OK, no Paul, George, or Ringo.
But, Ravi Zacharias and John Lennox WILL be speaking at the Atlanta Civic Center tonite at 7pm (EST) on the topic "Is Faith Delusional"?
For those of us not in the Atlanta area, we can view this event live via their webcast.
Ravi Zacharias is one of the world's top Christian apologists. Let's see: what are his four criteria? Origins, Purpose, Meaning, and Destiny -- I think I got them all. And, John Lennox, as I recall, is a very likable person and persuasive speaker.
Log on to the following link at 7pm (EST) to watch the webcast:
http://wm.thegospel.com/ravi.wmv
Joe Agnost -- you know you want to watch this!
Technical Directions: You will need Windows Media Player (or equivalent) in order to play this webcast. If you want to view the webcast with a Mac (and who doesn't!) and need more information, go to their website:
http://www.rzim.org/USA/Events/CivicCenter2009.aspx
4 comments:
Richard, I'm curious how you handle presuppositions when you teach apologetics. John Warwick Montgomery tells a parable of a man who thought he was dead. His family convinced him to see a doctor. The doctor after some effort convinced this dead-man-walking that dead people don't bleed. DMW allowed the doctor to draw blood and then exclaimed, "Dead people do bleed!"
How do you budge a materialist away from the presupposition that miracles cannot happen?
Thanks for the thought RKBall - but I won't have time (nor the patience) to watch this.
Jeff: "How do you budge a materialist away from the presupposition that miracles cannot happen?"
Two things about this: 1) you can't because (sorry to break this to you but) miracles don't happen (in the sense you think) because there is no god. And 2) why do you want to "budge a materialist away" from the idea miracles don't happen?? What's it to you WHAT they think?
Joe Agnost
Joe, why are so evangelistic about your atheism?
Hi Jeff,
Sorry for the delay in responding.
"How do you budge a materialist away from the presupposition that miracles cannot happen?"
Off the top of my head --
1. Show the absurdity of materialism. If materialism is true, then all abstract concepts, such as honor, right-and-wrong, goodness, evil, integrity, dignity, become nonsensical categories of thought.
Thought itself becomes an absurdity. As does the existence of rules of logic, mathematics, consciousness, free-will etc.
Materialism makes it impossible to be truly human. A materialist posits an absurd universe. A theist posits one that is logically coherent. Given a choice, man should choose theism.
The fact that individuals stubbornly stick to materialism in spite of the absurdity of its implications, and its dreadful consequences for humanity, shows the stubborn evil of the human heart -- and thereby supports the biblical data. Stubborn materialists "prove" the Bible is true!
2. Argue that, since God exists, miracles are possible if not likely.
Argue for the existence of God through philosophical argument (time cannot be infinite, or there would be an infinite past and the "present" could never be reached.
Through teleological argument (the fine-tuning of the universe for life), and cosmological argument (everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore, the (material) universe has a (immaterial) cause. This cause is God.
3. Argue that creation itself is a stupendous miracle of God. If someone says, miracles can't happen, say, you mean, besides the universe we inhabit? Argue from the greater to the lesser that if the great miracle of creation has happened, that lesser miracles can happen.
4. Argue from quantum physics that, since underlying reality is not so much inviable laws as probabilities, it is very easy to envisage a Creator messing with the probabilities to create new, miraculous outcomes.
5. Argue from the resurrection of Christ. See Gary Habermas. From an historical research point of view, the resurrection is the most-likely explanation, with the greatest explanatory power and the fewest problems -- the only serious one being an anti-supernatural stance on the part of the examiners.
6. Argue from human testimony. Many miracles have been reported both in and outside the Bible. Weigh the evidence. Most of what we believe -- even science -- is what is reported to us by others.
Since the resurrection occurred as an event of history, miracles do happen. All the rest of the argument is simply mopping up.
So, materialists should hope that miracles have, and can, happen. Because if they don't, human life is absurd. Given a choice, choose meaning and coherence.
* * *
William Lane Craig has a chapter on Miracles in his book Reasonable Faith. He would make tighter, better formed arguments, but I thought I would have a go.
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