The Secular Objection, Part 2 “Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, … ...in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori... ...(note: a priori is a Latin term used to refer to that which is known prior to or independent of experience) adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. ...Moreover the materialism is absolute for we cannot allow a divine foot in the door.” Richard Lewontin
 “I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” 
Thomas Nagel Two Clear Options: 1. No one created something out of nothing (Atheistic view) 2. Someone created something out of nothing (Theistic view) Divine Hiddenness Objection: Premise 1: There are people who are capable of relating personally to God but who, through no fault of their own, fail to believe. Premise 2: If there is a personal God who is unsurpassably great, then there are no such people. Conclusion: So, there is no such God (from 1 and 2). “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20) The Problem of Suffering and Evil Objection 1) If God is all-good, He will destroy evil. 2) If God is all-powerful He can destroy evil. 3) But evil is not destroyed. 4) Therefore, there is no all-good, all-powerful God. “If you tell me that God created the universe, then I have the right to ask you, ‘Who created God?” Richard Dawkins Generated Universe Demands A Generator (Cosmological Argument) “We never see things coming into being uncaused out of nothing. Nobody worries that while he’s away at work, say, a horse might pop into being, uncaused, out of nothing, in his living room, and be there defiling the carpet. We don’t worry about those kind of things because they never happen.” William Lane Craig Ordered Design Demands A Designer (Teleological Argument) Determined Moral Law Demands A Law Giver (Moral Argument) Generated Universe Demands A Generator (Cosmological Argument) “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…” (Genesis 1:1) Ordered Design Demands A Designer (Teleological Argument) “The heavens declare the glory of God, And the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, Whose voice is not heard.(A Psalm of David 19:1-2) Three Key Convincers of Design: 1. Anthropic Principle 2. Human DNA 3. Irreducible Complexity (Cells) Determined Moral Law Demands A Law Giver (Moral Argument) Objections Against the Moral Law Morality Is Determined By Your Culture Morality Is Determined By Your Upbringing Morality Is Determined By Your Education Morality Is Determined By Your Observations Morality Is Determined By Your Intuitions Morality Is Determined by YOU! The truth of the matter is: MORALITY IS BUILT IN FROM BIRTH! “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” Romans 2:14-15 Three Moral Observations: 1. We wouldn’t know what injustice is unless there is such a thing as justice. 2. We wouldn’t know what wrong is unless there is such a thing as wrong. 3. We wouldn’t know what guilt is unless there was such a thing as innocence. “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries” 
-Robert Jastrow, late astrophysicist
 God & the Astronomers