Answering Atheism (miracles)
2 views
This is a video responding to the Atheist criticism of the miracles recorded in the Bible. Also included is a brief clip of Christopher Hitchens criticizing a Christian in a debate on this very issue claiming that the Christian view of miracles has nothing to do with science.
- 00:00
- Do you believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin? Yes. Do you believe he was resurrected from the dead?
- 00:07
- Yes I rest my case. I was just made it very plain plain to you science has nothing to do with this
- 00:12
- He rests his case He rests his case. I wanted to do a video response to to this this debate with Christopher Hitchens In this really soundbite criticism
- 00:25
- He throws out and just give a response to the miracles problem in general
- 00:30
- From the atheistic perspective and also to equip some Christians on how to answer that and also to try to hopefully have my atheist friends start asking some deeper questions start digging into their worldview a little bit more than and To try to find some more solid answers rather than just appealing to soundbite criticism
- 00:47
- I want to point out in this debate when Christopher Hitchens says I rest my case That he was doing no damage whatsoever whatsoever in his argumentation against the
- 00:57
- Christian position There's no damage done whatsoever. All he did there was prove that I'm Christopher Hitchens.
- 01:03
- I don't believe in God I don't believe miracles are possible. And so I rest my case
- 01:09
- You say miracles happen. I say they can't happen. So I rest my case I want to point out that all
- 01:15
- Christopher Hitchens did here in this response was just Just display that he is just maintaining his pre commitments against God's existence and against miracles
- 01:24
- He didn't even give any sort of a rational response as to as to why miracles aren't possible
- 01:30
- And so he does no damage whatsoever. He's just basically showing that he's just maintaining his commitment to his disbelief in God So he's only stating his disbelief in God Making the charge and he rests his case and if that's the best that the atheistic worldview has to offer then fine
- 01:45
- Let's answer it I want to point something out that as a banner over this this video That if I'm an atheist and I'm like Christopher Hitchens, I maintain that God doesn't exist and that miracles aren't possible
- 01:58
- And the Christian worldview is wrong Then what happens if I really want to maintain that is this everything's a miracle everything becomes a miracle if you reject the
- 02:09
- Christian worldview with Uniformity in nature and a sovereign God who carries everything along to his intended conclusion if you maintain a
- 02:16
- An atheistic worldview where everything's just random chance occurrences happening over time Then everything's a miracle and I'm gonna flesh that out here
- 02:24
- But I want to just point out that we need to dig in a little deeper than just a sound bites Everyone has pre commitments.
- 02:31
- Everyone has presuppositions. Everyone has a commitment ahead of time Everyone nobody comes into a discussion
- 02:39
- With a blank slate nobody comes in neutral Everybody has a worldview everybody has sort of a lens through which they filter all information coming in Nobody's neutral.
- 02:50
- Everyone has pre commitments through which they regimen their studies and and look at the evidence So everyone does Christopher Hitchens does
- 02:56
- Richard Dawkins does I do every Christian does? So we need to dig in to see which person's worldview is is most
- 03:05
- Most comports with reality which person's worldview is not inconsistent which person's worldview is arbitrary
- 03:13
- Is there somebody borrowing from somebody else's worldview in order to make sense of theirs? These are the questions we need to ask.
- 03:20
- Let me point something out really important to get here from a Christian perspective Miracles aren't a problem for the
- 03:26
- Christian worldview at all To state as Christopher Hitchens did I rest my case this this has nothing to do with science is really
- 03:35
- Not true whatsoever. Here's the Christian position the Christian worldview in a sense of reality we believe in an all -knowing all -powerful sovereign personal
- 03:46
- God who carries everything along to its intended destination and Conclusion he upholds all things by the word of his power
- 03:53
- He is he is an all -powerful God who orders this uniform universe in such a way that there's uniformity
- 03:58
- And so we would expect that if God came into his own creation That God would have the power over his own creation, which he spoke and it leapt into existence
- 04:09
- This God would have the power to control his own creation Being that he's God and so we would expect that if God became a man
- 04:17
- What would we see we would see somebody who would have the ability to walk on water, of course, because he's
- 04:22
- God We'd expect to see somebody that could raise the dead because he's the one that gave life in the first place
- 04:28
- You'd expect to be able to see that you'd expect to be able you'd expect to see that when God becomes a man He has the power the ability to manipulate his own creation and to and to mess with the uniformity in such a way that we'd
- 04:39
- See the miraculous so miracles aren't a problem for the Christian worldview They're expected if God came into the world, and so let's look at the atheistic position for a moment
- 04:49
- What is the atheistic starting point in a sense of a view of reality? Well, it's just random, right?
- 04:55
- It's just chance occurrences happening over time. There's no purposer behind it. No designer
- 05:01
- There is no one maintaining it or controlling it or or as seeing that the laws hold together and he's in a particular way
- 05:07
- It's just randomness. And so if atheism were true We would expect us that there wouldn't be really any uniformity.
- 05:14
- We can't appeal to To uniformity in nature it what I mean by that. Well, if it's just random, then you can't have predictability
- 05:23
- Random and predicted and predictable are two things that are not bedfellows. They don't work together
- 05:29
- So in atheism, it's a universe. That's simply random. It's just happening over time There's no purpose or no design or nobody carrying everything to it along to its intended destination
- 05:39
- And so what's interesting is that atheists don't live that way do they? Atheists live as though there were uniformity in nature as though it were predictable as a matter of fact
- 05:49
- Richard Dawkins Couldn't be a scientist if he didn't believe in the uniformity in nature You can't do science without induction that the future is like the past all
- 05:57
- Atheists believe in the uniformity in nature and that simply clashes with their worldview, doesn't it?
- 06:03
- It shouldn't be uniform. There shouldn't be predictability because it's all random all of us today and got out of bed
- 06:09
- We moved our covers aside We stepped out of bed and we expected gravity to hold us down like it did yesterday and nobody even thought well
- 06:16
- Maybe I'll get out of bed today and I'll float away to the ceiling everyone knew there's predictability that there's uniformity in nature
- 06:22
- Nobody goes and runs and puts their hand into a fire Why because if you've burned yourself in the past, you know from past experience that if I put my hand on this fire today
- 06:31
- It's gonna burn me like it did yesterday. There's uniformity in nature Atheists live as though they're uniformity in nature and yet their worldview says it's just random.
- 06:39
- There shouldn't be uniformity in nature So I want to point something out when the atheist gets out of bed and Moves his covers aside and puts his feet on the ground and stands up and anticipates gravity holding them down like it did yesterday
- 06:51
- That's a miracle It's miraculous When the atheist squeezes squeezes his tube of toothpaste and toothpaste squirts out of it the same way did yesterday
- 07:02
- Well, that's a miracle because it's just randomness. It shouldn't be predictable There shouldn't be uniformity in nature if I'm an atheist and my worldview were true
- 07:10
- I shouldn't be anticipating that tomorrow's gonna be like today and every day that tomorrow is like today that is a
- 07:19
- Miracle because it should just be random shouldn't it? I also want to point out something really important When atheists make the charge against Christians that you know, there's miracles and miracles don't happen.
- 07:30
- So it's not true I want to point something out They're not being really tough -minded intellectually and sent to thinking their worldview through Atheists do believe in miracles and in some pretty big ones to some whoppers
- 07:43
- Let me just point a few out atheists believe that life came from non life that inorganic matter became
- 07:53
- There's some kind of crazy reconfiguration organic matter that's a non moral matter
- 08:02
- Became moral and started expecting everyone else to be moral to that you had non intelligence and it became intelligent
- 08:10
- That takes an enormous amount of blind faith and commitment to a worldview that states that sort of a thing
- 08:18
- Those things are miraculous. And so for the atheist to make the charge against a Christian Well, you know miracles in the
- 08:24
- Bible and so therefore the Bible is not true God doesn't exist because miracles don't happen it doesn't do any damage to the Christian worldview and it's it's a little bit disingenuine because the atheist has
- 08:33
- Precommitments where he does believe in miracles the miraculous he believes happened and is happening.
- 08:39
- And so it really is is Important for Christians to know that you don't need to be bullied by the atheistic worldview
- 08:46
- You don't need to be bullied or or afraid in any way of these soundbite criticisms coming from atheism
- 08:53
- The Bible says hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
- 08:59
- And and the fool says in his heart there is no God now that's not name -calling It's supposed to display the mindset of a person who refuses to accept what is absolutely obvious to everybody
- 09:10
- That is the hit the definition of foolishness And so I I hope that we can begin to get beyond these soundbite
- 09:18
- Criticisms and to be a little more tough -minded Intellectually and dig into these issues a little more so than making these kind of charges like Christopher Hitchens made and I hope that at least
- 09:29
- We've started to scratch the surface on this issue of miracles and worldviews. And so I hope this was a blessing to you guys, and we'll be talking to you soon.