Introduction To Christian Apologetics: Edwin Chong

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Faith EFC, Fall'07

Introduction to Christian Apologetics
Edwin Chong
Fall 2007
Faith EFC, Fall'07 2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern
of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be
able to test and approve what Gods will
ishis good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2 (NIV)
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Overview
What is apologetics?
Why is apologetics important?
Faith and reason
Implications of atheism
Theistic arguments
Text and Prerequisites
William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith:
Christian Truth and Apologetics, Revised
Edition, Crossway Books, 1994.
Partly reflects my own tastes in Christian
apologetics.
This class assumes TTP-like training.
In particular, Christian maturity. (Otherwise
could be shocking to some!)
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Faith EFC, Fall'07
Introduction
What is Apologetics?
Greek apologia: a defense
A branch of Christian theology that
seeks to provide a rational justification
for the truth claims of the Christian faith.
Primarily a theoretical discipline.
Not training in the art of answering
questions, or debating, or evangelism.
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Thats Apologetics?
Bound to be disappointing to some.
Many are just not interested in the rational
justification of Christianity.
Whats more useful is to know answers to
questions like,
Practical matters are logically secondary to
the theoretical issues and cannot occupy the
center of attention. (Of course, practical
matters must occupy some of our attention!)
Why Theoretical Issues?
Christians need to grasp a wider picture of
Western thought and culture, rather than
concentrate exclusively on their immediate
evangelistic contacts.
If we dont confront these issues, what lies
ahead for us in the US is already evident in
Europe: utter secularism.
Quote from Craig: Throughout Europe,
evangelism is immeasurably more difficult
(p. xii)
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Anti-Christianity
Francis Schaeffer: We are living in a
post-Christian era, when the thought-
forms of society are fundamentally anti-
Christian.
Charles Malik: The greatest danger
confronting American evangelical
Christianity is
J. Gresham Machens warning in 1913.
Role of Christian Education
Some say, Christian education is for
producing pastors, not scholars.
John La Shell quote on science.
Same goes with philosophy and Biblical
criticism.
Craig: What good does it do to preach
(p. xiv)
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Christian Laity
What about Christian laypersons?
Machen: The Church is perishing today
through the lack of thinking, not through
an excess of it.
Many Christian parents have children
who have left the faith. Why?
Offensive and Defensive
Two basic approaches to apologetics:
Offensive (positive): Seeks to present a
positive case for Christian truth claims.
Defensive (negative): Seeks to nullify
objections to those claims.
Two basic subdivisions:
Natural theology
Christian evidences
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Offensive Apologetics
Natural theology: Provide arguments
and evidences in support of theism.
Ontological, cosmological, teleological, and
moral arguments.
Christian evidences: Show why a
specifically Christian theism is true.
Fulfilled prophecy, radical claims of Christ,
historical reliability of the gospels.
Defensive Apologetics
Natural theology: Address objections to
theism.
Problem of evil, hiddenness of God.
Christian evidences: Defend against
objections to Biblical theism.
Objections posed by modern Biblical
criticism and contemporary science.
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Craigs Approach
Mainly offensive.
Sometimes blends offensive and
defensive apologetics.
Problem of evil (defensive) and moral
argument (offensive).
Resurrection of Christ (offensive) and
criticism to the historical reliability of the NT
(defensive)
Often new and difficult for students.
But Why Such Depth?
The story of John Loftus.
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Faith EFC, Fall'07
Faith and Reason
How do We Know that
Christianity is True?
By leap of faith?
On the authority of Word of God?
Religious experience?
Is a rational foundation of faith
necessary, without which faith is
unjustified and irrational?
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Historical Overview
Medieval:
Augustine (354430)
Thomas Aquinas (12241274)
The Enlightenment
John Locke (16321704)
Henry Dodwell (17001784)
Contemporary
Karl Barth (18861968)
Rudolph Bultmann (18841976)
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Alvin Plantinga
Augustine (354430)
Augustines writings difficult to interpret.
His views evolved over time.
Two main prongs:
Faith based on authority of Scripture and
Church.
Reason supports understanding.
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Augustine on Faith
I should not believe the gospel except
as moved by the authority of the
Catholic Church.
Scripture is held in even higher esteem.
One must believe before one can know.
Isaiah 7:9, Unless you believe you shall
not understand.
Fides quaerens intellectum.
Augustine on Reason
It is our duty to consider what men and
books we ought to believe to worship
God rightly.
Even the authority of Scriptures should
be believed based on indicia (signs),
such as miracles and prophesy.
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Augustines Inconsistency?
Augustines apparent inconsistency is
best explained by the medieval
understanding of authority.
Authority included not just theological
truths, but the whole tradition of past
knowledge.
Akin to historical apologetics.
Augustine: Seeing and Believing
Augustine distinguishes between what
is seen to be true and what is believed
to be true.
See: based on physical perception or
rational demonstration.
Believe: based on testimony of others.
Example: Belief in God and authority of
Scripture is based on testimony.
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Augustine: Authority
But why accept the authority of Biblical writers
of the past?
Cannot say, because thats what the Bible
says circular!
Two choices:
Historical method: establish reliability of sources.
(Not available to Augustine.)
Turn to the present miracle of the Church as basis
for authority of Scriptures. (Augustines choice.)
[City of God]
Augustine: Present Church
Authority of Scripture not based on authority
of Church, but miracle of Church: whole
world believing in Christianity without the
benefit of the gospel miracles (which were in
the past).
Present miracle authority of Scripture
testimony of Biblical writers Christian
beliefs.
Seems to put seeing (present) above
believing (past).
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Thomas Aquinas (12241274)
Summa contra gentiles: greatest apologetic
work of the Middle Ages.
Thomas builds on Augustine.
Distinguishes between truths based on:
Reason: can be known with certainty. Example:
existence of God.
Faith: not based on reason, cannot be certain.
Examples: doctrine of Trinity, eschatological
resurrection of the dead.
Roughly equivalent to Augustines seeing
and believing.
Thomas and Augustine
Like Augustine, the bottomline is that Thomas
bases faith on authority, which in turn in
established on reason.
Fulfilled prophecies and miracles authority
of Scripture testimony of Biblical writers
Christian beliefs.
But why believe historically fulfilled
prophecies and miracles? No good answer
rely on Augustines miracle of Church.
Thomas quote (p. 21).
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John Locke (16321704)
Essay Concerning Human Understanding
(1689)
Ardent rationalist: religious belief warranted if
and only if it has a rational foundation.
Matters of faith must also be
tested/guaranteed based on rational proofs.
Locke quote (p. 23).
Rejected religious enthusiasm.
Locke on Beliefs
Why believe in Christ? Chief reason is
miracles.
Lockes views shaped religious thought
in the 18
th
century, both Deist and
orthodox.
Reason given priority even in matters of
faith.
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Henry Dodwell (17001784)
Christianity Not Founded on Argument
(1742).
Rejected prevailing theological rationalism as
un-Christian.
So out of step with his times, he was thought
to be an atheist.
Dodwells basis for faith: inner working of the
Holy Spirit in the believers heart.
Had impact on later thinkers: Wesleys,
Whitefield, English revivalists.
Contemporary Thinkers
Rehashed many of the previous views.
Two extremes:
Faith supported only by reason
Reason has no place to play in faith
Barth and Bultmann
Pannenberg
Plantinga
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Barth and Bultmann
There can be no approach to God
whatsoever via human reason.
Only approach: Gods revelation in Christ.
Basis: God is wholly other and therefore
transcends all categories of human thought
and logic.
No analogy exists between him and the
creature.
No natural theology.
Leap of Faith?
Barth emphasizes that personal
encounter with the Word of God results
entirely from the sovereign divine
initiative.
Lost in sin, man cannot even take a
leap of faith!
Only the work of the Holy Spirit can
effect faith.
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Reason Contrary to Faith
Bultmann considers rational evidence to
be contrary to faith.
For faith to be faith, it must exist in an
evidential vaccum.
The very authority of the Word of God
strips away all demands for criteria.
Bultmann quote, p. 26: As though God
had to justify himself to man
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Rigorously evidential approach.
Revelation as History (1961):
Revelation to be understood in terms of
Gods acts in history, not as some self-
authenticating Word.
Perhaps in reaction to anti-evidentialism
of Barth and Bultmann.
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Testing and Verification
Christianity must submit to the same
procedures of testing and verification
that are employed in the secular
sciences.
If the historical foundation for faith were
removed, then Christianity should be
abandoned. (Of course, hes confident
that this will not occur!)
Alvin Plantinga
Appeals to the Reformed objection to
natural theology.
Rejects theological rationalism.
Sides with the anti-evidentialists.
Hugely influential.
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Background: Foundationalism
Ren Descartes (15961650)
Start with a foundation (a set of
properly basic beliefs).
Rational = either foundational or follows from
foundation via reason (usually meaning
logical or empirical method).
What qualifies to be foundational?
Propositions that are either
indubitable or incorrigible.
Properly Basic Beliefs
Basic beliefs can be improper
(because those beliefs were formed
under improper circumstances).
Examples of improper: mentally
unsound, under the influence of alcohol
or drugs, confusion,
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Belief in God: Properly Basic?
Is belief in God properly basic?
Evidentialists: No, because it is not
indubitable or incorrigible.
Calvin, Plantinga: Yes; who says it has to be
indubitable or incorrigible?
In fact, there are many beliefs we have that
are neither indubitable or incorrigible.
Examples?
So belief in God does not require evidence!
Plantinga: Fideist?
What does rational mean?
Foundationalism: a form of rationalism.
Plantingas epistemology is still
foundationalist.
So belief in God, being properly basic,
is rational.
Note: rational does not imply true.
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Defeaters to Beliefs
Some beliefs are defeasible: they can
be defeated by other incompatible
beliefs (called defeaters).
Plantinga: Belief in God is defeasible.
Confronted with a potential defeater to
belief in God, to remain rational the
believer must have a proper response.
Example: Problem of evil.
These are called defeater-defeaters.
Intrinsic Defeater Defeaters
Some beliefs have, by themselves, stronger
warrant than their defeaters. Such beliefs are
intrinsic defeater-defeaters.
Under some circumstances, belief in God is
an intrinsic defeater-defeater.
Under what circumstances?
Plantingas answer: the implanted, natural
sense of God (sensus divinitatis), deepened
and accentuated by the testimony of the Holy
Spirit.
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Do we know that God exists?
If belief in the existence of God is (at least for
some) properly basic, then can we say we
know it?
Knowledge = warranted true belief.
Three components:
Belief
Truth
Warrant
Warrant: controversial.
Plantinga on Knowing God
Plantinga: You can know that God
exists!
What is the warrant for belief in God?
Plantinga: a belief is warranted for a
person if his cognitive faculties are
functioning as God designed them to.
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Faith EFC, Fall'07
Knowing Christianity to be True:
Craigs Model
Back to the Original Question
How do we know that Christianity is
true?
Craig: Must distinguish between
knowing Christianity to be true and
showing Christianity to be true.
Craigs model:
Role of Holy Spirit
Role of argument and evidence
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Role of Holy Spirit
Fundamental way in which we know
Christianity to be true:
self-authenticating witness of
the Holy Spirit.
NT teaches this with respect to both
believer and unbeliever.
The Believer
A believer automatically becomes an adopted son of
God and is indwelt with the Holy Spirit (Gal 3:26, 4:6;
Rom 8:15-16).
Paul uses the term plerophoria (complete confidence,
full assurance) to indicate the believers knowledge of
truth as a result of the Holy Spirit (Col 2:2; 1 Thes
1:5).
John: Holy Spirit gives us conviction of truth of
Christianity (1 John 2:20, 27), echoing Jesus (John
14:26).
Craig: these truths being spoken of are basic
Christian truths, not subtleties in Christian doctrine
(too many Christians differ in doctrine).
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Not Self-Authenticating?
But what about 1 John 4:1-3?
John is not talking about testing the
witness of the Spirit in our own hearts,
but about testing people who claim to
be speaking by the Spirit, referred to
earlier in 1 John 2:18-19.
The Unbeliever
The Spirit doesnt indwell the unbeliever. But
God has a different ministry of the Holy Spirit
for the unbeliever: John 16:7-11.
Convicts unbeliever of:
Own sin
Gods righteousness
Condemnation before God.
So unbeliever can be said to know such
truths as God exists, I am guilty before
God, etc.
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Why Need the Spirit?
If not for the work of the Spirit, no one
would become a Christian (Rom 3:10-
11). (See also John 6:44)
Man cannot himself understand spiritual
things (1 Cor 2:14) and is hostile to God
(Rom 8:7).
So here Craig is going along with
Plantinga.
Role of Argument and Evidence
Holy Spirit gives ultimate assurance of Christianity;
so argument and evidence play a subsidiary role.
Martin Luther distinguishes between two uses of
reason: magisterial and ministerial.
Magisterial: reason stands above Christian claims as
a magistrate.
Ministerial: reason submits to and serves Christianity
as a minister.
Reason in Craigs model: ministerial, not magisterial.
Anselm: Ours is a faith that seeks understanding.
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Not Magisterial?
Some would argue that without a magisterial
role, how could we determine which is right:
Bible, Koran, or Baghavad-Gita?
Recall also Loftuss outsider test.
A magisterial role would consign most
Christians to irrationality.
Also, a magisterial role would imply that a
person who was given poor arguments for
Christianity is justified to reject it.
Faith EFC, Fall'07
Theistic Arguments
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Theistic Arguments
Pascal: all else being equal, rational to
believe that God exists.
In fact, all else are not equal!
Craig: Five arguments for the existence
of God.
Plantinga: Two dozen or so arguments.
Arguments
Statements leading to a conclusion.
Deductive and inductive arguments.
What makes a good argument?
Validity
Soundness
Not question-begging
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Syllogism
Common form of argument:
All P are Q.
R is P.
Therefore, R is Q.
Other variations.
Major premise
Minor premise
Conclusion
Plausibility
All syllogisms are valid.
But are all sound?
Soundness = premises are more
plausible than their negation.
We should believe in the conclusion of
a sound argument.
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Refuting Arguments
Plausibility: subjective.
Failure of an argument does not imply
that the conclusion is false.
Logical fallacies.
Logical Fallacy I
Argument:
Either you think for yourself or you simply
accept what the Bible says.
You accept what the Bible says.
Therefore, you do not think for yourself.
Fallacy: Affirming a disjunct.
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Logical Fallacy II
Argument:
Either you reject the Bible or you are
irrational.
You dont reject the Bible.
Therefore, you are irrational.
Fallacy: False dilemma.
Gen. 3:1
Logical Fallacy III
Argument:
The Bible was written by people.
People are not God.
Therefore, the Bible is not Gods word.
Fallacy: Equivocation.
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Logical Fallacy IV
Argument:
The Bible claims that God performs
miracles.
But miracles cannot happen.
Therefore, the Bible is false.
Fallacy: Begging the question.
Logical Fallacy V
Argument:
The Bible speaks of God seeing.
Seeing entails having eyes.
Therefore, God has eyes.
Fallacy: False analogy.
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For More Fallacies
See my paper, Logical Fallacies in
Attacks Against the Bible: Eleven
Examples, at:
www.engr.colostate.edu/~echong/pubs/apologetics
Most Common Fallacies by
Christians
Equivocation and false analogy
Begging the question
Argumentum ad baculum
Well poisoning
Non sequitur
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Faith EFC, Fall'07
Absurdity of Life
without God
Range of Responses
I dont believe that God exists.
Nobody knows if God exists.
I dont need the concept of God.
The idea of God doesnt make sense.
I dont care.
Even atheist philosophers, e.g., Jean Paul Sartre
and Albert Camus, recognized that the whether
God exists makes a tremendous difference!
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The Human Predicament
Craig: The issue of the human predicament
should be raised prior to the question of
Gods existence.
Also called cultural apologetics.
Not concerned with epistemological issues.
Instead, examines the disastrous
consequences for human existence, society,
and culture if Christianity were false.
Akin to existentialism.
Historical Background
Blaise Pascal (1623-62) [Penses]
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-81)
Sren Kierkegaard (1813-55)
Francis Schaeffer (1912-84)
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Implications of Atheism
If atheism is true, then ultimately
life is meaningless.
If atheism is true, then ultimately
we must live without hope.
If theism is true, then not only does life
have meaning and hope, but there is
also the possibility to know God and his
love personally.
Quote from Norman Levitt
Victor J. Stenger, Has Science Found God?
The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose
in the Universe, Prometheus Books, 2003.
Quote from back of book by Norman Levitt,
Professor of Mathematics, Rutgers University,
and author of Prometheous Bedeviled:
Science and the Contradictions of
Contemporary Culture.
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Life is Meaningless?
Quote from Stenger again.
For an atheist, life may have relative
meaning, but not ultimate meaning.
For an atheist, life may have subjective
purpose, but not objective purpose.
No Hope?
Quote from Bertrand Russell, Selected
Papers of Bertrand Russell, Random
House, 1927, p. 3.
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Are atheists really depressed?
Or immoral?
Craigs description of life without God is
meant to describe how things really are,
not necessarily how atheists feel about
it.
In fact, many atheists behave like
theists!
Examples: Albert Camus, Bertrand
Russell
Faith EFC, Fall'07
Theistic Arguments
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Standard Arguments
Ontological Argument
Cosmological Argument
Teleological Argument
Moral Argument
Resurrection Argument
Further Reading
William Lane Craig, God Are You There? Five
Reasons God Exists and Three Reasons It
Makes a Difference, Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries (RZIM), 2002.
Charles Taliaferro, Does the Idea of God
Make Sense?, RZIM, 2002.
James Beilby and David K. Clark, Why Bother
with Truth? Arriving at Knowledge in a
Skeptical Society, RZIM, 2000.
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Faith EFC, Fall'07
Theistic Arguments:
Basic idea: God exists because, as
God, he must!
Not used much by Craig.
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The Argument
God is the greatest conceivable being.
Existing (in reality) is greater than just
being an idea.
Therefore, God exists.
(A deductive argument.)
Some History
Ontological argument first
proposed by Anselm of
Canterbury (10331109)
[Proslogion, Chapter 2, 1078]
Later alternative argument by
Rene Descartes (1596
1650).
More intuitive than formal
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Discussion
The ontological argument is still hotly
debated today.
Plantinga has defended a version of the
argument that is widely considered to
be the difficult to defeat.
Main problem: is existence a property?
Faith EFC, Fall'07
Theistic Arguments:
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God makes sense of the
origin of the universe.
Kalam cosmological argument.
[Craig 1979]
Kalam: An Arabic term meaning
argue or discuss or speak.
More broadly, means natural theology or
philosophical theism.
Used by Islamic philosophers about a
thousand years ago.
The Argument
Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
The universe began to exist.
Therefore, the universe has a cause.
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Universe Began to Exist
The Big Bang.
Astrophysical evidence suggests a point
around 15 billion years ago when the
universe began to exist.
Nonexistence of actual infinities.
Actual Infinities
If the universe did not begin to exist, then the number
of past events in history is infinite.
David Hilbert: The infinite is nowhere to be found in
reality. It neither exists in nature nor provides a
legitimate basis for rational thought. The role that
remains for infinite to play is solely that of an idea.
Operations involving infinity cannot be put in
correspondence with the real world (e.g., subtraction
and cardinality of sets).
Past events are not just ideas, but are real.
Therefore, the number of them must be finite.
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Whatever Begins to Exist Has a
Cause
An intuitively plausible metaphysical principle.
Ex nihilo, nihil fit.
Anthony Kenny (philosopher): A proponent of the big
bang theory, at least if he is an atheist, must believe
that the universe came from nothing and by nothing.
Kai Nielson (atheist philosopher): Suppose you
suddenly hear a loud bang ... and you ask me, What
made that bang? and I reply, Nothing, it just
happened. You would not accept that. In fact, you
would find my reply quite unintelligible.
Arthur Eddington (scientist): The beginning seems to
present insuperable difficulties unless we agree to
look on it as frankly supernatural.
The Cause
Immediate conclusion from first two
premises: the universe has a cause.
The cause must be uncaused,
changeless, timeless, and immaterial.
But more can be said ...
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Personal Cause
The cause cannot be mechanical;
must be personal.
A mechanical cause cannot exist without its effect.
(But the cause of the universe existed timelessly
without the universe.)
A personal cause is associated with a free agent.
The only way for the cause to be timeless and the
effect to begin in time is for the cause to be a
personal agent who freely chooses to create an effect
in time without any prior determining conditions.
Thus, we are brought, not merely to a transcendent
cause of the universe, but to its personal creator.
Counter-Arguments: Premise 1
Whatever begins to exist has a cause?
Sub-atomic events are said to be
uncaused.
Premise 1 is true only for things in the
universe, but it is not true of the
universe.
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Answers (Premise 1)
Sub-atomic events are said to be uncaused.
Not all scientists agree with this Copenhagen
Interpretation of subatomic physics
(e.g., [David Bohm]).
Even with the above interpretation, particles do not
come into being out of nothing, but out of the energy
fluctuations in the sub-atomic vacuum. The same can
be said about theories of the origin of the universe
out of a primordial vacuum.
Robert Deltete (philosopher of science): There is no
basis in ordinary quantum theory for the claim that
the universe itself is uncaused, much less for the
claim that it sprang into being uncaused from literally
nothing.
Answers (Premise 1) [contd]
Premise 1 is true only for things in the universe, but it
is not true of the universe.
This objection misconstrues the nature of the
premise: it is a metaphysical principle (a principle
about the very nature of reality).
J. L. Mackie (atheist): I myself find it hard to accept
the notion of self-creation from nothing, even given
unrestricted chance. And how can this be given, if
there really is nothing?
On the atheistic view, there wasn't even the
potentiality of the universe's existence prior to the Big
Bang, since nothing is prior to the Big Bang.
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The universe began to exist?
There are alternative theories to the Big
Bang that do not involve a beginning.
Actually infinite number of things can
exist.
Answers (Premise 2)
There are alternative theories to the Big Bang that do not
involve a beginning.
The overwhelming verdict of the scientific community is that
none of them are more probable than the Big Bang theory.
Theories like the Oscillating Universe (which expands and re-
contracts forever) and Chaotic Inflationary Universe (which
continually spawns new universes) do have potentially infinite
future but turn out to have only a finite past.
Vacuum Fluctuation Universe theories (which postulate an
eternal vacuum out of which our universe is born) cannot
explain why, if the vacuum was eternal, we do not observe an
infinitely old universe.
Quantum Gravity Universe theory [Stephen Hawking], if
interpreted realistically, still involves an absolute origin of the
universe.
Hawking: Almost everyone now believes that the universe, and
time itself, had a beginning at the Big Bang.
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Actually infinite number of things can exist.
For example: the number of members in the
set of natural numbers {0,1,2,3,} is infinite.
Not all mathematicians and philosophers
agree.
Potential infinites vs. actual infinites.
Existence in the mathematical realm does not
imply existence in the real world.
Other Counter-Arguments
Just because we can't explain it doesn't mean God did it.
Misconstrues the argument: this argument is deductive. If the premises
are granted, the conclusion follows; it doesn't matter if it's explanatory
or not.
The argument does not postulate God to plug up a gap in our scientific
knowledge. The scientific evidence is used only to support the
plausibility of the truth of premise 2 (which is a religiously neutral
statement and can be found in any textbook on astronomy).
The hypothesis of God is, in fact, genuinely explanatory (though not
scientific, but personal). It explains some effect in terms of an agent
and his intentions.
Personal explanations are valid and used all the time. Example: Why
is the kettle boiling? Because I put it on to make a cup of tea.
Richard Swinburne (philosopher): there cannot be a scientific
explanation of the first state of the universe. So, without a personal
explanation, there is no explanation at allwhich is metaphysically
absurd.
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[contd]
A cause must come before its effect, and
there is no moment before the Big Bang.
Many causes and effects are simultaneous.
The moment of God's causing the Big Bang
just is the moment of the occurrence of the
Big Bang.
God's existing alone without the universe is
either before the Big Bang, not in physical
time, but in metaphysical time, or else is
strictly timeless but enters into time at the
moment of creation.
[contd]
If the universe must have a cause, then what
is God's cause?
Reveals an inattentiveness to the formulation
of the argument.
Not Whatever exists has a cause but
Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
God never began to exist, and hence would
not require a cause.
This is not a special pleading for God, since
the atheist who believes in an eternal and
uncaused universe relies on this too.
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[contd]
Isn't God infinite? So how can God exist?
The argument was that an actually infinite
number of things cannot exist. God is not a
collection of an actually infinite number of
things!
In theology, God is infinite in a qualitative,
not quantitative, sense. (God is absolutely
holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, etc.)
Further Reading
William Lane Craig, The Kalam Cosmological
Argument, Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2000.
Wes Morriston, A Critique of the Kalam
Cosmological Argument, in God Matters,
Ray Martin and Christopher Bernard, eds.,
Longman, 2002, pp. 95108.
http://spot.colorado.edu/~morristo/kalam-
not.html
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Faith EFC, Fall'07
Theistic Arguments:
complex order in the universe.
Many forms:
Fine-tuning argument
Intelligent design in living organisms
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The Argument
The fine-tuning of the universe is due to
either law, chance, or design.
It is not due to law or chance.
Therefore, it is due to design.
Fine-Tuning of the Universe
Existence of intelligent life depends upon a
complex and delicate balance of initial
conditions given in the Big Bang itself.
Old belief: Whatever the initial conditions of
the universe, eventually intelligent life might
evolve.
Current belief: Our existence is balanced on a
knife's edge. A life-prohibiting universe is
much more likely than a life-permitting
universe like ours.
55
Specific Examples
Stephen Hawking: if the rate of the universe's expansion one
second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in
10
15
, the universe would have re-collapsed.
P.C.W. Davies: The odds against the initial conditions being
suitable for star formation is at least 10
10
21
.
P.C.W. Davies: A change in the strength of gravity or the weak
force by one part in 10
100
would have prevented a life-permitting
universe.
Roger Penrose: Odds of the Big Bang's low entropy condition
existing by chance are on the order of one out of 10
1230
.
There are around 50 such quantities and constants present in
the Big Bang that must be fine-tuned in this way if the universe
is to permit life.
Not just must each quantity be fine-tuned, their ratios must also
be fine-tuned.
Law, Chance, or Design
Law: the fine-tuning of the universe is
physically necessary. It had to be that way,
and there was no (or little) chance of its not
being life-permitting.
Chance: the fine-tuning of the universe is due
entirely to chance.
Design: an intelligent Mind behind the
cosmos.
Which is the most plausible?
Check: false dilemma?
56
Law
Requires that a life-prohibiting universe be virtually impossible.
Extraordinarily implausible. Requires strong proof or evidence.
John Leslie: "The claim that blind necessity is involvedthat
universes whose laws or constants are slightly different `aren't
real physical possibilities' ... is eroded by the various physical
theories, particularly theories of random symmetry breaking,
which show how a varied ensemble of universes might be
generated." If subatomic indeterminacy (or uncausedness) is
real, then it must be possible for the universe to be different.
Even if the laws of nature were necessary, we still have to
supply initial conditions. Hence, the physical universe is not
necessarily unique [P.C.W. Davies].
If there is a single physically possible universe, this would itself
be strong evidence for a designer.
Strong Anthropic Principle: often taken as indicative of God's
existence [Barrow and Tipler].
Chance
It could have happened by chance, but the
odds against it are incomprehensibly great.
We would never embrace such a hypothesis
in any other area of our lives. But it's not just
probability that's at stake here; see next point.
Specified probability: demonstration that the
event in question is not only improbable but
also conforms to an independently
discovered pattern. Example: chimpanzee
typing "To be or not to be; that is the
question."
57
Many-Worlds Hypothesis
Theorists who defend the chance alternative have adopted the
Many-Worlds Hypothesis (that there are many parallel
universes).
This is a sort of backhanded complement to the design
hypothesis in that the fine-tuning cries out for explanation.
The Many-Worlds Hypothesis is no more scientific, and no less
metaphysical, than the hypothesis of a Cosmic Designer
[John Polkinghorne].
The designer hypothesis is arguably superior because it is
simpler (Ockhams razor).
No good explanation for generating a World Ensemble. (The
only consistent inflationary model is Linde's Chaotic Inflationary
Theory, but it requires fine-tuning to start the inflation.) [Robert
Brandenburger]
The Many-Worlds Hypothesis faces a challenge from biological
evolutionary theory.
Counter-Arguments: Fine-Tuning
We really don't know how much certain
constants and quantities could have varied
from their actual values.
This admitted uncertainty becomes less
important when the number of variables to be
fine-tuned is high.
Example: The chances of all 50 variables
being fine-tuned, even if each has a 50%
chance of being its actual value, is less than 3
out of 10
17
.
58
The existence of any universe is equally
improbable, and therefore there is nothing to
be explained.
In light of specified probability, can
immediately see the fallacy.
It's not the probability of some universe or
other's existence, but the specified probability
of a life-permitting universe's existing.
We shouldn't be surprised at the finely tuned
conditions of the universe, for if the universe were not
fine-tuned, then we wouldn't be here to be surprised
about it.
True statement: "We shouldn't be surprised that we
do not observe conditions of the universe
incompatible with our existence.
It does not follow that: "We shouldn't be surprised
that we do observe conditions of the universe that are
compatible with our existence."
John Leslie's analogy.
59
Counter-Arguments: Designer
The Designer Himself remains unexplained; an
intelligent designer also exhibits complex order, so
that if the universe needs an explanation, so does its
designer.
Based on a misconception of "explanation." If the
best explanation of a disease is a previously
unknown virus, we cannot dismiss the explanation
just because we can't explain the virus.
The complexity in a Mind is not analogous to the
complexity of the universe. A mind's ideas may be
complex, but a mind itself is a remarkably simple
thing. In order to be a mind, it must have certain
properties like intelligence, consciousness, and
volition. These are not contingent properties that it
might lack.
Counter-Arguments: Designer
What about alleged designs that are evil
or hurtful?
Irrelevant to the design hypothesis,
which says nothing about the moral
qualities of the Designer.
(But see next reason.)
60
Craig-Flew Debate
In 1998, Craig debated well-known atheist
philosopher Anthony Flew. See: Does God Exist: The
Craig-Flew Debate (Ashgate Publishing, 2003).
It was reported that the debate had some impact on
Flew. The Winter 2004 issue of the journal
Philosophia Christi published an exclusive interview
with Flew, "My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism,"
in which Flew now declares himself a theist.
Flew: "I think that the most impressive arguments for
Gods existence are those that are supported by
recent scientific discoveries. I've never been much
impressed by the kalam cosmological argument, and
I don't think it has gotten any stronger recently.
However, I think the argument to Intelligent Design is
enormously stronger than it was when I first met it."
Faith EFC, Fall'07
Theistic Arguments:
Moral Argument
61
Moral Argument
objective moral values in the world.
The Argument
If God does not exist, objective moral
values do not exist.
Objective moral values do exist.
62
Objective Moral Values
Morals that are binding whether or not anybody
believes them.
Example: the Holocaust was objectively wrong even
though the Nazis who carried it out thought that it
was right.
Many theists and atheists concur on premise 1
(e.g., [Bertrand Russell, Michael Ruse,
Friedrich Nietzsche]).
If there's no God, what's so special about human
beings and their morality?
On the atheistic view, there's nothing really wrong
with rape. But somehow we all recognize that rape is
objectively wrong, not just socially unacceptable
(perhaps for preservation of our species).
What Were Not Saying
Were not saying:
"We must believe in God to live moral
lives."
"We must believe in God to recognize
objective moral values."
"We must believe in God to formulate
an adequate system of ethics."
63
Counter-Argument: Premise 1
If God does not exist, objective moral
values do not exist?
Objective moral values can exist in the
absence of God.
"Atheistic Moral Realism."
Answer (Premise 1)
Objective moral values can exist in the absence of
God.
Incomprehensible.
Example: what does it mean for justice to exist?
Moral values exist as properties of persons, not as
abstractions.
Moral duty or obligation is incompatible with Atheistic
Moral Realism [Richard Taylor].
It is highly improbable that just that sort of creatures
would emerge from blind evolution who correspond to
the abstractly existing realm of moral values.
64
Objective moral values do exist?
But objective moral values don't exist
(because there is no God).
The only reason you believe objective moral
values exist is that you believe in God!
If objective moral values exist, why is it that
we change our view of morals over time?
If objective moral values exist, why can't we
all agree universally about what is moral?
Answers (Premise 2)
But objective moral values don't exist
(because there is no God).
Agreed. This follows from premise 1 if
we assume there is no God.
But what other reason is there to think
that this is true?
65
The only reason you believe objective moral
values exist is that you believe in God!
Genetic fallacy: invalidating an argument by
showing how it originated (e.g., the only
reason you believe in democracy is that you
were raised in a democratic society).
The truth of a statement is independent of
how the statement originated, or the motives
of the person asserting it.
If objective moral values exist, why is it
that we change our view of morals over
time?
Our gradual and fallible apprehension of
the moral realm no more undermines
the objective reality of that realm than
our gradual and fallible apprehension of
the physical world undermines the
objective reality of the physical realm.
66
If objective moral values exist, why can't we
all agree universally about what is moral?
Some moral questions have clear answers,
others do not.
If we fail to see the objective moral truth
about a matter, then we are simply morally
handicapped, like a color-blind person that
cannot tell red from green. This impairment
should not make us question what we do see
clearly.
If we say "God is good," we must have some
independent meaning of the word "good.
Plato's Euthyphro Argument.
Basic dilemma: either something is good
because God commands it or else God
commands it because it is good.
Former: right and wrong are arbitrary;
latter: goodness is independent of God.
Plato's solution: God himself is the Good.
God's commandments are not arbitrary, but
necessarily flow from his own nature.
67
Other Counter-Arguments [contd]
Some things are evil, but God is good and he created
everything.
Problem of evil: classical atheistic defense.
But how do we know that something is evil? It must
be that we have a moral yardstick by which to judge
evil.
Gives rise to an argument for God's existence:
If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist.
Evil exists.
Therefore, objective moral values exist (some things are
truly evil).
But we still haven't answered why God permits evil.
That's a wholly separate question.
Further Reading
Wes Morriston, "Must There Be a
Standard of Moral Goodness Apart from
God?" Philosophia Christi, Series 2,
vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 127138, 2001.
spot.colorado.edu/~morristo/goodness.
html
68
Faith EFC, Fall'07
Theistic Arguments:
Resurrection of Christ
Resurrection Argument
life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
69
The Argument
1. There are four established facts concerning the fate
of Jesus of Nazereth: his honorable burial by
Joseph of Arimathea, the discovery of his empty
tomb, his post-mortem appearances, and the origin
of his disciples' belief in the resurrection.
2. The hypothesis "God raised Jesus from the dead"
is the best explanation of these facts.
3. The hypothesis "God raised Jesus from the dead"
entails that God exists.
4. Therefore God exists.
Steps 3 and 4 are obvious. It remains only to
examine steps 1 and 2.
Jesus' Death: Four Facts
In defending this premise of Jesus'
death, Craig does not treat the New
Testament as inspired and therefore
inerrant, but simply as a collection of
Greek documents coming down to us
out of the first century.
70
Fact 1
Fact 1: After his crucifixion, Jesus was buried by Joseph of
Arimathea in a tomb.
Highly significant because it means that the location of Jesus's
tomb was known to Jew and Christian alike in Jerusalem.
Evidence supporting this fact:
1. Jesus' burial is attested in the very old information handed on
by Paul in his first letter to the church in Corinth, Greece.
2. The burial account is part of very old source material used by
Mark in his gospel.
3. As a member of the Jewish high court that condemned Jesus,
Joseph of Arimathea is unlikely to be a Christian invention.
4. The burial story lacks any signs of legendary development.
5. No other competing burial story exists.
Fact 2
Fact 2: On the Sunday after the crucifixion, Jesus' tomb was
found empty by a group of his women followers.
1. The old information transmitted by Paul implies the empty tomb
(e.g., "he was buried ... he was raised").
2. The empty tomb story is also part of Mark's very old source
material.
3. The story is simple and lacks signs of legendary embellishment.
4. The tomb was probably discovered empty by women. This is
significant because in Jewish society, the testimony of women
were regarded as unreliable.
5. The earliest known Jewish response to the proclamation of
Jesus' resurrection presupposes the empty tomb.
Jacob Kremer: "By far most exegetes hold firmly to the reliability
of the biblical statements concerning the empty tomb."
71
Fact 3
Fact 3: On multiple occasions and under various circumstances,
different individuals and groups of people experienced
appearances of Jesus alive from the dead.
1. The list of eyewitnesses to Jesus' resurrection appearances that
is quoted by Paul imply that such appearances occurred.
(Cephas, the Twelve, more than 500 brethren, James, all the
apostles, Paul. [I Cor. 15:5--8])
2. The appearance narratives in the gospels provide multiple,
independent attestation of the appearances. Gerd Ludemann:
"It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the
disciples had experiences after Jesus' death in which Jesus
appeared to them as the risen Christ."
Fact 4
Fact 4: The original disciples suddenly and sincerely came to
believe that Jesus was risen from the dead despite their having
every predisposition to the contrary.
Imagine the situation the disciples faced following Jesus'
crucifixion:
1. Their leader was dead.
2. Jesus' execution exposed him as a heretic.
3. Jewish belief about the afterlife precluded anyone's rising from the
dead before the general resurrection at the end of the world.
Nevertheless, the disciples suddenly came to believe so
strongly that God had raised Jesus from the dead that they were
willing to die for the truth of that belief.
Luke Johnson: "Some sort of powerful, transformative experience is
required to generate the sort of movement earliest Christianity was."
N.T. Wright: "That is why, as an historian, I cannot explain the rise of
early Christianity unless Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tomb
behind him."
72
Best Explanation
C. B. McCullagh, in Justifying Historical Descriptions, lists six
tests historians use in determining the best explanation for a
given body of historical facts:
1. It has great explanatory scope.
2. It has great explanatory power.
3. It is plausible.
4. It is not ad hoc or contrived.
5. It is in accord with accepted beliefs.
6. It far outstrips any of its rival theories in meeting
conditions 15.
The hypothesis "God raised Jesus from the dead" passes all
these tests.
Counter-Argument 1
What about alternative hypotheses, like
"the disciples stole the body or "Jesus
wasn't really dead?"
These are "old theories."
Universally rejected by contemporary
scholarship (more info in Craig's debate
with Brian Edwards).
73
Counter-Argument 2
"God raised Jesus from the dead" lies beyond
the reach of a strict historian.
Probably most scholars would agree.
The fact is that there just is no plausible
naturalistic explanation of the facts.
A historian may simply choose to remain
agnostic about this. But surely insofar as we
are not merely historians, but human beings
searching for the meaning of our existence,
we cannot be debarred from drawing such a
conclusion. (See next point.)
Counter-Argument 3
Most historians have reservations about the
resurrection hypothesis.
Why? Because the resurrection is a miracle.
Gerd Ludemann: "Historical criticism ... does not
reckon with an intervention of God in history."
Thus, the resurrection cannot be historically
established; it is excluded a priori.
Ludemann's only justification for this crucial
presupposition of the impossibility of miracles is
vague references to Hume and Kant.
Philosophers consider Ludemann's procedure here of
merely dropping names of famous philosophers
unsound [Thomas Moris]. (Ludemann was not a
philosopher, but a New Testament theologian.)
74
Counter-Argument 4
But miracles don't exist!
How do we know?
The only way we can reject the notion of
miracles if we can show that God does
not exist (i.e., that atheism is true).
Craig-Edwards Debate 2001
Listen to the debate between
William Lane Craig and Brian Edwards,
Easter 2001:
http://media.gospelcom.net/rzim/Nzdebate.mp3

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Faith EFC, Fall'07

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