Deism

Moral Argument For God's Interaction I won't be defending the proposition that God exists, as my opponent and I are both assuming that this is true. What is in debate is whether this God has ceased to interact with humanity or not. This first important piece to this debate is to understand what God is. The general agreements from philosophers are that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. If God is omnibenevolent, then He must always act in accordance with the correct moral choices. A creator has a moral duty to uphold any contracts made with its creation. Now, all of humanity has ingrained in them a sense of justice. There are regions in the brain the specifically deal with making moral judgements. It would be immoral for God to create in people a sense of justice- a desire to do what's right. Now, I expect that one would ask why is it that so much of humanity disagrees about what the correct view of morality is, and what the right religion is. If God really did care and interact with humanity, why would he not lead them towards righteousness? I argue that it is because of free will, that because we have the ability to make choices about what we can believe it, than correct beliefs can become distorted, and generations can be lost in ignorance because of a succession of incorrect beliefs indoctrinated upon the children. However, anyone willing to allow reason to guide their thinking will be able to come to understand what is truly just and moral in this world. And a moral creator has a moral duty to resurrect those people who lived righteous lives. Christ's Resurrection Proof of Interaction A few thousand years ago, a person claimed to be the son of God, a messiah, and he was killed and rose again three days later. Most scholars agree that Jesus did in fact exist was crucified, and the best evidence suggests that Jesus did rise again: There are 12 historical facts that most secular (non-christian) critical scholars agree to. They are: -Jesus died by crucifixion. -He was buried. -His death caused the disciples to despair and lose hope. -The tomb was empty (the most contested). -The disciples had experiences which they believed were literal appearances of the risen Jesus. -The disciples were transformed from doubters to bold proclaimers. -The resurrection was the central message. -They preached the message of Jesus" resurrection in Jerusalem. -The Church was born and grew. -James was converted to the faith when he saw the resurrected Jesus (James was a family skeptic). -Paul was converted to the faith (Paul was an outsider skeptic). There are three possible scenarios: The early disciples all had hallucinations of Christ at different times and places and were convinced that it was real; The early disciples hid Christ's body from the tomb, spread the lie that he was resurrected, and were tortured and killed to protect that lie; or Christ was resurrected by God and this is what the apostle's saw and preached. The apostles directly denied that what they saw were hallucinations. This either leaves the apostles lying and then dying for that lie, or the resurrection actually happened. I argue that Christ was really resurrected by God, because it is not reasonable to believe that they lied. If anyone objects to this (like my opponent), then they must give a motive for why the apostles would be tortured and killed for the lie- what was their benefit? Also, examples must be given for people who died protecting something they knew to be a lie (not examples of people dying for what they believe to be true, but what they definitely knew was false). If these two problems are not refuted, one must conclude that Christ was resurrected by God. Miracles: Craig S. Keener is received his Ph.D in New Testament Studies from Duke University. He has published a book on miracles. Here is a brief, few minute interview (link below) and a longer lecture for viewers of this debate who are interested (link below) The author researched the credibility of miracles from various cultures all around the world. There are over one thousand accounts in his book (he was very extensive and it took him many years to accomplish). In the book, he provides examples of everything from simple medical healings to people being raised from the dead, all by people praying in the name of Jesus. Also, 73 percent of American physicians believe in miracles, and 55 percent claim to have witnessed treatment results they consider miraculous. I would argue that since so many people around the world now have documented evidence of their testimonies, and that well trained and educated physicians can corroborate the claims, it would be irrational to dismiss miracles as impossible or false. And, if people are praying to Jesus and are being healed in ways that define medical explanation, even to the point where they are being raised from the dead, one should find it rational to believe that there does indeed exist a God who does interact with the world, and cares enough to answer the prayers of the faithful. Sources http://www3.telus.net... https://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.amazon.com... http://www.huffingtonpost.com...