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| | WHY YOU CAN KNOW GOD
The following conclusions are presented in a progressive, logical order.
- The argument for believing in God is a lot like a
court
case and therefore it is the total weight of evidence from all
three
ways of knowing that should be considered when drawing a conclusion.
- Pure reason as understood today does not
exclude the possibility of God rather it points to the limits of what we can
say with certainty. Basically all knowledge is
contingent.
- Therefore other witnesses can be admitted even if they only produce
partial evidence
- The order of the world suggests a creator. All though Allen's
rendering of the cosmological argument is as far as one can go with a positivistic approach, and
a god
of the gaps approach should be avoided, there is warrant
for both critiquing Hume's dismissal of the
teleological
argument, and considering intelligent
design arguments -- not as conclusive proof but as supplemental evidence.
- I find the argument for the trustworthiness of the
New
Testament compelling
- I find the claim for Jesus compelling
- As a self living in the world and hungering for
hope,
meaning and purpose, Kierkegaard Three
ways of living in the world rang subjectively true to me.
- As a self living in the world, I am subjectively attracted to the
Christian
way of being in the world.
- Some knowledge is only gained through experience.
As a self living in the world, I have had an personal
encounter with God that appears
to all my ways of knowing to be legitimate.
- Therefore, weighing the witness of the evidences above I conclude that my
belief in God is both well founded and crucial. And so I wage my life on
it's certainty.
Self Critique:
The two weakest evidences in my case are:
1. Partial use of the intelligent design argument - it could
have been left out without diminishing (much) the strength of the overall
argument.
2. Explanation of the fourth case of suffering. I provide only super rational
(a skeptic would say irrational) arguments. Yet there is overwhelming (but
not universal) evidence for the subjective arguments I give. This weakness
however is common to most apologetics for the Christian faith.
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