The document discusses arguments for and against the existence of God. It presents the cosmological argument that the universe had a beginning and therefore requires a cause, which some argue is God. It also discusses the fine-tuning of universal constants and conditions necessary for life, and argues this points to intelligent design. Objections addressed include that scientific progress does not support theism, that God is a "gap-filler", and that belief in God could have evolved rather than being true.

1. Does God
Exist?

2. Does God Exist?
“The universe that we observe has precisely the
properties we should expect if there is, at bottom,
no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but
pitiless indifference.”
- Richard Dawkins

3. Does God Exist?
“For since the creation of the world God's invisible
qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have
been clearly seen, being understood from what has
been made...”
- Apostle Paul (Romans 1:20)

4. 1.The Universe
The Cosmological Argument
"…the first question which we have a right to ask
will be, 'Why is there something rather than
nothing?"
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

5. 1.The Universe
1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
The Cosmological Argument

6. 1.The Universe
• Foundational principle
• Empirical support
Everything that begins to exist has a cause.

7. 1.The Universe
1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
The Cosmological Argument

8. 1.The Universe
• Big Bang Cosmology
The universe began to exist.

10. 1.The Universe
• Edwin Hubble - Discovered in 1929 that
the universe is expanding (based on galactic
redshift).
Evidence for Big Bang Cosmology

11. Galactic Redshift

12. 1.The Universe
• George Gamow - Predicted in 1946 that
there would be microwave background
radiation from the extremely hot early
stage of the universe.
• Discovered in 1965
Evidence for Big Bang Cosmology

13. Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

15. 1.The Universe
• Big Bang Cosmology
• 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
The universe began to exist.

16. 1.The Universe
The universe began to exist.
2nd Law of Thermodynamics - in all energy
exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves the system, the
potential energy of the state will always be less than that
of the initial state. (example, heat from a fire disperses)

18. 1.The Universe
• Big Bang Cosmology
• 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
• Borde-Guth-Vilenkin Theorem
The universe began to exist.

19. 1.The Universe
“It is said that an argument is what convinces
reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince
even an unreasonable man.With the proof now in
place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the
possibility of a past-eternal universe.There is no escape,
they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning.”
- Dr. AlexanderVilenkin (agnostic physicist)
The universe began to exist.

20. 1.The Universe
1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
The Cosmological Argument

21. 1.The Universe
• Immaterial - Created all matter
• Timeless - Created time
• Personal
Nature of the cause.

22. 1.The Universe
• Button pushed from eternity (universe would be eternal)
• Button pushed by a physical cause like a Rube Goldberg machine.
• Button pushed by a personal agent.
Nature of the cause.

23. 1.The Universe
1) Abstract objects
2) Minds
Nature of the cause.
2 Types of Immaterial Entities

24. 1.The Universe
"Astronomers now find they have painted themselves into a
corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that
the world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can
trace the seeds of every star, every planet, every living thing in
this cosmos and on the earth.And they have found that all this
happened as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover.
That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces
at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact."
- Dr. Robert Jastrow (agnostic physicist)
The Cosmological Argument

25. 2. Intelligent Life
The Design Argument
“…Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually
fulfilled atheist.”
- Richard Dawkins

26. 2. Intelligent Life
1. Cosmological Constant (10^53)
Examples of Fine-Tuning

27. 2. Intelligent Life
• Controls the expansion rate of the
universe.
• Too Large = Universe flies apart
• Zero or Negative = Universe collapses
• 1 in 10^53
The Cosmological Constant

29. 2. Intelligent Life
1. Cosmological Constant (10^53)
2. Gravity (10^36)
Examples of Fine-Tuning

30. 2. Intelligent Life
• Too Strong = Land based animals larger
than insects crushed.
• Zero or Negative = No stars or solid
bodies could form.
• 10^36
Gravity

31. 2. Intelligent Life
1. Cosmological Constant (10^53)
2. Gravity (10^36)
3. Multi-Parameter Combinations
Required for Existence of Stars
(10^229)
Examples of Fine-Tuning

32. 2. Intelligent Life
Parameters Required for Star Formation
“Were the neutron heavier by only one percent,
the proton light by the same amount, the electron
twice as massive, its electric charge twenty
percent stronger, the neutrino as massive as the
electron etc. there would be no stable nuclei at
all.There would be no stars, no chemistry.The
universe would be just hydrogen gas . . . .”
- Dr. Lee Smolin (atheist physicist)

33. 2. Intelligent Life
Parameters Required for Star Formation
“To illustrate how truly ridiculous this number is, we might note
that the part of the universe we can see from earth contains
about 10^22 stars which together contain about 10^80
protons and neutrons.These numbers are gigantic, but they are
infinitesimal compared to 10^229. In my opinion , a probability
this tiny is not something we can let go unexplained. Luck will
certainly not do here; we need some rational explanation of
how something this unlikely turned out to be the case.”
- Dr. Lee Smolin (atheist physicist)

34. 2. Intelligent Life
1. The fine-tuning of the universe is due to
chance, physical necessity, or design.
2. The fine-tuning is not due to chance or
physical necessity.
3. Therefore, the fine-tuning of the universe is
due to design.
The Design Argument

35. 2. Intelligent Life
1. No evidence yet for a Grand Unified Theory
2. Does not account for the initial conditions of the
universe.
3. Grand Unified Theories don’t necessarily eliminate
fine-tuning
Fine-Tuning: Due to Physical Necessity?

36. 2. Intelligent Life
Fine-Tuning: Due to Physical Necessity?
“Despite all the progress in gauge theories, quantum gravity,
string theory etc. not one of these problems has been solved.
Not one mass or coupling constant of any particle considered
now to be elementary has ever been explained by fundamental
theory.”
- Dr. Lee Smolin (atheist physicist)

37. 2. Intelligent Life
1. Hit the bullseye by sheer luck.
2. Increase the size of the bullseye
3. Throw lots of darts
Fine-Tuning: Due to Chance?

38. 2. Intelligent Life
Hitting the bullseye by luck
• If the universe were not life-permitting, we
would not be here to notice!

39. 2. Intelligent Life
The Firing Squad Analogy

40. 2. Intelligent Life
The Firing Squad Analogy
1. We should NOT be surprised that we DON’T
observe that we are dead.
2. We SHOULD be surprised to observe that we
are alive.

41. 2. Intelligent Life
Increasing the size of the bullseye
1. Are all fine-tuning examples mistaken?
2. Could there be other, exotic forms of life?

42. 2. Intelligent Life
Throwing lots of darts - The Multiverse Hypothesis
1. Doesn’t necessarily explain fine-tuning
2. The Multiverse requires fine-tuning

43. 2. Intelligent Life
Example: Andre Linde’s Chaotic Inflation Multiverse
1. Supply the energy needed for the bubble universes
2. Form the bubbles
3. Convert the energy of inflaton field to the normal mass/energy we
find in our universe.
4. Allow enough variation in constants of physics among universes.
Requires mechanisms to:

44. 2. Intelligent Life
Throwing lots of darts - The Multiverse Hypothesis
1. Doesn’t necessarily explain fine-tuning
2. The Multiverse requires fine-tuning
3. Observational evidence against the Multiverse

45. 2. Intelligent Life
Throwing lots of darts - The Multiverse Hypothesis
Odds of a Fine-Tuned Universe
10^10(123)
Odds of our Solar System forming by random particle collision
10^10(60)
Calculations by Roger Penrose

46. 2. Intelligent Life
The Teleological Argument
. . .A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a
superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with
chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth
speaking about in nature.The numbers one calculates from the
facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion
almost beyond question.
- Dr. Fred Hoyle (atheist astronomer)

47. Questions?

48. OBJECTIONS

49. Scientific Progress vs.Theism?
1. The Beginning of the Universe
2. Fine-Tuning
3. Spontaneous Generation and the Origin of Life
Pro Theism
Against Theism?
1. Theory of Evolution
2. Weather Phenomena

50. God of the Gaps?
1. Philosophical arguments merely supported by current
scientific evidence.
2. Conclusions follow from premises, whether we like the
conclusions or not.

51. Could There Be Multiple Gods?
1. Possibly, but this would still be theism and it would refute
naturalism/atheism.
2. Occam’s Razor would suggest that additional gods should
be shaved away in favor of the simplicity of single-God
theism.

52. Any Evidence for Christian Theism?
1. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
2. The empty tomb.
3. Post-mortem appearances to Jesus’ followers (including
the conversion of Saul of Tarsus and Joseph, brother of
Jesus)
4. Origination of the Christian faith in spite of severe
disadvantages.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

53. Is Belief in God Evolved?
Genetic Fallacy - When an idea is either
accepted or rejected because of its source,
rather than its merit.

54. How Could God Cause the Universe
Without Time?
Simultaneous Causation - The second main
argument against the causal order being the temporal
order is that simultaneous causation is possible.
Indeed, it might seem that simultaneous causation
occurs in the actual world, for instance when an iron
ball depresses a cushion (Kant 1965,Taylor 1966,
Brand 1980).
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/causation-metaphysics/

55. Hartle-Hawking Model?
1. Susceptible to the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin Theorem.
2. Uses concept of ‘imaginary time’ to avoid the singularity, a
dubious metaphysical move.

56. Contra Borde-Guth-Vilenkin Theorem?
“For many physicists, the beginning of the universe is
uncomfortable, because it suggests that something must
have caused the beginning, that there should be some
cause outside the universe,”
- AlexanderVilenkin

57. QuantumVacuum Fluctuations
“The processes described here do not represent the
creation of matter out of nothing, but the conversion
of pre-existing energy into material form.”
- Dr. Paul Davies (agnostic physicist)
An Exception to the Causal Premise?