Shawn Moore

12/20/06

Knowledge of God

A majority of the people today believe in some kind of Supreme Being, whether it is Allah, Yahweh, or Buddha. Those that are positive atheist, however, believe that a belief in a higher authority is foolish and illogical. But is their accusation true? There are ways of proving the existence of God which is through the natural world and human experience. The Teleogical Argument is a way of proving, through the natural world, that the earth was created by a Supreme Being for a purpose. An example of one of these arguments is William Paley’s analogy of “The Watch and the Watchmaker”. He gives an example of a person who was walking through the forest and found a watch. When the person saw the watch they assume that the watch was created by a watchmaker. Even though the person never seen the watch being created they believe that it was created by someone because all the gears and its assembly reveals that it wasn’t created by nature. And he compares the watch to the universe in how the design and formation shows that there was someone who created it. Also through human experience, people have many problems about life such as whether their life has purpose, whether death is the end of all, and also our longing for happiness and the pain of loneliness everyone experience. In order to answer the problems we struggle with we use an idea of a God who created the universe. It helps us give purpose to the creation of the universe. It satisfies our desire for meaning, love, security, and peace.

Three Important Ideas

· Natural Law-This helps give me evidence of the Existence of God. The characteristics in nature help show that their had to have been a divine design for the earth

· Degrees of Perfection-This helps me realize that there was a purpose for human life. The degree of perfection in life forms on earth reveals that there was a purpose for life and not that it was just a coincidence.

· Conscience-The knowledge of my conscience helps me to know there has to be a God who created me. It lets me know that there had to have been someone who causes me to have feelings of guilt when I do something wrong and that causes me to think of the consequences before I do anything.

Am I a Christian?

I believe that I am a Christian. I believe in God and I believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. I believe that he died for our sins so that we may be forgiven of our sins and have eternal life. I accepted Christ into my life as my lord and savior. I know that I am not a perfect Christian, but I know I am becoming a better Christian as I live. I believe in God’s word and I try my best to follow it. I give to those in need if I can and I try to help people who are in need of some assistance.