Week 2 – God’s Existence

Reasons Why People Doubt the Existence of God

• 3 reasons why people doubt God's existence
• 17 Compelling Arguments Atheists Use to Deny God’s Existence
• 4 Reasons Young People Doubt God – Teach One Reach One Ministries
• 5 arguments for and against the existence of God

Trends

• Secularization Begins at Home
• Promise and Peril: The History of American Religiosity and It's Recent Decline
• Why do post-war generations become less religious? - Big Think

What does the Bible say about this?

• However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them. – 2 Kings 17:14-15
• “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, – Isaiah 65:2
• Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. – Hebrews 3:12-19
• But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. – John 8:45
• So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” – John 4:48
• Some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe. – Acts 28:24
• To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. – Titus 1:15
• Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. – 2 Timothy 3:8

Examples of the anti-biblical issues being taught and promoted

• A.A. Hodge – Public Schools are the "Engine" of Atheism
• The Dangers of Religious Instruction in Public Schools
• WHY THERE ALMOST CERTAINLY IS NO GOD

The biblical ways to answer (Apologetic)

• The ’Evidence for Belief’: An Interview with Francis Collins | Pew Research Center
• Twenty Arguments For The Existence Of God - Apologetics.com
• Moral Arguments for the Existence of God (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Is God Real? | Answers in Genesis

To-Do

• Want Your Kids to Stay Christian? Double Down on Home Discipleship

Other Resources to learn more

• The Argument for The Existence of God
• God’s Existence

• Richard Dawkins, "The future looks bright," Guardian, 21 June 2003. (More of Dawkins's dubious insights into religion and atheism.)
• Robin McKie, "Dawkins versus the priests and New Age shamans? No contest," Observer, 9 March 2003.
• Gregg Easterbrook, "'Bullied and Brainwashed,'" Beliefnet.com, January 2004.
• BreakPoint Commentary No. 040308, "Science in the Light of Faith: A Valuable Perspective."
• BreakPoint Commentary No. 040301, "Charles Darwin Knew: Science and Freedom."
• Albert Mohler, "The Devil's Chaplain: Richard Dawkins on Christianity," Crosswalk.com, 25 February 2004.
• Charles W. Colson, "The Devil in the DNA," Christianity Today, 10 August 1998 (reprinted at BreakPoint Online).
• Al Dobras, "It's All about Luck," BreakPoint Online, 7 April 2003.
• Learn more about intelligent design at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.
• See BreakPoint's "Worldview for Parents" pages: "Is What We See All We Get?"; "Micro- and Macroevolution: Is There a Difference?"; and "Did Life Evolve?" "Dispelling the Myth of Darwinism"
• -- Learn more about the June 24-26 Intelligent Design Conference that the Wilberforce Forum and Community Bible Church in Highlands, North Carolina, are cohosting. (Register by April 30 to take advantage of the early bird rate.)