This document summarizes key points from a session on whether absolute truth exists. It discusses how truth is absolute and knowable, and outlines 12 points showing that Christianity is true, including that: 1) The universe had a beginning according to scientific evidence like the Big Bang, cosmic background radiation, and expanding universe, which requires a cause. 2) Einstein's theory of general relativity, which has been verified, demands an absolute beginning of the universe. 3) Agnostic scientists like Robert Jastrow acknowledged this evidence points to the universe having a beginning caused by something non-physical and beyond nature's laws.

1. Session # 6 – Sunday May 17th
Does Absolute Truth Exist?
A Basic Guide to Christian Apologetics

2. “No amount of evidence can
convert an unbeliever to belief.
That is solely the work of God.
But what Geisler and Turek have
done in this book should disturb
anyone claiming to be an
atheist…perhaps enough to
persuade them to begin a search
for the God who has been there all

6. CLASS THESIS STATEMENT
“Once one looks at the evidence, it
takes more faith to be a non-
Christian than it does to be a
Christian.”

7. REVIEW SESSION
CAN WE HANDLE THE TRUTH?
 Truth is absolute, exclusive and knowable.
 To deny absolute truth and its know-ability
is self-defeating. Any statement that is
un-affirmable (contradicts itself) must be
false.
 Truth is not dependent on our feelings or
preferences. Something is true whether
we like it or not.

8. REVIEW SESSION
CAN WE HANDLE THE TRUTH?
 People often get their beliefs from their
parents, friends, childhood religion,
feelings, or culture. While such beliefs
could be true, it’s possible they may not be.
 We can use philosophical principles,
including those found in logic and science,
to test the truth of beliefs.

9. THE TWELVE POINTS THAT SHOW CHRISTIANITY IS TRUE
 Truth about reality is knowable.
 The opposite of true is false.
 It is true that the theistic God exists. This
is evidenced by the:
a. Beginning of the universe
(Cosmological Argument)
b. Design of the universe
(Teleological Argument / Anthropic
Principle)
c. Design of Life (Teleological Argument)

10. REVIEW SESSION
 It is true that the theistic God exists. This is
evidenced by the :
a. Beginning of the universe
(Cosmological Argument)
S.U.R.G.E.
Second Law of Thermodynamics
Universe is Expanding
Radiation From the Big Bang
Great Galaxy Seeds
Einstein Theory of Relativity

11. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
ALBERT EINSTEIN MEMORIAL
APRIL 22, 1979
At the dedication
ceremony, physicist John
Archibald Wheeler
described the statue as
"a monument to the man
who united space and
time into space-time...a
remembrance of the man
who taught us...that the
universe does not go
on from everlasting to
everlasting, but begins
with a bang”.Sculptor, Robert Berks

12. .
•Albert Einstein 1916
•General Theory of Relativity
•Universe not eternal, had a beginning.
•Beginning of all time, matter, and all
space.

13. .
•Introduced a Cosmological constant (fudge
factor)
•Showed the universe static and avoided an
absolute beginning.
•Called his findings “irritating”

14. Good Scientific Theories
•Predict phenomena that have not
yet been observed.
•General Theory of Relativity
•Universe is expanding.

15. ARTHUR EDDINGTON

16. EDWIN HUBBLE
1927 MOUNT WILSON OBSERVATORY
•100 inch telescope
•“red shift” in light of every observable galaxy
•Galaxies were moving away from from us.
•General Relativity was again confirmed.
•Universe was expanding from a single point in the
distance past.

17. Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, and Walter Adams
(l-r) in 1931 at the Mount Wilson Observatory 100"
telescope, in the San Gabriel Mountains of
Southern California.

18. COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Cosmos = Universe
1. Everything that had a beginning had a
cause
2. The universe had a beginning
3. Therefore the universe had a causeFor an argument to be true:
• Logically valid
• Premises must be true

19. COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Premise 1: Everything that had a beginning
had a cause.
Law of Causality. Fundamental Principle of
science.
Things don’t happen without a cause.
Francis Bacon 1561-1626
Father of Modern Science
“True knowledge is knowledge by
causes”

20. COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Premise 2: The universe had a beginning
Did the universe have a beginning?
If no, then no cause is needed.
If yes, then the universe must have a cause.
Before Einstein (and other scientists) atheists
could comfort themselves with the belief that the
universe was eternal.
If the Universe is eternal, you don’t need a
creator.

21. Good Scientific Theories
•Predict phenomena that have not
yet been observed.
* Universe is
expanding.
* Cosmic Background
Radiation.
*Radiation Afterglow.

22. U – Universe Is Expanding
Matter

23. U – Universe Is Expanding
•General Relativity predicted an
expanding universe.
•Eddington, Hubble and others confirm
Einstein’s General Relativity Theory,
proved the universe is expanding and
expanding from a single point.

25. No Space
No Time
No Matter

26. Universe did not emerge from
existing material but from nothing.

27. Time-Space-Matter came
into existence at the Big

28. Time-Space-Matter
•Co-relative, interdependent of each
other.•You can’t have one without the other.
Matter

29. R - RADIATION FROM THE BIG BANG
Arno Penzias and
Robert Wilson 1965
Detected strange
radiation on their
instruments while using a
Bell Labs Holmdel, New Jersey. Closed 2007
Research and scientific development company

31. R - RADIATION FROM THE BIG BANG
•Discovered the afterglow
of the Big Bang fireball
explosion!
•Cosmic background
radiation
•Afterglow – actually light and heat from the
initial Big Bang explosion.
•Light is no longer visible because the
wavelength has been stretched by the
expanding universe.

32. R - RADIATION FROM THE BIG BANG
•Heat can still be detected
Wavelength slightly shorter than those produced
by a microwave oven.
•Predicted by three
scientists - 1948
•Discovered by Penzias and Wilson less than
20 years later by accident. Both win the Nobel
Prize.

33. AGNOSTIC ASTRONOMER ROBERT JASTROW
1925-2008
“When an astronomer writers about God, his
colleagues assume he is either over the hill or
going bonkers. In my case it should be
understood from the start that I am an agnostic in
religious matters”
Jastrow, God and the Astronomers
Robert Jastrow was an
American astronomer,
physicist and cosmologist. He
was a leading NASA scientist,
populist author and futurist.

34. R - RADIATION FROM THE BIG BANG
AGNOSTIC ASTRONOMER ROBERT JASTROW
“ No explanation other than the Big Bang has
been found for the fireball radiation. The clincher,
which has convinced almost the last Doubting
Thomas, is that the radiation discovered by
Penzias and Wilson has exactly the pattern of
wavelengths expected for the light and heat
produced in a great explosion. Supporters for the
steady state theory have tried desperately to find
an alternative explanation, but they have failed. At
the present time, the Big Bang theory has no
competitors”
Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, pp. 15-16

35. G – GALAXY OF SEEDS
•Scientists predicted expanding universe.
•Scientists predicted expanding Cosmic
Background Radiation.
•Scientists predicted slight variations or ripples
in the temperature of the Cosmic Background
Radiation.
•Temperature ripples enabled matter to
congregate by gravitational attraction into
galaxies.

36. NASA COBE SATELLITE. 1989. 4 YEARS.

37. G – GALAXY OF SEEDS
•1989 NASA COBE satellite project.
•COBE -- Cosmic Background
Explorer
•1992 COBE’s Found the ripples;
scientists amazed at their precision.
•Any slight variation one way or the
other, and none of us would be
here today.

38. G – GALAXY OF SEEDS
•George Smoot. Project Manager COBE:
“If you are religious, it’s like looking at God.”
“Machining marks from the creation of the
universe, and the finger prints of the maker.”
•Michael Turner. Chicago Astrophysicist.
“The significance of this discovery cannot be
overstated; they have found the Holy Grail of
Cosmology.”

39. G – GALAXY OF SEEDS
•COBE observations are actually observations
of the past because of the long time it takes
light from distance objects to reach us.
•Light Year. Distance light travels is one year---
One Trillion miles.
•100 billion stars in our galaxy.
•Average distance of 30 trillion miles between stars.
Stephen Hawking. Cambridge Astronomer.
“The most important discovery of the century, if
not of all time.”

40. G – GALAXY OF SEEDS
•COBE pictures point to existence of matter
from the early universe that will ultimately form
into galaxies and cluster of galaxies.
•“Great Seeds” of galaxies as they exist today

41. E – EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF GENERAL RELATIVITY
•Theory verified to five decimal places.
•Demands an absolute beginning of
time, space and matter.

42. R - RADIATION FROM THE BIG BANG
AGNOSTIC ASTRONOMER ROBERT JASTROW
“Theologians generally are delighted with the proof
that the Universe had a beginning, but astronomers
are curiously upset. Their reactions provide an
interesting demonstration of the response of the
scientific mind—supposedly a very objective mind---
when evidence uncovered by science itself leads to a
conflict with the articles of faith in our profession. It
turns out that the scientist behaves the way the rest
of us do when our beliefs are in conflict with the
evidence. We become irritated, we pretend the
conflict does not exist, or we paper it over with
meaningless phrases.”

43. E – EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF GENERAL RELATIVITY
Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity
predicted:
•Demands an absolute beginning of
time, space and matter.
1. Universe Expanding
2. Radiation Afterglow
3. Galaxy Seeds “Ripples” slight variations of Cosmic Background
Radiation
4. E

44. Whole matter of the universe began to exist at
particular time in the past. An atheist must
believe that the matter of the universe came
from nothing and by nothing.
Dr. Atkins conceded in this debate and his
books that all time, all matter, and all space
exploded out of nothing.
Dr. Akins struggles to explain how the universe
could come into existence, uncaused out of
nothing.
Full debate is one hour and 30 minutes. Available on YouTube.com
Craig vs. Atkins Debate 1998

45. Dr. Atkins: “Now we go back in time
beyond the moment of creation to
when there was no time, and to
where there was no space…”
Dr. Atkins then describes a time
before time, he asks us to imagine a
swirling dust of mathematical points
which recombine again and again
and finally come by trial and error to
form our space-time universe.
Dr. Akins - British
Physical Chemistry
Oxford and UCLA
Craig vs. Atkins Debate 1998

46. BIG QUESTIONS
What do you do with the Second Law of
Thermodynamics?
What do you do with Law of Causality?
Swirling mathematical points are not nothing.
How do you explain this?
Atheists cannot explain how the universe began
from absolutely nothing.

47. ANTHONY KENNY, ATHEIST & BRITISH AUTHOR
“According to the Big Bang Theory, the
whole matter of the universe began to
exist at a particular time in the remote
past. A proponent of such a theory, at
least if he is an atheist, must believe
that the matter of the universe came
from nothing and by nothing.”

48. CRAIG VS. ATKINS DEBATE 1998
What is the Evidence for/against the Existence of God? Atlanta,
Georgia
Video. Closing Arguments
William Lane Craig Dr. Peter AtkinsWilliam F. Buckley Jr.
Moderator

49. Next Week Session # 7
Teleological Argument / Divine Desig