Although the gym is packed with nearly 3000 peopleand it looks like you are stuffed in here pretty welland my condolences to those of you whove already been sitting an hour and have another couple of hours to go. Does God Exist? The theory of evolution explains the diversity of species as the result of random variations and the differential survival and reproduction of those variations. To have them signed, just walk out this building and look for all the lights. It argues that there must be a first cause or an initial mover that set the chain of causation in motion. Mr. Hitchens: I think I have to have another bite at this . If viewed together, we see that evolution can be seen as the vehicle for Gods design, a medium for its creation. You ought to have the courage to answer the question, which one is regularly asked: "Are you an atheist or not?" Martin Rees, Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others (Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 1997), 3. I have to say that I appear as a skeptic who believes that doubt is the great engine (the great fuel of all inquiry, all discovery, and all innovation), and that I doubt these things. In The Return of the God Hypothesis by Stephen Meyer, Meyer elaborates on how certain scientists viewed evolution as being an autonomous force independent of a higher being. Dr. Craig:Jesus would not have been a guard at Auschwitz or someone who would take away the human rights of another person. Erik Kreps of the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research says, God's timing couldn't have been more perfect. I would agree with that. And we are directing those questions to students tonight. . Mr. Hitchens: Well, physics isn't an ideology. What about all the people who never could've heard the good news? They persecuted scientists who formed theories the Church deemed heretical and forbade people from reading any books on those subjects by placing the books on the Index of Prohibited With right-wing populists gaining power and electoral campaigns everywhere becoming more virulent, many are calling for a return to individualism and rationality. Lewis. 11 Dec. 2013. But mathematicians recognize that the existence of an actually infinite number of things leads to self-contradictions. I'm privileged to be part of a revolution in Christian philosophy that has been going on over the last half century that has literally transformed the face of Anglo-American philosophyas the scientific, naturalistic, atheistic worldview has been challenged, in the name of reason and philosophy, and the theistic worldview reasserted. Young, Matt, and Taner Edis. Nevertheless, the original disciples came to believe so strongly that God had raised Jesus from the dead that they were willing to die for the truth of that belief. what, the pit of opposition at Biola University! Yet the assertion in this paper is that this need not be the case. Some religions say you don't, in effect, have it, that all is determined by heaven, you are really only a plaything in a larger game. This is having it both ways in the most promiscuous and exorbitant manner, in my submission. God is real to me, and unless Im delusional, Im perfectly within my rational rights to believe in God on the basis of this experience just as I believe in the reality of the external world or the reality of the past on the basis of my experience. The uniformity of the laws of physics and the order of our reality suggest that it was created by something; be it god or some ambiguous force with an affinity for organization. Atheist author Stephen Pastore writes in his article The Tragedy of Religion Stifling Science Imagine if the church had embraced discovery instead of persecuting scientists and other innovative thinkers. In my senior year, my A.S. colleague, Mark Keith, and I thought we should sponsor a blockbuster event that pursues the biggest question of all: Is it reasonable to believe that God exists? A special greeting to some distinguished guests tonight: William Lane Craigs wife, Jan, is here. Well, the students got this going. . But Mr. Hitchens, as an atheist with no transcendent being giving you a reason for existence, what then is the best way to live life or what is motivation for living life or what is the purpose of your existence without a transcendent being telling you what to do? He found it in the mathematical law of gravity, based in part on his discovery of calculus. It would be impossible for Christianity to flourish in Jerusalem in the face of an occupied tomb. ), world-transforming ideas such as Buddhism, Confucianism, the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, and the Hebrew Old Testament almost miraculously appeared at about the same time in India, China, ancient Greece and among the Jews in the Middle East, groups having little interaction with one another. . This is part of my patrimony as a human being. If God does not exist, then objective moral values do not exist. You can't tell anything else about me. Many arguments for the existence of God, such as the cosmological argument, rely on the notion of a first cause or an unmoved mover as the ultimate explanation for the existence of the universe. Mr. Hitchens: But, it's more that it's man-made; it's designed to keep women in subordination. All right. The Problem of Evil and Suffering has been greatly discussed by philosophers, and I think there's been genuine progress made in this century on this problem. I want to repeat something Dr. Hazen said, there are stupid questions. In what follows, I will discuss very briefly the critiques to these arguments. As Barrow and Tipler point out, At this singularity, space and time came into existence. Well, since we have the home court advantage, those of you who are theistsbelievers in Godplease lets be polite to Christopher Hitchens. It's gibberish to me. Biola University 127K subscribers Subscribe 52K Share 6.6M views 8 years ago On April 4, 2009, William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens met at Biola University to debate the question of. And it is up to people like William Lane Craigprolific author, much beloved professorhere to enter into that conversation in a way thats both persuasive and winsome. And along with the wonderful people from the Apologetics Program, were thrilled to see it on display tonight. RAYMOND ANTHONY ALEOGHO DOKPESI | FUNERAL MASS | JUNE 22, 2023 | AIT LIVE | mass for the dead Christian theism, as with all theisms that claim a revelation, say that the purpose of human existence is to serve Godand Dr. Craig might want to expound on that in some way. Ernan McMullin, Anthropic Explanation in Cosmology, paper delivered at the conference God and Physical Cosmology, University of Notre Dame, January 30-February 1, 2003. Instead, he claimed that causation is a concept that we infer from our repeated observations of events occurring in a particular order. Arguments from Human Dignity or Worth 6. Wright, an eminent New Testament scholar, concludes, That is why, as a historian, I cannot explain the rise of early Christianity unless Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tomb behind him.[11]. Hang in there! Craig Opening SpeechMr. If God is posited as the ultimate explanation for the existence of the universe, we can ask for an explanation of Gods existence. Distinction between Analytic and Synthetic Judgments. Hugh Hewitt, yes Hugh Hewitt. If we continue this line of questioning indefinitely, with each cause or explanation requiring a prior cause or explanation, we end up with an infinite regress. It seems to me, there, that you have misunderstood the argument in that we're looking for an objective foundation for the moral values and duties that we wantwe both, I think, want to affirm. Now, here's what you would have to believe if you thought that this was all designed. One major proponent of this recent skepticism in relation to natural theology is Paul K. Moser. But it does seem to me a very poor, very weak argument because the test of a good argument is that it is falsifiable not that it's unfalsifiable. Many world-transforming ideas, such as Buddhism, appeared in the world around the same time. 6 No. For my part, the most recent developments in evolutionary biology have increased the probability of a god. I can't express my gratitude enough. In this article Page elaborates on the mathematical elegance of the universe and that its intricacies imply that these laws were designed in order to support life and maximize hospitability throughout our universe. Dr. Craig: No, it's certainly not a small question. How can physical atoms and molecules, for example, create something that exists in a separate domain that has no physical existence: human consciousness? Sir Martin Rees, "Anything Goes," New Scientist, 6 June 1998, 26-30, 28-29. . Moderator: You could, Mr. Hitchensyou have got 4,000 people here, tens of thousands more watchingyou could do the same exchange at Wheaton, at Westmont, at Azusa Pacific, at Point Loma, at Notre Dame, at every great Christian university in the United States. What happens to them? So if the universe originated at such a singularity, we would truly have a creation ex nihilo. [19]; that is, out of nothing. There are some schools of Islam, also, that say, "It is only as Allah wills." It suggests that the complexity and functionality of the natural world, such as the precision of physical laws, the intricacy of biological systems, and the fine-tuning of the universe for life, point to an intelligent creator. Somewhere in this infinite world ensemble, finely-tuned universes will appear by chance alone, and we happen to be one such world. Critics have pointed out potential flaws, logical fallacies, and alternative explanations for the phenomena invoked in these arguments. We have this amazing distance learning program, and its really open to anybody. Im so glad theres no evidence that this is true. Check out the red flyer in your brochure, and that will tell you the scoop. Is this fine-tuning, or is it extremely random, capricious, cruel, mysterious, and incompetent? Number one: No good society prohibits debates such as this one. Practice that. Tonight's debate topic is "Does God exist?" I believe he does. No, I dont think we have. We are going to throw it open to the studentswe have a student section up there. This is the same distinction that we're talking about with regard to moral values. Wouldn't you agree on your view it is simply the sociobiological spinoffs of the evolutionary process, and that, therefore, these do not provide any sort of objective foundation for moral values and duties? Classical arguments for the existence of God are philosophical and logical arguments that have been put forth throughout history to support the belief in the existence of a supreme being. half a chromosome away from chimpanzees. I mean, it's not comparing like with like. Lack of Teleology. We don't need to believe in a tyrant in order to find moral values; unbelief doesn't produce wickedness. Moderator: As the clock winds down I reserve the last question for myself. When to Use Quantitative Research Method? The question of Gods existence has been a central topic of philosophical and theological inquiry for centuries. And I think it is progress of a kind. Why don't we have someone tortured to death in Bronze Age Palestine? Emancipate yourself from the idea of a celestial dictatorship and you have taken the first step to becoming free. If God exists, there are all kinds of moral duties that we have that the unbeliever cannot recognize. 2. We begin with an opening argument [of] twenty minutes to Professor CraigProfessor. I don't say of atheism that it's at all morally superior; that would be very risky. I invite you to look up the very alarming and beautiful and brilliant account by the National Geographic's coordinator of the genome project. The copious amounts of forgotten and disregarded food that are tossed mindlessly into our landfills are a global travesty of massive proportions. Well, this event was initiated by the Associated Students of Biola University, and it makes sense that A.S. President, Eric Weaver, should give a quick welcome on behalf of the student body. Consider then my first contention, that there's no good argument that atheism is true. When you say exorcism, do you mean that you believe in devils too? The temporal duration of something is irrelevant to whether it's been designed. Now, I recognize that that philosophical response to the question doesn't deal with the emotional problem of evil. He claimed that existence is not a property that can be included in the definition or concept of an object. That's not agnosticism. Therefore, as a professional philosopher, I'm going to approach tonight's question philosophically from the standpoint of reason and argument. It was a clean . Dr. Craig: Would I beyou rather be what? It is a curious kind of solipsism; it is a curious kind of self-centeredness. Other physicists sought his help in finding a mathematics that would predict the workings of the solar system. Why This?" Eric, come on up. Now the irony was, when Russell wrote that back in the '20s, he was trying to refute those who said that you should believe in Christianity because it's so socially beneficial to society. The Evidential Problem of Evil does not require the existence of absolute evil but focuses on the existence of what appears to be unjustified and unnecessary suffering. And it was said to all of them, Where would we know without the Emperor? But it hassince we're talking about objective, relative, and absolutea crucial weakness in it, unfortunately. Justit's a non sequitur. And if you are watching at a distance and you are thinking I cant do it because you dont live in southern California, thats not the case. My time is fleeting. Unless and until he does that, I think that theism is the more plausible worldview. And you cannot judge the truth of a worldview by its social impact; that's just irrelevant. That would be sorcery, wouldn't it, though? Kant distinguished between two types of judgments: analytic and synthetic. This shows that infinity is just an idea in your mind, not something that exists in reality. Dr. Craig: I wonder if that's the case. Who designed the designer? . Are there anyI'm sorry. Bill Craig Debates Peter Atkins. While this evidence may not definitively prove that God does not exist, it weakens the plausibility of such a Gods existence. I think the fundamental way in which we know Christianity is true is through the objective inner witness of God's Holy Spiritwhat I called the immediate knowledge of God himself in my fifth point. Questioner: Hi, I'd just like to thank both you guys for being here. In some cases the physicist also discovers the mathematics. According to Jacob Kremer, an Austrian specialist, By far most scholars hold firmly to the reliability of the biblical statements about the empty tomb.[9]. This, in fact, very slightly but crucially misrepresents what we've always said. And if it's the work of a designer, then there's an indictment to which that designer may have to be subjected. Mr. Hitchens: His wife was a divorced Protestant. And the arguments and evidence that I've appealed to are largely deductive arguments. This raises the question of whether there can be an ultimate cause or explanation that terminates the regress. 1. WELCOME TO THE DOES GOD EXIST? So, it seems to me that if you are going to have a worldview and champion it tonight, you have got to come to a debate prepared to give some arguments, and we havent heard any.