Society & Culture - 1 July 2006

2006-07-01 03:31:39 · 19 answers · asked by bagpuss_kicks_arse 2 in Languages

2006-07-01 03:30:38 · 9 answers · asked by nechannew 2 in Other - Society & Culture

2006-07-01 03:30:07 · 24 answers · asked by sister_godzilla 6 in Other - Society & Culture

A PRACTICAL MAN'S PROOF OF GOD

The existence of God is a subject that has occupied schools of philosophy and theology for thousands of years. Most of the time, these debates have revolved around all kinds of assumptions and definitions. Philosophers will spend a lifetime arguing about the meaning of a word and never really get there. One is reminded of the college student who was asked how his philosophy class was going. He replied that they had not done much because when the teacher tried to call roll, the kids kept arguing about whether they existed or not.

Most of us who live and work in the real world do not concern ourselves with such activities. We realize that such discussions may have value and interest in the academic world, but the stress and pressure of day-to-day life forces us to deal with a very pragmatic way of making decisions. If I ask you to prove to me that you have $2.00, you would show it to me. Even in more abstract things we use common sense and practical reasoning. If I ask you whether a certain person is honest or not, you do not flood the air with dissertations on the relative nature of honesty; you would give me evidence one way or the other. The techniques of much of the philosophical arguments that go on would eliminate most of engineering and technology if they were applied in those fields.

The purpose of this brief study is to offer a logical, practical, pragmatic proof of the existence of God from a purely scientific perspective. To do this, we are assuming that we exist, that there is reality, and that the matter of which we are made is real. If you do not believe that you exist, you have bigger problems than this study will entail and you will have to look elsewhere.

THE BEGINNING

If we do exist, there are only two possible explanations as to how our existence came to be. Either we had a beginning or we did not have a beginning. The Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1 :1). The atheist has always maintained that there was no beginning. The idea is that matter has always existed in the form of either matter or energy; and all that has happened is that matter has been changed from form to

form, but it has always been. The Humanist Manifesto says, "Matter is self-existing and not created," and that is a concise statement of the atheist's belief.

The way we decide whether the atheist is correct or not is to see what science has discovered about this question. The picture below on the left represents our part of the cosmos. Each of the disk shaped objects is a galaxy like our Milky Way. All of these galaxies are moving relative to each other. Their movement has a very distinct pattern which causes the distance between the galaxies to get greater with every passing day. If we had three galaxies located at positions A, B. and C in the second diagram below, and if they are located as shown, tomorrow they will be further apart. The triangle they form will be bigger. The day after tomorrow the triangle will be bigger yet. We live in an expanding universe that gets bigger and bigger and bigger with every passing day.



Now let us suppose that we made time run backwards! If we are located at a certain distance today, then yesterday we were closer together. The day before that, we were still closer. Ultimately, where must all the galaxies have been? At a point! At the beginning! At what scientists call a singularity!

A second proof is seen in the energy sources that fuel the cosmos. The picture to the right is a picture of the sun. Like all stars, the sun generates its energy by a nuclear process known as thermonuclear fusion. Every second that passes, the sun compresses 564 million tons of hydrogen into 560 million tons of helium with 4 million tons of matter released as energy. In spite of that tremendous consumption of fuel, the sun has only used up 2% of the hydrogen it had the day it came into existence. This incredible furnace is not a process confined to the sun. Every star in the sky generates its energy in the same way. Throughout the cosmos there are 25 quintillion stars, each converting hydrogen into helium, thereby reducing the total amount of hydrogen in the cosmos. Just think about it! If everywhere in the cosmos hydrogen is being consumed and if the process has been going on forever, how much hydrogen should be left?

Suppose I attempt to drive my automobile without putting any more gas (fuel) into it. As I drive and drive, what is eventually going to happen? I am going to run out of gas I If the cosmos has been here forever, we would have run out of hydrogen long ago! The fact is, however, that the sun still has 98% of its original hydrogen. The fact is that hydrogen is the most abundant material in the universe! Everywhere we look in space we can see the hydrogen 21 cm line in the spectrum_a piece of light only given off by hydrogen. This could not be unless we had a beginning!

A third scientific proof that the atheist is wrong is seen in the second law of thermodynamics. In any closed system, things tend to become disordered. If an automobile is driven for years and years without repair, for example, it will become so disordered that it would not run any more. Getting old is simple conformity to the second law of thermodynamics. In space, things also get old. Astronomers refer to the aging process as heat death. If the cosmos is "everything that ever was or is or ever will be," as Dr. Carl Sagan is so fond of saying, nothing could be added to it to improve its order or repair it. Even a universe that expands and collapses and expands again forever would die because it would lose light and heat each time it expanded and rebounded.

The atheist's assertion that matter/energy is eternal is scientifically wrong. The biblical assertion that there was a beginning is scientifically correct.

THE CAUSE

If we know the creation has a beginning, we are faced with another logical question_was the creation caused or was it not caused? The Bible states, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Not only does the Bible maintain that there was a cause_a creation_but it also tells us what the cause was. It was God. The atheist tells us that "matter is self-existing and not created." If matter had a beginning and yet was uncaused, one must logically maintain that something would have had to come into existence out of nothing. From empty space with no force, no matter, no energy, and no intelligence, matter would have to become existent. Even if this could happen by some strange new process unknown to science today, there is a logical problem.

In order for matter to come out of nothing, all of our scientific laws dealing with the conservation of matter/energy would have to be wrong, invalidating all of chemistry. All of our laws of conservation of angular momentum would have to be wrong, invalidating all of physics. All of our laws of conservation of electric charge would have to be wrong, invalidating all of electronics and demanding that your TV set not work!! Your television set may not work, but that is not the reason! In order to believe matter is uncaused, one has to discard known laws and principles of science. No reasonable person is going to do this simply to maintain a personal atheistic position.

The atheist's assertion that matter is eternal is wrong. The atheist's assertion that the universe is uncaused and selfexisting is also incorrect The Bible's assertion that there was a beginning which was caused is supported strongly by the available scientific evidence.

THE DESIGN

If we know that the creation had a beginning and we know that the beginning was caused, there is one last question for us to answer--what was the cause? The Bible tells us that God was the cause. We are further told that the God who did the causing did so with planning and reason and logic. Romans 1:20 tells us that we can know God is

"through the things he has made." The atheist, on the other hand, will try to convince us that we are the product of chance. Julian Huxley once said:

We are as much a product of blind forces as is the falling of a stone to earth or the ebb and flow of the tides. We have just happened, and man was made flesh by a long series of singularly beneficial accidents.
The subject of design has been one that has been explored in many different ways. For most of us, simply looking at our newborn child is enough to rule out chance. Modern-day scientists like Paul Davies and Frederick Hoyle and others are raising elaborate objections to the use of chance in explaining natural phenomena. A principle of modern science has emerged in the 1980s called "the anthropic principle." The basic thrust of the anthropic principle is that chance is simply not a valid mechanism to explain the atom or life. If chance is not valid, we are constrained to reject Huxley's claim and to realize that we are the product of an intelligent God.

THE NEXT STEP

We have seen a practical proof of God's existence in this brief study. A flood of questions arise at this point. Which God are we talking about? Where did God come from? Why did God create us? How did God create us?

All of these and many more are answered in the same way_by looking at the evidence in a practical, common sense way. If you are interested in pursuing these things in more detail, we invite you to contact us. We have books, audio tapes, video tapes, correspondence courses, and booklets available and all can be obtained on loan without cost. Just request our catalog from:

DOES GOD EXIST

2006-07-01 03:29:03 · 10 answers · asked by Ihatebush 1 in Religion & Spirituality

2006-07-01 03:27:08 · 8 answers · asked by As I am 3 in Other - Society & Culture

2006-07-01 03:27:05 · 18 answers · asked by deejay 1 in Other - Cultures & Groups

2006-07-01 03:26:54 · 14 answers · asked by aBranch@60-WA ,<>< 4 in Other - Society & Culture

2006-07-01 03:25:11 · 19 answers · asked by sara_x3_babii 3 in Religion & Spirituality

2006-07-01 03:23:25 · 20 answers · asked by ~dalux~ 3 in Religion & Spirituality

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmXI6KZv_YZXvTX94xTgHSjsy6IX?qid=20060701065855AAHKmBW

Why do I have to say the sinners prayer or believe that he did this or that or x, y or z,

why should I conform to this Christians believe or that CHristians believe, why would any ones belief matter,

if what you all are saying is true, and Jesus is the savior of all mankind, and he died for everyones sins, why would it matter what anyone believes?

2006-07-01 03:22:45 · 36 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

2006-07-01 03:21:05 · 4 answers · asked by david w 1 in Other - Society & Culture

2006-07-01 03:20:22 · 14 answers · asked by peace_maker0521 2 in Religion & Spirituality

a lot of choices

2006-07-01 03:20:13 · 9 answers · asked by ronzohooter 4 in Languages

And why haven't you read it?

2006-07-01 03:14:45 · 13 answers · asked by sister_godzilla 6 in Other - Society & Culture

Timothy 2:12
But I don't permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness.

2006-07-01 03:11:22 · 23 answers · asked by KHALID 2 in Religion & Spirituality

Should a group of celibate men dictate the sexual health of a significant proportion of the world?

2006-07-01 03:11:01 · 10 answers · asked by The Yeti 3 in Religion & Spirituality

is the body a temple to god .is church ,mosque or temple really necessary

2006-07-01 03:09:58 · 21 answers · asked by gasp 4 in Religion & Spirituality

2006-07-01 03:09:18 · 11 answers · asked by ronzohooter 4 in Languages

2006-07-01 03:05:43 · 20 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

With a third world war?
A giant meteor?
A huge volcano eruption?
Aliens from outer space?

2006-07-01 03:04:24 · 14 answers · asked by sister_godzilla 6 in Other - Society & Culture

2006-07-01 03:01:37 · 17 answers · asked by Lusty God 2 in Religion & Spirituality

My bf is not really attractive to me but is a good person...we dont sleep together anymore after 4 years, what should I do?

2006-07-01 03:00:57 · 23 answers · asked by blumaxxx59 1 in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender

Just a question but if one day i were go to visit a muslim country...

As a non-muslim i should be able to freely and openly practice my religion of christianity. I should be able to ask their govenment to build a church for me. I should be able to ring my church bells aloud! My children should be able to proudly wear crucifixes in school. And along my other fellow christians we should be able dress down and not cover up (as our bible doesnt say we should) We should be able to express ourselves and indeed have freedom of speech, we should be able pork or beef freely and special provison in place so we can do this, Councils should bend to my every whim based on my religion etc...

If only this would be the case! You just know it wouldnt be in fact you'd probably forced to leave! So now convince me, is Islam (and Muslim states) truly tolerant of other religions?

Incidently the case i brought forth is what i have to witness everyday in the UK!

2006-07-01 03:00:42 · 12 answers · asked by Boon5 3 in Other - Society & Culture

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20060701041511AAsBA65&r=w&pa=FZptHWf.BGRX3OFMhDVSVt3gVzhwJt7w69S4KUTrsw7aNQctlA--#NbUvWDO5UDPAJZL7FdyB

I'm reading a lot of nonsense here to this great question.

2006-07-01 02:58:55 · 35 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

my neighbors it's well after midnight and the fire works are still popping in my yard over my house & next door, and these people know that we arent supposed to pop them in the city limits anyway... I know it only happens twice a year, but It makes me so mad. We are trying to sleep...

2006-07-01 02:57:52 · 21 answers · asked by panda 6 in Etiquette

if you have brown eyes what are your favorite colors

if you have green eyes what are your favorite colors

if you have blue eyes what are your favorite colors

if you have black eyes what are your favorite colors

if you have albino eyes what are your favorite colors

2006-07-01 02:56:54 · 9 answers · asked by sillyatheart3 3 in Other - Society & Culture

have you seen atheist candy in person?
can you describe her from head to foot in details please?

2006-07-01 02:56:23 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Religion & Spirituality

2006-07-01 02:56:03 · 9 answers · asked by digilook 2 in Religion & Spirituality

2006-07-01 02:55:51 · 7 answers · asked by outlaw 1 in Other - Society & Culture

2006-07-01 02:54:55 · 11 answers · asked by chat rani 1 in Other - Cultures & Groups