Five Reasons Why You Can Believe God Exists | The John Ankerberg Show

today on the John Ankerberg show does God exist a recent Pew survey revealed that more than one in five Americans now consider themselves atheist agnostic or nothing in particular and today I've asked philosopher dr. William Lane Craig to respond by presenting five good reasons why God does exist dr. Craig is considered by many to be the top Christian philosopher of our generation and has debated many of the new atheist in some of the leading universities around the world dr. Craig holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Birmingham in England and also a doctor of theology degree from the University of Munich join us for this special edition of the John Ankerberg show welcome to our program I'm John Ankerberg thanks for joining us today I'm glad that you're here and you won't want to miss this information my guest is dr. William Lane Craig who is one of the finest philosophers of our time he's engaged in debates and dialogues with many of the most well-known skeptics in our world at some of the most prestigious universities around the world and Bill I'm glad that you're here today and many of your debates with leading atheists have entered on such topics as atheism versus Christianity or does God exist or what good evidence is there to think that God exists and today I'd like you to share with our audience five good reasons why you believe God exists very good I'm convinced John that the hypothesis that God exists explains a wide range of the data of human experience for example God is the best explanation of the origin of the universe second God is the best explanation of the fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life thirdly God is the best explanation of the existence of objective moral values and duties in the world number four God is the best explanation for the historical facts concerning Jesus of Nazareth and finally number five God can be personally known experienced together I think these provide a powerful cumulative case for believing that God exists all right start with number one the origin of the universe one of the most remarkable facts about modern physics is that in contrast to scientists of bygone days modern science believes that the universe is not eternal in the past but had a beginning a finite time ago the controlling paradigm of modern astrophysics which is the study of the universe as a whole is that the universe began in an event called the Big Bang about fourteen billion years ago and I think that most lay people don't understand that according to this theory not simply all matter and energy but physical space and time themselves came into being at the moment of the Big Bang so that the Big Bang represents literally the origin of the universe out of nothing now the difficulty is of course that out of nothing nothing comes to say that the universe just popped into being uncaused out of nothing would be worse than magic when a magician pulls a rabbit out of the hat at least you've got the magician not to mention the Hat but on atheism you have to say that the universe just popped into being uncaused out of absolutely nothing which is surely absurd so that it seems to me far more rational to say that there is a transcendent cause of the universe which brought it into existence you've got a great illustration of what you're talking about using a balloon it's very important to understand that on the Big Bang model the theory is not that the material universe is expanding into a pre-existing empty space rather according to this model space and time themselves come into being at the Big Bang and a very good way to visualize this is by imagining a balloon with buttons pasted onto the surface of the balloon now the buttons are glued in place so they don't move relative to the surface of the balloon but as you blow up the balloon the buttons will get further and further and further apart because the surface of the balloon is expanding now the surface of the balloon is just like our three-dimensional space as space expands the galaxies get further and further and further apart now this has the radical implication that as you trace the expansion back in time they get closer and closer and closer together until at some point in the finite past the entire universe is contracted down to a single point before which it literally did not exist so that the controlling paradigm of contemporary cosmology is that the universe began to exist out of nothing about 14 billion years ago yeah and I think that laypeople pick up in on the web and they pick up when they're reading some of the scientific journals and even pop literature is that philosophers of science are saying stay tuned because really instead of noting this nothing is really something and that's not what the theory is really saying explain that there has been a great deal of misinformation in popular press and television shows about quantum mechanics with regard to the origin of the universe it said that on in quantum mechanics you can get particles that fluctuate into existence out of the quantum vacuum and that therefore it is true that something can come into being from nothing and so you can get the universe coming into existence without a cause for nothing what these persons fail to explain is that the quantum vacuum in physics is not nothing it is not what the layman thinks of as a vacuum the quantum vacuum is a sea of energy a sea of violent activity governed by physical laws it is most emphatically not nothing so that even if the early ages of the universe during the first split-second of its existence is characterized or described by a quantum mechanical vacuum that is not the origin of the universe out of nothing and the point is that that quantum vacuum state cannot have persisted to infinity past it had a beginning and therefore we're thrust into the question of why did the origin of the universe occur what brought the universe into being why is this a good reason that God exists well what it points to is a transcendent cause of the physical universe and when you reflect on what properties such a cause would have to have another number very theologically significant attributes fall out for example this would have to be an uncaused being it would have to be non-physical and immaterial because it created all the matter in the universe it would have to be non temporal let us say timeless because it created time as well as space it would therefore have to be changeless it would have to be enormous ly powerful in order to bring the universe into existence and moreover I would argue this being is also plausibly personal as well now why is that well it's the only way you can explain how to get a temporal effect with the beginning from a permanent timeless cause that has existed eternally if the cause were just an impersonal set of mechanically operating conditions then once the sufficient conditions are given the effect has to be given as well if the conditions are there permanently from eternity the effect would have to be there permanently you've got a great illustration using water freezing yes take water for example the cause of water's freezing is the temperature being below zero degrees Kelsie's if the temperature were below zero degrees from eternity past the water would be frozen from eternity past it would be impossible for the water to just begin to freeze a finite time ago so how can you get a temporal effect with the beginning a permanent eternal cause I can think of only one answer to that and that is if the cause is a personal agent endowed with freedom of the will who can therefore create a new effect without any prior determining conditions for example a man sitting from eternity could freely will to stand up and so you would have a new effect arise from an eternal cause and so we're brought not simply to a transcendent cause of the universe but to its personal creator this is such great stuff bill I want to get the second reason the existence of God as you say the complex order in the universe points to an intelligent designer explain scientists once thought that whatever the initial conditions of the universe might have been given enough time and a little luck eventually intelligent life forms like ourselves would evolve but instead during the last 50 years or so scientists have discovered to their surprise that the existence of intelligent life in this universe depends upon a complex and delicate balance of initial conditions given in the Big Bang itself in fact it appears that the universe has been incredibly fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent life from the very moment of its inception and this fine-tuning is beyond comprehension in its delicacy to give you an idea of the delicacy of the fine-tuning let me just give a couple of numbers to give you a feel for the odds the number of seconds in the entire history of the universe all the way back to the Big Bang is about 10 to the 18th power 10 to the 18th power seconds in the entire history of the universe 10 followed by 18 zeros a huge number the number of sub atomic particles in the entire known universe is said to be around 10 to the 80th power now with those numbers in mind consider the following in order for the universe to be life permitting the force of gravity and the weak force in the atom have to be fine-tuned to the precision of one part out of 10 to the 100th power the cosmological constant that governs the accelerating expansion of the universe is fine-tuned to one part out of ten to the hundred and twentieth power here's a real eye popper Roger Penrose of Oxford University has estimated that the odds of the initial low entropy state of the early universe obtaining by chance alone is one chance out of 10 to the power of 10 to the power of 123 a number which is so incomprehensible that to call it astronomical would be a wild understatement and the examples of fine-tuning are so diverse and so numerous that they are unlikely to disappear with any future advance of physics the fine-tuning is here to stay and require some sort of explanation of its existence and in the literature on this subject there are basically three possible explanations that are put forward one would be physical necessity that it's it's due to the laws of nature they have to have the values they do second would be it's just pure chance alone the third one would be it's the product of intelligent design someone has designed the universe to be life permitting the problem is that those first two alternative explanations physical necessity and chance are just not very plausible there's nothing about the laws of nature that require these constants and quantities to have the values they do and the chances are so remote that they cannot be reasonably faced so that I think the most rational explanation is intelligent design and a number of scientists have said this as well for example Paul Davies a prominent physicist is said through my scientific work I have come to believe more and more wrongly that the physical universe is put together with an ingenuity so astonishing that I cannot accept it merely as a brute fact and Robert Jastrow who was the head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies has said that this is the most powerful evidence for the existence of God ever to come out of science so we can summarize this first argument as follows one if the universe began to exist then the universe has a cause of its beginning to the universe began to exist 3 therefore the universe has a cause of its beginning we can summarize this second argument as follows 1 the fine-tuning of the universe is due to either physical necessity chance or design 2 it is not due to physical necessity or chance 3 therefore it is due to design all right you say that your third reason for believing in the existence of God is objective moral values are in the world explained if God does not exist John then it's very difficult to find any objective standard of right and wrong good and evil on atheism moral values are just byproducts of biological evolution and social conditioning Michael ruse who is an atheistic philosopher of science from Canada has said that morality is a biological adaptation ethics is illusory morality is just an aid to survival and reproduction and any deeper meaning is illusory on a naturalistic atheistic view then there really are no objective moral values and duties in the world but the difficulty is that in moral experience we find a realm of objective moral values and duties that force themselves upon us as objectively binding and true even Roose himself in another place admits the man who says that it is morally acceptable to rape little children is just as mistaken as the man who says two plus two equals five so the question is what then is the best foundation for these objective moral values and duties and I think the answer is in God if God exists then we have a transcendent objective foundation for right and wrong for good and evil that atheism cannot supply we can summarize this third argument as follows one if God does not exist then objective moral values and duties do not exist two but objective moral values and duties do exist from which it follows logically and necessarily that 3 therefore God exists and I find this is one of the most powerful arguments for God's existence because students recognize the truth of those premises they've been taught relativism in their university classes they've been taught that if there is no God than everything is relative objective moral values do not exist but at the same time John they're deeply committed to premise to that objective values do exist they do not want to be thought of as judgmental they prize the values of tolerance and open-mindedness and love they're scared to death to condemn someone who disagrees with them they hold to that as an objective value so in fact they're committed to the truth of both of these premises but they've just never put two and two together and drawn the logical conclusion I feel you say that the fourth good reason for the existence of God is the historical facts concerning the life death and resurrection of Jesus explain well Jesus of Nazareth was a remarkable individual by all accounts John New Testament historians have reached something of a consensus that the historical Jesus came on the scene with an unprecedented sense of divine authority the authority to stand and speak in God's place he claimed that in himself the kingdom of God had broken into human history and his visible demonstrations of this fact he carried out a Ministry of miracle-working and exorcisms but the most radical confirmation of his personal claims was his resurrection from the dead if Jesus really did rise from the dead that means that he must have been who he claimed to be and that God has publicly vindicated those claims now I realize that most people think the resurrection of Jesus is something you just believe in by faith but in my doctoral studies at the University of Munich on this subject I was surprised to find that there are actually four established facts which are agreed to by the wide majority of New Testament scholars today which i think are best explained by the fact of Jesus resurrection what are they number one is that following his crucifixion Jesus of Nazareth was laid in a tomb by a member of the Jewish High Court named Joseph of Arimathea secondly that tomb was then discovered empty by a group of Jesus women followers on the Sunday morning following his crucifixion thirdly thereafter different individuals and groups of people under a variety of circumstances and at different locales saw appearances of Jesus alive from the dead and number four that despite every predisposition to the contrary the original disciple suddenly and sincerely came to believe that God had raised Jesus from the dead now those facts are widely acknowledged by the majority of New Testament historians today the only question is how do you best explain them and I'm convinced that the best explanation of those four facts is the one that the original eyewitnesses gave namely God raised Jesus from the dead Luke Johnson who is a prominent New Testament scholar at Emory University has written some sort of powerful transformative experiences required to generate the sort of movement earliest Christianity was and nt right who is a prominent British scholar has concluded that is why as a historian I cannot explain the rise of early Christianity unless Jesus rose again leaving an empty tomb behind him so we can summarize this argument as follows number one there are four established facts concerning Jesus of Nazareth his honorable burial his empty tomb his post-mortem appearances and the origin of the disciples belief in Jesus resurrection number two the best explanation of these facts is the hypothesis God raised Jesus from the dead number three the hypothesis God raised Jesus from the dead and tales that God exists for therefore God exists I believe for people believing in the existence of God is the personal experience of God what you mean this fifth reason isn't really an argument for God's existence rather it's the claim that you can know that God exists wholly apart from arguments simply by personally experiencing him this was a way that people in the Bible knew God as Professor John hick has said for them God was not an idea adopted by the mind but an experienced reality which gave significance to their lives now if that is the case then there's a real danger that arguments for God's existence could actually distract us from God himself we mustn't be so focused on the arguments that we fail to hear the inner voice of God speaking to us in our own hearts for those who listen God becomes a personal reality in their lives the Bible promises draw near to God and He will draw near to you and so we mustn't just focus on the arguments we also need to draw near to God and to seek his face for those that have never even considered that before and are considering it now what would you advise them to do I'd encourage them to do what I did a non-christian when I first heard this message first I would begin to pray I would encourage them to kneel by their bedside at night alone and talk to God and say God if you're there show yourself to me I want to know you if you are there and to consistently be involved in prayer of that sort secondly I'd encourage them to get a copy of the New Testament and begin to read the life of Jesus in the Gospels and as you read these gospel stories of Jesus ask yourself who was this man could he really have been who he claimed to be could he really have been God incarnate who came to die for my sins so that I could come into a personal relationship with God and I believe that if people will pursue that path that it will lead them to God and they will find God in the same way that I did now for those who have come to the point where they are convinced that God exists and has revealed himself in Jesus and has raised Jesus from the dead to show who he was then I'd encourage them to make a commitment of their lives to Christ as their Savior and Lord they can go to God in prayer and say something like this God I believe that you're that you exist and that you've revealed yourself in Jesus and raised him from the dead and right now in the best way I know how I want to invite you to come into my life forgive my sins change my life and make me into the kind of person that you want me to be I want to be a disciple of Jesus and to follow him change my life and I'm trusting you to do that right now amen and if they'll pray a prayer like that God will hear that prayer come into their life and begin to transform them from the inside out to make them into the sort of person that God wants them to be folks isn't that what you want to do right now deep down in your heart I hope that you will consider that and don't let something get in the way if God is speaking to you if you feel that God is close to you kneel and pray that prayer and see what God does in your life now next week we're going to continue on the evidence for the existence of God and we're going to have bill talk about the existence of the universe is strong evidence for the existence of God you won't want to miss this I hope you'll join us then stay tuned for scenes from next week's program if you would like to have all of the information in our new series does God exist arguments for the existence of God with philosopher dr. William Lane Craig it is available now on DVD in this series he answers the questions what difference does it make if God exists or not what was the implications be if God did not exist then he presents five good reasons why God does exist and he explains why the origin of the universe is strong evidence both scientifically and philosophically for the existence of God finally he addresses the problem of evil and suffering which says if God is all loving and all-powerful then he wouldn't allow evil and suffering to exist but evil does exist therefore God does not exist dr. Craig explains how to answer both the intellectual and emotional parts of this argument all four programs in this important series are available on DVD for a gift of $49 then we taped a second series with dr. Craig entitled the case for the life death and resurrection of Jesus in this series he answers the questions how do we know that the gospel records about Jesus life are historically trustworthy and how do we know that the writers didn't just make up the sayings and stories about Jesus then who did Jesus think himself to be did Jesus really claim to be the Messiah and the unique son of God what four historical facts accepted by a wide spectrum of New Testament scholarship today lead to the conclusion that Jesus really did rise from the dead the three programs in this series are available on DVD for a gift of $39 then third we're also making available Ravi Zacharias answers skeptics Ravi Zacharias answers questions from students in Europe the Middle East and America these two series with renowned apologist dr. Ravi Zacharias contains six programs and are available on DVD for a gift of $98 and finally if you would like to have all four of these television series together containing 13 half-hour programs we are making available all four series together in a special package for only $99 we order this special package now by calling us at

Channel: ReasonableFaithOrg

Views: 181,180

Keywords: God, William Lane Craig, John Ankerberg, Does God Exist, Faith, Reason, Reasonable Faith, Philosophy, Theism, Atheism, God doesn't exist, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Christianity, Is Christianity True, Morality, Arguments for God, Evidence for God, What difference does it make, Sam Harris, Apologetics, Jesus Christ, Resurrection

Id: TtSXyrEzXs4

Length: 28min 37sec (1717 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 14 2016