Seekers: Day 2 Handout ("God")

Two tools to use in seeking evidence for God:
   - Our ability to reason and use logic
   - Our ability of sensory experience through the five senses

Evidence for the existence of God:


1. Cosmological evidence - creation, our world
- Can something come out of nothing?
- Can anything begin without a beginner?
- Most scientists today agree that our earth has not always been, but that it began at some point in time.  One theory is "The Big Bang" theory.  Our question has to be, "Who pulled the trigger?"
   A. Created by God with Intelligent design and purpose
        Psalm 19:1-2 "The heavens proclaim the glory of God.  The skies display his craftsmanship."
   B. Or it happened by random chance/evolution.
       "An unsupervised, impersonal, unpredictable process."
       - Microevolution - within the species.  No question that this happens, i.e. different breeds of dogs
       - Macroevolution - from one species to another.
         Absolutely no proof this has ever happened

2. Teleological evidence - Purpose, complexity, order
    Examples:
    - Seasons of the year never fail
    - Earth tilted at 23 degrees - exact tilt necessary to maintain life
    - Discovery of DNA has convinced many scientists of intelligent design

3. Moral Conscience
    How is it that human beings everywhere have some kind of moral code?
    Why do you believe so strongly that some things are right and some things are wrong?
    Romans 1:19-20 "For the truth about God is known to them instinctively.  God has put this knowledge in their hearts."
    A. Darwin could never explain where the conscience comes from
    B. It is unique to human beings
    C. Anthropologists tell us that all cultures have a moral conscience and a belief in a divine power.
    Could it mean that we are created by a moral and intelligent being?

4. Experiential
    People can experience God, and millions have

DIFFERING BELIEFS ABOUT GOD:
A. Islam says that God is unknowable and you must work to try to earn your way to heavenm but you can never know whether you have done enough
B. Buddhism has no theology or concept of God
C. Hinduism believes there are many gods, but they do not reveal themselves and their writings have no basis in history or geography.
D. Christianity says that God created everything with a purpose.  His purpose for mankind is that we might believe in Him, know Him and love Him, accept His offer of redemption and live with Him forever.

Seekers: Day 1 Review

The pastor ("Pastor V") opened the session explaining the notion and value of "evidence" as described in the flyer (see previous blog).  I could completely get behind the framework laid out here.  He challenged us "why do you believe what you believe?" - a concept I've always been behind.

When Paster V opened w/ "If you could call God directly and ask him any questions, what would you ask?" - I was pleased.  I entered w/ 3 questions of the top of my head (in anticipation they would ask "What answers are you seeking?").  We were supposed to discuss/list amongst our table first.

My questions:
- How come morality has changed, but the bible hasn't?
- What about the substantial # of people that would be condemned to hell due to ignorance? (prior to mass communication, and even remote regions after mass-media)
- Why give us the ability to reason if we should ignore it?

That last question got some looks from my table so I realized it was somewhat malformed.  After thinking about it, I came to "version #2" - "Why give us the ability to reason if we can't use that gift to find you?  Or in using that gift, it makes it harder for us to believe in you?".  I realize that question is obviously loaded as well (implies that reason CAN'T get us there), but it's more clear and a question one the less.

Here's kinda what ended up on the white board:
- Why am I here?
- Why do good things happen to bad people (and vice versa)?
- Is there existence after death?
- Why allow suffering?
- Why is sin "sin"? <-- this one was added by me on the fly - why THOSE rules?
- Why allow child abuse (aka - suffering)?
- How do I know I'm "saved"?
- How come I am so blessed?

Pastor V presented the "fill the jar w/ the big stones first" analogy and distilled these to "the big questions":
- God
- Afterlife
- Saved/Jesus
- Bible (v. Quran, etc.)

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I'm completely behind the notion of "evidence w/o proof" having seen a perfect illustration of this regarding the existence/composition of atoms laid out in "The God Particle":
- Someone who can't see B&W right next to each other goes to a soccer match
- they can't see the ball
- they make note that players seem to be focused together, chasing "something"
- immediately before the crowd cheers, he notices a 'blip' in the back of the net after a man dove in that direction

In isolation, a complete mystery, but when the observer asks the question "what if there's a ball I can't see?" then EVERYTHING fits perfectly and makes sense.

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So this leads to my personal clarifier: It's all about how you INTERPRET the evidence!

At this point, we were about half-way in, when things took an interesting and unfortunate turn: "The ID proposition".  While he didn't frame it this way, Pastor V started espousing the same rhetoric I'd seen/read before time and again and this obviously frustrated me.

He also kept referring to Richard Dawkins as Steven Dawkins, which annoyed me - but not significantly.  I just think if you're going to challenge/mock someone (and he wasn't openly mocking), then you should get their name right.

I'll leave the ID/Creationist summary/position for a separate blog(s) and I'll just pick up at the trail end of that "detour"

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Recommended reading/research by Pastor V:
- Francis Collins (top dog of the Genome project)
- Ravi Zacharias' "The End of Reason"
- "Defeating Darwinism"
- Heraclites
- Anti-evolution pamphlet offered at the end of class

Questions/thoughts for further consideration:
- How come there is so much order? (teleological argument)
- Origin of the conscience/morality
- Laminin
- John  1:1 "... Word was with God and the Word was God ..." - original Greek = 'Logos' = reason/purpose

Seekers: Day 1 Handout ("Decide What You Believe")

Every day we make decisions - some major and some minor.
   - Decisions flow from our experience
   - Decisions flow from our belief system

Life is a series of choices:
   1. We examine
   2. We believe
   3. We decide

Life is a sum total of our experiences and decisions.  Decision-making determines who and what we are more than any other aspect of our lives.

1. What do you believe?

James 1:3 "You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors"

It is under pressure that we see what we really believe, but what we do reveals more about what we believe than what we say.

2. Why do you believe what you say you believe?

Reasons for belief:
   - Tradition: I was taught
   - Pragmatic: It works for me
   - Intuitive: I just feel it's true
   - Mystical: I believe God just told me
   - Authoritarian: I was told this by an authority

These reasons are not adequate to build your life around, to stake your future to, and your eternity on.

There is something better!

EVIDENCE - Not proof, but evidence.  Every day we stake our lives on things we may not be able to prove, but there is sufficient evidence that we believe in our decision.  God does not expect us to take a blind leap into the dark; He wants us to commit our life, based on evidence:

Two tools to find evidence:
  - Reasoning/logic
  - Experience

3. What evidence do you have for what you believe?
A. Apologetics - defending your faith
B. Why does it matter?
   1. You can live opposite to your opinion, but you cannot live opposite of what you believe!
   2. What you really believe will mold and direct your life.  Whatever your image of God is directs your life.
   3. What you believe can be your greatest enemy if you believe a lie.
       John 8:32 "... and you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

Seekers: Origin

Shortly after starting this journey, another friend of mine told me about a "Seekers" group at her church (a Baptist church, but nice folks none the less).  Being that I was looking for ANY new ways to look at things, I dragged my feet, then decided to attend.  At this point, I'm 3 sessions in (out of 6) w/ 4 fliers and a few stories - as well as a few new angles.

I'm going to try and document as best I can what is being presented, my thoughts and perhaps a few anecdotes/chats that occurred afterwards.

Day One: Creation

I've recently started down the path of investigating what my personal theology is (everyone has their own, despite their official affiliations). This has been varied, passionate, frustrating and enlightening - and I'm only about 3 months in.

A good friend of mine reccommended I keep my thoughts/discoveries/rabbit holes in a journal - specifically by keeping/starting a blog. So here you go.

I've got lots of back-drafting to do, but this will suffice for now.