Arguments for the Existence of God - Part IV

Meaning and Conclusion
Without God, everything in life is meaningless. If there is no god who created everything, then there is no purpose. If there is purpose without a god, who purposed it? If there is no god who created everything, then there is no meaning. If there is meaning, who meant it. If there is no god who created everything, then there is no truth. If there is truth, how could we know it? Truth, meaning and purpose left only to man to decide is not only irrational, but is useless in that it cannot govern anything at all. If you were to run across some scribbles on a piece of paper, you may decide to spend some time trying to figure out who wrote those scribbles and what they mean. However, if you found out that the scribbles were randomly placed there and had no meaning, but only ended up there by chance, you would stop searching for the purpose for them and the meaning behind them. If this universe is the result of chance in evolution, then there is no reason to look for meaning in life. There is no reason to look for purpose in life. You simply live, and when you die, you are dead and cease to exist. However, there is meaning to life and there is a purpose for our being here. We do not all know what that meaning and purpose is, but we know there should be one. There indeed is meaning and purpose, but it exists because God meant it and purposed it when He created the universe and everything in it. In order to disregard a god, you must accept things most atheists are unwilling to accept.

Things you must believe to be a true and rational atheist:
• God does not and has never existed
• Right, wrong, virtue, love, and truth are merely man-made inventions that have no objectivity or reality to them (logic and math have no real meaning either).
• There is no meaning to life whatsoever.
• Everything is random and even your thoughts
• When you die, you are dead and that is all. No Heaven.
• Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer, Mother Theresa, Jesus Christ and you are all on the same level morally, spiritually, and ontologically. None is more right than the other.

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Arguments for the Existence of God - Part III

Morality

“If God does not exist, everything is permissible” Ivan Karamazov and Jean-Paul Sartre
“God is dead” Friedrich Nietzche
Most of the facts that you encounter are about the way the world is. Thes are facts like the capitol of Missouri, and that four quarters equal a dollar, and so on. Moral facts are not like that. The fact that we ought to do something about the problem of homelessness is not a fact about the way the world is, but a fact about the way the world ought to be. There is nothing out there that makes a moral fact true because moral facts are not descriptive of a real thing, but prescriptive of a change to be made to things that already exist. Moral facts are like commands in that sense. They are intended to bring about a result that is not already present.
Similarly, there are things in this world that cannot exist without something else existing with them. There cannot be something carried unless there is something else carrying it. There can’t be something that is popular unless there are lots of people that like it. Commands are like this, they cannot exist unless something else commands them. The moral argument shows that if there is a command, there must be a commander.
Moral commands are such that they over-ride anything else. If you know that it is right to give money to a charity, but would like to buy something for yourself, while it might be in your best interest to buy and not give, morally you know you ought to give. You can make a decision one way or the other, but you know what you ought to do.
Commands are also only as good as the authority who issues them. If I say that you should pay extra taxes on things that you buy so that we can have better education in schools, you and no one else would do it because I have no authority. However, if the governing authorities decree it, we would have to by law. Those who do not would face a consequence. Without the consequence, the governing powers would have little power.
Without God, only men create and issue morals. If there is no god, there are no morals. If there are morals, but no god, then a man created them and we don’t really need to obey them. Why? Because they are no better than the morals we create for ourselves. Nietzche, as I said above, claimed god was dead. As a result, he concluded that there is no right or wrong, just the will to power, meaning the power to punish those who don’t listen to what you say. That is the only way anyone should believe you if there is no god.
But doesn’t it seem some things are right, even without a consequence you must suffer? Everyone would agree that there is a generally agreed upon morality across all cultures. If not, then why isn’t murdering ok in some cultures. C.S. Lewis said, “I need only ask the reader to think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five”.
The truth is that we all accept an objective morality, but some wish not to own up. If you do not believe in God, then you ought not believe that what Hitler did was wrong, that child molestation should be illegal, and that having your car stolen is an injustice. Who are we to say it is wrong if there is no real authority issuing the command. It is just mere men choosing that which they think is right. Morality is real and true. People may sometimes get them wrong just like they get a sum incorrect in math class, but they are not a matter of taste and opinion any more than the answers to a math quiz.
There can be no moral command without a moral commander. If man is that commander, even a large group of men, then we should flee there rule and live as we please. However, because so many people have agreed on many things that are moral, then we should think that there is a greater commander than any man.

Arguments for the Existence of God - Part II

Design vs. Chance
This universe and more specifically, this earth is set to the exact conditions needed to sustain life. Any change one way or another would destroy all life on planet earth.

Here are some examples:
The Earth: Its size is perfect. The Earth's size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the Earth's surface. If Earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If Earth were larger, its atmosphere would contain free hydrogen, like Jupiter. Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life.
The Earth is located the right distance from the sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly -30 degrees to +120 degrees. If the Earth were any further away from the sun, we would all freeze. Any closer and we would burn up. Even a fractional variance in the Earth's position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible. The Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day.
And our moon is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull. The moon creates important ocean tides and movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet it restrains our massive oceans from spilling over across the continents.5

Water: It’s colorless, odorless and without taste, and yet no living thing can survive without it. Plants, animals and human beings consist mostly of water (about two-thirds of the human body is water). You'll see why the characteristics of water are uniquely suited to life:

• It has an unusually high boiling point and freezing point. Water allows us to live in an environment of fluctuating temperature changes, while keeping our bodies a steady 98.6 degrees.

• Water is a universal solvent. This property of water means that thousands of chemicals, minerals and nutrients can be carried throughout our bodies and into the smallest blood vessels.

• Water is also chemically inert. Without affecting the makeup of the substances it carries, water enables food, medicines and minerals to be absorbed and used by the body.

• Water has a unique surface tension. Water in plants can therefore flow upward against gravity, bringing life-giving water and nutrients to the top of even the tallest trees.

• Water freezes from the top down and floats, so fish can live in the winter.

Ninety-seven percent of the Earth's water is in the oceans. But on our Earth, there is a system designed which removes salt from the water and then distributes that water throughout the globe. Evaporation takes the ocean waters, leaving the salt, and forms clouds which are easily moved by the wind to disperse water over the land, for vegetation, animals and people. It is a system of purification and supply that sustains life on this planet, a system of recycled and reused water.7
The Human Brain: simultaneously processes an amazing amount of information. Your brain takes in all the colors and objects you see, the temperature around you, the pressure of your feet against the floor, the sounds around you, the dryness of your mouth, even the texture of this article in your hand. Your brain registers emotional responses, thoughts and memories. At the same time your brain keeps track of the ongoing functions of your body like your breathing pattern, eyelid movement, hunger and movement of the muscles in your hands.
The human brain processes more than a million messages a second.8 Your brain weighs the importance of all this data, filtering out the relatively unimportant. This screening function is what allows you to focus and operate effectively in your world. A brain that deals with more than a million pieces of information every second, while evaluating its importance and allowing you to act on the most pertinent information...can we say mere chance brought about such an astounding organ?
Consider for a moment an illustration:
Imagine that you were on an Amtrak train that was headed for Baltimore. While on the rain, you look out the window and notice that some rocks on the side of a hill spell out “Amtrak Welcomes You To Baltimore”. How do you assume that they got on the side of that hill to spell that message?

A.They fell from the sky and landed in that exact place.
B.They rolled down the hill over time to exactly that place with no help from an intelligent being (man or god).
C.They were placed there by some men to communicate a welcoming message to people who see it by Amtrak. Any intelligent person would find it most rational to believe that the message was placed there by men.
However, let’s say that I believe that they did indeed roll down the hill over time by chance and ended up in that exact location. This is definitely possible (although not likely) that these stones could have rolled down the hill to that position. The chances would be through the roof that they would do that, but it is still possible. While this is a position that is difficult to accept, it would be infinitely more bizarre for me to believe, solely on the evidence provided by the stones that I was actually entering Baltimore !!! If, I suppose that the stones might have come to that arrangement accidentally, over the course of time, simply by rolling down the hill, one by one, and finally just happening to end up that way, or if they were strewn upon the ground that way by the forces of any earthquake or storm or what-not, then my argument would in no sense constitute evidence that I was actually entering Baltimore, or anything at all connected with that message is true because the message was simply brought about by chance. It has no way of communicating anything at all if it was the result of random accidental chance over time. Just like it is possible for a collection of stones to present an intelligible message on the side of a hill over time, so also it is possible for such things as our cells, organs, and mind to be the accidental, unintended result, over ages of time, of impersonal, non-purposeful chance. However, even if one does believe that our bodies did come about by chance, it is irrational for one to say that your mind, emotions, and thoughts reveal any truth about the world with respect to themselves. If your body is a result of chance, then your mind is as well. So, any message your mind may communicate to you would be just as non-purposeful and random as the process that brought it about. Without God, there is no way to believe in truth or logic.