1. Directions
In groups of two or three, write on a blank sheet of paper all the possible objections a person might have towards believing in Jesus Christ/God/Creator.
these may be doubts or questions you yourself might have experienced or someone you know or have heard.

2. Directions
In groups of two or three, write on a blank sheet of paper all the possible objections a person might have towards believing in Jesus Christ/God/Creator.
these may be doubts or questions you yourself might have experienced or someone you know or have heard.

3. Christian Apologetics
Sound reasoning (mental process using arguments to draw conclusions from facts) in support of the Biblical claims of Christ.
Specifically we will deal with the major apologetic issues of
1. Existence of God
2. Reliability of the gospel accounts concerning Christ.
3. Common objections to Christianity

4. Purpose of class
Address common objections to the Christian Faith with possible answers.
This class will provide more “possible answers” than “proof.”
You might not be satisfied with the possible answers
You might ask questions you haven’t before…and you might focus more on the new question than on possible answer to the new question.

5. Lecture 2: Case for Creator
Take notes

6. Mark 1:1-20
1. What was John the Baptist's role? What was the essence of John's message? (1:1-9)
2. Why did John dress the way he did? Why did he act "abnormally"? What did people think about him? (1:6)
3. Why do you think the Spirit "sent" Jesus into the desert? (1:12-13) Does he ever send us for this purpose?
4. What was Jesus' early message? (1:14-15)
5. Why do you think Simon and Andrew, James and John answered Jesus' radical call? (1:16-20)

7. Mark 1:21-2:12
(Mark 1:21:-2:12)
1. What is the significance of Jesus casting out an evil spirit? What had the spirit said? How does this propel Jesus' career? (1:21-28)
2. Why did Jesus heal Peter's mother-in-law? (1:29-33) What effect did this have on the town?
3. Why did Jesus disappear? What did his disciples want him to do? What did his Father want him to do? How was this "predictable pattern" foundational for Jesus' ministry? (1:35-39)
4. What faith did the leper have? Why did the leper qualify his prayer with Jesus' will? What was Jesus' will? What was the effect of the leper's disobedience? (1:40-45)
5. Did the paralytic have faith? What is the relationship between forgiveness and healing? How did Jesus' words offend? (2:1-12)

8. Christian Apologetics (write this)
Sound reasoning (mental process using arguments to draw conclusions from facts) in support of the Biblical claims of Christ.
Specifically we will deal with the major apologetic issues of:
1. Existence of God
2. Reliability of the gospel accounts concerning Christ.
3. Common Objections to Christianity

9. Christian Apologetics (Write Scripture reference only)
Why is apologetics important?
2 Timothy 4:2-4
“…be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

10. God exists? (if there is no indication not to write, copy it in notes)
The existence of God:
How do you know God exists?
Write one or two arguments that help convince you God exists.

11. Negative Evidence

12. Show the ontological argument by craig

13. Ontological argument
It is possible that a maximally great being exists.
If it is possible that a maximally great being exists, then a maximally great being exists in some possible world.
If a maximally great being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world.
If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world.
If a maximally great being exists in the actual world, then a maximally great being exists.
Therefore, a maximally great being exists.

14. Is it Valid?
Atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell accepted the argument, exclaiming "Great God in Boots!—the ontological argument is sound!“
Later he said, “the argument does not, to a modern mind, seem very convincing, but it is easier to feel convinced that it must be fallacious than it is to find out precisely where the fallacy lies."

15. The Ontological Argument (The Introduction)
By inspiring philosophy.

16. Next Argument

17. Our Eternal Universe?
Through most of history, philosophers and scientists believed that the world & universe existed eternally.
Who?
Aristotle
David Hume
Bertrand Russell
Many scientists before the 20th century

18. The Bible & Science? Bertrand Russell
The universe is…”just there, that’s all.”

19. The Bible & Science?
Read Genesis 1:1

20. The Bible & Science? Read Genesis 1:1 The Torah asserts a beginning
Western science has historically denied this.

21. The existence of God: Argument from Motion
Everything that moves is moved by another.
There must thereby exist a first mover which itself is unmoved.
God is by definition the Un-moved Mover.

22. View Thomas Aquinas and the First Mover Argument

23. The existence of God: Argument from Motion
Everything that moves is moved by another.
There must thereby exist a first mover which itself is unmoved.
God is by definition the Un-moved Mover.
About the video’s crap job of explaining it:
Aquinas does not commit himself to the idea that "all movers must themselves be moved.“
God is not moved, yet he causes to move.

24. St Thomas Aquinus Lived in 1200s AD
He was colossally fat
one huge eye dwarfed his other.
One of most important philosophers of the church.

26. The existence of God: The First-cause Argument
The first cause argument (or “Kalam Argument”)

27. The existence of God: The First-cause Argument
The first cause argument (or “Kalam Argument”)
Everything that begins to exist has a cause.

28. The existence of God: The First-cause Argument
The first cause argument (or “Kalam Argument”)
Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
The Universe began to exist.

29. The existence of God: The First-cause Argument
The first cause argument ( or “Kalam Argument”)
Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
The Universe began to exist.
Therefore the Universe has a cause.
God is by definition that which caused the Universe.
Therefore, God exists (or did).

30. Show clip of Lee Strobel video.
Case for Creator

31. The existence of God: The First-cause Argument
The first cause argument (or “cosmological argument” or “Kalam Argument”)
Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
The Universe began to exist.
Therefore the Universe has a cause.
God is by definition that which caused the Universe.
Therefore, God exists (or did).

32. View Lee Strobel video ch 3?

33. Read St Mark 2:13-3:6
1. What was the social standing of tax collectors? Why did Jesus call Levi? How did he respond? How did the religious purists respond? Who did Jesus come for? (2:13-17)
2. Why did the Pharisees criticize Jesus about fasting? What was Jesus' answer? What do you think is the lesson for us about the old and new wineskins? (2:18-22)
3. What is the significance of the Sabbath being made for man, rather than visa versa? What does it mean that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, do you think? (2:23-28)
4. Why were the Pharisees upset about Jesus healing the man with the shriveled hand? Why did they consider this such a serious challenge? (3:1-6)

34. Mark 3:7-35
1. What effect did the crowds have on Jesus' ministry? How did his disciples assist with the crowds? (3:7-12)
2. What specifically were the "apostles" to do? What is the significance of "being with him"? (3:13-19)
3. How did his family respond to his popularity? How did the religious leaders respond? (3:20-22)
4. Why did Jesus tell the parable of the kingdom divided? Who is the "strong man" in the parable? Why is it so serious to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit? What does this mean? (3:23-30)
5. What did Jesus' mother and brothers plan to do? Who are Jesus' new family? How does Jesus' new family act? (3:31-35)

35. What is the PSR
 Principle of sufficient reason states that everything that begins to exist must have a reason or cause.

36. The existence of God: Necessary Being argument
Since all existent things (contingent beings) depend upon other things for their existence,
There must exist at least one thing that is not dependent (contingent) and so is a Necessary Being.
God is by definition the “Necessary Being.”

37. View The Leibnizian Cosmological Argument

39. The existence of God: Argument from gradation
Since all existent things can be meaningfully compared to such qualities as degrees of goodness,
there must exist something that is an Absolutely Good Being (otherwise such comparisons would be meaningless)
God is by definition an Absolutely Good Being

40. View Aquinas' Fourth Way, martin kulp

41. The existence of God: The Argument from Design…
The world ... shows amazing teleological order.
Objects exhibiting such order ... are products of intelligent design.
It is more likely the world is a result of intelligent design than of random processes.
Probably, an intelligent designer (God) made the world.

42. The existence of God: The Argument from Design…
The odds of life in any universe are astronomically small – virtually zero, based on chance; intelligent design is more probable.
(don’t write all this) Focuses on the fact that the universe is fit for human habitation. There are many ways that the universe might have been—it might have had different laws of physics; it might have had a different arrangement of planets and stars; it might have begun with a bigger or a smaller big bang—and the vast majority of these universes would not have allowed for the existence of life. We are very fortunate indeed to have a universe that does.

43. View: The Fine Tuning of the Universe…sort of not great…but whatever.

45. Argument from Desire Atheist Existentialist John Paul Satre:
[There exists a ] God-shaped hole in human consciousness.”

46. Argument from Desire
Every natural, innate desire in us corresponds to some real object that can satisfy that desire.
But there exists in us a desire which nothing in time, nothing on earth, no creature can satisfy.
Therefore there must exist something more than time, earth and creatures, which can satisfy this desire.

47. Argument from Desire CS Lewis emphasized this:
Nature makes nothing (or at least no natural human desire) in vain.
I (and all humans) have a natural desire (Joy) that would be vain unless some object that is never fully given in my present mode of existence is obtainable by me in some future mode of existence.
Therefore, the object of this otherwise vain natural desire must exist and be obtainable in some future mode of existence

48. Show clip from Expelled

49. The existence of God: The Moral Arguments for Deity
The moral argument appeals to the existence of moral laws as evidence of God’s existence. According to this argument, there couldn’t be such a thing as morality without God; to use the words that Sartre attributed to Dostoyevsky, “If there is no God, then everything is permissible.” Because there are moral laws, and not everything is impermissible, God exists.

50. The Moral Arguments for Deity
Morality cannot exist without God establishing it.
Morality does exists.
Therefore it is necessary that God also exists.

51. If morality is objective and absolute, God must exist.
Therefore, God must exist

53. Inductive Argument from Tradition (yeah, its not great)
Most peoples in the history of the world have believed in a Creator.
The likelihood of nearly everyone believing wrongly is small;
Therefore it is likely a Creator exists (or existed).

54. Salvation?
How are we saved?

55. Christian Apologetics
Pascal, and the Wager
The possibility that God exists is greater than zero.
If you believe that God exists, and he does, then you have gained everything -- an eternity in Heaven.
If God does not exist, then you have lost nothing. The Bible is in error. God, Heaven, Hell etc. don't exist.
Therefore, the better bet is to believe that God does exist.

56. Pascal, and the Wager
The possibility that God exists is greater than zero.
If you believe that God exists, and he does, then you have gained everything -- an eternity in Heaven.
If God does not exist, then you have lost nothing. The Bible is in error. God, Heaven, Hell etc. don't exist.
Therefore, the better bet is to believe that God does exist.

57. PHILOSOPHY - Religion: Pascal's Wager

58. Other Considerations
Materialism?

59. Modern/Enlightenment
Belief in Reason and Science

60. Modern/Enlightenment
Belief in Reason and Science
Explain existence with meta-narrative

61. Modern/Enlightenment
Belief in Reason and Science
Explain existence with meta-narrative
Progress (societal/human evolution)
Material world is all that exists

62. PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Death of the Old Order
Modernism
Intellectual upheaval:
Freud: psychoanalysis
Marx: class struggle
Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Neitzsche
Picasso, Stravinsky, Kafka, Joyce, Eliot
Early 1900s:
World War I
Worldwide poverty & exploitation
THERE WAS INTELLECTUAL UPHEAVAL IN THE EARLY 1900s
Sigmund Freud's view of the unconscious as the determinant of motivation and behavior
Karl Marx's view of consciousness as a product of sociohistorical factors
Friedrich Nietzsche's annunciation of the death of God
Devastation of the war, modernism embodies a lack of faith in Western civilization and culture -- its humanism and rationalism.
Picasso, Kafka, Joyce, Dadaism and surrealis, existentialism, search for meaning
Rise of fascism, anarchy, nihilism
Rebellion against liberal humanism, positivism, reason, progress, god-centric world
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING

63. PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING
Death of the Old Order
Modernism
Intellectual upheaval:
Freud: psychoanalysis
Marx: class struggle
Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Neitzsche
Picasso, Stravinsky, Kafka, Joyce, Eliot
THERE WAS INTELLECTUAL UPHEAVAL IN THE EARLY 1900s
Sigmund Freud's view of the unconscious as the determinant of motivation and behavior
Karl Marx's view of consciousness as a product of sociohistorical factors
Friedrich Nietzsche's annunciation of the death of God
Devastation of the war, modernism embodies a lack of faith in Western civilization and culture -- its humanism and rationalism.
Picasso, Kafka, Joyce, Dadaism and surrealis, existentialism, search for meaning
Rise of fascism, anarchy, nihilism
Rebellion against liberal humanism, positivism, reason, progress, god-centric world
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING

64. Enlightenment: Nietzsche
Said “ God is Dead.”
Meant “Idea” of Abrahamic God is dead.
Will lose universal perspective on things.
Perspectivism: retain only our own multiple, diverse, and fluid perspectives

65. Relativism E=mc2 Einstein: relativity, quantum mechanics
The Bending of Time & Space
Relativism
Einstein: relativity, quantum mechanics
Refutation of Newtonian science
Time is relative
Matter and energy are one
Light as both particle and wave
Revolution in science AT THE SAME TIME
Bend the rules of science
Observer’s position effects interpretation of reality
E=mc2
PRECURSORS OF POSTMODERNISM
TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING

66. Quantum Physics Universe is strange
What does perception have to do with determining reality?

67. Quantum Physics Universe is strange

68. Quantum Physics Universe is strange
What does perception have to do with determining reality?
Lets look at Schrodinger’s Cat
Conclusion: We can be sure about nothing material.

69. Paradox of Existence We seem to exist even though…
existence is seemingly impossible.

70. Mark 4:1-20 1. Why did Jesus teach with parables? (4:9-12)
2. What was the soil like along the path? (4:4) Why were the birds able to eat it up? What does this represent? (4:15)
3. What was the soil like over rocky places? Why did the plant spring up quickly? Why did it wither? (4:5-6). What does this soil represent? (4:16-17)
4. What happens to the seed sown in thorny places? (4:7) What do the thorns represent? (4:18-19)
5. What happens to the seed sown on good soil? (4:8) What kind of yield do you get here? (4:20)
6. What is the difference between the result on the good soil and the others?
7. Why did Jesus give this parable to his disciples? What was he trying to teach them?

71. Summary Inductive Argument for Creator
Due to arguments in favor of a Creator, such as the Cosmological arguments, Ontological argument, Argument from Design, Argument from Morality and/or Argument from Desire,
and due to the inability of the materialistic narrative to adequately explain (seeming) existence.
Belief in a powerful, perfect, good, creative, Necessary Being/Universal Observer is reasonable.

72. Can you explain all these?

73. Can you explain all these?
The Cosmological Arguments

74. Can you explain all these?
The Cosmological Arguments
Argument from Tradition

75. Can you explain all these?
The Cosmological Arguments
Argument from Tradition
The Argument from Design…

76. Can you explain all these?
The Cosmological Arguments
Argument from Tradition
The Argument from Design…
Pascal, and the Wager

77. Can you explain all these?
The Cosmological Arguments
Argument from Tradition
The Argument from Design…
Pascal, and the Wager
The Moral Argument for God’s Existence

78. Can you explain all these?
The Cosmological Arguments
Argument from Tradition
The Argument from Design (teleological)
Pascal, and the Wager
The Moral Argument for God’s Existence
The Natural-law Argument
Ontological Argument