Evidence for the Existence of God, Part 2

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General Comments

Hey folks,

One last reminder for those of you in the Diocese of Birmingham - please join Bishop Baker and me at the annual Diocesan Rosary for Life and Vocations this Sunday, October 2nd, at the Lourdes Grotto on the grounds of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville. There will be Eucharistic Adoration and we will pray the Joyful Mysteries for Life and the Luminous Mysteries for Vocations. The time is 3:00 - 4:30 PM. It is a beautiful setting right by the river and it is always a wonderful, peaceful, and holy experience. We would love to have you join us...

Introduction

As I said last week, I'm working on a couple of talks that I will be giving to the high school PSR class at my parish. The talks are on the Evidence for the Existence of God and I thought I would share them with you. Part 1 was in last week's newsletter: http://www.biblechristiansociety.com/newsletter/368-evidence-for-the-existence-of-god. Below is part 2. Please keep in mind that this is being given to 9-12 graders and that there is a time limit on the presentation, so I cannot develop these arguments as thoroughly as they could be. It's just giving them a taste, so to speak...

Challenge/Response/Strategy

Evidence for the Existence of God, Part 2

Okay, I’ve given you a reason for why you should believe in God - the fact that something had to bring matter into existence. You have an effect - matter coming into existence, which means you had to have a cause. Something had to have caused matter to come into existence. Something powerful. Something immaterial. Something ordered. Something that more than likely has intelligence and will. Something outside of time. Something that simply IS...it has no cause. Call this something what you want, I call it God.

Is this a decent reason to believe in God? I believe it is. After all, this reason, or this argument, is based on logic, on philosophy, and, on science - the whole cause and effect thing. So, I offer this reason for a belief in God in opposition to the atheist who says that the existence of matter can be explained by pure meaningless blind random chance. I can give you a reasoned explanation for why there is something rather than nothing. However, when asked why there is something rather than nothing, the atheist can only say, “Well, just because.” Which argument is the more reasoned one?

Now, let me give you another reason to believe in God. The Declaration of Independence. What?! The Declaration of Independence? What does that have to do with believing in God? Well, here’s the thing: if there is no God, then the Declaration of Independence is not worth the paper it’s printed on. The Declaration of Independence was written based upon the fact that God does indeed exist.

The first sentence of the Declaration speaks of Nature’s Law and of Nature’s God. And the 2nd sentence, probably the most famous line of the Declaration is what? Does anyone know? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator - Who?! Their Creator! - with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The Declaration of Independence tells us that we are endowed, by our Creator, with certain rights. Three of which are the Right to Life, the Right to Liberty, and the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness. This is a problem for atheists. They don’t believe in a Creator. Therefore, the Declaration of Independence is absolutely meaningless to them. In fact, I imagine they find it downright offensive.

But that means atheists have a big problem - they have no God-given rights. They have no God-given rights because there is no God to give them their rights! Atheists do not have an inherent right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. None.

But, the atheist will say, “Our rights are not granted to us by your fairy tale God, they are granted to us by the government - by the Constitution of the United States - the Bill of Rights.” Really?! Well, guess what? If the government, through the Constitution, grants them their rights, then the government, through the Constitution, can also take away their rights. For example, what if we passed an amendment to the Constitution - what would that be, the 28th? - that stated atheists have no rights? No right to life. No right to liberty. No right to the pursuit of happiness. No right to sue in courts about prayer at public schools or anything else.

What are they going to say then? Will they say, “You can’t do that!” Well, according to them, we can. It’s all perfectly constitutional. The government gives, the government takes away. We just need to get 2/3 of the states to ratify the amendment, and we’re good to go. Atheists would have no right to life, to liberty, to property, to free speech, to the pursuit of happiness...no right to anything. People could steal from them, beat them, refuse to hire them, refuse them service in stores and restaurants, or even kill them, all with impunity, because atheists would, based on the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, have absolutely no rights.

So, we have another argument, or reason, to believe in the existence of God - the argument from rights. Who here believes you have the right to life and liberty simply because you are a human being? There is something inside you that tells you, “I have the right to live!” That right doesn’t come from the Constitution - a piece of paper - or because the government has granted you that right. It comes from the fact that you are a human being. You have been endowed by your Creator with the right to life, and to these other rights I’ve mentioned as well.

In addition to the argument from rights as a reason to believe in God, there is the argument from morality, as a reason to believe in God. What is the argument from morality? Well, let’s say we proposed that amendment to the Constitution to take away the rights of all atheists that I just talked about. What would an atheist say to that? You know what they would say, “You can’t do that.” “Why not?” “Because it’s wrong!”

It’s wrong? According to who? How is it wrong? Who decides right and wrong? That’s the essence of the argument from morality. Without God, there is no objective standard for right and wrong. There is no such thing as an objective moral standard. Without God, everyone decides on their own what is right and what is wrong. You might decide stealing is wrong, but the next person might decide it’s okay. You might decide murder is wrong, but the next person decides it’s okay. You might decide that killing Jews in a concentration camp is wrong, but the next person might decide it’s okay.

So, who’s right and who’s wrong? Ask an atheist if Hitler was wrong to kill 6 million Jewish men, women, and children at Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, and all the other concentration camps? They will more than likely answer, “Yes, Hitler was wrong to do that.” Well, the next question is, “Why?” According to whose standard of right and wrong? They will not be able to give you an objective moral reason for why it was wrong, they'll only be able to give you their personal opinion for why it was wrong.

Hitler thought it was right. Germany passed laws that said Jews were legally sub-human beings. A good many people in Germany at the time went along with it. So, on what basis does an atheist say it was wrong to kill 6 million Jews? Well, the only basis they have to say that is their own personal opinion. That’s it. But, according to German law and society at the time, it was right.

Without God, there is no objective moral law. Murder might be made illegal, but it’s not morally wrong. Stealing might be made illegal, but it’s not morally wrong. Rape might be made illegal, but it’s not morally wrong. Genocide might be made illegal, but it’s not morally wrong. Without God, there is no morality. Morality simply becomes a set of rules that a particular person, or persons, choose to live by. But, this set of rules can be changed, and it can be ignored - often with little to no consequences.

Look, it boils down to this. Without God, we are simply animals. The highest of animals, but animals nonetheless. If a lion steals a carcass from a pack of wild dogs, is that immoral? No. If an alligator kills an antelope when it goes to get a drink from the lake, is that immoral? No. If a wolf kills the pups of another wolf in a show of dominance, is that immoral? No. So, if one man steals from another or even kills him or kills his kids, how can anyone say that’s immoral? After all, we’re just animals governed by the laws of nature.

So, another argument for the existence of God is that without God, there is no objective moral law. No objective standard for right and wrong. Without God, might makes right. The folks with the most guns get to set the rules as they see fit to make them and whatever rules they set determine what is right and what is wrong. Steal your house and your land - moral. Kidnap and enslave your children - moral. Murder your spouse - moral. Throw you in prison for no reason whatsoever - moral.

Without God, there is no objective moral law.

Closing Comments

Again, this is being presented to high school kids who have probably never heard anything like this, so I just want to give them something to think about. Something that will hopefully confirm them in their belief in God.

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