Apologetics for scientists: The existence of God, the problem of evil, miracles, and evolution

What is apologetics?

• 1 Pet 3:15 But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. 16 Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you. (NET)
• ἀπολογία , the act of making a defense (BDAG, 117).
• Cowan, Steven B. ed. Five Views on Apologetics. 2000. [classical, evidential, cumulative case, presuppostional, reformed epistemology]

Apologetics is not primary

• So how does a scientist defend the faith?
• Be transformed by Christ (and His word).
• When God brings someone along, as appropriate explain the gospel.
• Listen and respond to their questions.

An overview of apologetics

• Religious epistemology: evidentialism, reformed epistemology, fideism, phenomenal conservatism, proper funcationalism (see: Debating Christian Religious Epistemology: An Introduction to Five Views on the Knowledge of God)
• Does God exist? Cosmological, teleological, moral, ontological and other arguments. Objections: The problem of evil, and the coherence of theism.
• Why Christian Theism: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? Is the Bible reliable? Objections from science, sexuality, and pluralism (and other religions).
• See: Groothuis, Douglas R. Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. 2nd ed. 2022.

Reformed Epistemology

• Belief in God and the great truths of Christianity can be properly basic (warranted or justified apart from arguments).
• “The Spirit himself bears witness to/with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom 8:16).
• See: Plantinga, Alvin. Knowledge and Christian Belief. 2015.

Evidence that God Exists

1. Cosmological Argument
2. Teleological Argument
3. Moral Argument
4. Ontological Argument

See: Dougherty, Trent, and Jerry Walls, eds. Two Dozen (or so) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project. 2018.

Define “God”

• “The term “God,” is traditionally understood, signifies a personal being who is worthy of worship” (Gould, BTCOG, 1).
• The being who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent.
• God refers to the greatest possible being (or maximally excellent being).

The Value of Arguments

• No full proofs (no all-compelling arguments), rather just more probable than not.
• This means that rhetoric (logos [reason], pathos [emotion], ethos [character]), makes a difference.
• When you make an argument, you should try to do it from the background of the person that you are speaking to.
• God can and does use these to draw people to himself (but is of course not limited to this).

The Burden of Proof

• Any claim (positive or negative) needs to be supported by reasons.
• I.e., the theist since he says there is a God needs to give his reasons for thinking this. The atheist since he says there is no God needs to give his reasons for this. The default position is the weak agnostic who says I do not know if there is a God or not.
• (Atheism as a lack of belief).

WLC’s Cosmological Argument

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

• http://www.reasonablefaith.org/kalam
• See: Loke, Andrew. The Teleological and Kalam Cosmological Arguments Revisited. 2022.

A Note on Argumentation

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause. 51%
2. The universe began to exist.  51%
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause. 51%x51% = 26%                      

• So individually you need 71%x71%=50.4% for the conclusion
• Or cumulatively Cosmological (say 26%) + Teleological (26%) = 45% + Moral (26%) = 59%

WLC’s Teleological Argument

1. The fine-tuning of the universe is due to either physical necessity, chance, or design.
2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance.
3. Therefore, it is due to design.

• Video: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/finetuning
• See: Lewis, Geraint F., and Luke A. Barnes, A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos. 2017.

A Moral Argument

1. There are objective moral facts.
2. God provides the best explanation of the existence of objective moral facts.
3. Therefore, (probably) God exists.

• https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-arguments-god/
• Video: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/moral
• See: Loke, Andrew. “A New Moral Argument for the existence of God.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 93 (2023): 25–38.

Pascal’s Wager

	God exists	God does not exist
Believe	infinite gain	finite loss
Disbelieve	infinite loss	finite gain

The Logical Problem of Evil

1. God exists and is omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good.
2. There is evil.

• Can both be true?
• Hidden Assumption

3. An omnipotent, omniscient and perfectly good being would have no good reason for allowing evil.

Reasons God Might Have

1. Creatures with libertarian freewill
2. To other creatures to develop character (soul making).

The Positions on Freewill

• Hard determinism – freedom is incompatible with determinism and humans are not free.
• Soft determinism – compatibilism: freedom is compatible with determinism.
• Libertarianism – that determinism and freedom are incompatible and some human choices are made freely.

A Definition of Freewill

• “a significant kind of control over one’s actions” and choices (to be morally responsible).
• The principle of alternate possibilities: the ability to do otherwise. That one could refrain.  
• Soft determinist generally understand freedom as being able to do according to one’s greatest desires.
• Libertarianists that at least some actions are not determined [at least by anything external to oneself, the agent is the source of choice].

O’Connor, Timothy, and Christopher Franklin. “Free Will”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2022/entries/freewill/

The Evidential Problem of Evil

1. God exists
2. There is evil

• Evidential problem: P(1|2) = << 0.5
• [Probability of (1) given (2) = very low]

WLC’s response

1. We are not in a good position to assess the probability of whether God has morally sufficient reasons for the evils that occur. 
2. The Christian faith entails doctrines that increase the probability of the co-existence of God and evil.

a. The chief purpose of life is not happiness, but the knowledge of God. 

b. Mankind is in a state of rebellion against God and His purpose.

c. The knowledge of God spills over into eternal life.

d. The knowledge of God is an incommensurable good. 

3. Relative to the full scope of the evidence, God’s existence is probable.

The Emotional Problem of Evil

• How can I personally trust a God who allows evil?
• The cross of Christ; a good creation; sin; the vantage from the end; Heb 2:18; the body of Christ; 2 Pet 3:4–9; John 9:1–3; Luke 13:1–5; Job.
• Ashlyn Blocker and the gift of pain

Defining Miracles

• A theist might say a miracle is “a less common kind of God’s activity (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 2^nd, 2020, 470).
• Whereas an atheist might say a miracle is “a violation of natural law” (Hume, Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding, 3^rd, 1748, 114).
• Each seems to presuppose that God either exists or does not exist. Question begging – assuming what you are trying to prove.
• One “may recognize that an event is a miracle when the event (a) is extremely unlikely to have occurred, given the circumstances and/or natural law and (b) it occurs in an environment or context charged with religious significance” (Licona, “Historians and Miracle Claims”, 119).

A Brief Case for Miracles

• If God exists, then miracles are possible.
• Miracles do not destroy science since a scientist need only hold that “every event has a cause,” or that “the observable universe operates in an orderly way,” or that science operates on the repeatable, or that science functions on methodological naturalism but doesn’t pronounce on metaphysical naturalism.

Theories to Explain the Data Concerning Jesus’ Resurrection

• The story developed as legend over time; a mere myth

1. The disciples didn’t experience anything but claimed they did (false claims or no experience hypothesis)
2. All experiences of Jesus were intra-mental (hallucination theory)
3. What the disciples experienced was extra-mental but was not actually Jesus (mistaken identity theory)
4. The disciples extra-mentally experienced Jesus, but Jesus didn’t actually die on the cross, just fainted and revived naturally in the tomb (swoon theory) [or Jesus escaped, someone else was crucified and Jesus later showed himself to the disciples].
5. They experienced Jesus who had died and was back from the dead (resurrection hypothesis)

See: Loke, Andrew. Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach, 2020.

Different uses of the term Evolution

1. Biological change and diversity
2. Life forms came from earlier ones (descent with modification)
3. Genetic variation and natural selection (microevolution)
4. Common ancestry – a tree of life (macroevolution)
5. Naturalistic/atheistic evolution: that the universe and all life came without God

How/When God Created?

The Positions	Biological Macroevolution	Cosmic Evolution
Young Earth Creation http://creation.com/	No	No
Progressive Creationist / Old Earth Creation http://www.reasons.org/	No	Yes
Evolutionary Creation / Theistic Evolution http://biologos.org/	Yes	Yes

Texts on Creation

• Two creation narratives (Gen 1:1-2:3; 2:4-3:24)
• Nine creation poems (Job 26:7-13; 38:4-11; Prov 3:19-20; 8:22-31; Psa 8:1-10; 33:6-9; 74:12-17; 89:5-12; 104:2-32)
• Narrative (Gen 5:1-2; 6:7; 14:19, 22; Exod 20:11; 31:17; Deut 4:32; 2 Kgs 19:15; 2 Chron 2:12; Neh 9:6)
• Poetry (e.g., Psa 19:4; 24:2; 65:6; 95:5; 96:5; 102:25; 115:15; 119:90; 121:2; 124:8; 134:3; 136:5; 146:6; 148:5)
• Wisdom (Job 4:17; 9:8; 32:22; 35:10; 36:3; Prov 14:31; 17:5; 22:2; Eccl 12:1)
• Prophets (Isa 37:16; 40:12, 22, 26, 28; 42:5; 44:24; 45:7, 12, 18; 48:13; 51:13; Jer 5:22; 10:12; 27:5; 32:17; 51:15; Amos 4:13; 9:6; Jon 1:9; Zech 12:1)
• John 1:3, 10; 17:5; Acts 4:24; 14:15; 17:24; Rom 4:17; 11:36; 1 Cor 8:6; Eph 3:9; Col 1:16-17; Heb 1:2-3; 11:3; Rev 4:11; 10:6

Unity/Diversity in Creation Accounts

• These creation accounts/texts display unity in their most common central assertion: Yahweh, the one true God, created all that exists: heaven, earth; sea, land; plants, trees; animals, humans.
• When some creation accounts/texts offer additional details, we find diversity in their presentations of:
• – the means God used to create
• – the order of events in creation
• – the length of time that transpired in creation
• (Johnston, OT104 – Hebrew Exegesis & OT Intro II, Dallas Theological Seminary, 2011 lecture notes.)

Non-Negotiables Regarding Creation?

• “The Sovereign God of the Bible created all things and created them “very good.”
• God uniquely created Adam and Eve as the first human beings; God created them sinless, perfect, and in relationship to him.
• Adam and Eve deliberately sinned against God and brought judgment upon the world; both humanity and nature are broken and abnormal.”
• (Winslow, THS502 – Theology 1: God, Bible, Humanity and Christ, East Asia School of Theology, Singapore, 2012).

Select Bibliography

• Barret, Matthew, and Ardel B. Caneday, eds. William D. Barrick, C. Gregory A. Boyd, John Collins, Denis O, Lamoureux, Philip G. Ryken, and John H. Walton. Four Views on the Historical Adam, 2013. Stump, J. B. (ed.); Ken Ham, Hugh Ross, Deborah B. Haarsma, and Stephen C. Meyer. Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design, 2017.
• Halton, Charles, ed. James K. Hoffmeier, Gordon J. Wenham, and Kenton L. Sparks. Genesis: History, Fiction, or Neither?: Three Views on the Bible’s Earliest Chapters, 2015.
• https://whychristianity.org.au/resources/

Any Questions?
See: McLaughlin, Rebecca. Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion, 2019. 240 pages

An Ontological Argument

1. It is possible that a maximally great being exists.
2. If it is possible that a maximally great being exists, then a maximally great being exists in some possible world.
3. If a maximally great being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world.
4. If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world.
5. If a maximally great being exists in the actual world, then a maximally great being exists.
6. Therefore, a maximally great being exists.

https://www.reasonablefaith.org/ontological

What About Science?

• The idea that we can depend on the future to be orderly grows out of a Christian worldview. Science is one of many avenues to learning.
• It is wrong to say science can explain everything or that we can only trust scientific discoveries – for this principal cannot itself be scientifically demonstrated.

McGrath, Alister E. Science and Religion: A New Introduction, 3^rd ed. 2020.

Evidential Problem of Evil cont.

1. Feike can swim
2. Feike is a Frisian and 9 out of 10 Frisian cannot swim

So, then P(1|2) = 0.1

3. Feike is a Frisian lifeguard and 99 out of 100 Frisian lifeguards can swim.

So, then P(1|3)=0.99

Plantinga, Alvin C. God, Freedom, and Evil. 1974.

Religious Pluralism

• The view that there is no privileged religious perspective – all* religious traditions are equally legitimate.
• This is itself a privileged perspective to be able to say that.

Netland, Harold. Encountering Religious Pluralism: The Challenge to Christian Faith & Mission. 2001.

Is the Bible Reliable?

• A trustworthy account of the world and corresponds to reality.
• Some archaeological support.
• Historically accurate.

Williams, Peter J. Can We Trust the Gospels? Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018.

Explaining the views on creation (YEC)

• Young earth creationism is basically the view that the best interpretation of the Bible is that God created in six consecutive literal 24-hour days and that the genealogies in the Bible have minimal gaps, such that when one adds up the genealogies, creation occurred around 6000 years ago (as measured by clocks on earth). The young-earth creationist also usually affirms a global flood at the time of Noah, and there was no vertebrate animal death before the fall of the historical Adam.

Explaining the views on creation (OEC)

• The old earth position basically says that the Bible need not be interpreted as in six consecutive literal 24-hour days about 6000 years ago. Instead, the days of the creation texts could be metaphorical, or there could be gaps before or after literal days, or the days could be ages, such that big bang cosmology and biological evolution, while not necessarily correct, are nonetheless compatible with the Bible (this view usually holds that big bang cosmology is roughly correct, but not biological macroevolution).

Explaining the views on creation (EC)

• The evolutionary creation position says that in some manner, God used evolution (understood in the sense of macroevolution).  Be that by directing each step of the way or having planned how it would all work out by itself from the start.
• By David Graieg, 19 July 2023