of a supreme Being, or beings to whom they are morally responsible, is a strong argument in favor of its truth. So universal an effect must have a cause as universal, otherwise we have an effect without any assignable cause. Certain is it that this argument makes the burden of proof to rest upon those who deny the existence of God.

Later, we shall lok at the second argument, The Argument from Cause: Cosmological, and Lord willing, we may even look at the next few arguments as well.

[Aquatiq]

You could probably slip the N word in there 20 times and no one would notice.

[HeavenSent]

Sycophant!

Excellent choice of words. I concur.

[HeavenSent]

You could probably slip the N word in there 20 times and no one would notice.

LOL :lol: