The document discusses arguments for the existence of an absolute truth and God, based on evidence from cosmology and physics. It covers: 1) Philosophical arguments that truth is absolute and knowable, not dependent on feelings or preferences. 2) Scientific evidence that supports the universe having a beginning, including the expanding universe discovered by Hubble, cosmic background radiation discovered by Penzias and Wilson, and temperature fluctuations detected by COBE. 3) This evidence is consistent with predictions of general relativity and the Big Bang theory, providing support for the cosmological argument that the beginning of the universe requires a cause outside of the universe, namely God.

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
along.” ---Cal Thomas

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

7.  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.  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.  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)
d. Moral Law (Moral Argument)

10.  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. 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.

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

19. 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. 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 Bang.

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

29. Arno Penzias and
Robert Wilson 1965
Detected strange radiation
on their instruments while
using a powerful antenna.
Bell Labs Holmdel, New Jersey. Closed 2007
Research and scientific development company

31. • 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. • 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. “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. “ 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. • 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.

37. • 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. • 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. • 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. • 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. • Theory verified to five decimal places.
• Demands an absolute beginning of
time, space and matter.

42. “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.”
Jastrow, God and the Astronomers, p.16

43. 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. 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. “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. 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 Design