God

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God
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GOD

• Is there anyway to know that God exists?
• There have been many attempts to prove the
  existence of God.
• If you had to debate an atheist,
• what would you say?

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• Can we prove the existence of God?

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Saint Thomas Aquinas

• (1225 1274)
• an Italian Catholic priest in the Dominican Order
• a philosopher and a theologian
• He was a proponent of natural theology.
• The work for which he is best-known is the
• Summa Theologica.
• One of the 33 Doctors of the Church,
• he is considered by many to be the Catholic
  Church's greatest theologian and philosopher.

Based on reason and experience
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Quinque viae

• The Five Ways
• The argument of the unmoved mover
• The argument of the first cause
• The argument from contingency
• The argument from degree
• The argument from design

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Proofs for Gods Existence

• Evidence from History
• God the Uncaused Cause
• God the Intelligent Designer

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God the Uncaused Cause

• Everything that exists in time space has a
  cause outside of itself.
• The physical world (the universe) exists in time
  space.
• Therefore, a cause must exist for the physical
  universe outside of itself.

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A variation of The Uncaused Cause

• Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
• The Universe began to exist.
• Therefore, the Universe
  had a cause.

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Everything that exists in time space has a
cause outside of itself.

• Examples
• Counter-examples
• Perhaps the universe was caused by a chain of
  cause effect,
• going all the way back to the big bang.
• But what caused the big bang?

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A variation ofGod the Uncaused Cause

• Something cannot come from nothing,
• things do exist today,
• therefore there has to be something that always
  existed, without a cause.
• That is an Uncased Cause.
• In other words, if there was a time when nothing
  existed, then nothing could ever exist.

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God the Intelligent Designer

1. Every object with order and design must have had
   an intelligent designer,
2. The universe ( the human being) have tremendous
   order and design,
3. therefore the world must have been created by an
   intelligent designer.

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• Perhaps design can happen by random chance.
• Can the most intricate designs be created
  randomly if given enough chance?
• But can cars and computers could form naturally?
• Humans are more complex than cars or computers.

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But, you say

• doesnt evolution explain how everything came to
  exist?

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Infinite Monkey Theorem

• Will a monkey hitting keys at random on a
  keyboard for long enough amount of time
  eventually type Hamlet by William Shakespeare?
• No,
• A billion monkeys typing nonstop for a billion
  years would not produce even one page.

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• Probability shrinks exponentially,
• To get just the first 20 letters in Hamlet
  correct,
• the probability is one in
• 19,928,148,895,209,409,152,340,197,376

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Evidence from History

1. Virtually all cultures in all places at all times
   have believed in the existence of a higher power,
2. universal human beliefs reason are trustworthy,
3. therefore it is more reasonable to conclude that
   there is a higher power than that there is not.

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Other Arguments for the existence of God

• Pascals Wager
• Miracles

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Pascals Wager

• You have two choices
• there are two possibilities
• belief no belief
• God exists
• God doesnt exist

heaven
hell
nothing
nothing
Society is better
Society suffers
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Blaise Pascal

• (1623 1662)
• a French mathematician, physicist, and religious
  philosopher.
• With faith in God, you have everything to gain,
  and nothing to lose.
• Without faith in God, you have everything to
  lose, and nothing to gain

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Miracles

• Do you believe in miracles?
• Do you believe they still happen today?
• What is a miracle?

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What is a Miracle?

• Dictionary.com - Based on the Random House
  Unabridged Dictionary
• 1. an extraordinary event in the physical world
  that surpasses all known human or natural powers.
  
• 2. such an event considered the work of God.
• 3. a wonder marvel.

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What is a Miracle?

• An event that is perceptible,
• surpassing the powers of nature,
• produced by God,
• intended to witness to some truth
• or testify to someone's sanctity.
• CatholicReference.net

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Does the Catholic Church specifically affirm
certain miracles?

• Yes,
• Although Catholics are not obligated to believe
  any miracles outside of public revelation (e.g.
  those in the Bible).

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Miracle of Lanciano

• The miracle of Lanciano is officially recognized
  by the Catholic Church as an eucharistic miracle.
• In the city of Lanciano, Italy, around A.D. 700.

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• During Holy Mass the host was changed into live
  Flesh and the wine was changed into live Blood.
• In 1970-'71 and again in 1981 there took place a
  scientific investigation by several renowned
  scientists.
• These analyses sustained the following
  conclusions
• The Flesh is real Flesh. The Blood is real Blood.
• The Flesh and the Blood belong to the human
  species.
• The Flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the
  heart.
• The Flesh and the Blood have the same blood-type
  AB
• (same as the blood on the Shroud of Turin).
• The preservation of the Flesh and of the Blood,
  which were left in their natural state for twelve
  centuries and exposed to the action of
  atmospheric and biological agents, remains an
  extraordinary phenomenon.

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Arguments Against the Existence of God

• Thomas Aquinas could only come up with two
  arguments against the existence of God
• Science
• The problem of Evil

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Science

• The ability of science to explain more and more
  of the world.
• Science explains much of the world that people in
  the past relied upon religion to explain.

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Solution

• As science advances and explains more and more of
  the world,
• is there more or less mystery about the world
  around us?
• More

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The Problem of Evil

• Did God created everything?
• Does evil exist?
• Did God create evil?

yes
yes
yes
or
no
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God

• attributes of God
• Omni-benevolent
• Omniscient
• Omnipotent

All-loving All-knowing All-powerful
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• How can evil exist given such a God?

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Solution to the Problem of Evil

• Evil is not a thing
• Evil is a choice
• Evil is a choice we make
• Example drunk driver

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Can we know God exists?

• The existence of God the Creator can be known
  with certainty through his works,
• by the light of human reason,
• even if this knowledge is often obscured and
  disfigured by error.
• ---CCC 286