Listen to this Class: 01092013WhoMadeTheEarthJustRightForLifeDonRuhl
Here are the notes from the previous week: 01092013TalkingWithAtheistsAndEvolutionistsDonRuhl
Talking With Atheists and Evolutionists
First Peter 3.15
Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • December 5, In the year of our Lord 2009
Prelude:
- We need tools for knowing how to talk with atheists and evolutionists.
- First Peter 3.15 – We Must Speak With All People
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear (1Pe 3.15).- Speaking with people who do not think as we do
- is challenging and sometimes unpleasant.
- Yet, motivated by love for their souls,
- we should want to let them know
- why we believe what we believe.
- The Bible deals with atheism.
- Psa 10.1–13; 14.1–3; 53.1–3; 59.7; Rom 1.18–21
- Consider the passages about the God of Israel versus false gods.
- The Bible deals with creation.
- Gen 1; 2; Psa 33.6–9
- In how many other passages does the Bible address this issue?
- Speaking with people who do not think as we do
- Learn to Use Filters
- Is the news reporting something that is
- Illogical?
- Unscientific?
- Unbiblical?
- Is the news reporting something that is
- Atheism and Evolution Are Tied Together
- Why is that?
- All the arguments for and against God’s existence deal with nature.
- The question is: How did we get here?
- The two possible answers are we got here by evolution or creation.
- One option excludes God.
- The other option requires God.
- Therefore, we have to deal with the manifestations of God:
- Nature
- The Bible
- Jesus Christ
- We believe each of these point to the existence of God.
- Secularists believe nature only demonstrates evolution and they either
- do not believe the Bible and Jesus came from a divine source or
- the Bible is a fraud and Jesus never existed.
- Secularists never used to deny the existence of Jesus, but
- I attended a debate in November 1980 between Thomas B. Warren and Joe Barnhart on the issue of ethics.
- It was during that debate that many of us heard for the first time someone deny that Jesus ever existed.
- Secularists have to deny He existed, because He is the strongest argument for God’s existence that there is.
Persuasion:
- Four Questions for Evolutionists
- Is he saying that something came from nothing?
- Evolutionists will tell you that evolution does not deal with the Big Bang or things of that nature, but
- only the beginning of life and its transformation into the various species we see today.
- However, we want to know how the ingredients got here.
- They used to affirm that something came from nothing, whereas they have modified that saying that everything was once compacted to a tiny point, perhaps as small as a period at the end of a sentence.
- Practically speaking, that is still affirming that something came from nothing.
- How do you answer the argument of the Big Bang?
- Evolutionists will tell you that evolution does not deal with the Big Bang or things of that nature, but
- Is he saying that order came from chaos?
- What do you see wrong with this idea?
- Is it true simply because some scientists say it is true?
- Is he saying that life came from non-life?
- Remember pasteurized milk and you can remember that life does not come from non-life.
- Louis Pasteur sought a way to preserve food, such as milk, and proved along the way that if no life is present, it will not spontaneously generate.
- Therefore, they do not use that terminology, but others.
- Listen carefully.
- Is he saying that one kind of life turned into another kind of life?
- A princess kissing a frog,
- turning him instantly into a handsome prince is a fairy tale.
- Yet, a frog turning into a handsome prince through millions of years of evolution is science!
- Do we affirm that life came from non-life?
- No, we affirm that God created life.
- He is life.
- What do you say to the evolutionist who then questions where God came from?
- Everyone says that something is eternal.
- Evolutionists = matter
- Creationists = mind
- However, evolutionists place a date on matter, but now they are saying Big Bangs keep reoccurring after Big Crunches.
- God is eternal mind.
- A princess kissing a frog,
- Is he saying that something came from nothing?
- Which Came First: A Human Woman or a Human Baby?
- If a human woman, then a non-human female turned into a human female.
- What caused this to happen?
- Was this evolution or devolution?
- In other words, evolution implies that non-humans are not as developed as humans, that the pre-human animal had more developing to do.
- If a human baby, then a non-human mother gave birth to a human baby.
- What caused this to happen?
- Was this an improvement or not?
- If a human woman, then a non-human female turned into a human female.
- The Interpretation of Fossils
- Fossils only show so much information.
- Yet, the news shows us is fully developed creatures, with hair, body posture, et al., that most of the time we cannot tell from the few bones collected.
- While “Lucy” was extraordinary because of the amount of bones we have of her, evolutionists and atheists still went too far in presenting a picture for us.
- Fossils do not show progress, one direction or the other.
- Fossils only show so much information.
- Refute Atheists and Evolutionists With Two Powerful Weapons
- Argumentation
- Living
Got something to say? Go for it!