27
votes
Accepted
Have any major Christian intellectuals responded to Stephen Hawking's "The Grand Design"?
God and Stephen Hawking, by John C. Lennox, is a popular direct reply to The Grand Design.
Alister McGrath calls it "a brilliant response," and the book won an Award of Merit in Christianity Today'...
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16
votes
Accepted
How can one counter-argue this argument against the existence of God?
The original argument says:
If God is the Creator, He cannot be perfect. For either God created the world desiring it or not desiring it. If he did not wish it, it implies that he does not have total ...
- 1,504
10
votes
Accepted
If God is perfect, do we live in the best of all possible worlds?
To be able to answer this question, a definition of goodness is required, perhaps as a mathematical function of a given world, such that you can make objective comparisons of the form:
Goodness (...
- 1,504
9
votes
How can one counter-argue this argument against the existence of God?
Mark had a good answer, to which I will add a separate angle.
The word "perfect" can mean essentially two things in English:
Flawless/pure; and
Complete/finished.
It appears to me that the ...
- 1,655
9
votes
How can one counter-argue this argument against the existence of God?
Even as a heathen atheist and cultural Jew I can see the problem with this. Any argument based on "God is perfect" presumes that we're able to judge what perfection is. The argument you ...
- 199
7
votes
Isn't it illogical for an atheist to go to hell?
It is illogical for an atheist to think they would go to hell.
Given they have arrived at the conclusion God does not exist, then they must also disbelieve in any place of eternal torment after death.
...
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7
votes
Isn't it illogical for an atheist to go to hell?
The illogic is in the question itself.
You say: “God gives me reason. … God doesn't exist”.
Asking a question based on two mutually exclusive facts doesn't make logical sense.
One can't believe both ...
- 8,302
6
votes
Accepted
Is there a possible compatibility between immutability and God's mercy?
I have to stop you at your first point.
Yes, God is immutable--changeless in His essence as God. However, one needs to make a distinction between His attributes that never change and His methods that ...
- 9,703
5
votes
Is belief or faith the same as idolatry?
To paraphrase your question, it seems like you're asking if the transcendence of God precludes true knowledge of God.
The answer is no.
The transcendence of God means that God is beyond our full ...
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5
votes
The Biblical God and the Kalam Cosmological Argument
That version of the Cosmological Argument simply points to the universe having a cause. The Christian response would be that the cause is God. Science confirms that the universe must have had a ...
- 29.7k
4
votes
Have any major Christian intellectuals responded to Stephen Hawking's "The Grand Design"?
John Lennox's book: Gunning for God - Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target directly covers and quotes this exact passage from Hawking you quoted, and addresses it. I am reading it at the moment....
- 49
4
votes
Accepted
How do Christians justify lack of God's intervention during events where neonates get killed?
Summary
While God does not do miraculous divine intervention in most sufferings it does NOT mean He should do so. What you ask is a theodicy, which many Christians have attempted. In the next ...
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4
votes
Isn't it illogical for an atheist to go to hell?
God gave reason to more than yourself. Though it seems illogical for an atheist to credit God with giving you such a sublime faculty. Leaving that aside, consider the following logical points. The ...
- 26.8k
4
votes
Isn't it illogical for an atheist to go to hell?
In Christianity we believe that reason is NOT the only tool that God gave us. He also revealed Himself in his miraculous and covenantal dealings with his chosen people Israel starting with Abraham (...
- 22.2k
4
votes
How can one counter-argue this argument against the existence of God?
I would ask him first, "How do you know that God is not perfect? What he is doing is making "an argument from silence." One cannot make a positive assertion of truth based on what is ...
- 4,693
4
votes
If God is perfect, do we live in the best of all possible worlds?
But it is not very difficult to imagine a better world than this.
For this to be true, it would be necessary that:
the imagined world lack contradictions or absurdities
our estimation of the ...
- 2,764
3
votes
Isn't it illogical for an atheist to go to hell?
Romans 1:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is ...
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3
votes
How do Christians justify lack of God's intervention during events where neonates get killed?
I could start by asking you to read carefully God's words to Job at the end of the book (Job 38-41). And you will see that you will not have another answer to God's question "Shall he that ...
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3
votes
How do we know the unmoved mover for any given change must be singular and lack potential?
DISTINCTION OF ACT AND POTENCY.
This distinction arose from the Parmenides objection. Let me summarise the argument why the change is not possible and then I will resolve the argument.
Proposition (...
- 2,029
3
votes
The Biblical God and the Kalam Cosmological Argument
No, but there is some elaboration:
The cause of the universe must be a personal being; if it were some impersonal set of conditions, then the universe would always have existed as nothing could have ...
- 1,678
3
votes
How can one counter-argue this argument against the existence of God?
The argument never addresses the possibility God intentionally created a world that suits him. It leaves this option completely open. It just so happens this is the result Christians claim. ...
- 5,439
3
votes
If God is perfect, do we live in the best of all possible worlds?
God is supposed to be perfect.
The word "perfect" has multiple meanings and a whole host of possible implications. You can't really draw conclusions from "God is perfect" without ...
- 326
3
votes
Is there a possible compatibility between immutability and God's mercy?
God is righteous.
He has revealed himself so to be by his not sparing his own Son, but - for the sake of His Own righteousness - he has caused his own Son to suffer on behalf of others.
Thus he has ...
- 23.6k
3
votes
Accepted
Objections to Natural Theology at the Time of Vatican I
That canon anathematizes the fideists, who thought
that faith is the only or ultimate source of all knowledge of God and spiritual things. The name was originally coined by followers of Kant (1724-...
- 38.5k
2
votes
Why do other religions exist if Yahweh is the one true God?
The premise in the question :
Does this signify that there is in fact no reason for God to mind the existence of other fictional Gods, which further implies that God actually doesn't care about us ...
- 23.6k
2
votes
What can be the Christian defence of the argument from J.L. Schellenberg’s “Divine Hiddenness”?
Two meanings of "divine hiddenness"
First, it's important to note (as the Stanford Encyclopedia entry makes clear in the first 2 paragraphs) that "divine hiddenness" as used in ...
- 22.2k
2
votes
Isn't it illogical for an atheist to go to hell?
For the Gospel to be illogical, one or more of these would have to obtain:
It is internally inconsistent
It makes nonsensical statements that have no meaning
It is inconsistent with the laws of logic
...
- 11.4k
2
votes
Accepted
What is the biblical basis for saying God is a Subsistent Being?
Thanks to the new tag, 'aeseity', I've learned the definition for this, as representing God as absolutely independent and self-existent by nature. My problem now lies in seeing how 'subsistent' ...
- 26.8k
2
votes
What is the biblical basis for saying God is a Subsistent Being?
A self-subsisting being means that its essence (what it intrinsically is) is "to exist" (existence) itself.
The best biblical evidence is Exodus 3:14, "I am Who am." (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה ...
- 38.5k
2
votes
How do Christians justify lack of God's intervention during events where neonates get killed?
This question incorrectly assumes that God is currently micromanaging the world.
But the Bible calls Satan "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), and "the prince of this world&...
- 8,302
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