Suffering (Part 3) – The IMPROBABILITY Argument: “It’s Highly Improbable That God And Suffering Can Coexist”

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE IMPOSSIBILITY ARGUMENT? In our last blog, we explored the “impossibility argument,” or what philosophers call “the logical problem of evil” and concluded it was false. It’s entirely possible for for an all-powerful and all-loving God to coexist with suffering. This has caused most atheists to fall back to the improbability argument: “It is highly improbable that … Read More

Suffering (Part 2) – The IMPOSSIBILITY Argument: “It’s Impossible For God And Suffering To Coexist”

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE THE IMPOSSIBILITY ARGUMENT? Philosophers call this the “logical problem of evil,” but we will simply call it the “impossibility argument.” “How impossible is it for God and suffering to coexist?” you might ask. Atheists who believe this argument would say, “It will happen when pigs fly.” If we examine both statements, there is no apparent contradiction … Read More

Suffering (Part 1): The Emotional Problem of Suffering

ATHEIST PHILOSOPHER DAVID HUME “CAN ANYONE POSSIBLY KNOW THE DEPTH OF SORROW THAT I FEEL?” A little boy weeps bitterly in heaving sobs at the bedside of his mother who has just passed away. How do we console him? A talented young person is stricken by a terrible accident, suffers and finally dies. What comfort can we possibly provide to … Read More

Fine-tuning (Part 4): Is The Fine-tuning Of The Universe Due to Physical Necessity, Chance or Design?

THE FINE-TUNING ARGUMENT FINE TUNING “Fine-tuning” refers to the fact that constants and quantities in those formulas or laws of nature MUST fit an extraordinarily narrow range to sustain life. THREE OPTIONS TO EXPLAIN FINE TUNING In our last blog, from the standpoint of particle physics, we discussed how incredibly fine-tuned and delicately-balanced these constants (set values) and quantities (representing … Read More

Fine-tuning (Part 3) – The Goldilocks Dilemma: What Explains The Extreme Fine-tuning Of The Universe?

THE FINE-TUNING ARGUMENT FINE TUNING “Fine-tuning” refers to the fact that constants and quantities in those formulas or laws of nature MUST fit an extraordinarily narrow range to sustain life. “Life” refers to anything that can take in food, extract energy from it, grow, adapt to its environment and reproduce. PERSPECTIVE ON LARGE NUMBERS Unfortunately most of the numbers we … Read More

Fine-tuning (Part 1): William Paley’s Watchmaker Argument

PALEY’S WATCH In 1802, a brilliant philosopher named William Paley wrote a book called Natural Theology in which he used physical observation about the world around us as evidence for God’s existence. Paley said that if you were walking across a field and saw a stone lying on the ground, you would think nothing of it. Perhaps the stone had … Read More

Beginning (Part7): Kalam Argument – Conclusion

THE KALÄM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT In our last blog, we established that there was sufficient evidence to believe that premises 1 and 2 were more likely to be true than not, and that’s the degree of proof that is commonly required. So does the conclusion logically follow from the two premises? It does. If premise 1 is true and premise 2 … Read More

Beginning (Part 6): The Kalam Argument For God’s Existence

TERMS “Cosmology” (koz-MAH-lah-jee) is a field of science that studies the origin and properties of the universe. The word “kalam” (pronounced “kuh-LAHM”) is a word that refers to medieval Islamic theology. In the 1100s AD, there was an Islamic scholar named al-Ghazali. He argued that the idea of a beginningless universe was absurd. There had to be a cause. He … Read More