Session 1: Is God Real?
Evidence Conference
April 26, 2024

1) Cosmology: The of origin of universe.

“All the evidence we have says that the universe had a beginning.” —Physicist Alexander Vilenkin, director Institute of Cosmology at Tufts

Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
Second, the universe began to exist.
Therefore, universe has a cause.

“In the beginning God created the heavens & earth.” Genesis 1:1

Based on this, we can draw some conclusions about the CAUSE of universe.
1. He must be transcendent, because He exists apart from creation;
2. He must be immaterial or spirit, because He existed before physical world;
3. He must be timeless or eternal, since He existed before physical time was created;
4. He must be powerful, given the immense energy of creation event;
5. He must be smart, given precision of creation event;
6. He must be personal, because He had to make decision to create;
7. He must be creative, given the beauty & complexity of universe;
8. He must be caring or loving, because He so purposefully crafted a habitat for us to flourish in;
9. The scientific principle of Occam’s Razor says there would be just one Creator.

In fact, since there is just 1 Creator, this rules out polytheistic religions, which claims many gods.
Since the Creator is separate from his creation, that rules out pantheistic religions, which say everything is god. And since the universe is not cyclical, contradicts Eastern philosophy.

Then the case that God is real is amplified by a second area of science:

2) Physics: numbers behind the universe

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” Psalm 19:1

“The exquisite order displayed by our scientific understanding of the physical world calls for the divine.” —Dr. Vera Kistiakowski, former professor of physics at MIT & president of Assn of Women in Science

Problem: absolutely no physical evidence of infinite number other universes! Recently the prominent German theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, who’s agnostic, called this theory “a waste of time” from a scientific perspective. She said the idea is a lot more popular with the media than with actual scientists.

Besides, if 1 universe requires an explanation, then an infinite number of universes requires an even bigger explanation – and that points even more powerfully toward God.

Friends, if this evidence from cosmology & physics were all we had, I’d be convinced that God is real.

But then there’s third area of science:

3) DNA: the existence of biological information

Just as English uses 26-letter alphabet, DNA uses 4-letter chemical alphabet. Get this: inside every cell of human body is as many words as in nearly 200 years of Sunday NY Times. If read code aloud at 3 letters a second night & day, take 31 yrs. It’s specific, detailed, written instructions for how to build all proteins in human body.

The Resurrection

Jesus in a variety of ways, directly & indirectly, made transcendent, divine & messianic claims about himself. He claimed to be the Son of God. In John 10:30: “I & the Father are one.”

We just need to establish 3 historical facts:

First, Jesus was alive at Point A

Second, Jesus was dead at Point B.

“Clearly the weight of the historical & medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead [even] before the wound to his side was inflicted.” —Journal of American Medical Association

Third, Jesus was alive again at Point C.

Even opponents admitted the tomb was empty & we have 9 ancient sources, inside & outside the New Testament, confirming & corroborating the conviction of disciples that encountered the resurrected Jesus.

“I say unequivocally that the evidence for resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.” —Sir Lionel Luckhoo