How about science and God??

There are no accidents--you were created to be alive now.

Listen to this podcast here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/475bb4d2/how-about-scie...

Have you thought about the critical time in which you are living?

Who knows but what you have been chosen for such a time as this?1 

Because people are looking for answers, looking for meaning, looking for hope. 

What an opportunity to point them to the Author of Hope,

the very Author of life itself.  

If you sat across from someone who said, 'I'd like to think there's a God, but just seems unlikely. If only there were some evidence...' could you respond intelligently?

Fact is, there is strong EVIDENCE for the existence of God. Christianity is reasonable and defensible; it does not require blind leaps in the dark. However, consider this valuable 'take' on the disposition toward Christianity today: “Philosophically, you can believe anything, so long as you do not claim it to be true. Morally, you can practice anything, so long as you do not claim that it is a “better” way. Religiously, you can hold to anything, so long as you do not bring Jesus Christ into it. If a spiritual idea is eastern, it is granted critical immunity; if western, it is thoroughly criticized. Thus, a journalist can walk into a church and mock its carryings on, but he or she dare not do the same if the ceremony is from the eastern fold. Such is the time in which we live.2

Yet here we are. Chosen to be alive at this time in whatever place in the world we are currently living, intended to be light and life, pointing others to relationship with God made possible through our faith in Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for us by his death on the cross.

So when your seat mate on a cross country flight says, 'Oh I think your Christianity is all a fairytale!' flashing a winsome smile as he is really just calling you a fool. How will you respond? You and I ought know why we believe what we do--that there is a God, he is alive, and relationship with him is what matters more than anything else we are doing.

Debunk that fairytale claim.

What are the major evidences that God does exist? And if he does, that he has a keen interest in us? I believe there are several. [I have already discussed how God has revealed himself through the created world https://conta.cc/47jzOqn, and then revealed himself by becoming one of us--Jesus Christ, God Incarnate https://conta.cc/3tLYvwY.]

1. So about Creation, the origins of the Universe...

when we consider 'the science', we learned through Edwin Hubble and his telescope in California (1920s) that the Universe is expanding . . . therefore, the universe had a beginning. More scientific research pointed to that beginning at a single moment 15 million yrs. ago. Oxford University's Fred Hoyle called it the Big Bang in 1949.3

Even Stephen Hawking said, 'Almost everyone now believes that the universe, and time itself had a beginning at the Big Bang.'4

             It follows then that the Universe must have a cause

"Given that whatever begins to exist has a cause and that the universe began to exist, there must be some sort of transcendent cause for the origin of the universe."5

   Indeed there was a mind and a logic and a rationale.

The beginning of the universe points to a BEGINNER of the Universe...a Creator.

->In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.6

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.  Romans 1.19-20

2.     The fine tuning of the universe points to a Fine Tuner, A DESIGNER

This is called the Teleological position. The word teleology comes from telos, which means "purpose" or "goal." The idea is that it takes a "purposer" to have purpose, and so, where we see things obviously intended for a purpose, we can assume that those things were made for a reason. In other words, a design implies a designer. 

In no scientific field is design considered to be spontaneous; it always implies a designer, and the greater the design, the greater the designer. Thus, taking the assumptions of science, the universe would require a designer beyond itself (i.e., a supernatural designer).

The teleological argument applies this principle to the whole universe. If designs imply a designer, and the universe shows marks of design, then the universe was designed. Clearly, every life form in Earth’s history has been highly complex. Literally hundreds of conditions are required for life on Earth—it must be fine-tuned in order for life to survive. The random chance of all these things occurring is literally beyond imagination. With this much design, it is difficult to believe that we are simply an accident.

With design and a Designer comes purpose . . . take away the Creator Designer, life is meaningless.

When you find your definitions in God, you find the very purpose for which you were created. Indeed you were created in the very image of God for a unique purpose that only you can fulfill. And out of all time and history, God chose this moment that you should be alive. How remarkable.

I couldn't resist - check out this song!?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9glxzl-s5c

Let us then determine to live with purpose this day!

Christine

Romans #7

PastorWoman.net

1 - Esther 4.14

2 - Ravi Zacharias,   Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

3 - https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/54/2/2.28/302975

4 - Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, The Nature of Space and Time, Princeton, NJ, 1996

5 - William Lane Craig, quoted in Lee Strobel's brand new book Is God Real?

6 - Genesis 1.1