“So far as I can see, belief in God is on a par with belief in Santa Claus,” says Alex Rosenberg, professor of philosophy at Duke University. “There are,” he continues, “compelling reasons to deny God’s existence, but those reasons don’t just support a negative conclusion: no God, end of story. They provide everything we need to answer all the other questions that come along with the God question.”
Oxford zoologist Richard Dawkins, perhaps the most well-known of the new atheists, agrees: God is “the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Belief in God, he exclaims, “is a delusion” held on the basis of “local traditions of private revelation rather than evidence.” [1]
While this is often the general sentiment of atheists today, many Christian believers agree with Dawkins' to extent, in relationship to how they view God. He appears to have a very strong opinion on the nature of God and the claims of theistic belief systems, despite his adamant assertion that "God" is a fictional character. As a scientist and rising atheist scholor Dawkins' expresses his faith in what is pragmatic, material and logical. Now one may ask, "Does logic and reason contradict the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful, and sovereign God?" Certainly not, and that's exactly what we plan to explore in this series!
What is Theology?
A good preliminary or basic definition of theology is the study or science of God. The God of Christianity is an active being, however, and so this initial definition must be expanded to include God’s works and his relationship with them. Thus theology will also seek to understand God’s creation, particularly human beings and their condition, and God’s redemptive working in relation to humankind. Yet more needs to be said to indicate what this science does. So we propose a more complete definition of theology: the discipline that strives to give a coherent statement of the doctrines of the Christian faith, based primarily on the Scriptures, placed in the context of culture in general, worded in a contemporary idiom, and related to issues of life. This definition identifies five key aspects of the task of theology. [2]
While I inherently tend to favor systematic theology, I do believe the following 5 elements should be considered when identifying whether something theologically sound:
View the science, or study, of theology as Biblical. The primary source of it's content is the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The utilization of modern biblical research, alongside what God has revealed in General Revelation, has granted us a fruitful and credible discipline of study.
Theology is systematic. That is, it draws on the entire Bible. Rather than utilizing individual texts in isolation from others, it attempts to relate the various portions to one another to coalesce the varied teachings into some type of harmonious or coherent whole. [3]
Theology also relates to the issues of general culture and learning. God's word is timeless and speaks to all generations, cultures, and people.
Theology must also be contemporary. While it treats timeless issues, it must use language, concepts, and thought forms that make some sense in the context of the present time. [4] This does not mean that Jesus needs to be modernized, to meet the needs of today, it simply means that the challenges encountered by believers today is far different from the 1st century church. Read it [the Bible] in it's context and literary style, and allow God's word to speak to the challenges of today.
Finally, theology is to be practical. By this we do not mean practical theology in the technical sense (i.e., how to preach, counsel, evangelize, etc.), but the idea that theology relates to living rather than merely to belief. The Christian faith gives us help with our practical day-to-day concerns. [5]
5 Arguments For the Existence of God
Now that we understand that Theology is the study of God, how do we know whether God even exists? What arguments should believers be equipped with when this question arises? Great question! Let's explore!
Kalam cosmological & Teleogical argument
The Kalam cosmological argument and the Teleological argument each point to external features of reality in support of the claim that God exists. Cosmological arguments seek to demonstrate that God exists as the cause of the existence of the cosmos (or universe). Largely the product of medieval Arabic philosophers, the Kalam cosmological argument contends that the universe’s having a beginning implies the existence of an ultimate Cause. Teleological arguments look to the apparent design and order in the universe as natural signs of God. Such arguments seek to establish God’s existence as the intelligent designer of the universe. [6]
Moral Argument
When we talk about moral values, we mean such things as goodness and badness, justice and hate. The moral argument seeks to establish God’s existence as the explanatory basis for such moral values.
Argument From Reason
Our capacity to reason—that is, to draw rational inferences—is another example of internal evidence for God. The version of this argument from reason we shall consider points to God as a more plausible explanation of this capacity than is naturalism
Ontological Argument
the ontological argument builds on the conviction that God is “something than which nothing greater can be thought.” As Thomas Morris notes, the conception of God as the greatest possible being is not meant as an exhaustive definition but rather as “a single focus for all our reflections about divinity, one point of light to guide all our thinking about the nature of God.” The idea is that, whatever else we believe about God, God cannot fail to be maximally perfect
While these 5 arguments are not exhaustive, we will explore how they can utilized when defending the Gospel and witnessing. As believers we are called to take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth and Apologetics is a necessary tool in our tool belts!
Sources:
[1] Paul Gould, Travis Dickinson, and Keith Loftin, Stand Firm: Apologetics and the Brilliance of the Gospel (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2018), 35.
[2] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 8.
[3] Paul Gould, Travis Dickinson, and Keith Loftin, Stand Firm: Apologetics and the Brilliance of the Gospel (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2018), 38.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
Bibliography:
Paul Gould, Travis Dickinson, and Keith Loftin, Stand Firm: Apologetics and the Brilliance of the Gospel (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2018), 35.
Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 8.
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