Author, educator and commentator Dr. James Denison has been pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas since June, 1998. Prior to that, he was pastor at churches in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Midland (at First Baptist) and Mansfield, Texas.The Detroit Lions finished 0-16 last year. What do they need most? A new logo, apparently. Today's Wall Street Journal unveils the sharper, angrier lion. Maybe the Cowboys can make their star pointier and win a playoff game. They used to be called "God's Team," at least in Dallas. Perhaps God switched allegiances.
Atheists say that the notion of God is as silly as an NFL logo. We've seen that skeptics such as Christopher Hitchens dismiss our argument from creation to Creator and from design to Designer, as we cannot prove that God is the only explanation for the existence and order of the universe. A third way to argue for God's existence begins with the fact of human morality. We all have a sense of right and wrong, but why? Where did your conscience come from? Your parents, you might say. But where did your parents get theirs? And where did their parents get theirs? Ultimately we can reason back to a God who is holy and created humanity with a sense of morality reflecting his own character.
Unfortunately, this approach is not very compelling for skeptics, either. It's easy to claim that our morality illustrates the Darwinian principle of self-preservation, since it often does. (My wife told me when we got married that if I ever had an affair it wouldn't be a divorce but a funeral. I believe her.) Or we could credit natural selection for encouraging morality as a way of ensuring the survival of the species.
Even moral choices which seem to violate the instinct for self-preservation, such as a Christian who dies for his or her faith, can be explained as a selfish quest for admiration in this life and glory in the next. A Muslim suicide bomber seeking reward in paradise illustrates the point tragically. I'm afraid our skeptical friends are still not impressed.
So, where are we? One answer is to claim that God exists because the Bible says he does. Of course, that is the very definition of circular reasoning. The Qur'an claims that there is no God but Allah (the Arabic word for "God") and that Muhammad is his prophet. The Book of Mormon not surprisingly supports the teachings of the Mormon Church. We'd be amazed to find a religion whose sacred writings do not advocate what the religion believes.
It helps that the Bible has such outstanding evidence for its trustworthy nature. But even considering manuscript support, archaeological findings, internal consistency and fulfilled prophecy, we cannot prove beyond question that the Bible is divinely inspired or that its God actually exists. Fortunately we don't have to, as we'll see [Monday].
Note: Many of you have asked where you can view a video of Saturday's debate. Christian Book Expo officials tell us that it will be posted on "Tangle" (formerly GodTube) in the next few days. I am grateful for your interest.
No comments:
Post a Comment