Winter in Montana is starting

It has been a slow start to winter up on Big Mtn. But I might not get to ski there at all this winter.  Actually, I may not ski a single day this winter... We'll see what happens.

Thanksgiving Outreach with the Youth Group

Evidence for the Existence of the Christian God

Note: I originally wrote this essay back in my Apologetics class at BSBI, and I lately revamped it for a pair of Sunday school lessons. I love talking apologetics... its good stuff. For more detailed information about this and other apologetic topics, check out: Randomer: Currently Reading this book that I am currently reading.

Evidence for the Existence of the Christian God

By Gregory Heil

The title that I chose for this paper was not phrased the way it is by accident. I am going to attempt to present evidence for the existence of the Christian God. I am not going to prove with one hundred percent certainty that the Christian God exists. I do, however, believe that the vast majority of evidence truly does point towards the existence of God.

The first pieces of evidence that I would like to present relate to the beginning of the universe. First off, if something begins to exist, there needs to be something that caused it to begin to exist. There is no reasonable way for you as an atheist to argue against this. It is completely illogical to expect nothing to come from nothing. Nothing is what rocks think about! Next, there is convincing evidence that the universe began to exist. For instance, look at the laws of thermodynamics. The first law of thermodynamics shows that the amount of energy in the world does not change. The second law of thermodynamics indicates that the amount of usable energy in the world is being depleted. So, the universe will eventually run out of energy. This fact indicates that there must have been a point in time when the universe was all usable energy. So the universe must have had a beginning. If the universe had a beginning, and every beginning requires a cause, it naturally follows that the universe had a cause. You may argue that the Big Bang was the cause of the universe. But what caused the Big Bang? You might say, “Well, then who made (or caused) God?” Well, as we were discussing, everything that had a beginning requires a cause. However, God never had a beginning; He has always existed. Therefore, God doesn’t need a cause.

The second convincing group of evidence relates to the design of the universe. If design exists, it is only logical that a designer designed and made it. If you are walking along a beach, and see the words “Greg was here” drawn in the sand, you would automatically assume that someone named Greg had been there and had drawn those letters into the sand. Why do you think that, though? By evolutionary standards, could not these words have been eroded into the sand by wave action? No, it would be completely ludicrous to think that. But why exactly is it ludicrous to believe that the words “Greg was here” did not come about by natural causes? The answer: those words contain information. The problem (for atheists) is that we see information all around us in nature. Darwinist Richard Dawkins, who is a professor of zoology at Oxford University, has stated that the message found in just a single amoeba is so large that it would fill up 1,000 sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica! That is a great deal of information. Furthermore, information must come from a mind. How can Darwinian evolution explain the information that we see in nature? It simply cannot! The only logical explanation is that God created it and put it there!

Finally, I think that the existence of morality gives great evidence for the existence of God. You as an atheist may state that if there was a God, then there would be no evil in the world. But here is my question to you: what is evil? The answer: evil is the deviation from the way things should be. How then do we know the way things should be? The only way to know the way things should be is by having a higher standard to compare the world to. God is that standard. If there is no God, everything comes down to your personal likes and dislikes. We have already determined that information cannot appear by natural means, and as morality is not a physical thing, it cannot be produced by any means of evolution. So morality cannot come from evolution, and it also cannot come from within us. If it came from within, what would stop you from changing your mind about the principle “murder is wrong?” Some atheists claim that morality comes from society, but that simply cannot be the case. If society dictated good and evil, then the Holocaust would have been completely moral, but the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa would not have been. The German society was (on the whole) behind Hitler, and his elimination of the Jews. Does that make it moral to commit genocide? I doubt it! The majority of society was against Martin Luther King Jr. and black rights for a very long time. Does that make it immoral to fight racism? I believe not! Therefore, morality has to come from someone that is above all people and societies. That is the only way a real moral law can exist. Admittedly, there are some atheists that deny that the moral law exists at all. They are sorely mistaken. If I was to walk up to an atheist who espoused this sort of thinking and punch him in the jaw and break it, I think he would probably call the police and report me. But wait a second: if a moral law does not exist, then what is wrong with me breaking this atheist’s jaw? Nothing! You see, he really does follow a moral law.

In conclusion, the existence of the God of the people who call themselves Christians is almost undeniable! The fact that God had to cause the universe to come into being, the fact that information could only have come from an intelligent being (God), and the fact that without God morality would not exist are all incredible evidence for the existence of God!

Currently Reading: "The Dixie Cragger's Atlas"

The Dixie Cragger's Atlas
by Chris Watford

An excellent guidebook for Alabama and Georgia.

Summer and I are going climbing...

Currently Reading: "How to Rock Climb"

How to Rock Climb (4th edition)
by John Long

Good stuff. It is definitely not just for the climber who has only ever tied in once... there is definitely a lot I need to work on, and I guess you could say I've been climbing for 7 months.

Currently Reading

I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek

I originally got this book at BSBI and had to read some sections of it there. I'm currently trying to go through it cover to cover. I also have been using it for research for several Sunday School lessons I have been teaching.

Excellent book! Very professional, I love how Geisler and Turek quote loads of atheist sources that support their points...

Currently Reading

Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry
by Doug Fields

Great book by a very gifted man (Doug Fields), very thought provoking and insightful. I have been studying through it with a great guy who has been doing youth ministry for over 14 years, and it has started great conversation!

Bon Fire

Bon fire
Alltel has no control over, and is not responsible for, the content or use of this picture or the accompanying personal message.

My life over the past 6 months....

My apologies on a lack of updates over the past 6 months or so... I've been busy:


BSBI Graduation


All of the Narrow Way guys during the staff backpacking trip.


My first day of rock climbing in Penitente Canyon during staff training. A new passion is born!


NIGHT CLIMB!!


Mountain biking at Id-Ra-Ha-Je.


Bierstadt, my first 14er. Summer and I led an A-5 group up it.


Bouldering in Garden of the Gods


Mountain biking with my Pedal & Paddle group, which Summer and I led.


Adventure Staff!


Dropping Summer off at Denver International.


Mountain biking in Crested Butte, CO on my way to Montana.


Just finished mountain biking Jackson Hole, WY on my way to MT.


Hiking Mt. Aeneas with the youth group.


Belaying at Kila Crags, MT.


Climbing at Kila.


Setting up a top rope on an overhanging 5.11b at Kila. My hardest climb yet... but I hang dogged up it (just to be honest)


Taking the youth group climbing at Kila.


Visiting Summer in Georgia


Climbing at Currahee Mountain with Summer


Summer climbing at Currahee


Summer dropping me off at the airport in Atlanta


After delivering cards for the Thanksgiving Outreach with the youth group

This is Mountainbiking...

After climbing in the granny gear for several miles, hiking through snow for another mile and a half, try descending 3 miles of super tight, sketchy switchbacks with only this for light.

This is mountainbiking.

Starbucks

I'm sitting in a Starbucks, sipping on a Cinnamon Dolce Latte and waiting to go to work at Famous Dave's... yeh, its chill...

Blogging

As you may have guessed, the writing/blogging bug has bitten again...

It has been a while...

It has been a long while, and Goo's been very busy... very busy indeed. From Montana to Wisconsin to Colorado and back to Montana and who knows where from here in a month, picking up new sports, experiences, knowledge, relationships... God has been working in my life, and yet the future is still never clear. Hopefully I will be able to create some sort of an update here shortly... my apologies on the absence...

Blogging may resume, and it possibly may not. Who's to say?

Skatepark Riding

The Picnic Table Exploits

Mountainboarding Meets Coffee House

A Few Days Out Riding

Riding: an update on Goo's athletic life

The forecast for the next 3 days looks excellent, so I'm going to try to get as much time on the bike and off the road as possible. I did a hill (make that a mountain) run yesterday of an hour and fifteen minutes, took today and got other work done, so I'm coming into tomorrow about as fresh as possible for a long ride. My goal is to get 5 hours in the saddle, but none of it being on the road. I'm planning on possibly hitting two different places, because I don't think there is anywhere that is opened up yet with enough terrain to ride for 5 hours.

But anyhow, that's whats on tap for tomorrow.

How I Know the New Testament Documents Are Reliable

Note: this is a paper I wrote some time ago for Apologetics.

The authenticity of Christianity is greatly affected by the reliability of the New Testament documents. If they are reliable, the Christian faith is really bolstered. If they are not dependable, then Christianity does not count for a whole lot.

The first proof of the New Testament documents’ reliability comes from the accuracy of the copies that we have. Now, when a historian is doing a textual criticism, there are two things that he would look at: how many handwritten copies are in existence and how close are the copies to the original. Let us compare the New Testament to other similar historical documents. Tacitus’ Annals has 20 copies currently in existence, the oldest of which dates back to 1,000 years after the original was written. Caeser’s Gallic Wars currently has 10 copies, and the oldest copy is also dated at 1,000 years after the original came into existence. The Illiad still has 643 handwritten copies around, the oldest of which is dated within 400 years of the original. Looking at those three, the Illiad seems to be impressively preserved throughout the passage of time. So how does the New Testament compare? There are currently 24,000 handwritten copies of the New Testament in existence, 5,000 of which are Greek and 19,000 of which are in other languages. In addition to that, the oldest copy of the New Testament is dated to less than 50 years after the original! Now, compare the statistics of the New Testament to those of the other three books that I mentioned. The New Testament “blows them out of the water!” Since there are so many copies of the New Testament to look at, it is relatively easy to cross examine them and find mistakes. If you were to talk to an honest textual critic, he would tell you that there is only about 1 percent of the entire New Testament that is disputable at all. And of that 1 percent, there is not a single doctrine that finds its basis in those texts.

Secondly, the original writers were qualified eyewitnesses that recorded current events of the time, and not events long past. How do I know that the writers are eyewitnesses? Well to begin with, the writers claim that they are either eyewitnesses or that they have had in-depth interviews with eyewitnesses about the events that took place. Additionally, the writers include a great many facts that have been verified historically. Luke includes 80 historical facts in the books of Acts, all of which have been independently corroborated. Also, the writers of the New Testament include internal evidence that proves that these accounts were written rather recently following the death of Jesus Christ. For instance, the book of Acts ends with a cliff-hanger: Paul in jail, waiting for his sentence. If it had been written after Paul’s execution, his death most certainly would have been included in the account. In Acts Luke states that his other book was already written, so the Gospel of Luke predates the book of Acts. The vast majority of the prominent critics agree that the Gospel of Luke quotes material from Mark, so Mark must predate Luke. This proves that both Luke and Mark were written only about 20 or 30 years after Jesus’ death. In addition to that, the Gospel of John was most likely written before Jerusalem was destroyed, because John fails to mention this monumental occurrence despite the fact that Jesus predicted that it would happen. So these books most definitely were written shortly after the death of Jesus, and not hundreds of years later. Therefore, it would have been impossible for legend to mingle with the facts because people reading the books would have known what had taken place!

Finally, some atheists assert that the disciples did not tell the truth when they wrote the gospel accounts. But if the gospels had been fabricated, the writers would have to have cast themselves in a good light to add credibility to their tale. That is not how the writers are presented however. The writers are shown to have been cowards who would not stick with Jesus when times got hard. Also, the writers were very careful to distinguish Jesus’ words from their own. If the disciples had put words in Christ’s mouth, they would definitely have including certain items that would have cleared up controversy in the early church. However, that is not what we find. We find that the controversial issues in the early church are issues that Jesus did not discuss. That does not fit with the assertion that the disciples put words in Jesus’ mouth. In addition to those two points, the disciples eventually died for their beliefs. Almost all of them died horrible, torturous deaths. There is no way that they would have gone through the torture that they did indeed go through if they had completely made up the tale of Jesus’ divinity. If you think about these things, the disciples most definitely were telling the truth.

In conclusion, the New Testament documents are reliable. The accuracy of the documents themselves, the fact that original writers were eyewitnesses, and the truthfulness of the disciples all prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt. That gives enormous weight to Christianity!