In this course you will study and master the following exciting subjects. You would then find it very easy to face those who question your beliefs.
1. Does God Exist
2. Science And God
3. Logic And God’s Existence
4. Theory Of Probability
5. The Relational Verification
6. The Historical Witness Of Bible
7. The Problem Of Pain And Evil
8. Let Us Conclude
Lesson 1
Does God Exist ?
Some times back a smart-looking young boy came to me and said, “Sir I am an Engineering College student. I have been reading the Bible for some time and have come to argue that God does not exist”. I was happy to meet him, and welcomed him for a cup of coffee.
I asked if he would keep his conversation strictly at the scientific level. He said he would, and added that this would be the appropriate approach seeing that he was an Engineering student. Without delay I invited him to present at least one experimental evidence that disproves God. He was dumbfounded. He had read plenty of publications written against God, but when confronted to support his contention he was unable to advance a single evidence.
Nobody has proved that God does not exist, yet plenty of people claim that science has disproved God. It is time to face the issue.
WHY DISCUSS THE PROBLEM ?
Since most believers lack the training necessary to discuss this question, they prefer to avoid any discussion whatsoever. While this kind of avoidance might conserve their faith, it might spell the doom to sincere inquirers. If a person wants to debate the subject just to show off his intellectual superiority or “modernism” it is better not to waste one’s energy. But if a sincere inquirer wants to discuss the scientific and logical aspects of the question, his needs must be met by a competent Christian.
Our young people live in an increasingly atheistic world. The magazines they read, the music they hear, the peers and professors they have, are all against their belief in God. Many Christian boys and girls will confess how they feel isolated when the whole class laughs at their faith.
Added to all this is the increasingly evolution-based education. A few generations ago they taught the subject only in at the college level, but no longer. Now every year they are sending the message to lower classes. So much so that now my daughter studies the evolution of mankind right from her first standard.
Every deviant philosophy is bound to leave its impact and evolution is no exception. Once the young ones are indoctrinated with this theory, they automatically doubt the existence of God. After all, they unconsciously reason, if everything has come here by evolution then all these statements about God must be fiction. Add to this the subtle peer pressure, and they promptly renounce God.
There is no shortage of Christian parents and leaders who wonder about whatever has happened to their once active young people. The answer is simple : indoctrination at a very early age has converted them over to tacit atheism. Only God’s mercy can now open their eyes.
Every Christian must be ready to discuss the question of God’s existence — specially if he is in a leadership position. This can make all the difference to the young people who are still open to see both sides of the question. Once they are converted to atheism, it is too late to expect objectivity from them.
RATIONALISM, ATHEISM, AGNOSTICISM
Atheism is not a recent phenomena, and you should not be surprised at that. (Widespread belief in God should be more surprising, seeing that man is living in rebellion against God !) What is new is the explosive growth of this philosophy in the last two centuries. This is not an accident, but rather the culmination of two centuries of hard work done by them.
About four hundred years ago the Western countries went through many liberating experiences — liberation from church, liberation from inhibitions, and liberation to present radical ideas. Using this atmosphere, several philosophers propounded ideas that negated the existence of God. These philosophies loosely united a lot of like-minded people, but they became a powerful lobby after Charles Darwin proposed his theory. Before Darwin all what they had was philosophical speculations against God. Darwin gave them, for the first time, scientific respectability.
The theory of evolution found many takers, who knew that their speculations are lame if they do not get a scientific cover. The awe-inspiring evolution theory became the foundation of every branch of knowledge. Soon it reached educational institutions all over the world, and riding over it went the idea of atheism. If evolution is taught as a fact, atheism must follow as a conclusion. If atheism is accepted as true, evolution must be invoked to explain it all. They are but two manifestations of the same idea.
Since education-system is the root of a thinking society, the influence of these philosophies at this level has led to widespread gains for them in the modern world. The hypothesis of evolution has become one of the foundations of education. This education system in turn promotes evolution further. Today almost all systems of education are controlled by the philosophy of education and the corresponding atheism.
Since mass-media is a powerful tool for controlling and manipulating human behavior, visionaries educated in evolution use the media to further propagate their philosophies. The success has been unparalleled. Many surveys have established that people who control media and its direction tend, in general, to be radicals in their moral, ethical, and spiritual outlook. These values definitely influence the media-users in subtle ways.
Modern man cannot avoid two things : education and media. He needs the former for becoming informed and needs the latter for staying that way ! Consequently, he is indoctrinated with atheism from the first day in school and then he facilitates this as long as he keeps his mind enslaved to the media.
Persons brought up in this kind of a society are bound to be strongly influenced by evolution and atheism. These philosophies become the norm. What is more, many organizations are aggressively propagating atheism. In spite of all this, many break away from this indoctrination and wonder about God. They want to know the truth, and they should be helped to see both the sides. This is why this book has been written. Turn the pages, keep your mind open, and honestly weigh both the sides.
The Purpose Of This Course: This course has been prayerfully prepared by people who want seekers to know objective truth. Scholars and researchers all over the world have spent hundreds of thousands of hours in experimental, theoretical, and library research into the relationship between Bible/Science/Evolution. Enough course material is available today to offer University level Bachelors to Doctorate level courses. But since most people are interested only in knowing what is just sufficient for their needs, we are offering this brief eight-lesson course for them. If this does not meet your needs, we can always guide you to more advanced courses, books, and library-research.
Science And God
Everyone knows that this is the age of science. The explosive growth of science and technology fills everyone with awe. Science has become a synonym for truth, and none can deny that science constantly strives to find truth.
Since today science is man’s greatest endeavor to discover truth, people tend to equate science with truth and other kinds of knowledge with imagination. Atheists have used this mindset to their advantage by claiming that science has disproved God. If this statement is true, then Bible believers should surely suspect all what they believe. But has science really disproved God ?
WHAT IS SCIENCE
Present-day science is a tool developed in the last four hundred years with the purpose of studying nature. Historians of science say that the Protestant Reformation was the movement that promoted this development.
Three things go into the development of science : logic, mathematics, and repetitive experiments. Logic provides the rules to discern between the true and the false. Mathematics provides the tools to express things quantitatively. This makes possible exact measurements and comparisons.
Inferences are drawn from experiments using these two : mathematics and logic. For the inferences to be correct, the object under investigation should be available in a laboratory for repeated experimentation and verification. It should be possible to measure its mass, size, temperature, and other similar physical properties.
If a particular object is not available for repetitive experimentation and observation, then it is not possible to study it scientifically. If it lacks the physical properties of matter and energy, then it does not come in the realm of experimental sciences. Sciences cannot investigate it. Further, things that have taken place only once come under historical and legal investigation, and not under scientific (experimental) investigation. Also, if a particular thing does not lend itself to measurement by laboratory tools, then it cannot be studied by sciences.
Scientific truth is often expressed in terms of hypotheses, theories, assumptions, observations, data, facts, and laws. These categories are necessary to express the varying degrees of certainty with which we understand the behaviour of matter. These can roughly be classified into two categories. Facts Of Science, and Theories of Science. “Facts of science” refers to all that information that is known to be sure, free from error, and having no exceptions. “Theories of science” represents all that information that is still incomplete, uncertain, and prone to be altered. Of these two, only facts of science have a lasting value. Theories do not last much as they keep appearing and disappearing.
Whenever anyone conducts an important scientific investigation, he publishes the results in standard scientific journals. Researchers all over the world have access to journals in their fields, and they constantly appraise the new developments. This is the way how results of scientific investigation are communicated to the scientific community.
THE AIM OF SCIENCE
The aim of science is to investigate matter and energy. To discover their properties and behaviour pattern. If a particular thing is neither matter nor energy, then it cannot be investigated in a laboratory. For example, love is a fact of life, but since it is neither matter nor energy it cannot be investigated by science. There is no gadget to measure the mass, length, breadth, or temperature of love.
The aim of science is not to investigate all reality, but rather to investigate those realities that are seen in the form of matter and energy. The investigation takes place with the help of repeated experiments. All negations and affirmations depend upon experimental observations, and nothing can be established without relevant experiments.
Physics investigates the physical properties of matter and energy. Chemistry, biology, astronomy, and the various scientific disciplines known to us investigate the physical behaviour of things pertaining to their respective fields.
LIMITS OF SCIENCE
Science is a tool, a methodology, developed to study matter and energy. It, therefore, is able to investigate truths only in this region. If there is any truth in the world besides matter,
science is not able to investigate it. One should not be surprised at this.
Science was developed to study and investigate only nature, and therefore it cannot be used for other things. For example, science cannot pronounce any opinion about the existence of king Ashoka. A historical person or incident cannot be brought into the laboratory for experimental investigation. The maximum that science can do is to provide tools to study the material objects discovered by archaeologists. But conclusions of history depend upon techniques of historical investigations, not on techniques of natural sciences.
In the same way, truths about people and their relationships cannot be investigated by science. No equipment can measure love, hatred, or fear. These are realities, but since they are neither matter nor energy they are beyond the scope of science. Love is not a property of matter, nor is anything else connected with human relationship.
Science can investigate matter and energy, but nothing more. Historical realities are studied with methods of historical investigations, while truths related to individuals can be investigated only by methods of relational verification. One has to enter into a personal relationship with a person to verify truths that are relational in nature.
HAVE SCIENCES DISPROVED GOD
It should be clear by now that the purpose of science is to study matter and energy, and nothing beyond that. Even if someone tries to broaden its boundaries, that is not possible. All affirmations and negations have to be established only on the basis of repetitive experimental observations.
God is neither matter nor energy. Therefore the methods of experimental sciences cannot be applied to disprove His existence. Nobody in the world has devised an experiment that can disprove God.
If anyone claims that sciences have disproved the existence of God, he must be asked to defend his position. He has to explain the experiment, the place where this was performed and the place where the results were published. Anyone can make any claims saying that science has demonstrated this or that fact, but then he should be able to support his claims by pointing to relevant experiments.
No one claiming that science has disproved God has ever come up with experimental evidence to support this claim. This is because they are using the name of science to intimidate the ignorant. There is no truth in their claims, but they will continue repeating this false claim as long as they can successfully disturb people.