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8/11/2019 TheismAthesimRevised030110 (1)
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God or Not
Theism vs. Naturalism (Atheism)
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C ristian T eism
Principle #1
God is infiniteand
person l(triune),
tr ns endentand
imm nent, omnis ient,
sovereignand good
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C ristian T eism
Principle #3 Human beings are created in the
image of God and thus possess
personality, self-transcendence,
intelligence, morality,
gregariousness and creativity.
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C ristian T eism
Principle #4
Human beings can know both
the world around them and God
himself because God has built
into them the capacity to do soand because he takes an active
role in communicating with them
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C ristian T eism
Principle #5
Human beings were created good, but through the Fall the image
of God became defaced, though not so ruined as not to becapable of restoration; through the work of Christ, God redeemed
humanity and began the process of restoring people to goodness,
though any given person may choose to reject that redemption.
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C ristian T eism
Principle #6 For each person death is either
the gate to life with God and his
people or the gate to eternal
separation from the only thingthat will ultimately fulfill human
aspirations.
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C ristian T eism
Principle #7
Ethics is transcendent and is
based on the character of God
as good (holy and loving).
C
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C ristian T eism
Principle #8
History is linear, a
meaningful sequence of
events leading to the
fulfillment of Gods
purposes for humanity.
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God isnt Atheistic
Naturalism
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Naturalism Defined
The dominant view in our culture today isradically one-dimensional: that this life isall there is, and nature is all we need to
explain everything that exists. This is, atheart, the philosophy of naturalism, andnot only has it permeated the classroomcurriculum, but it has also been expressed
widely in popular culture(Colson/Pearcy, How Now Shall we Live, p.52).
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A Philosopher speaks...
The world is like a gigantic machine whose
parts are so numerous and w hose processes are
so com plex that we have thus far been able to
achieve only a very part ial and fragmentary
understanding of how i t wo rks. In pr incip le,
how ever everyth ing that occurs is u l t imately
expl icable in terms of the propert ies and relat ion s
of the part ic les of which m atter is com posed.
Once again the point may be simply s tated:determinism is true(William Halverson, A conciseintroduction to philosophy, 1976, p. 394).
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Johnsons Definition
Naturalism is a metaphysical doctrine, which
means simply that it states a particular view
of what is ultimately real and unreal.
According to naturalism, what is ultimatelyreal is nature, which consists of the
fundamental particles that make up what we
call matter and energy, together with the
natural laws that govern how those particles
behave(Phillip Johnson, Reason in the Balance, p.37-38).
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Basic Beliefs
Only nature exists.
Nature has always existed.
Nature is characterized by total uniformity. Nature is a deterministic system.
Nature is a materialistic system.
Nature is a self-explanatory system.
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Naturalisms View of God
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Naturalisms View of the
Cosmos The cosmos exists as a uniformity of
cause and effect in a closed system.
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Naturalisms View of Man
Human beings are complex
machines; personality is an
interrelation of chemical andphysical properties we do not yet
fully understand.
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Naturalisms View of Death
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Naturalisms View of History
History is a linear stream of
events linked by cause and
effect but without an
overarching purpose.
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Naturalisms View of Ethics
Ethics is related only to human beings.
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Naturalism Results
A Matter of Life
It all begins with the attitude that
there is such a thing as a life not
worthy to be lived. Todays statisticsshow that up to 90% of expectant
parents who receive a prenatal
diagnosis of Downs syndrome willabort their baby. (Life is Sacred video
Focus on the Family)
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