Slides: Personal Evidence of the Creator

Personal Evidence of the Creator

Romans 1:18-25

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Physical evidence of the Creator

• Intelligent design
• Being and life
• Stunning wonders
• Daily delights

Clearly seen

An eye, an ear, or a hand is a complex mechanism serving a particular function. It looks as if it had been made for a purpose. This appearance of purpose is pervading in nature. (Atheist George Gaylord Simpson)

Biology is the study of things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose. (Atheist Richard Dawkins) 

Personal evidence of the Creator

• Thought
• Conscience
• Choice
• Love
• Longing

 
Personhood
Are you really you?

The Astonishing Hypothesis is that “You,” your joys and sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. (Francis Crick)

 
Thought
Monkey’s mind?

With me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of a man's mind are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would anyone trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind? (Charles Darwin)

Conscience
Is conscience unreal?

Wickedness is no more a man’s fault than bodily disease! (Charles Darwin)

The idea that one species of organism is oriented toward Truth, is as un-Darwinian as the idea that every human being has a built-in moral compass—a conscience. (Richard Rorty)

 
Choice
No real choices?

Free will as it is traditionally conceived ... simply does not exist ... There is no way that the evolutionary process as currently conceived can produce a being that is truly free to make choices. (William Provine)

 
Love
Survival machines?

We are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. (Richard Dawkins)

Longing

Most people have a God-instinct, a longing for the Eternal. Sigmund Freud claimed that God doesn't exist and that belief in God is merely wish fulfillment.

Babies have a sucking instinct and crave milk. Do mothers really exist?

Desert travelers crave water. Does water really exist?

 
Accidental clusters?

Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are only the outcome of accidental clusters of atoms and molecules… There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing. (Bertrand Russell)

 
Inner evidence

The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts. (Proverbs 20:27)

He has put eternity into man's heart. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Physical evidence of the Creator

• Intelligent design
• Being and life
• Stunning wonders
• Daily delights

Personal evidence of the Creator

• Thought
• Conscience
• Choice
• Love
• Longing

Clearly seen

What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:19-20)

Foolish hearts

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools… They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator. (1:21-25)

God’s glory displayed

God created man in his image. (Genesis 1:27)

He is the image and glory of God. (1 Corinthians 11:7)

You made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory. (Psalm 8:5)

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. (Psalm 139:14)