End of Reason – Ravi Zacharias There is something rather than nothing – a

mystery that leaves science totally silent.

Meaning
Sam Harris “End of Faith” and “Letter to a
If life is random, then the inescapable
Christian Nation”
consequence, first and foremost, is that there
“more heat than light” can be no ultimate meaning and purpose to
existence. This consequence is the existential
“big bucks in the atheist racket” Achilles’ heel of atheistic belief.

Any purpose of our being is as random as any

Michael Ruse cause of our being (?)

Scott Atran “We may yearn for a higher answer but none
exists…. We must construct these answers
Antony Flew ourselves from our own wisdom and ethical
Sarte sense… there is no other way.” – Stephen Jay
Gould
Voltaire
Its silence is deafening
Nietzshe

Michel Foucault
“The whole universe as nothing more than
Albert Camus “The Myth of Sisyphus” molecules in motion
“There is only one really serious philosophical
question and that is suicide…”

Everyone has a worldview, offers answers to If it were pain alone that brought emptiness, I
four necessary questions: would at least half grant the atheist’s point….
Origin, Morality, Meaning, Destination Pleasure not pain is the death knell of
Big Bang Cosmology implies there is indeed meaning
“in the beginning”

“Let us recognize these speculations for what Meaninglessness does not come from being
they are, they are not physics but in the weary of pain but from being weary of
strictest sense metaphysics” – John pleasure – G.k. Chesterton
Polkinghorne, mathematical physics

“Reason might conceivably be found to

depend on [another reason] and son on; it Pleasure without boundaries produces life
would not matter how far this process was without purpose
carried provided you found Reasom coming Apart from a moral framework, pleasure is a
from Reason at each stage. It is only when you sure path to sensual bankruptcy.
are asked to believe in Reason coming from
non-reason that you must cry Halt.” – C.S. Moral framework
Lewis, Miracles
Differentiate between good and evil
The inescapable fact for the atheist is that life
Russell vs. Copleston
is the random product of time plus matter
plus chance.
No logical explanation for how that intuition Aldous Huxley .. wrote.. that he wanted the
toward morality could develop from sheer world not to have meaning so that he would
matter and chemistry be set free from all moral demands of religion.

 If there is evil, there must be good Richard Dawkins … admits .. that science has
 When here is good there must be no methods or authority for deciding what is
moral law ethical.
 When there is moral law there must
be a lawgiver
… when Islam is in a position of power, Islamic
“…Pure practical reason, even with a good
beliefs are forced on everyone, and that when
knowledge of the facts will not take you to
atheism has the upper hand, atheistic beliefs
morality.” – Kai Nielsen, Canadian
are enforced on everyone? Only in Christianity
Philosopher, Athesit
is the privilege given both to believe and
If the murder of innocents is wrong, it is disbelieve without any enforcement.
wrong not because science tells us it is wrong
but because every life has intrinsic worth – a
postulate that atheism simply cannot deduce. There is one fundamental difference between
God allowing a death to take place and me
taking another life: God has the power to
… to forfeit ultimate justice beyond the grave restore life; I don’t. The story of evil is one
is no big loss because of the momentary part of a greater narrative.
pleasures of existence in the here and now.

CIPA – Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with

“Why is a moral lawgiver necessary in order to Anhidrosis. People with this disease feel no
recognize good and evil? For the simple pain, nor do they seat or shed tears.
reason that a moral affirmation cannot remain
an abstraction. The person who moralizes
assumes intrinsic worth in himself and
transfers intrinsic worth to the life of another,
and thus he or she considers that life worthy
of protection. Transcending value must come The difference between someone who calls
from a person of transcending worth. But in a himself a Christian and yet kills and slaughters
world which matter alone exists there can be and an atheist who does the same thing is
no intrinsic worth. that the Christian is acting in violation of his or
her own belief, while the atheist’s action is
 Objective moral values exist only if
the legitimate outworking of his or her belief.
God exists.
 Objective moral values do exist
 Therefore God exists
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed
“… when God decides who should live or die, creature, the heart of a heartless world, the
he is immoral. When you decide who should soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of
live or die, it’s your moral right. the people … Religion is only the illusory sun
which revolves around man as long as he does
not revolve around himself.” – Karl Marx
 For the Hebrews, redemption always
precedes righteousness, and worship is always
Where does this kind of sacrificial love come
preceded by redemption and righteousness.
from? This is what a philosopher would call a
“supererogatory act” a morally good act that
goes well above and beyond the call of duty.
May I suggest to you that the Chanceys risked
their lives as the stronger to protect the “Equality is a lie concocted by inferior people
weaker, which completely goes against who arrange themselves in herds to
natural selection. overpower those who are naturally superior
to them. The morality of ‘equal rights’ is herd
The ultimate test of any civilization is what we
morality, and because it opposes the
do with our children, and our children are not
cultivation of superior individuals, it leads to
doing very well. From abortion to child
the corruption of the human species.” –
pornography, atheistic philosophy is having its
Nietzsche
way with our children.

Jesus worked by changing the heart, not by

legislating. Legislation can only force
The Two Tests of Pascal’s Wager compliance. It can never produce the love
necessary to change an attitude.
The French philosopher didn’t say he was
wagering his belief. He was essentiallysaying
that there are two tests for belief: the
“there are only two kinds of people in the
empirical test- that which is based on
end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,’
investigation, and the existential test- that
and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy
which is based on personal experience.
will be done.’” – C.S. Lewis
By denying the existence of God, Harris leaves
himself just one option in his pursuit of
happiness and purpose, namely, the “To love righteousness is to make it grow, not
existential test of self-fulfillment. to avenge it. Throughout his life on earth,
Jesus resisted every impulse to work more
rapidly for a lower good.” – George
Is that the endgame? Get rid of the moralizers MacDonald
so that we can clear the playing field?
“Moral force, to be sure, is a risky form of
power. Compared to the glaring reality of
brute force, it may appear weak and
The piece de resistance ….
ineffectual. But it has its own way of
conquering.” – Philip Yancey

In the statement, “I am the LORD your God, “Science can’t tell you whether it’s right or
who brought you out of Egypt,” two precepts wrong… but it can tell you it’s up to you.”??
aree being taught: 1. All moral reasoning is
based on the actuality of God and 2. ..the issue of the value of life is about more
Righteousness or morality cannot be attained than mathematics. Science is lame when it
without redemption. comes to moral decisions; it limps as it walks,
lacking an absolute moral law for life’s most amazing combinations-combinations too
purpose. amazing to have just happened by accident.

Stage one, no physical entity explains its own

existence.
Stage two, gives a challenge to demonstrate
To Sam Harris, a self-described atheist, human one example of order coming from disorder.
beings can be nothing more than their Stage three, deals with the course of human
reducible chemicals. To believers in the events – historical, social, and individual.
person of Jesus, we are made in the image of
Jesus in the Course of Human Events
God. Our sum total is greater than our parts.
A look at human history – and specifically at
the person and work of Jesus Christ – shows
why he was who he claimed to be and why
If religion stands in the way of saving people, millions follow him today.
these people have infinite worth. But if the For the follower of Jesus, that fact that the
scientist stands in the way of preserving universe cannot explain itself, added to the
human life, the embryo is “nothing more than obvious intelligence behind the universe,
a dot.” linked to the historical and experiential
verification of what Jesus taught and did,
make belief in him a very rational and
An Argument for the Existence of God existentially fulfilling reality.
Dallas Willard, 3 stage approach:

1. Logical consistency One thing harris has left unaddressed is how

2. Empirical adequacy to persuade the human heart to do, and to
3. Experiential relevance want to do, that which is true, good, and
No Physical Entity Explains its Own Existence beautiful. Technological advance without
Regardless of how physical, concrete reality is virtue in the technician is the nuclear button
sectioned out, we end up with a state where in the hands of a madman.
the evidence of any physical enity explaining
its own existence is zero.
We cannot have an infinite series of causes in
time, starting from the present of any “Reality is a multi-layered unity. I can perceive
completed state and moving backward in another person as an aggregation of atoms,
search of an ultimate cause, because if the an open biochemical system in interaction
sequence were infinite, we would never arrive with the environment, a specimen of homo
at the present. sapiens, an object of beauty, someone whose
Therefore, in order for there to be something, needs deserve my respect and compassion, a
there must be at least one state that is self- brother for whom Christ died. All are true and
existent and does not derive its existence all mysteriously coinhere in that one person.
from something else. And it must be To deny one of these levers is to diminish
something nonphysical. both that person and myself, the perceiver; to
The Design Shows Intelligence do less than justice to the richness of reality.
Argument to design. The argument here is not Part of the case for theism is that in God the
of aesthetic design but of intelligent Creator, the ground of all that is, these
specificity. The “raw materials” that have different levels find their lodging and their
been brought together simultaneously in the guarantee. He is the source of connection, the
one whose creative act holds in one the
worldviews of science, aesthetics, ethics and
religion, as expressions of his reason, joy, will,
and presence.”
-John Polkinghorne, Anglican priest, former
professor, “One World”