Oct 01 2019 29 mins
Episode 23 – Four Options for Everything that Exists – Part 2 Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script Notes: When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers— the moon and the stars you set in place— what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.” The Book of Psalms, Chapter 8, verse 3 through 5, New Living Translation Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Colossians, Chapter 1, verses 15 through 17, New Living Translation ******** VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m here today with Crystal Sea’s founder and the author of The Prodigal’s Advocate, RD Fierro. Today on Anchored by Truth we are going to continue our discussion for how we can be sure that the God of the Bible exists. And to lead us into that discussion we are using some extracts from Crystal Sea’s upcoming audio book version of The Prodigal’s Advocate. RD, why don’t you tell us a little bit more about The Prodigal’s Advocate? And why you chose to use clips from the audio version to help the listeners begin to think more about how we can be certain that there is a God and that He has revealed himself to us through His creation and His word. RD: Down through the years I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who have asked me why I am a Christian. When I answer them I usually start by telling them that I believe the Christian faith is true. I start there because if the Bible and Christianity weren’t true, there would be no reason for paying attention to them, regardless of whatever reasons people might cite. VK: And the assertion that Christianity is propositionally true is a radical statement in this day and age. Because we are consistently told today that it’s impossible to know which of the various ideas about God are true, and therefore that all ideas about God are equally acceptable. RD: Exactly. But if we are to be effective advocates for our faith and to address the legitimate questions that our friends and neighbors may have about Christianity or the Bible we need to be aware of the ideas and attitudes that pervade the culture. VK: So for today’s clip from The Prodigal’s Advocate, we’re going to listen to an exchange between the Prodigal and a college professor that the Prodigal encounters in the amphitheater where they’re both awaiting to be called to judgment. Just as a reminder to our listeners though, right now we’re still a little ways away from releasing the full version of the audio book, but the hard copy and the e-book are available now from a variety of sources including Crystal Sea’s website. RD, do you want to set the stage for today’s excerpt? RD: Well as a brief review, Prodigal’s Advocate is a fictional adventure that takes an in-depth look at the reasons people give for either believing or not believing in God and Jesus. It does so by following a man in his mid-thirties – the Prodigal - through a series of experiences he has following his death in a tragic accident. The Prodigal goes to a humongous amphitheater where he finds himself in a crowd of people all of whom are waiting to be called to face judgment before the One Without Shadow. And while he’s in this amphitheater he has a series of conversations with others in the crowd there and he quickly discovers that people’s experiences after death aren’t the same for everybody. In this extract from the audiobook the Prodigal is talking to a college professor about the professor’s views about the role and meaning of religion. ---- Prodigal’s Advocate Extract VK: So in that scene the Prodigal hears the professor advocating the idea that all religions are essentially the same, or at least that the variations among them are insignificant. Of course, this professor is able to draw one true conclusion from his otherwise erroneous observations. He is at least able to discern that the observable universe is not all that there is to existence. And that’s the point we began discussing last time. RD: Yes. The professor was essentially acknowledging that the universe that we can see points to something larger than itself. Philosophers, even ones with no connection to Judaism, Christianity, or the Bible have made the same observation. Aristotle, for instance, reasoned that somewhere there must be an “unmoved” or “prime mover.” So when Christians assert that the universe contains evidence of God, or a Necessary Being or an Unmoved Mover or whatever, they are really not saying anything that hasn’t been recognized for thousands of years. The notion that science has somehow demonstrated that God doesn’t exist is of very recent origin probably because basic logic and reason demand there be an explanation for existence. And last time we began the discussion of how this can be logically demonstrated. VK: In our last episode you pointed out that the great theologian, RC Sproul, used to say that there are only 4 possible explanations for the existence of everything or for anything for that matter. Everything could be an illusion. Everything could be self-created. Everything that we see could be self-existent, or everything could have been created by something or someone that is self-existent. There really aren’t any other reasonable possibilities. And last time we discussed that the first two possibilities contain unavoidable logical contradictions that disqualifies them from being a valid explanation. RD: Yes. Everything that we see can’t be an illusion because an illusion requires a being to experience the illusion. So, to claim everything is an illusion would point to the need for a real being to exist. Similarly, everything can’t be self-created, because something must be something before it can do something. Logically, being must precede doing. Creating is doing. So for something to be self-created would require that it do something before it is something – a violation of the law of non-contradiction. It would have to be and not-be at the same time. VK: So, logically, everything we see around us can’t just be an illusion. And it can’t be self-created. So now we’re down to 2 possibilities. Everything we see is either self-existent or was created by something or someone that is self-existent. Either way we are now running into the concept of self-existence. So, why don’t we address what that means for a second? RD: Self-existence means that the self-existent entity possesses the power of existence unto and by itself. Or said slightly differently, anything that is self-existent would be independent, non-contingent, or non-derived. In other words a self-existent entity would need nothing from anything else to sustain its own existence. No human being or anything that we see alive today is self-existent. For a human cut off oxygen for a few minutes, water for a few days, food for a few weeks, or sunlight for a few months and death is the inevitable result. Human beings, like all living creatures, are completely dependent on their environment to sustain their life. VK: Well, that’s pretty obvious. Human beings aren’t self-existent. No living creature we see or know about is. And self-existence differs from self-creation because there is nothing inherently contradictory in the concept that something possesses the power to exist on its own without support from anything outside itself. That’s why the answer to the child’s question about “who made God” is “no one.” God wasn’t made. He has always been in existence. God is not “self-created.” God is self-existent and there is a critical difference between the two concepts even if people aren’t always careful in their wording. But there are many who would say that even though people and living creatures aren’t self-existent that the universe itself might be - that the matter and energy that comprise the universe might always been in existence. Isn’t that a possibility? RD: It is a possibility, yes. But here science – real science – starts to point out that the possibility that the universe has always been in existence is inconsistent with empirical observations. For instance, it is obvious that anything that possesses the power of existence would be eternal. Since it has no dependence on anything outside itself to sustain its existence – no need for food, water, energy, or anything else for that matter – it cannot go out of existence. Some philosophers refer to this kind of a being as being a Necessary Being. A Necessary Being is exactly that – necessary. It cannot not be. Humans and all living creatures are, by contrast, contingent begins. Their existence is contingent on elements or sources outside themselves. In short, they can exist or not exist. They cannot be eternal. Well, empirical observations of the universe indicate that the universe is not eternal. Everything that we observe about the universe tells us that the universe had a beginning and will have an end. Anything that has either a beginning or an end is, by definition, not eternal. VK: I think that need to unpack this last idea a little more. It’s pretty easy to understand that anything or anyone that can independently sustain its own existence is eternal. After all, if it exists without help, support, or external assistance, there is no way that it can go out of existence. But what empirical observations are you thinking about when you say that science tells us that the universe had a beginning. RD: Well, the most popular idea today about the universe’s origin is the Big Bang Theory. It’s so popular that it’s spawned TV shows and an abundance of science fiction movies and shows. In our culture today the Big Bang Theory is practically ubiquitous. VK: Oooh. I like that word. Ubiquitous. Present everywhere at all times. RD: Yes. Anyway, the Big Bang Theory carries with it the notion that the universe as it exists today had a beginning point in space and time. As a hypothesis the Big Bang theory is a competing truth claim with Biblical Creationism but both of these ideas point to the fact that the universe is not eternal. The Big Bang theory more or less displaced the Steady State Theory as the darling of science for explaining how the universe and there are several lines of evidence that are typically offered to support the Big Bang Theory. For instance scientists now know that rather than being stationary within the universe the galaxies themselves are actually in motion. They appear to be moving away from each other and when their motion is examined they appear to be moving away from a central point. VK: That sort of harkens back to Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover. Anything in motion must have been set in motion by a force outside itself so there must have been a first cause. RD: Exactly. A second observation that helped bring many scientists around to the Big Bang was there is a cosmic background radiation echo that is found wherever scientists look out into the universe. The pattern and wavelength of the echo are consistent with what might be expected of an enormous explosion. Combined with other empirical observations such as the Laws of Thermodynamics many scientists have come to believe that at one point all the matter in the universe was compressed into an infinitesimally small point that then exploded outward and created the visible universe. Again, though I’d like to point out that even though the Big Bang is now the most widely accepted hypothesis about the universe’s origins it is by no means without its own observational problems. For now let’s just say, though, that if it were true it would still mean the universe has a beginning and so is not eternal. VK: And the Laws of Thermodynamics that help support the notion that the universe has a beginning also point to the universe having an ending? RD: Yes the first law of thermodynamics says that the amount of energy in a closed system remains constant but the second law says that the amount of usable energy in a closed system is constantly decreasing. The second law is sometimes referred to as entropy and it’s sometimes described as a tendency toward disorder. However, it is phrased the second law is a shorthand way of encapsulating the universal observation that the amount of energy in the universe is constantly being used up. This again tells us that the universe cannot be eternal. If the universe were eternally old then the finite supply of universe would have already been used up and all we’d have today would be a cold, dead universe. But even if that weren’t true the energy that’s present in the universe today is still being consumed so at some point in the future it’s going to run out of energy. Again, the basic point is that our empirical observations about the universe tell us that as vast and great as the universe is – it’s not eternal, so it gives no indication that it is eternal. VK: Well, as some observers have said the only constant that we see when we study the universe is change. And we know of only two kinds of change. Growth and decay. Anything that grows had a beginning. Anything that decays has an end. Either way, the change we see in the universe points away from it being self-existent. RD: Precisely. So while there isn’t an inherent logical contradiction in stating that the universe is self-existent, our best science argues strongly against it as a valid possibility. We’re straight back to Psalm 19 verse 1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” Before we close today I’d like to make three final notes. First, the conclusion that the universe points to the existence of a Creator is by no means limited to Christians or theists. Robert Jastrow was the founding director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in 1961, and served until his retirement from NASA in 1981. Jastrow wrote a book called God and the Astronomers. Jastrow is a confirmed agnostic but even he wrote that “That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact.” Second, we have by no means exhausted the lines of evidence that point to the logical necessity for the existence of God. We have just explored a few of the many. VK: But that leave us plenty of material for future episodes of Anchored by Truth. RD: Exactamundo. And finally, at this point all we’ve done is more or less focus on the question that the universe’s existence and attributes point to an immensely powerful, self-existent Creator – but that’s all that we’ve really established. We haven’t really discussed any other attributes such as whether that Being is good or righteous or merciful. VK: But, again, that gives us plenty of reasons to come back next time when we’ll continue our discussion of how we can be confident that the God of the Bible not only created the universe but continues to sustain and superintend His creation. Sounds like a great time for a prayer. Since we’re spending some time meditating on how best to bring the truth about the Lord God to a world that needs that truth – today let’s pray a prayer for those who make that their life work, Christian Missionaries.. ---- Prayer for Christian Missionaries (needs to be tracked # 9) VK: Next time on Anchored by Truth we’re going to continue our discussion about how we can confident that the God of the Bible actually exists. And because a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics we want to remind listeners that if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” We hope you’ll be with us then and we hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show. If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!” (Bible Quotes from the New Living Translation) The Book of Psalms, Chapter 8, verse 3 through 5, New Living Translation Colossians, Chapter 1, verses 15 through 17, New Living Translation