Arguments for a PERSONAL God?

[stina2bina]

Hi there,

I recently posted asking for help with a physicist friend who struggled with any belief in God. You all gave me great evidence that I then brought to him. He now admits that it is not unreasonable to believe in a Creator of some sort (YAY great job team ) although he did say all the info presented to him were just hypothese still, meaning any of his weird theories (that I barely understand at all) could be just as valid.

Anywho, now he agrees that it is perfectly logical that I believe in a Creator, but that it is difficult to see why I believe God is interacting with us here on earth. He said that besides “the beginning”, there is no scientific evidence that this God cared any more from that point forth.

He also asked one question that I have no idea how to approach: If our God is the same God that has been around since the beginning, and is NOT a social construct designed to control the masses, why does He change so much in character between the Old and New Testaments… any idea?

THANKS ALL! For those who made this statement, I KNOW he needs to soften his heart to truly accept Christ, but frankly I feel like that’s not going to happen until he realizes by doing so he is not abandoning his #1 love - science.

 

[MarcoPolo]

If he acknowledges a “beginning” First Cause God, that’s a good start. I think anyone who goes through the cycle of reason has no choice but to conclude that.

As to the Christian God, I think you should say that your faith is not based on a scientific proposition. Our faith is transmitted by the witness of the Apostles and early martyrs who testify to the reality of Christ and his life, death, and resurrection. As Paul says, if Christ is not raise, the faith is in vain. You’d have to delve into the veracity of Christ’s reality, and there are a number of source you could find on the subject. But our faith is helped by such “signs” as Christ’s very life, the witness of the early Christians, the martyrs, miracles that defy science in His name even unto today, etc…

Plus, I cannot leave out the reality of the prophecy that Christ fulfilled. This was one of the compelling factors that convinced many of the first Jewish converts. Fulfillment of prophecy, too, is a sign of the truth of Christ.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

Hi there,

I recently posted asking for help with a physicist friend who struggled with any belief in God. You all gave me great evidence that I then brought to him. He now admits that it is not unreasonable to believe in a Creator of some sort (YAY great job team ) although he did say all the info presented to him were just hypothese still, meaning any of his weird theories (that I barely understand at all) could be just as valid.

Anywho, now he agrees that it is perfectly logical that I believe in a Creator, but that it is difficult to see why I believe God is interacting with us here on earth. He said that besides “the beginning”, there is no scientific evidence that this God cared any more from that point forth.

He also asked one question that I have no idea how to approach: If our God is the same God that has been around since the beginning, and is NOT a social construct designed to control the masses, why does He change so much in character between the Old and New Testaments… any idea?

THANKS ALL! For those who made this statement, I KNOW he needs to soften his heart to truly accept Christ, but frankly I feel like that’s not going to happen until he realizes by doing so he is not abandoning his #1 love - science.

Here is a list of Christian scientists/thinkers throughout history, not exhaustive, follows the links. It proves that these great men so no conflict between scienc and belief.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_thinkers_in_science

Science cannot prove that God is not necessary, nor that he does not exist. So your friend has placed his faith in science. His position is one of faith, not based on science or reason.

Reasoning to the necessary existence of God cannot arbitrairly dismissed by science. That is an invalid and prejudiced assertation.

On the other hand Scholastic Philosophy has demonstrated that the existence of God is necessary because the universe cannot account for its existence, its evident efficient causality, its orderedness, nor directedness.

Read " Aquinas " by Edward Feser.

 

[Robyn_p]

He also asked one question that I have no idea how to approach: If our God is the same God that has been around since the beginning, and is NOT a social construct designed to control the masses, why does He change so much in character between the Old and New Testaments… .

This one for me used to bother me as well, until I realized, it’s not God who’s changed, but us. This is the way I look at it…my own earthly father treats me SOOO much different now than he did when I was a kid. Man, I was sometimes scared of him! (In a good way, only when I did something wrong, which tended to happen a lot) whoooeeee if me or my brother and sister broke our bed time…usually some spanking happened.

But now I have a completely different relationship with my dad. It’s a loving respectful one. Did my dad change? Does that make him less real? No because he had to deal with me differently at the stage I was at, he’s the same, I’M different.

Same thing in the Old Testament. God had to be harder on the Israelites because of where they were at. Think about it, they were completely surrounded on every side by a violent tribal culture, by pagan religions that practiced cult prostitution, child sacrifices and other horrors. But, God couldn’t take them from that, and go straight to, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” They would have laughed at him.
So to us, some of the rules in the Old Testament seem really harsh, like an eye for an eye. But actually that was a huge step in the right direction for them. Back then, someone steals your goat, you destroy his house. So this law was saying, you CAN’T do more to someone than what they did to you.

But I think God himself gives the best explanation for this in Ez 20:18-25: “And I said to their children [the Israelites] 'Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their ordinances, nor defile yourselves with idols…but the children rebelled against me; they did not walk in my statutes, and were not careful to obey my ordinances…so I gave them statutes which were not good, and ordinances by which they could not have life.” In other words, God was compromising in the Old Testament, until the people were ready to receive the fullness of revelation, which comes through Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

For proofs of a personal God, I would check out Mere Christianity if you haven’t already. It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but if I remember correctly, one or the proofs we have a personal God is the moral law, which every person has a sense of. I wish I could go into more detail, but I gotta run, hopefully someone else can pick that idea up and give it good treatment.