This will be my last and final
post in my 5 part series on the philosophy of the existence of God. I have enjoyed
writing these and I hope that all who read them, found them just as enjoyable.
This post will be my conclusion and reflection over all of the material and
theology that I had gone over during these past couple of days. First off, I
would like to once again use John Frame’s definition for systematic theology,
which is, ““any study that answers the question, “What does the whole Bible
teach us today?” about any given topic.” This definition was and is crucial,
both for my research and for the on going study of Scripture, and was part of
the foundation for what came to follow. The second part of the foundation of my
research was the Inerrancy of Scripture, which is the, “means that Scripture in
the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to
fact.”(p.91) I incorporated this section into my posts, both to back up
Scriptural reliability and also because it is an interesting form of systematic
theology. After having both of the foundational theologies laid, I moved on to
the first point made by Wayne Grudem in his book, systematic Theology, which
was, “Humanity’s inner sense of God.” This point explained that the fact that
all humans have this thought that there must be a God, probably because God had
put this familiar thought into our minds and hearts. Romans 1:18-20 gives us
evidence of that. The second point that was covered was, “Believing the
evidence in Scripture and in nature.” This philosophy states that, “The
evidence that God exists is of course found throughout the Bible. In fact, the
Bible everywhere assumes that God exists. The first verse of Genesis does not
present evidence for the existence of God but begins immediately to tell us
what he has done: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If
we are convinced that the Bible is true, then we know from the bible not only
that God exists but also very much about his nature and his acts.”(p.142) And
finally, the last section that I had covered in my posts was the, “Traditional
“proofs” for the existence of God.”
This section was one of my
favorite points that are made in this particular philosophy, as you can see
from my 900-word post on it. Grudem categorizes these “proofs” into four
sections, which are: The cosmological, teleological, ontological, and moral
arguments. Overall, the philosophy of the existence of God is explained by: our
sense that there is a God, what we can and have read in scripture and what can
be observed in nature, and through a series of traditional arguments known as
“proofs”. I hope that those of you who took the time to read my blog series
have at least considered this philosophy and I hope that it inspires some to do
their own search for wisdom.
Proverbs
4:6-7 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and
she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever you get, get insight.
Colossians
2:2-3 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together
in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the
knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Thanks, Jacob. As I indicated in our unexpectedly-heated class discussion, the idea that "all humans have this thought that there must be a God" (etc.) strikes me as palpably false. It's an insult, intended or not, to all the atheists, agnostics, secularists, humanists, and skeptics who've pointedly observed and explained the absence of any such thought, and the lack of evidence they detect for it. And the question must also always be addressed: which God? Whose?
ReplyDeleteBottom line: those who lack faith still find every formal argument for the existence of god unimpressive. Those who find it impressive tend to believe already, on the basis of faith and not argument. It was ever thus.