A Sign For You Now

Aim of this step: To consider what we have learnt so far and what this means in terms of the worldviews and religions of the world.

 

While we can't know many truths to a high degree of certainty (i.e. beyond a reasonable doubt), one of the truths we can be sure about is the existence and nature of God. From the lines of evidence we have discussed earlier and touched on again below (the Cosmological, Teleological, and Moral Arguments), we are able to know beyond a reasonable doubt that a God exists who has certain characteristics.

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From the Cosmological Argument (Also in step 2) we know that God is:

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1. Self-existent, timeless, non-spatial, immaterial (since he created time, space, and matter, he must be outside of time, space, and matter). In other words, he is without limits. That is, he is infinite.

2. Unimaginably powerful, since he created the entire universe out of nothing.

3. Personal, since he chose to convert a state of nothingness into the time-space-material universe (an impersonal force has no ability to make choices).

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From the Teleological Argument (Also in step 2) we know that God is:

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1. Supremely intelligent, since he designed life and the universe with such incredible complexity and precision.

2. Purposeful, since he designed the many forms of life to live in this specific and ordered environment.

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From the Moral Argument we know that God is:

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Absolutely morally pure (He is the unchangeable standard of morality by which all actions are measured. This standard includes infinite justice and infinite love).

 

That’s all well and good, but when we think of a God, why can there only be one infinite being (rather than multiple infinite beings)? I am convinced of the below:

 

- an infinite being lacks nothing by definition

- for two (or more) beings to differ, one must lack something the other has

- but a being that lacks something is not infinite

- therefore, there can only be one infinite being

 

Ultimately, when you get back to the ultimate cause of all things, the being that is infinite and lacks nothing is an un-composed composer. This being is completely maxed out and it does not have any limitations or attributes that are logically impossible. To put it another way, the being is everything and you cannot have two everythings, you can only have one everything.

 

These insights lead us to monotheism – which is the proper term to describe belief in one God. Now here is the amazing truth about these findings: the theistic God we have discovered is consistent with the God of the Bible, but we have discovered him without the use of the Bible.

 

The reason for this is that if monotheism is true, then of the major world religions, only one of the theistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, or Islam) could be true. All other major world religions cannot be true, because they are nontheistic.

 

This may sound like a ridiculous claim, to deny the truth of so many world religions at this stage. But by simple logic (using the Law of noncontradiction), mutually exclusive religions cannot all be true. So, logically, if theism is true, then all non-theisms are false.

 

Now this does not mean that every teaching of a nontheistic religion is false or that there is nothing good in those religions (there is certainly truth and goodness in most world religions). It simply means that as a way of looking at the world (ie a worldview), any nontheistic religion is built on a false foundation. While some details may be true, the core of any nontheistic religious system is false. They are systems of error, even though they have some truth in them.