Sean McDowell Speaking During a 2017 Momentum Youth Conference Main Session

good morning momentum it is so good to be here with you but here's the deal I'm not going to give a talk this morning I don't have fancy slides for you it's not going to be normal presentation in fact it's going to be different because I brought something with me I affectionately call my atheist glasses so what that means when these glasses go on my worldview is going to change from Christian professor part-time High School Bible teacher to atheist now I'm going to briefly tell you my atheist story which is actually the story of a friend of mine who is an atheist and then I'm going to open it up to the entire audience including up in the balcony for questions or challenges you'd like to raise to an atheist then I'm going to do my best to respond and then the last 20 minutes I'm going to take my glasses off and we're going to talk about what did we just learn from this experience are you guys ready for this all right that was less than convincing but I'll take it now let's throw the lights on in the whole place if we cannot be helpful but let me give you a couple things to think of before we begin okay you can turn the house lights on everything now before we start keep a couple things in mind number one listen very carefully if somebody comes in late can you please tell them what we are doing so I teach at a school a Christian school kind of like Indiana Wesleyan in Southern California called Biola University and I went there as an undergrad and what happened is we would have chapels with this many students two or three thousand students packed into our gym and this fellow was a missionary to Muslims so he starts off the chapel by saying I'm a Christian I'm a missionary Muslims what I'm going to do is put on this kind of Middle Eastern looking garb and I'm going to give an evangelistic presentation that a Muslim would give open up to the entire student body for questions else in their thinking this is so interesting well a student comes in late not knowing what's going on from the back of the gym in front of the entire student body his student shouts out this is not the house of Allah this is the house of the one true Living God awkward silence so don't be that guy don't be that girl if someone comes in late let them know just roll planes second I'm not saying all atheists believe exactly as I do in character just like there's a huge variety of theological beliefs and attitudes amongst people who consider themselves Christians there's a huge variety of atheist there's existentialist there's nihilists there's post modernists they're secular humanists there's a fellow who calls himself the Friendly Atheist he's a nice guy and then there's some atheists I know where the last adjective I would use is friendly and everywhere in between so I'm not saying all atheist answers I do but I will do my best to represent an atheist worldview all right so again glasses go on I'm going to take just a few minutes to tell my atheist story which is a story of a friend of mine and then we have if you'll hold them up I see one mic over there where's the other might second one and one up top they'll walk around they will find you so if you just shoot your hand up here's what I ask make your questions as brief as possible if necessary I'll let you follow up but this is not a time to give a speech and impress your friends think through your question stated clearly and then we can get as many questions in as possible all right that's a plan glasses go on I'm going into atheist mode here we go good morning momentum thank you for having me at your event especially given that I'm an atheist I don't get invited to a lot of Christian events for reasons that probably don't surprise you so even though it's a Christian University I heard momentum it's like for Christians can you tell me how many of you are Christians let me see your hands okay all right put your hands down looks like most if not all of you well I'm not a Christian I grew up in a Christian home I actually used to go to church I used to read my Bible I would pray I even tithe like two dollars to the little bank in Sunday school because that's what I was told I was supposed to do to be good Christian young man I went to Christian conferences not quite as cool as momentum but fun Christian conferences I really believed it but then I was about 14 15 years old how many of you are 14 or 15 mix your hands ok quite a PV I was about your age I had this friend and we'd have debates about politics and culture and one day she asked me some questions about my beliefs I hadn't really thought about before my first thought was well the Bible says they sing thought oh so my pastor taught me my third vowel so my parents said and then friends my fourth thought changed the trajectory of my life my fourth thought was I have no idea but I'm going to read both sides and follow truth however truth leads I'm going to follow it to make a long story short once I started actually reading the other side and looking at the evidence I realize there's no scientific evidence that God even exists there's no reason to think the Bible is true I mean it's full of far too many contradictions and errors and frankly immoral teachings like slavery and misogyny and genocide to come from a holy God and then frankly I don't even think there's good ever since Jesus lived let alone that he died and rose on the third day and I became an atheist now be honest he was tough at first because my family my friends were disappointed but over time it was freeing to just follow truth wherever it leads so look I look at like this and we'll open it up for questions or thoughts of challenges so how many of you in class have studied in history or English class stories about the greco-roman gods like Zeus and Poseidon you know these stories let me see your hands okay good like I thought almost all of you well when the ancient Greeks couldn't explain something in the world such as earthquakes what would they say is the cause the gods are gods are angry they could explain something like Rey and they said what the gods are crying no gods don't cry the goddesses were crying which would include Thor by the way oh wait timeout that's not an insult see in the Thor is a title not a person who ever we'd say wields the hammer is Thor in the comic books the hammer is wielded by a woman a goddess now put your hands up if you knew that okay put your hands up high keep them up keep them up look around at all the nerds you stepped right into that didn't you so notice the thinking of the ancient Greeks when they couldn't explain a natural phenomena like why the ground is moving they would insert the gods when they lacked an explanation it's called God of the gaps but the problem is when you use God or the gods to explain something in the natural world as science advances the room where you place God gets filled you see where the Greeks place God now we know it's plate tectonics where they place rain we now know it's the hydrological cycle look the more we learn about science the smaller and smaller is the room for God now if you want to believe in God because it gives you meaning gives you purpose makes you feel good that's fine I have no problem if that works in your life my problem is when people say they think it's actually true and then try to force their values upon the rest of us that's where I say timeout if you're gonna make the claim you need to have some good reasons that it's true by the way just so you know I'm actually open-minded you could give me evidence the Bible's true that God exists that Jesus rose from the grave I'd be a Christian I would love to believe it I just can't commit intellectual suicide adopt something on blind faith when all the evidence points the other direction well I could keep talking I think we'll have a much more interesting interaction if I just open it up for questions so if you guys will start walking around we'll go on this side if you want to come over here put your hand up high we'll come to you even up top we have one mic you can see her moving up there with a mic and we're going to go as fast as we can do as many questions as possible go ahead we'll start would you maybe be able to explain that God that you don't believe in like what you think we believe God is well normally what I do instead of telling people it don't leave yet don't leave yet remember stay there with a mic stay there don't leave yet in case she follows up normally when somebody asks me to explain what they believe I would defer to that person to explain the God that that you believe in so I'm not going to be presumptive as to assume what you believe in especially because when I talk to Christians they're all over the map they can't agree on anything dear this billions of years old the earth is ten thousand years old Jesus is God Jesus is Michael the Archangel baptized with water baptized with dripping women can teach in the church they can't feasts in the church so there's so much difference among Christians I wouldn't even presume to know what you believe did you want to follow up or that oh I wasn't asking about what I believe I was just asking what you don't like what God you don't believe in because clearly you don't believe there is a God but just what you think God is why you wouldn't believe in him and what his character would be if he was real well so there's a difference between why I do or don't believe in God and what his character would be like because Muslims do even a very different character of God then it seems like most Christians believe in I don't believe in that Jesus is God I don't even think Jesus existed I think it's a mythological story patterned after the Dinan rising gods of the ancient Near East for somebody that supposedly did the things Jesus did the lack of historical evidence is just it's stunning to me let's go over here to this side if you believe that humans evolved from apes and why aren't there skulls from apes that are transitioning to ape into humans why don't we have fossils that are transitioning from one species or variations of one species into another season okay question did I say that I believe humans evolved from apes then what do you believe okay did I say two humans evolved from apes no no I don't know a single scientist alive today who believe that not one now virtually all scientists believe in Darwinian evolution but the idea that we evolved from apes is not a part of Darwinian evolution now you want to know what I think about how we got here let me ask this question first how many since your age how many of you don't believe in Darwin and evolution loose your hands you don't believe in it put them up high if you don't believe in Darwin evolution okay looks like almost all of you now I'm going to ask are you ready raise your hand if you can define what Darwinian evolution is I'm going to call and you put it up if you can give me a definition of what it is put it up high okay wait a minute time out so when I ask the question how many of you believe in it all of you raised your hand said you don't when I simply ask you to define it maybe 10 or 12 hands out of a couple thousand can define it don't you think if you're not going to believe in something overwhelmingly supported by science a part of consensus that virtually all scientists adopt you should at least understand it what if you asked me what I think about the Bible that said I haven't read it I don't need to what would you say you'd say okay wait a minute if you're going to reject the Bible you should what read it first isn't that fair the reason I believe in Darwinian evolution is because the evidence is absolutely overwhelming whether it's vestigial structures we have from other ancestors such as the tail or things like the appendix or molars things we find in the fossil record like Java Man which is the common ancestor we shared with apes although we don't come from apes you look at biogeography the distribution of organisms you can see the development over changed bio geographically you can look at homology the similarity of structures you can look at DNA similarity the evidence for evolution is pretty overwhelming if you're willing to read with an open mind let's go up top hi mr. atheist can I call you mr. atheist sure my name is dr. Vaughn but you can call me ninety-eight dr. Vaughn thank you so much for coming under these unusual circumstances but I just had a question for you about something you said earlier so you said that the Bible is full of contradictions Christianity is full of contradiction and I don't want to discredit that I would just ask you could you please show me where so let me fall with one question first are you sure you want to go down this road I absolutely want to go down to some all right because I would like you to backup your stake okay so let's do this what we could do is we could take each book in the Bible and talk about the multiple contradictions all of the sixty-six book of the Bible hat but we'll start with Genesis and then I'll show you one in the New Testaments okay the book of Genesis Genesis chapter one you guys tell me you should know the story what does God create first plants or human beings what did you make first plants on day three human beings on day six so notice the pattern plants and then humans plants and then humans now if you skip over to Genesis chapter 2 verse five it says when no bush the field goes yet in the land and no small plants of the field had yet sprung up at this stage how many plants and bushes and trees are there none you look in the original Hebrew it means not a single one none whatsoever so no bushes a field no plants no trees verse seven then the Lord God formed man from the dust the ground breathed in his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature now did you notice something odd here Genesis 1 God makes plants and then he makes human beings Genesis 2 he makes human beings when there are no plants now you can't have both this is why most scholars who aren't already blindly committed to the Bible actually recognize that there was a different author for Genesis 1 and a different author for Genesis 2 it's called the documentary a hypothesis we know the same author didn't write it it's a clear contradiction now let me give you one of the New Testaments so for example what day two Jesus died on what day he died on Friday because you call it Good Friday how many days the nights was Jesus in the tomb three days and three nights according to Matthew now what day did he raise Sunday morning while it was still dark they went to the tomb and found it empty now Friday afternoon to Sunday morning is not three days and it's certainly not three nights at best it's two nights one full day now I'm just getting going now dying on Thursday doesn't solve it actually raises more problems textually so these are the kinds of devils if you just read the Bible clearly it's filled with contradictions at the beginning the end of 1st Samuel the beginning of second Samuel gives two different accounts of how Saul died read Matthew Andry Luke two different accounts about how Judas died on and on and on the Bible contradicts within now I'm going to stop because I don't want to take more time is that sufficient to answer your question about contradictions in the Bible yes I think you clearly answered yourself ok good alright let's go back down to the side where's mine is this God because I can't see ok if it was I'd listened but as always there's a natural explanation a microphone and back go ahead hi my question for you is where does your standard of morality come from Oh my standard morality comes from the well let me tell you where doesn't come from now to where it does come from it certainly doesn't come from the Bible and you know what I'm doubting yours does too the Bible says slavery okay so as women shouldn't speak in the church it's ok with genocide like clearly I don't get morality from the Bible and I'm thankful that you really don't either I give my morality from common sense there's something called the golden rule you say ah gotcha look there was a writer named CS Lewis I'm sure many of you are familiar with him I've read his works he has a book called the abolition of man and he shows in the back of this book two ancient Greeks ancient Mesopotamians ancient Hindu agent Chinese Mesoamerica there's a common moral principle of just treat people the way you want to be treated now he says it comes from God that's where we disagree I think it's been wired into us by evolution because if we don't have a sense of morality and empathy we can't survive as a people group if there's not trust if there's not honesty if there's not telling the truth we would wipe ourselves out as a people group so you and I agree there's morality you think it comes from the Bible which raises a whole host of problems I think it's been wired into us by evolution and morality it's just common sense we don't need God to tell us about morality that's why we see in so many different cultures do you want to follow up so yeah what's the point of doing that then you have a reward or consequence what's the point of following that out like I see ya don't ya so here is why I think atheism is more moral than Christianity if you're an atheist in your moral you are more moral than a Christian because you say what's the point and the answer is because God wants me to because there's an afterlife so you have to do moral things for some reward or greater reason I simply say do moral things because it's the right thing to do and that's the way you would want people to treat you so I don't think we have to have a higher morality in fact that means you're not really loving your neighbor because you're supposed to do it but because God's watching you to get brownie points atheists who say just do it because it's the right thing thank you you're welcome this side okay so you brought up a book by CS Lewis what Jeff Lewis also has a book called mere christianity which pretty much points to the existence of God that was my first point my second point is you said you didn't believe in that Jesus Christ walk the earth when a man named ROM Wyatt discovered a man named who Ron Wyatt he is an archaeologist at his best away on Ron White Wyatt Wyatt yes okay keep going okay so what he did was he was an archaeologist and he discovered what he believes be the Ark of the Covenant and in the Bible it says that when Jesus was crucified on the cost that and the earthquake split the rocks beneath him and after he died Roman stabbed the side of him and his blood dripped out of his body when Ron Wyatt found the Ark of the Covenant there was a spot on it that he let me stop because this is going really long okay so first off this Lewis didn't prove that there's a God so if you read the first five books of Mir Christiana he talks about morality pointing towards God I already just proved that and said you can be more without believing in God which takes the legs or the rugs out from his entire book second nobody has found the Ark of the Covenant nobody can document the existence of the Ark of the Covenant there's a lot of stories on the internet there's unknown supposed archaeologists like Rob Wyatt or whoever this guy is he has not found the Ark of the Covenant now if he did this would prove nothing about Jesus the Jews believe in the Arctic covenant Muslims believe in the Ark of the Covenant it doesn't tell us any of the stories are true even if they did find it in they haven't you would just say here's some old relic that they use that's at best all that it would prove well so you're trying which is good but you're going to have to do a little better than some unknown archaeologists without a source that has not been substantiate 'add they do not have the Ark of the Covenant I guarantee that 100% in fact read the most recent biblical archaeological review and they talk about different theories about the Ark of the Covenant why would the leading archaeologists talk about that if they've supposedly found it the answers they have it good try let's go up top hi alrighty so I've got a good question for you so you said earlier that Christians aren't really connected but what is this like do you see all these okay I never said Christians aren't connected yeah no I didn't I take no I prom I misheard me I never said Christians on connect you know lost engaged I don't matter if Christians are connected Muslims are connected Jews are connected Mormons are connected I have no interest in whether they're connected or not but so what you're saying is that we just all have different beliefs and were unorganized and not connected but like you see this there's all these people from across the country we had people ride their bikes here just to come okay okay and to learn about our God okay let me slow you down a little bit I agree that there's a couple thousand people who probably hold some common views about God and are here connected I have no problem with that that wasn't my point my point was when you look at Christianity as a whole you've got Greek Orthodox you've got Catholics you've got Presbyterians you've got Calvary Chapel you've got Evie free there's so many different denominations that differ over women in the church age of the earth whether we predestined on and on so many issues whether same-sex marriage is okay all there's discriminant all these my point is not that people can't ride their bikes to an events and be together that doesn't matter to me there's no theological continuity across different denominations that's all I was saying let's go back over here so you believed in nothing or something came from nothing did I say that I'm asking you oh okay yes I do so you believe that you can throw a bunch of Legos on the air and create a castle no I don't believe that so how can something go from nothing okay time out if you're laughing you don't understand his question something from nothing is the origin of the universe itself if you throw Legos you already have something such as Legos and it's supposed organization into a house or a plane is how you take something that already exists and build a pattern into it those are totally distinct questions so the evidence the whole universe is way too complex to be created by non intelligence that's an assertion that you haven't backed up I don't think that's true the vast majority of the universe is inhospitable to life most galaxies don't support life most planets in our solar system don't support life most of the universe is not fine-tuned there's some small pockets that are but as a whole it's actually the minority of places that seem to have some kind of design and that can easily be explained by what's called extrapolating our probabilistic resources mathematically it explains why there would be some pockets if God exists why would it be so few and far between what was my question you have a question I repeat the question no we're good let's go over here thank you for asking that you got to get right to the car to the question go um do you believe in the Big Bang of course I do so are you do you believe that the Big Bang was an explosion no what do you believe that it was okay how many of you don't believe in the Big Bang we missed your hands you don't believe in it how many of you believe in the Big Bang okay how many of you are never voting again after the last election okay all right just checking the Big Bang is a pejorative term coined by an agnostic scientist by name of Frederick oil in the middle part of the 20th century to describe the beginning of the universe as we know it that's all it is so if something came from nothing how how would that something come to be there's nothing to create it there's nothing to come into being okay so if you're asking where the universe came from we know it didn't come from God we know it didn't come from God because if you say God made the universe you have an obvious problem who made God if you say God caused the universe now you need an explanation for God and we're back to the God of the gaps so God is a filler so to speak for a natural explanation but it turns out we do have a natural explanation Newton was right on a larger level about his basic laws of force and reaction and matter affecting other matter well he didn't understand on the small level of something called quantum mechanics where uncaused things happen regularly we see protons coming into existence or electrons I'm sorry and going out of existence so we actually see something coming into existence without a cause regularly so why would I say the universe needs God when we see this happening empirically and inserting God raises the further problem of who made God but the Bible states that God was before time and he has always been and always will be so here's the problem this is an assertion for which there's not a shred of evidence even if that was true Muslims believe that Jews believe that this is what we call something that's ad hoc that just is supposedly trying to explain a problem that we have where there's no independent evidence for it being true by the way if the universe can just exist I'm sorry if God can exist without a cause then why can't the universe because God is all-powerful the universe was nothing well so now you're assuming that God exists that's the very thing you have to approve not just asserts and when we see from quantum mechanics things coming into existence without a cause god is what we call superfluous something that you just add on top of where the evidence points let's go up top so you mentioned that the Christian God is a go out of the gaps what gaps is the Christian God fulfilling that other God than the Judea region might not have fulfilled on none then why does it exist well I there's a ton of religions that exist I think it is kind of part of human nature that's evolved where we want to explain things look if you can believe in a god or gods and you have some kind of afterlife then that gives group cohesiveness gives you purpose it helps the group survive and fight for bigger causes there's an evolutionary reason why people invent a god or gods almost universally throughout mankind whether it's Christianity Islam Hinduism Buddhism Mormonism you name it you should read Pascal Boyer's book where he talks about the invention of religion back down to the side hold on we'll come to you if you want to okay so I'm not going to try and argue with you because you obviously know your stuff but like so Christians like believe in like Souls and like that you know our souls go to heaven and we're like each individually made eat like differently and that comes from God and that the supernatural things that you can't see you can't see our souls yep what is your view on where Souls come from since that's not something not like a natural that's a great question here's my answer I don't need to explain where Souls come from because there is no such thing as a soul there's no scientific evidence for soul we know the soul is not the seat of say personality why because when people get brain damage what can happen their personalities change I don't believe in such a thing as a soul there's no evidence that the soul is real so I don't find any need to explain the existence to the soul does that answer your question yes it is ok good what's going here there are some atheists in my school and you say that Christians can't agree on what their beliefs are but other atheists say that the devil is real there are other ones that say the devil is not real and there are some that say Jesus walked earth but did not rise you say Jesus did not walk the earth at all so you're calling us undecided but why are you being a hypocrite calling us undecided when you are undecided son you need to be a lawyer someday okay so listen very carefully there is not a single atheist on the planet who believes Satan is real not one now if one says they believe in Satan in there in atheists they're not an atheist because Satan by definition is a supernatural being now there might be some confused people in high school who think they're atheist but that's not what an atheist is okay second here's the difference between you and between me Christians positively assert that God exists the Bible's true Jesus is God etc so you are making a positive claim about the world I'm not doing the same thing as an atheist all an atheist is if someone who lacks belief in God so an atheist not someone who says God doesn't exist think of if something is immoral what does it mean it doesn't mean it's immoral that do something wrong all oral means it lacks a sense of morality this carpet is our moral an atheist is one who simply lacks belief in God that's why the charge of inconsistency might apply to Christians who make positive assertions but doesn't apply to someone like myself who's simply observing and has no belief about God so it's a good try but it went over my head and hits someone else behind me but go ahead and follow up if you want to you don't want to you're good okay all right up top up here okay so a quote from Charles Darwin and I'd like to have your opinion on it the horror woods doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind which has been developed from the mind of lower animals are of any value or at all trustworthy would anyone throw us a conviction of a monkey's mind if there are convictions of such a month you want to know what I think about it yeah because with new atheist I feel that they place enormous trust in their own powers of reason but their Atheist worldview undermines any basis for such confidence and to give full credit where credit was due this is from more than a carpenter by Josh and Sean McDowell so listen here's the deal there's some really smart Christians and some that aren't smart that's a good source just so you know okay so here's here's my answer one thing that is important for academics to remember is to speak in the area of their expertise ok severe chemists you're an expert at chemistry but not necessarily psychology if you study sociology you can speak with confidence sociology but when you start speaking about medicine you're outside of your expertise Darwin was a first-rate scientist arguably one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century Darwin was not a philosopher he was not a philosopher when he started drawing philosophical conclusions he was outside his realm of expertise so this is an area where he makes a statement clearly he didn't really believe it because he wrote books trusting his reasoning and felt the evidence for evolution was very compelling so it's interesting he said that I see why Christian apologists would try to use that but I'm not sure what it proves especially when we look at reason and science what do we have we have communication I mean the phone that's in your pocket that came from science transportation I came from science how about things like health that came from science what is religion brought bloodshed bigotry and homophobia so I don't see why that would disprove atheism at all let alone evolution am I missing something no thank you okay all right uh back to this side right here Oh Jones over here I was going to ask keep going they love you you say you only believe in something just like people can have like a real estimation right I didn't say it like that I believe in things for which there is evidence and there's no evidence for God of the Bible so like you know how fasters believed that the earth was made from like atoms and like moving in really fast and passionate gift right it's not quite that simple there's much more to it but for the sake of discussion assume I say yes okay so like if nothing is this is what made atoms move because like who made an addict okay so we've kind of already answered this question when we talked about quantum mechanics where we see matter at the micro level at the atomic level coming into existence uncaused we can actually observe this happening so we know it's not God does that raise the question who made God or what caused God okay so if you look in the universe if you have you ever read the book the grand design by Stephen Hawking no I haven't so he's one of the leading physicists of our day will use Boo atheist that's kind of messed up Stephen Hawking is a pretty smart guy especially he's a handicapped atheist that makes it worse I'm just saying that's pretty bigoted but that that's fine in his book the grand design he actually shows how the laws of physics can explain the organization of matter the organization of planets so we don't need a god to do it there are certain laws that exist by gravity etc that are sufficient explanations you should read it let's go over here you look like you're good up front hi based on your beliefs what do you believe happens when we die okay so good question now I think you know what I believe about this you look pretty smart so I said I don't believe in a soul I think you're just a body I'm assuming you believe death is when your body and your soul separate your body ceases functioning your soul goes to face judgment whatever why don't believe in the soul so when your body stops functioning that's it life is over does that answer your question is that fair yes so based on your beliefs what would your purpose for life be also that's a good question it depends on what we mean by purpose so if you mean like capital P purpose so if you ask what's the purpose of say that guitar it has purpose because someone made that guitar there's a mind behind it well I don't believe there's a mind behind the universe there's no cosmic purpose but that doesn't mean there aren't significant purposes while we're here things like freedom human rights enjoying life passing on having other kids education a fun competition there's a lot of things in life that have value even if there's no God does that help answer question yes thank you all right let's go up top we have time for maybe two or three more hi oh how can you explain that like Cosmo has evidence biological and mental and moral evidence without one explanation not conflicting with another without once your answer and origin of everything leading to God okay slow down slow down you can't ask explain the physical biological moral all these different things because they each require independent appropriate explanations so you help splain something in history is different than how you explain something in say psychology psychology is different than law law is different than say biology so why don't you ask me one particular question rather than the whole gamete and I'll do my best just leading up to that how would you conflict' all of that with in everyday life because different people have different job and they work on those jobs and all of us connect together to go to people some job I have no problem that people have different jobs and people work together country much human life people have different jobs because through the process of evolution we have evolved to bring different functions and cohesiveness for people group to survive there's a good evolutionary explanation for that let's go over here who's got the mic don't look at me I don't have them I don't have a mic hold up money and they'll come to you okay so the one of the most commonly used evidences of evolution I'm here for everyone raise your hand if date you asked nope ask your question quickly right to the point go raise your hand is in your science textbook there is the example of Peppard laws use it okay let me stop you I don't believe the Peppermill it's bad example what question you have for me list one visible evidence of evolution happening today okay so this is what's called a straw man where you say give me evidence here to support something when the very theory itself doesn't imply that such a thing would be seen so the evidence for evolution is not from saying look we can see a monkey turn into a human being or an a4 somebody asked earlier nobody suspects that because evolution is a long extended process that takes hundreds of millions of years so we wouldn't expect to see such a thing that's called a straw man now the evidence for evolution which I listed earlier from homology biogeography vestigial structures embryological development DNA similarity the evidence revolution is overwhelming but not the specific kind you're looking for because nobody pauses that good try let's go over here so I just thought that for all the people in this room who are not being treated fairly by your intellectual dishonesty no offense or anything well ok time out one thing I've learned is when somebody says no offense that's a way of lightening the fact that they just offended somebody that's fair enough so he calls me a liar and all of you are clapping that'll make me liason ok just check in okay and you're clapping that he called me a liar I'm really confused so just to clarify on the subject of quantum fluctuations in quantum mechanics quantum fluctuations are not nothing by definition it is a fluctuating sea of energy so for you know that's yes that's false for know for in a that I am Kate that is not true in the world of physics now there are some fluctuations of existing quantum particles and we have the emergence of new particles you see both in quantum physics that's correct but these exist in these there you go these existence of new particles they're not nothing it's a sea of fluctuating energy ok really right now what I just saw by calling me dishonest I corrected you you seeded that you are not representing a fax who's been dishonest here I don't see how I see it at any fad you just conceded that quantum fluctuations involve the changing of particles and the emergence of new ones so I don't have conversational people who call me dishonest let's go talk hi hi last question this is it um I just wanted to like trace it back to like nothingness before you said nothing turns into something um wouldn't it just be like my word against yours if there's no evidence behind it no there is evidence we have and can observe quantum particles coming into existence what evidence you have for God it's not an authoritative claim this is known in the world of physics read the grand design by Stephen Hawking read a world from nothing by Lawrence Krauss where did something come from that's the whole point look let me end with this okay the sooner you realize this the better understanding you will have our common sense intuitions do not always match up with reality I understand your intuition like something for nothing this is weird but realize if you have taken a physics class if you haven't taken a business class what percentage of this would you say assault you say it's solid all the way through but if you take in a physics class what do you learn this podium is almost entirely empty space now that's not common sense you look out of the Sun what does it look like the sunrises and sunsets I can see it it's obvious but when we study physics and cosmology we realize it's the Sun that stationary and we are moving the same is true with quantum mechanics I get that it feels non-intuitive but we can observe it but we can't observe God good question a theist is gone he's gone he's out of here I'm not sure if they're clapping for me or clapping that the Atheist is gone I'm not sure about that okay ready here's the deal take a deep breath roll now again take deep breath now I need it to be quiet because we only have a few minutes realize something first I don't believe almost anything I just said in character I don't believe almost any of it okay I'm a Christian not because of blind faith not because my parents were just Christians not because it makes me feel good I'm a Christian and I think you should be Christian only for one reason if Christianity is true if Christian is not true even Paul says at first Corinthians 15 if they have the body of Jesus and he didn't raise Christianity's false I'm a Christian because I think Christianity is true and I think it best explains morality origin of the universe the existence of the soul historical Jesus I'm a Christian because I think it's true so I want emphasize that because I want you to take a deep breath because I don't want to wake up at midnight at momentum and think you know what that atheist made sense I think I'll become an atheist that momentum I would never get invited back but before we go any further here's a question I have for you think to yourself as a whole how did you treat the atheist okay I heard really bad someone said hostile now I don't have time to pass the microphone around but I only listen very carefully friends I have done this in youth groups of ten students identity this side I did in a stadium with 6,000 students consistently this is pretty mainstream just you know this is a typical response I get okay typically when I ask for words people will say hostile aggressive defensive angry there might be some that were nice that's the typical response now you might be saying but you are pushing buttons in your rude of course I was but the character I was playing was an atheist I'm not saying all atheists are that way I know some atheists are more gracious and thoughtful than some of my Christian friends but as Christians we are called to a different standard than atheists are called to right right so a few summers ago I was speaking in Duluth Minnesota 6000 students I turned around to start my atheist roleplay I had an atheist hat I put it on this group students go boo boo go home mr. atheist a youth pastor shouts out you're going to hell but he shouts out of me and I went whoa wait a minute here I'm invited as an atheist to speak is that the loving thing to do didn't Jesus say love your enemies once any a friend of sinners didn't Paul in your Bible say if you speak in tongues and you speak words of proxy but have not love you have nothing I laid into these students in the whole stadium with silence which proves there's a God because junior highers were presence and I have won so I can pick on them and I love them to death so the next summer I went to speak in Salt Lake City about five six hundred students I turn around start my atheist role playing the students in the front go woo we love you mr. atheist and that like doesn't normally happen I went to master words I said why are you cheering for the atheist they said well we were part of the group that booed you in Minnesota you know my next thought was they got the point friends please hear me I studied communications as an undergrad and essentially they would say there's two components of communication there's the content or the truth or the message and then there's the medium or the means by which you communicate that message medium and the message notes interested about Jesus Jesus came in grace the relationship and he came in truth the content he had both Jesus spoke truth but he did it not to win an argument not to sound smart not to prove somebody wrong he did it because Jesus knew it was only the truth that would set people free see there's a temptation today to do one of two things either say I'm going to speak truth I'm gonna Shawn right I just speak truth I'm God's prophet I don't care how it affects you the other side says well I'm just going to kind of compromise truth because I think it's loving to never be judgmental and intolerant friends both of those are mistake Jesus spoke truth but he did it with a heart of love and compassion to set people free we can't do any differently than that so a few summers ago speaking at a at a student conference all week like 10 or 12 times and I kicked it off by doing my atheist role play and these students were the most testy aggressive group I ever remember and this girl is like back kind of middle to the left she stands up she goes mister I want to read you something I said okay what do I want to read me she said it's from the Bible the Holy Word of God I said I'm an atheist I don't believe in the Bible she goes I don't care listen up she's going to be good parents I said okay she reads to me Psalms Psalms 14:1 the fool says in his heart there is no God I said so you're publicly calming till she was mister you're a fool her friend stand up go woohoo there I given her five and they're like gods you fool point at each other and cheering so I finished up my talk but I was done like students around me also they had a lot of questions about things and this girl way to tell everybody was gone she was going to be a junior in high school so must have been about 16 years old she leaned in and kind of looked to make sure no one was looking she goes I want to thank you for doing your best to defend atheism I said sure why are you thanking me she goes well I'm an atheist I said really you hear the Christian camp how'd you get her she said well I am a leader in my youth group I said I feel like I'm missing something she said I've grown up in the church I gone conferences and I've gone a camp and I just believed it but recently I had some questions I didn't find answers to my past youth pastor parent said well don't ask questions just have faith just believe she said I started to realize I don't even believe this is true I said well have you told this with anybody else she said no you're the first person I said why me shared with someone I'll never forget what she said she said because I'm afraid they'll treat me like they just treated you I'll never forget that since that time it's like God has began to open up my eyes to realize the stories we tell the jokes we laugh at the misconceptions and stereotypes we often have of other people communicates by our relationships and our attitudes in a way that people don't even hear what we think is true now I realize I had a condescending attitude as an atheist I realize I'm trained in this and you're not and I'm probably twice your age more so for some of you fine I was setting this up a little bit because here's one thing that I know and you see this in great movies like and by great movies I mean movies like the original Karate Kid like cinematic greatness Daniel son has to get a little bit humbled and so-called beat up a few times before he's willing to listen and he's actually ready to learn now the point of this was not to beat you up but to push back a little bit rock to you get you thinking to say wait a minute do I really know why I think Jesus rose from the grave why what do I really breathe out evolution why what what is the soul is there evidence for the soul what about the origin of the universe friends these are big questions these are huge questions what I know that you aren't God to use you in your life you need to have some answers to these questions now I have I wrote a book called it's God just a human invention where almost every question that you brought up there's a chapter on evidence for the soul there's a chapter on the origin of the universe there's a chapter on evolution almost all the questions you ask I put responses in there to help thoughtful Christians know what they believe in why well I wrote it mainly for Christians and Christians were reading I thought I'd love to get skeptics an atheist to read it so I called it the largest atheist free-thinking group in Southern California where I live call the guy and I said hey I'm willing to come up to your group I'll bring a sign free book for everybody to sit in the hot seat you can ask me whatever question you like to ask a Christian for a couple hours now I don't know about you but that sounds like a lot of fun to me it's not because I think I have all the answers you hang out with me I will frequently say I don't know the answer to that but I'm gonna go find it good question I'm not afraid to say I don't know the answer something but that wasn't my goal so my wife my pastor and I went up to this atheist group today sat on the hot seat they fired questions at me for an hour and a half at the end I said could I ask you some questions now I could have asked them how do you get something from nothing by the way you were right about quantum mechanics alright I just had to pick on you and change the subject because I had the microphone you're on the right track is there is no proof something can come from nothing okay that is metaphysically absurd see when you mean nothing you mean no thing we don't mean when you look in the refrigerator and you go ah mom there's nothing in here well there's something in there not what you want I could have asked him how you get something from nothing by the way just for the record I do believe in the Big Bang I just know who banged it you can't get a Big Bang without a big banger I'm just saying that's all some of you are going to remember from this session friends do you realize come back with me do you know of all ancient books that explain the origin universe it's the Bible that says in the beginning amazingly the scientific confirmation that the universe have event beginning matches what Moses wrote over 3,000 years ago I could have asked about that I could have asked them how do you get morality without God now please hear me please hear me atheists can be moral atheists can know right from wrong why because even atheists who don't believe in God are still made in the image of the very God that they reject the interesting question is not can you know right and wrong the question is on an atheist worldview which there's no purpose to the universe how is their objective right and wrong and I think Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his book The Brothers Karamazov was right he said if there is no God everything is permissible he's right I could have asked this group to give an real atheistic explanation of objective morality by the way just like the beginning of the universe is evidence for a beginner the existence of a real right and wrong that all of us believe in is evidence for a moral lawgiver I could have asked some all sorts of questions instead what I said to the safety group I said look I'm a Christian and I am interested in persuading people Christian is true what are the things that Christians say and do to prevent people from even hearing what we believe is true girl in the front lady in the front she said listen I said what do you mean she said all my Christian friends want to preach to me tell me I'm wrong within it listen to me why should I listen to them when they don't listen to me that's fair the film's back maybe fifty five had a website allegedly debunking Christianity he goes stop the atheist jokes I thought man dangit because I've got some good ones actually he said stop slandering atheists I said what do you mean he goes look I will go sit in the back of a church by the way I have had multiple atheists tell me they just come and sit in the back of churches and just observe by the way if you're an atheist you don't believe in God Church really is an interesting sociological function we were sitting in church the other day singing about the blood if you don't understand Christian theology either this is a whacked-out cult or it's a medical convention you know how many atheists I'd tell me just sit and watch in church he goes every time I go to church there's some cheap shot or an insult against atheists or some non-christian group I remember thinking this guy's got a complex we're not that bad I'm telling you within two or three weeks I'm sitting in church and the pastor tells a joke at the expense of atheists my life leans over grabs my knee she's like see we do it more than we even realize so believe it or not the main point of this is to stop and get you to say do you know what you believe in why because here's what I'm convinced about I'm convinced that Christians get defensive and angry when I do this exercise why because we as Christians don't know what we believe and why we believe it if you don't know your beliefs and someone presses you it's human nature to get defensive it's only when you've fought through I believe the Bible why do I think Jesus rose from grave what am I really believe about evolution that you have the confidence and ability to engage somebody with patience and love friends you want to make a difference in your generation you got to know what you believe you got to know why that's why Jesus said love God with your heart and with your soul and with your mind now listen I have six minutes left I'm not going to answer all the questions that came up you can email me through my site and I have an assistant who will answer all of your questions or do his best let me give you a few quickly just to give you a sense of how we would do this now for example I do like your question about a contradictions in the Bible of top let me just answer those two okay first if you read Genesis 1 carefully it's given a macro view of all of creation if you read Genesis 2 it focuses down on day 6 so day one is macro day two is micro now according to the days of Genesis God makes plants and then he makes human beings Genesis 2 is not focusing on the whole planet it's focusing on the Garden it says when there were no plants to the field God made man why the plants he's talking about our crops that humans cultivate none of those had been up yet because humans had not been there so there weren't a certain kind of plant in the garden that doesn't mean there weren't plants on the planet as a whole there's no contradiction when you look closely how about the New Testament what day Jesus died on here's the quick answer the quick answer is you have to understand the culture in which the Bible was written and their understanding of how time is judged so a guilt a Jew the day begins and ends at like sundown ours is midnight that's actually weird if you think about when our day ends and begins you know to a Jewish mindset any part of a day is considered a day in the night did you know that you realize we do the same thing with taxes my neighbor a few years ago is pregnant and she was due January 2nd I jokingly said you ought to have a c-section on December 31st I learned a couple things number one don't joke with pregnant ladies I was in the hospital my wife's given birth I was being really funny she just didn't see it I learned to just shut up and say yes ma'am and help how I could don't joke with pregnant ladies you're not funny second why did I say that because if you have a child who lives one day or a minute of a day you get a tax write-off for the full year so part of the year counts as the full year and the way Jews judge time Friday part of a day is a day and a night Saturday part of a day full day day and a night Sunday what we call morning to them chronologically is a day and a night there's no contradiction when you understand the culture second I'm going to dress your question about the soul friends I think there is unbelievable evidence that the soul exists let me give you two quick pieces of evidence number one when I said I didn't believe in the soul what am i doing I'm saying all that exists is the body now if you are just a physical body guess what you don't have you don't have the ability to choose you don't have free will because physical things are acted on by forces in the environment there's no self to choose so you take an apple and you drop it it will fall because the force is acting on that Apple if there's no soul you are no different than that Apple you're just a complex machine that is operated on by forces in the environment you realize what that does if there is no free will you can't morally condemn somebody love is meaningless but I think it's obvious we have free will I know that I have free will as much as I know anything so if you're just a body there's no free will if we do have free will there at least must be a soul second piece of evidence is I think near-death experiences I've whole chapter on this are absolutely captivating not just the popular stories in books there are professional journals that document people who while they're completely there brain has stopped function their heart is not working they're able to receive information from the environment one girl who was rushed to a hospital this is document in a peer-reviewed journal I can give you the source rush to a hospital because of car accidents as I left my body there's a man's blue size-10 tennis shoe on the fourth storey window with a smudge mark on the side they go find exactly that shoe now how did she know that either she planted it there got herself to die medically in a car accident and then tell people about it which makes zero sense or it matches the hundreds of stories we have now what does that tell us when your body stops functioning there is a soul that continues beyond your body you are bodying your soul now friends I realize there's some questions that are left answering number one tonight you get to hear from one of my best friends Jay Warner Wallace has been a cold-case detective 25 years some of you heard him this morning he set out to disprove that the gospel is not reliable through forensic analysis as a cold case detective he realized is true and that the best evidence points towards a resurrection when it's all said and done friends the fact of history that matters most is the resurrection of Jesus if Jesus rose from the grave Christian is true tonight you get to hear from one of my best friends wiping is an unbelievable presenter on the evidence for their resurrection so come with an open heart come with an open mind she just in front goes like this I am so pumped that you were pumped you just made my day second here's what I'm going to do my website is just Sean McDowell org there's articles on there there's videos on there there's resources on there to answer these questions that came up to help you make sense of it all right I'm going to sneak to the back and here's what I did this is the first year I've done this I brought some resources that I think might help you out specifically there's two in the back that I want to mention all right there's three but I'm only gonna mention two one is the book is God just a human invention I got with a friend of mine the 17 biggest objections people raised against God such as the existence of hell how can the Bible have slavery and we answer questions like evidence for the soul the origin of the universe our miracles even possible so this is the one I wrote if I could recommend one book to help you go a little bit deeper and answer these questions it'd be the book is God's just a human invention this back there second this just came out two weeks ago the apologetics Study Bible for students by the way apologetics doesn't mean saying you're sorry it means given a reason for the hope within that's what it means so it's a Study Bible but it's filled with all of these features including we got the top 132 questions almost all the ones you raise and I got one page concise enjoyable thoughtful responses to them it's an amazing resources to push back not to push back the response has been incredible including my questions on the existence of God ethics other religions etc including my favorite question if God made everything why is it wrong to smoke pot that's actually a really good question now you want an answer too don't you yeah you're gonna have to pick up a copy I'll see you in back Jeff take it away [Applause]

Channel: Momentum Ministry Partners

Views: 5,391

Rating: 4.8688526 out of 5

Keywords: Momentum Youth Conference, Youth Conference, Sean McDowell

Id: 93xKNRyMvtM

Length: 69min 37sec (4177 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 17 2017