THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: SCIENTIFIC & PHILOSOPHICAL FACTS

Contents Abstract 5 1. God and The World – How is God Related to Secular Issues? 5 a. God and Cosmology 5 i. Defining Cosmology 5 ii. The Contingency of the Universe 6 b. God and Time 6 i. Defining Time 6 ii. Divine Timelessness 7 c. God and Philosophy 7 i. Philosophy of Religion 7 ii. Augustine 7 iii. William Lane Craig 8 iv. René Descartes 8 v. David Hume 9 vi. Immanuel Kant 9 vii. Thomas Aquinas 9 2. The Big Bang Theory - Where Do Space, Time, and Gravity Come From? 10 a. The Core of TBBT 10 b. Isaac Newton 11 c. Einstein 11 d. Alexander Friedmann 11 e. Debating TBBT 11 3. Evolution – Does Everything Make Sense in Light of Evolution? 12 a. The Core of Evolution 12 b. Natural Selection 13 c. Adaptation 13 d. Human Evolution 14 e. Charles Darwin 14 f. Alfred Russel Wallace 14 g. Richard Dawkins 14 h. Microevolution and Macroevolution 14 j. Debating Evolution 15 4. Natural Theology – Can We Believe in God Through Science? 16 a. The Cosmological Argument 16 i. Contingency Argument 16 ii. The Kalam 17 iii. First Cause 17 b. The Teleological Argument 18 i. Paley’s watch 18 ii. Fine-Tuning 18 iii. Intelligent Design 19 c. The Ontological Argument i. Anselm 5. Philosophical Arguments - What are The Critical Arguments Concerning Philosophy? 19 19 20 a. Moral Argument 21 b. Desire 21 c. Consciousness 21 d. Natural-law Argument 22 e. Miracles 22 f. Afterlife 22 6. On God – Who is Out There? a. Types of Faith 22 22 i. Deism 22 ii. Atheism 22 iii. Agnostics 23 iv. Theism 23 v. Monotheism 23 vi. Polytheism 23 b. Gods (alternatives) i. Islam 23 23 - Belief 23 - Problems 24 ii. Judaism 24 - Belief 24 - Problems 24 d. Christianity 7. The Deity of Jesus - Who is Yet to Come? 25 25 a. Historical Evidence of Jesus 25 b. Jesus and The Trinity 26 c. Illustrations and Figures 26 d. Incarnation 28 e. Yahweh and Jesus 28 f. The Resurrection 29 8. Conclusion 29 Bibliography 31 Research Paper 2022 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: SCIENTIFIC & PHILOSOPHICAL FACTS By Dogu Baklaci Deeply appreciate her effort: Emily Taylor Bell Abstract Considering God from a scientific perspective might be a hard discussion and there are an infinite number of attempts to define and explain this issue. I believe that believers shouldn’t compromise their faith because of science. I’m also not suggesting that we must combine science and God to find the truth. But truly, science is remarkable and helpful. Questioning and seeking God's existence is not a bad thing. And science serves as an explanation for the mysteries in our universe. Briefly, we don’t need to understand all of the science to be a good believer, but we mustn't be narrow-minded either. This research paper has two goals: discipleship and glorifying God. Apologetics equips people to answer the criticism of the existence of God and strengthen their faith. And the second goal is to glorify God with our minds and provide intellectual worship. Our minds should be shaped by God when we are called to discipleship as proclaim God to others. 1. God and The World – How is God Related to Secular Issues? This chapter focuses on God and a few philosophical issues. Most philosophers thought about God and the essence of everything. For example, Thales of Miletus, the most ancient philosopher that we know, focused on the arkhé (ἀρχή) *. And we know that in the arkhé, God created everything. For this reason, this chapter aims to compile and simplify. And to foretell, you'll see many "God is over..." expressions in this section. a. God and Cosmology i. Defining Cosmology The word cosmology comes from an ancient Greek word collocation κόσμος (kósmos) meaning "world, universe or the earth", and -λογία (-logía) meaning "study of, knowledge of" Many physicists, astrophysicists, and philosophers talked about the "universe" and creation. Various explanations for how the universe came into being. For instance, the ancient Chinese believed that the universe began as a chaotic, amorphous cloud for tens of thousands of years. 1 And many civilizations such as the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Romans held similar or different views. However, I believe that God is over cosmology. Therefore, when we come to these arguments, we must not forget that God is the creator of the universe. There will be many cosmological arguments for God's existence in the following sections. But to start, I would like to focus on the universe's contingency. 1 The Beginning and the End of Everything: From the Big Bang to the End of the Universe, Paul Parsons 2018, Chapter 1 * "beginning", "origin" or "source of action" ii. The Contingency of the Universe Basically, this worldview says that the universe exists necessarily (Section 4 / a / i). Furthermore, if we think of a quark*, we should also think that every quark exists by a necessity of its own nature. Actually, this view is basic. Something or another thing exists because it is necessary. Otherwise, it is an extremely implausible consequence. For this reason, we should approach everything by asking why it exists. Why are there humans, mountains, lakes, trash bags, watermelons, and the seeds of watermelons? Thankfully, Thomas Aquinas (we will talk about him later) provides an explanation. We must realize that there should be a cause to start every being. Aquinas argued that we need a causal explanation for things in motion, things that are caused, and contingent beings2. In Summa Contra Gentiles, Aquinas posits that God was the First Mover, as a starting point. Also, Aristotle argues about the unmoved mover or the prime mover. According to Aristotle, the first mover does not need a cause so that it cannot move itself. Or we can pass the contingency and focus on the possibilities. Have you thought about how many universes could exist or how the universe exists exactly as it is now? There are numerous calculations on how we have this specific universe if it occurred by chance. For example, a Harvard Ph.D. physicist Lee Smolin has calculated that the odds of life-compatible numbers coming up by chance is 1 in 10^229.3 Or if we think about the parallel universe Stanford physicists Andrei Linde and Vitaly Vanchurin have calculated the number of all possible universes, coming up with an answer of 10^10^16.4 Moreover, we can think of these calculations as a chain. We possess the last part of the chain and start following the rest. By the end of the day, we get nowhere because the chain is forever. Considering these arguments and calculations, I think we must ask whether we are so lucky or so loved. I don’t want to get into an early discussion of trinitarian doctrine, but several theologs assert that God loved Himself in three persons before the beginning, and He created the universe to share this love with humans. We can consider our chances of existence based on these premises. b. God and Time i. Defining Time In a podcast, a Turkish scientist from Stanford asked, “What is time?” and answered “the line of events.” We cannot escape time. When you read this, you are spending time; when you eat; when you run; when you… If we ask what time is - not “What time is it?”- we might say it is a duration, a measurement, an interval, a dimension, the past, the future, or even the present. 2 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmological-argument/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-improbable-existence-is-no-evidence-for-a-multiverse/ 4 https://phys.org/news/2009-10-physicists-parallel-universes.html * Subatomic particles 3 As for the definition of time, indeed, we have plenty of opinions. Einstein's theory of special relativity asserts that time is dependent on the observer. According to Newton time is absolute, not relative. Mathematically it’s a scalar quantity. Conversely, it is a dimension over our dimension. We can’t touch, eat, or see the time, so you must determine for yourself whether it exists or not. Either way, we live in a flow. According to the Big Bang model, time began at the same time the universe began.5 ii. Divine Timelessness Before defining divine timelessness, we should ask what happened before time-this flow, or the universe? Dr. Hawking claims that before the Big Bang, time was “bent.” Or some views say that the universe has always existed. In section 2, we will discuss this in more detail. Briefly, we can see a general consensus among physicists that time exists because matter exists. But God is not matter, God is the creator of matter. Thus, we believe that God existed before time. This argument drives us to conclude that God is eternal. Regardless, divine timelessness argues that God is outside of time. Actually, we first see this view in Aquinas’s assumption. He simply says that God is immutable, so God is not temporal, therefore, God is timeless. Although there are several objections to this argument, I will not examine all of them in the scope of this paper. However, we must recognize that God is eternal, over time, and in time. c. God and Philosophy Philosophy, as an academic discipline, investigates and studies most of the questions we have today. Simply, I define philosophy as “what” because the philosophers went after “what” questions and ended up with the answers regarding ethics, metaphysics, aesthetics, archeology, history, culture, and religion. And sometimes, God or religion can be a topic for philosophy. Analyses of religious ideas, views, terms, ideas, and approaches are included in the scope of philosophy. For this reason, we put these issues under a different domain. This sub-chapter doesn’t aim to prove the existence of God. Rather, we will only analyze the views and thoughts on the existence of God. i. Philosophy of Religion As we mentioned this discipline questions God and religion with the help of theology, history, sociology, psychology, and the natural sciences. We can name various people examining these topics. Other fields of this discipline are happiness, evil, hope, morality, good, and eternity. In this section, we will examine several people and their contributions to the philosophy regarding God. ii. Augustine Augustine is one of the most influential philosophers of the medieval world. His testimony from Manichaeism, skepticism, and Neoplatonism to Christianity is so powerful. After his conversion, Augustine wrote about philosophical and theological issues having to do with 5 http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/5312/1/BeginningOfTime.pdf and https://homepages.wmich.edu/~korista/hawking-time.html ideas he previously held or with which he struggled.6 Because of his background, his views were more Platonistic. He believed God is knowable and describable with the exception of His transcendence. Augustine also spent time on the Trinity, ethics, and the problem of evil. Neoplatonic philosophy also focuses on the basis of a single cause, called “the First”, “the One”, or “the Good” which is an utterly uncomplicated, indescribable, unknowable subsistence that is both the creative source of the Universe7 and the teleological end of all existing things.8 Neoplatonism includes details similar to Gnosticism. But it also affected the history of Christianity, especially in the Nicaean Council. iii. William Lane Craig William Lane Craig is an American philosopher and Christian apologist. His apologetic thoughts prioritize the existence of God and God’s self-revelation in Jesus. He also focuses on the cosmological argument - The Kalam in particular - and develops and updates it. For example, he cultivates his version of the Kalam argument as follows: 1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence. 2. The universe began to exist. 3. Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.9 iv. René Descartes Rene Descartes was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician. I consider him the second Anselm because of his contributions to the ontological argument. His argument might be similar to Anselm’s argument, but there is a difference between them. Descartes focuses on simplicity, he was also affected by mathematics because of his scholarly discipline. So far, we saw that things that exist must necessarily exist through the contingency of the universe, but Descartes devotes his thought to the necessity of God. His argument for the existence of God can’t be seen as a defense but as a report. For example, he argues that God exists because the number two is even. To detail, he says “Certainly, the idea of God, or a supremely perfect being, is one that I find within me just as surely as the idea of any shape or number.” Perhaps, we must develop his views in our “sense”, because his views are more based on “senses”. If I can sense a thing, it exists. I can sense the necessary existence of God, so God exists. Or, I sense a supremely perfect being, God is perfect, so God exists. As a result, we see that the existence of God is self-evident through our senses. Some of the Christian philosophers, however, are set against this view. 6 The History of Apologetics: A Biographical and Methodological Introduction Brenk, Frederick (January 2016). "Pagan Monotheism and Pagan Cult". "Theism" and Related Categories in the Study of Ancient Religions. 8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism#The_One 9 William Lane Craig, The Kalām Cosmological Argument (New York: Macmillan, 1979) 7 v. David Hume David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, and economist who contributed to most of the philosophical field. According to him, the existence of God was normal and natural. But you can’t do an experiment to prove it and we don’t need to prove it on rational grounds. As for his cosmological argument, God is necessary, and he basically implies that: Whatever exists must have a cause or reason for its existence; it is absolutely impossible for anything to produce itself, or to be the cause of its own existence. In mounting up, therefore, from effects to causes, we must either go on in tracing an infinite succession, without any ultimate cause at all or must, at last, have recourse to some ultimate cause, that is necessarily existent…10 vi. Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher also known as the founder of German philosophy. Kant was hostile to religion, his view of the existence of God was more deistic. Rather than focusing on ontological or cosmological arguments, his assumptions are more related to morality. He asserts that we can’t prove the existence of God, but we need God to behave morally. Therefore, Kant’s defense is not a provable assertion. However, we may say - just like Kant - we need God to be “good”. We can’t be good through our work. vii. Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas was a priest, influential philosopher, and theologian. He is known for his work “the Five Ways” in his book “Summa Theologica” which begins with a general truth about natural phenomena and proceeds to the existence of an ultimate creative source of the universe.11 1. Motion: According to Aristotle, everything in the universe moves, and everything is moved by something else. Also, he called the primer and unknown mover “God.” Aquinas took this argument and developed it. The first mover or the prime mover is the god of Christianity. Shortly, there is a motion, there should be a mover, and the first mover is God. 2. Efficient Cause: Again, Aristotle states that there is a thing that decides each change in the universe which we can call the one who is responsible for everything. If we think there is no such thing, we should go through an infinite chain of efficient causes. As we mentioned at the beginning of this research, there should be a first reason that gives the start signal. Shortly, If A is the efficient cause of B, B exists because of A, and there should be the first cause for A and the other causes. And the first cause is God. 10 11 (D, 9.3/188 — Hume’s emphasis) https://www.britannica.com/topic/the-Five-Ways 3. Possibility and Necessity: This is the most complicated prime to my knowledge. It’s a cosmological argument in fact. There are beings that are capable of existing and not existing. If a being is capable of not existing, then there is a time at which it does not exist.12 Furthermore, every necessary being is either necessary in itself or caused to be necessary by another necessary being. However, God must be a being that is necessary in itself. 4. Gradation: There should be a degree of perfection for each thing. We compare things such as, Emily is smarter than Adolf Hitler, tea is better than coffee, and Türkiye is bigger than Greece. Overall, there must be a perfect being which Aquinas names as God. Shortly, If A is good, there must be a thing that is most good. God is the cause of their goodness. So, there is God. 5. Design: He utilized Aristotle’s thoughts once again. For Aristotle, everything has a purpose. For example, when we drive a car, we lead and steer the car. But nothing can lead and steer everything except God. Everything has a lack of intelligence by the end of the day. But God is the director of all things. 2. The Big Bang Theory - Where Do Space, Time, and Gravity Come From? This chapter focuses on the Big Bang theory or the cause of everything. The goal of this chapter is to explain what the theory is clearly, effortlessly, and painlessly. Because it can be more difficult than it seems. For this reason, my goal is to talk about it smoothly. Finally, there will be a few arguments and responses in the last chapter. a. The Core of TBBT There are several cosmology models and perhaps the most well-known is the Big Bang which shows us the time when everything started or where the time originated. When we come to the Big Bang, it is honestly a simple theory. It claims that the universe began with a big bang which people rhetorically say is the cause of the universe. And the point of the theory is that the beginning of the universe was also the beginning of time itself. So when The Big Bang was a hot, dense fireball, most quantum particles were created from nothing or an initial state or a gravitational singularity*, through or in this state, the universe started expanding and we see the earliest elements; hydrogen, helium, and lithium which also formed early stars and galaxies later. In this way, we see how time and space began. But without gravity? I think the universe as we know could not exist without it. For this reason, gravity played a necessary role in the Big Bang. As we mentioned the singularity above, Einstein proposed that the universe began as this singularity, or a point and he also predicted that gravity was present during the early expansion. And the result was gas and dust formed into the universe at last. 13 You can find it strange but some theologians think that the Big Bang was the order of God to create the universe. Because when we see in the Bible that in the beginning, (Time) God created the heavens (Space) and the earth (Gravity). And also, this theory includes that the 12 https://www.britannica.com/topic/the-Five-Ways * a point where some property is infinite 13 https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/science-questions/gravity-big-bang.htm universe had a beginning some finite time ago, and people can link this view to the creation in the book Genesis. But sooner or later, the Big Bang theory is the story of our universe, from birth to death. b. Isaac Newton English physicist Isaac Newton, who was also born to an Anglican family and believed in a monotheistic God as the masterful creator, was considered beyond the theory because of his law of universal gravitation. The law claims that gravity is a force that acts on every particle in the universe. According to Newton, one thing attracts another thing because of gravity and every object in the universe exerts a gravitational force on other objects. As we talked about the singularity or the point, the question can come to our minds. What was at that point? The answer is the whole universe. So how was the whole universe constrained into a point? Because of a force holding it all together, we call it gravity with the help of Newton’s law. Also, this event drives us to Einstein's theory of relativity. c. Einstein German-born theoretical physicist, Einstein, also demonstrated a theory that would change the world, general relativity, which would take a book rather than a few paragraphs to explain. If we go deep into the theory, we may find the reason for gravity and how it affects matter, light, and time. In short, according to him and his calculations (no need to mention), gravity is the result whenever spacetime is warped, bent, or stretched. And The bending/warping is caused by matter or anything with mass. In fact, every bit of matter is warping the spacetime around it, creating its own bit of gravity.14 Even though we said that Newton was beyond the Big Bang, his law doesn’t allow the construction of a cosmological model because all masses were going to collapse to a point. However, Einstein’s solution solved this problem by improving Newton’s model, because, in his theory, the universe was able to be expanding to prevent gravitational collapse. Therefore, general relativity constructs the foundation of the cosmological model. d. Alexander Friedmann The Soviet physicist Friedmann is also known for his contributions and works to general relativity and the Big Bang. He discovered the expanding universe solution to Einstein’s general relativity by proposing a hypothesis of the universe in motion. Until his time, most scientists believed that there was no need for the universe to move because it was static. According to his proposition, the universe expands but gradually approaches a rate of zero. e. Debating TBBT There are many Christian scientists who defend or support the Big Bang Theory. The assertion is that to support TBBT doesn’t mean rejecting God. The goal of this section is not to disprove the theory - which I already can’t - However, if we believe in God and His creation, we must know a few premises and basic responses - or updates - for them. Though the Big Bang is being used for the purpose of removing the creation event, I don’t want to mention critical problems of the theory or make criticism. Also, I will not be saying that the big bang theory is without validity at all. 14 https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2015-11-25/einstein-general-relativity-100-years-on/6968370 According to the theory, before this event, whatever it was, there was no time, and there was no space. In fact, even the idea of a "time before the Big Bang" is an impossible field for scientists. So, the world could begin abruptly in an act of creation and The Big Bang is an important event representing all the matter and energy in the universe and the origin of spacetime itself. But we can't see there is a moment “before” the Big Bang. Thus, we may claim that God existed literally before the Big Bang event in absolute time. - Of course, we must not forget that uncertainty is inherent in science Also, we should underline that the theory is just a theory. The Big Bang is the cause or nature of the "beginning". However, we can't explicitly prove it by empirical science. In 1929, Edwin Hubble initiated to show the expansion. he discovered that the more distant a galaxy is from us, the faster it appears to be receding into space.15 At least, An expanding universe does not disprove the biblical story of creation, and when we come to the Bible, we see mysterious verses to talk about the expansion (Isaiah 42:5, 44:24, 45:12; Jeremiah 10:12, 51:15). We must not go and proclaim that the Bible foretells about this theory. But although we don’t have empirical proof of the Big Bang, it attempts to speak for the creation of time (in the beginning), space (heavens), and matter (the earth) - God created the universe (Genesis 1:1) 3. Evolution – Does Everything Make Sense in Light of Evolution? Have you ever thought about the explanation of what we see in the living world? The theory of evolution, as a concept of biology, attempts to explain what we see today and how they are seen as they are today. In the long term, the theory focuses on the changes from single cells to multicellular creatures. But what is the battle or rivalry between evolution supporters and religious groups? Those who believe in science, claim that science is based on empirical objective evidence, and they also think that faith or dogma cannot play a part in the scientific enterprise16. However, we can also see several believers and Christian apologetics who partially get involved in improving the theory in their own ways. This section focuses on explaining the theory- many scientists call it a fact - simply and clearly. a. The Core of Evolution The easiest way to explain evolution is by defining it as “the change in population genomes over time” or in Darwin’s way, “descent with modification”. First, we should define a genome which mostly refers to the DNA (or sometimes RNA) molecules that carry genetic information like a code. For instance, there are extrachromosomal plasmid molecules in bacteria, or it is commonly known as “junk DNA”. Besides its definition, most essays and articles mention the evolution of genomes. Thus, we defined it as aforementioned. In short, evolution consists of the descent of genomes from their bacterial ancestors. That means A evolves into B, which evolves into C, which evolves into D, with no splitting of the one ancestral line.17 15 https://hubblesite.org/hubble-30th-anniversary/hubbles-exciting-universe/measuring-the-universes-expansionrate 16 Zeigler, Evolution: Components and Mechanisms, chapter 2, page 33 17 Zeigler, Evolution: Components and Mechanisms, chapter 2 * DNA sequence or mutation * Passing progress of a gene from one unrelated organism to another In conclusion, though there are things that cannot be defined easily, we try to say that it is molecular changes within a macromolecule or changing of alleles* within a population from one generation to the next one. Or in colloquial language, we can express that the living things had their origin in other preexisting types and also they can initiate changes in their successive generations. b. Natural Selection Natural selection was Darwin's leading intuition into the living world. It is the only evolutionary mechanism that can frame adaptations in species. Indeed, there are many evolution models, but evolution through natural selection is the most notable one. And also, natural selection and adaptation can be seen as inseparable at times. To my knowledge, natural selection is the reason and adaptation is the result. As an illustration, a long neck allows giraffes to reach high to feed on leaves. The adaptation of the long neck is the result of natural selection. Because giraffes are silly and scared animals, they needed a longer neck to get food. Probably, when our early ancestors saw a lion, they didn’t get scared, and they might have died. But after, one of our ancestors saw a lion and ran away, because they learned that lions were dangerous. And now, we know that we shouldn’t get close to a lion because of the selection of our scared - at least alive - ancestor. We can give many examples. let us think about what the animals eat; Lions generally eat other animals and rabbits eat plants. The reason should be resources, or climate, or weather, or environment. However, they transferred these selections to their offspring. To shorten and clear things up, natural selection is the process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change. However, it can lead species to transform into new and distinctly different species. For this reason, it can be a leading cause of evolutionary change by driving evolution. Therefore, there are a few categories of natural selection, some of which can contribute to the extinction of species. c. Adaptation As I mentioned as the result of natural selection, we can rhetorically think of our winning ancestor. When our ancestors learned that they should have run away from lions, this trait has been added to species through horizontal gene transfer* - by the way, we should also think of the animals not only human beings In short, adaptation is the result of the loss or gain of traits. For example, when I lived in Lithuania, I saw 3-4-year-old kids with t-shirts when the weather was under -4 °F. Thus, the theory claims that Lithuanian kids seemed to have evolved genetic mutations that allow them to live in temperatures most of us can’t. Peppered moths may be another example of adaptation. They used to have salt-and-pepper color, but after the industrial revolution, tree trunks started being darker because of the smoke of factories. And the result was astonishing because also peppered moths started being darker. d. Human Evolution Thus far, we may not be seeing what is generally happening. Evolution is a really wide topic. We should talk about competitions, mutations, gene transfers, genetic codes, and transpositions. However, after a quick introduction, we can focus on ourselves at present. Most scientists currently recognize some 15 to 20 different species of early humans from homo sapiens* to today’s human beings. Zoologically, humans were involved in a mammal group, primates which also includes lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, and monkeys. And the fossil records show that we somehow shared similar physical and genetic traits with various primates. For this reason, some anthropologists and biologists believed that we and the extinct hominins* are somehow related. To sum up, Human evolution is a process of change by which people originated from apelike ancestors. Plus homo sapiens had a very close relationship to another group of primate species, the apes.18 e. Charles Darwin An English biologist, Charles Darwin, is also known for the pioneering work of Evolution Theory. He was famous for his assertion that animals and humans shared a common ancestry. He shared a publication with Alfred Russel Wallace which suggested patterns of evolution, and natural selection. On the Origin of Species (1859) is one of his most influential works. Through this work, he also was accepted as the founder of evolutionary biology. f. Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace was also an English biologist, and he helped Darwin to discover the evolution theory. More than helping, we can say he co-discovered the theory in fact. Because of his social status, and not being an affable country gentleman, he couldn’t earn a reputation. g. Richard Dawkins Likewise, an English evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins is acknowledged for his atheist stances. He is also best known for his popularization of the gene as the principal unit of selection in evolution. The gene could be understood as a unit of evolution according to his works. h. Microevolution and Macroevolution Before comparing evolutionary primes and responses, we should clarify about microevolution. Sometimes, religious people say that they believe in microevolution but not macroevolution and they have evidence for microevolution: the human being which is formed by embryos. They claim that humans turned into two-footed creatures from embryos. Honestly, I call it development, not evolution. Our bodies start developing after gestation. 18 https://humanorigins.si.edu/education/introduction-human-evolution * (Latin: “wise man”), the direct antecedents of the modern humans * Tribes So what is the definition of microevolution or itself? I myself define microevolution as a significant mechanism for evolutionary transitions. Because it is a short-term change that occurs in a population. When we talk about the selections or mutations or gene flows, we indirectly talk about microevolution. Regarding this matter, macroevolution is an “evolution above the species level”. Also, Most biologists seem to agree that most evolution occurs by microevolutionary processes over long periods of time.19 j. Debating Evolution Can both evolution and faith coexist in a believer's life? There are many scientists who see no conflict between evolution and faith. Because evolutionary scientists don’t admit that their goal is to give an alternate explanation of the origins of life and thereby to give a foundation for atheism.20 I believe that even though Darwin didn’t want to disprove the existence of God, his idea has been promoted by those who aim to raise atheistic views. But because the vast majority of evolutionary scientists are atheists and who don't desire to find evidence for the existence of higher intervention in evolution, today we face something like a battle between evolutionary scientists and creationists. I don’t want to defeat evolution - and I can’t - but defeating evolution is also ripping off one of the greatest arguments of atheism. (Plus, if evolution is true, it does not follow that atheism must be true as well.) We have fossil records that show that transitional life forms can be found, but I think those records do not suggest that God is misleading. Because, despite the fact that fossils have explanatory powers, we can’t empirically see a single protein molecule forming by chance. But empirically we can talk about similar features (commonalities at molecular and anatomical levels), and leftover parts (eg. tailbones in humans). As noted earlier, the DNA of humans and primates are very similar. But also, some human genes can be inserted into houseflies and those genes will still function correctly. Then we can conclude that some genes from one organism can be used in other organisms. For example, the octopus eye and the human eye share some similar features, but no one thinks they have a close common ancestor.21 Other than that, Oxford mathematician John Lennox argues that evolution has a limited explanation. Evolution has strikingly explanatory power at a micro level, but from micro to macro could be risky and crucial. As for those who are Creationists and believe in evolution, for example, Andrew A. Snelling (Ph.D. in geology from the University of Sydney) claims that Noah’s ark carried only about 2,000 species, and those 2,000 species developed into the millions of species we see today. And there are some Christian adherents who argue that evolution is a miracle. The only way evolution could work is if God worked through it. Finally, if we believe in evolution, we are going to struggle to locate Adam and Eve within an evolutionary past. For this reason, we encounter a view called evolutionary creation or theistic evolution, which asserts God created all living things, including humans in His image. 19 Evolution-Components-and-Mechanisms, Chapter 14 https://www.gotquestions.org/creation-evolution.html 21 Keathley, 40-Questions-About-Creation-and-Evolution chapter 37 20 According to this view, we can say that Adam was created by dust and God breathed life into his nostrils, and Eve was created from his rib. But also, evolution occurred outside the Garden, and there could be humans who came across the grandsons of Adam and Eve. For the record, I believe that God initially created two types of people; Adam and Eve were humans who were aware of themselves and thought about themselves, but there were also mindless people. This is the common ground of my view (not only mine) and theistic evolution. It also explains where Cain got his wife. But we will encounter a problem with the original sin later. Additionally, we cannot move on from the topic of theistic evolution without mentioning Michael Behe (an American biochemist from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania) and his principles on intelligent design (we will get there soon). He argues for intelligent design through irreducible complexity. According to him every biological feature, and structure are irreducibly complex (they are made of many separate parts arranged. If you remove or alter even only one part, the structure doesn’t work). Regardless of the accuracy of his views, his argument is empirically brilliant because scientists don't have enough data and explanations to explain how many of the complex features and processes at this level evolved. 4. Natural Theology – Can We Believe in God Through Science? Natural Theology is intended primarily to serve as a cumulative argument on defending the existence of God. We can define it as a theological discipline that seeks to provide rational answers by using science. There are various arguments within it; some people use it to argue for God’s existence, for example, plants and God, insects and God, and the list goes on. In this section, we are going to explore the major arguments. a. The Cosmological Argument The Cosmological Argument aims to prove that the whole universe (or cosmos) is dependent on a being that exists independently or necessarily. In simple terms, matter exists because God is the cause. And there are various arguments involved. i. Contingency Argument As we looked over earlier, a simple version of this interesting puzzling argument is that everything that exists has an explanation for its existence. So, if the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God, therefore the universe exists by way of God. As noted earlier, things that exist necessarily exist by a necessity of their own nature such as mathematical entities like numbers and sets. They’re not caused to exist by something else, they just exist necessarily, and they exist contingently because something else produced them. Just like numbers, things that are in the universe can have an explanation, but the universe itself doesn’t have an explanation. So, if there is no explanation it’s not nothingness, it’s God and his will. Besides that, if there is a cause of the universe, it must be a nonphysical, immaterial being beyond space and time, just like numbers. We can describe numbers as abstract objects, but there should be a transcendent thing behind them. Therefore, if there is a cause of the universe, it must be a transcendent being behind it. Considering all of these, the explanation for God’s existence is based on the necessity of His own nature. ii. The Kalam Kalam is a different version of the cosmological argument. As mentioned earlier, the simple definition of it is: 1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence. 2. The universe began to exist. 3. Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.22 However, to imply that things can just pop into existing uncaused out of nothing is literally worse than trickery. In addition, one of the premises of the argument is based on the Big Bang Theory (Section 2) and the thermodynamic properties of the universe. The Big Bang Theory shows that there must be an absolute beginning and The Second Law of Thermodynamics simply foreshadows that there is a beginning of the universe. The premises show that the universe has a cause. And William Lane Craig improves this argument by claiming that there should be an uncaused, beginningless, changeless, transcendental, timeless, spaceless, and extremely powerful creator of the universe. iii. First Cause The first cause argument is an argument for the existence of God. Basically, it lies in our everyday lives. For instance, if you pull something (cause), it will get closer to you (result). For this reason, Someone or something must have caused (cause) the world to exist (result). But there is a dilemma in this argument (applicable to the rest of the cosmological arguments). If everything requires a cause, then God must also require a cause. If we say God is eternal, we can also apply this principle to other things (such as the universe). Consequently, we define God as self-sufficient. Thomas Aquinas describes the first “mover” as an eternal, necessary, and immortal being, and without it, we would have universal death. He claims that if there is no God, then there must have been an infinite time that generates a necessary being that cannot be. Some philosophers named this assumption the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR). We should have a first cause and if we don’t have it, then the whole universe is unexplained. We can explain things in the short term but not in the long term. Because we discussed these things in section 1 [God and Cosmology] and met the creators of these arguments [God and Philosophy], I wanted to skim over them. But thus far, you can see most of the arguments have common principles or propositions. All these abstract details are complicated and confusing, but we should think basically and accurately. Like CS Lewis said, “I felt in my bones that this universe does not explain itself.” 22 William Lane Craig, The Kalām Cosmological Argument (New York: Macmillan, 1979) b. The Teleological Argument The Teleological argument, also known as the Design argument, implies that we should look for a creator because of the existence of various details in nature, such as design, and purpose. The core of the view is that everything observed in nature could not have occurred by chance. i. Paley’s watch An English Christian apologist William Paley published an analogy in his book Natural Theology (1802). He argued that the complex structures of living things and the remarkable adaptations of plants and animals require an intelligent designer. According to his analogy, when we come across an object such as a stone, we can say it has lain there forever. But if we come across an object such as a watch in the wilderness, we should ask how the watch happened to be in that place. There should be an artificer or artificers who made this watch at one time or another who comprehended its construction and designed its use. Later in this narrative, Paley assimilates the watch into the world. The watch came from intelligent humans and the world came from an intelligent God. By this argument, Paley concludes that God exists and that God created the world. Thus we can say that the function and complexity of a watch indicate a watch-maker. Similarly, the function and complexity of the universe indicate the existence of a universemaker. The only problem with this argument is that the premises are shallow and the assumptions are very open-ended. If we incorporate the Big Bang and Evolution theories, I assert that we can improve Paley's position. God is the watchmaker, the crafting process is the big bang, and the functions of the watch are the laws of nature. ii. Fine-Tuning Scientists agree that the universe is gorgeously fine-tuned for life. However, our universe may be one of the multiverses. Our universe has several features that are set to specific values. For example: The strength of gravity; in the beginning, if gravity was a bit stronger, all things would have ended quickly before they begin. And if it was a bit weaker, we probably would not have stars and galaxies. So the strength of gravity has to be exactly right for stars to be generated. We can also look at the formation of carbon. Carbon is an essential element for all living things because, without it, molecular chains can’t be formed. We need three helium atoms with a collision and fusion reaction to produce a carbon atom. A tiny change in these reactions can cause a reduced production of carbon. As for the DNAs, the mass of a proton is 1,836.15267389 times the mass of the electron in an atom. If we change this ratio by a small amount, the formation of many molecules including DNA can be blocked. As I mentioned, this argument is also used for the multiverse theory. The theory claims that our universe is one of possible many universes which contain hundreds of billions of galaxies and almost countless stars. I believe that they are inaccessible cosmos, and we don’t have access to measure the stability of other universes. My conclusion for this assertion is that even if we don't know there is a “multiverse,” if there are infinite universes, God created them. iii. Intelligent Design We already talked about Behe’s irreducibly complex and Paley’s watch, but what is the main idea of this argument? Intelligent design is an argument that rejects natural selection and defends an intelligent cause. I myself illustrate ID with an author and a book. For instance, when you write a book, you have 1110027 words to use (If you write in Turkish), and you’ll have to choose the words carefully to create your story. God should have chosen atoms, molecules, cells, and organisms carefully. But is there science behind this argument? DNA is a three-letter word with four letters and each letter represents a subunit of a protein, an amino acid. Before getting started, we should discuss Darwin’s works on living forms. We know that he explained the origin of new living forms starting from simpler pre-existing forms of life, but evolutionaries didn’t explain the origin of life or the simplest living cell in the first place23 If we can go into the inner recesses of even the simplest living one-celled organisms, we see one of the most complex things in our lives. For example, computers use a binary language consisting of 0s and 1s, and everything in a computer is represented by these two digits. By contrast with 2 digits, DNAs contain 4 letters (G, C, A, and T). In addition, Bill Gates claims that “DNA is like a computer program, but far, far more advanced than any software we've ever created.”24 And we know there is a programmer or engineer behind all software. Why wouldn’t there be a programmer or engineer behind all living things? Further, we define a cell as the smallest unit that can live on its own, it is the smallest but not simplistic. Every cell is enclosed by a cell membrane, there are nucleus and nucleolus and the cytoplasm is the gel-like fluid inside the cell, cytoplasmic organelles just as mitochondrion, ribosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, golgi apparatus, and lysosomes. According to cell theory, every cell is formed from preexisting cells. And the interpretation of the first cell seems very complex and open-ended. c. The Ontological Argument So far, we have observed the world, the universe, cells, and molecules. But the goal of the ontological argument is to explain why God exists through several sources other than observation of the world. For example, God exists because He's the greatest one. There is no need to explain the reasons but explaining them can help our argument to be more accurate. For this reason, we can define these arguments as non-empirical arguments. i. Anselm We encounter the first ontological argument by way of a Catholic Saint, Anselm of Canterbury. 23 24 https://www.discovery.org/a/17905/#4 Bill Gates, The Road Ahead (New York: Viking, 1995), 188. He argued that God is a being and that no greater being than God can be conceived. Even so, this argument is actually simple in its nature. If I can define God, God exists. I don't have to go outside and seek God because it's greater than this action. This argument is brilliant and simple and attractive, but there is a problem. For example, if I can define a "glorious tea beast", it does exist. My contribution to this argument is that I can go and seek the glorious tea beast, and perhaps there is a 0,000000001% chance I find it. Similarly, we can imagine a circle square. Plus, thanks to artificial intelligence, there is an AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language, Dall-E 2, when we look the glorious tea beats up, we see the following pictures. Or for the circle square, When we look God up, we’ll see spirit-like or man-like objects (Actually the biblical God reveals Himself as a spirit and a man in incarnation.) Plus, if we return to the beginning of this paper, we defined God as being above time, space, and other things. My opinion is that God is an exception because I can imagine and envision them, but I can’t do these for God. Assume that God is great enough to exist in our minds, accordingly, God can be great enough to exist in reality. Through these views, we can conclude that God must be, and God must exist. 5. Philosophical Arguments - What are The Critical Arguments Concerning Philosophy? The existence of God is a significant issue in philosophy. As noted earlier, many philosophers debated the existence of God. Plus, this issue can be a topic of many branches of philosophy such as epistemology, ontology, metaphysics, logic, and ethics. In this section, we will examine some arguments from these fields. The goal of this section is not to prove the arguments, just to outline the arguments’ points. a. Moral Argument The moral argument is also known as the argument from morality. Because we can observe a human experience of morality and God must be behind this moral experience, the result is that God exists. Even though we explained the argument simply, we can (philosophers did) improve this argument. For example, we see that morality is objective and absolute, and they explain that because of God, morality is objective and absolute. To back up this argument, even remote tribes might have a similar sense of morality to us. Because we have an instinctive sense of what is right and wrong which God provides. We may inspect how the first people gained this sense. In general thought, the first humans began to collaborate in hunting-and-gathering times, and this collaboration led to the development of concepts such as respect and fairness. But according to Kant, moral actions are not determined by results or consequences but are based on general principles. Because we humans have weaknesses in our character, we can't reach the “highest good” or perhaps appropriate standards. In light of this information, we bump into the evolution of morality, which means human moral behaviors come from human evolution and evolutionary selection. There are a few problems with this concept. For example; The result of this concept is “resultants” not “ideals., It doesn't tell us how things must be. If morality keeps evolving, in the future, extramarital sex, suicide, gambling, pornography, polygamy, killing, stealing, lying, damaging, violence, and humiliating may become moral actions. Of course, in some cultures, some of these behaviors might not be immoral, but generally, we see there is a standard for moral and immoral things. And this evolution focuses on accordance, not the truth. If something offers a survival advantage, we utilize it. In hunter-and-gatherer tribes, telling the truth, not destroying properties, not cheating, being dependable, being forgiving, seeking justice, and being generous would have been difficult. b. Desire This argument focuses on a natural desire (e.g., CS Lewis calls it joy). For example, CS Lewis argues that humans have by nature a desire for the transcendent. For this reason, there must be something transcendent. Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft claims that humans have a desire that nothing can satisfy, for this reason, there must be something more than time, earth, and creatures, which can satisfy this desire. c. Consciousness Consciousness is indirect evidence of God by claiming that consciousness is outside of the physical mechanisms in the human body. Consciousness is not like a bird's wing or a snake’s tongue, or a fish’s gills. Evolution is performed at the level of the body and not at the level of the senses or emotions. I believe that evolution focuses on the actions of a living thing, but not the neural processes behind them. For example, how do we know the feelings of love or fear? According to my research, evolution doesn’t give an exact explanation for the brain, behavior, and consciousness. Explaining the concept of human consciousness is difficult, but it makes sense considering that God is a conscious being. d. Natural-law Argument This argument argues that God is behind natural laws or physical laws. Those laws show that there is an existence of a superior being who created these laws because God aimed to create the best universe. e. Miracles This argument focuses on God’s intervention in the supernatural. For instance, the miracles that individuals experience are deductive assertions for this argument. Or some people see humans’ outward senses, their eyes, and ears, as miracles. If we experience miracles or find evidence of a miracle, we have evidence for the existence of God. I believe that one of the major miracles was the death and resurrection of Jesus which we will address in section 7. f. Afterlife Is the afterlife a myth or an argument for God? Sadly, we know that there are injustices in our lives. If we know there is something beyond the grave, it can give hope for justice to come in the future. Or sometimes we want more than this life offers or wonder what will happen to us when we die. So far today, 6.000.000+ people died from Covid-19 and about 60.000.000 people die every year.25 What happened - or will happen - to them? The idea of a godless universe cannot answer these questions. But theistic views can. 6. On God – Who is Out There? Until now, we talked about a higher being, which was defined as “God.” But which one? Because there may be almost 5,000+ gods being worshiped by humanity. If we are able to talk about the existence of a god. We must ask which one of the 5000. There is an unwise argument: if you believe in one god, you’ll have to reject the rest of them. In this section, we’ll examine the gods progressively. a. Types of Faith The word “faith” comes from the Latin language and means trust, confidence, or reliance. In Turkish, it is “iman,” which means feeling safe, confirming, and deciding. Undoubtedly, various people can feel safe in various things, confirm, or trust them. i. Deism Deists believe that there is an existence of a supreme being, you can call it God or whatever. In Deism, God -or the supreme being- can’t intervene in the universe. ii. Atheism Defining Atheism as a faith is contradictory because Atheism is based on a lack of belief in God or a supreme being. For this reason, Atheists define it as a sense of a denial of gods. 25 https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-toll/ iii. Agnostics If you translate the word directly, it means anti-knowledge., Agnostics argue that nobody can know of the existence of anything beyond the sensations. We may be able to say it’s a parallel thing with skepticism in the rejection of belief. But God, or a higher thing, is mysteriously both known and unknown. iv. Theism Theists believe in the existence of a supreme being, namely God. Moreover, He is the existence of divine reality. Yes, God is the creator, but also the boss of the universe. According to Theism, God is omniscient (knowing everything), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnipresent (anywhere and everywhere). v. Monotheism So far, we have discussed only a divine being. Monotheism argues that there is only one deity, one God. vi. Polytheism Poly (many) theism claims that there are different gods, each responsible for various things. According to Polytheism, gods have different - human-like - features. Some atheists argue that religions popped up from polytheist views. Because they think that people in hunter-gatherer eras encountered natural events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods. They glorified those events and the powers behind them. b. Gods (alternatives) Christianity, Judaism, and Islam share similar commonalities. Judaism is the world's oldest monotheistic faith and the foundation of both Christianity and Islam.26 But why is Monotheism important? In the Ancient World, people believed in numerous polytheistic gods. To believe in one God seemed almost impossible for human minds. People believed God should reveal Himself through action. Furthermore, after decades, philosophers settled on the view of one God. Because: God is a completely perfect being, complete perfection is missing in the other gods. The universe would be in chaos if there were multiple creators and authorities. God is not formed by eternal pieces. God is eternal. i. Islam - Belief Islam teaches that Allah’s word was revealed to the prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel and The Quran is the main holy text. Islam began in 610 AD, when the prophet Muhammad received the first revelation. Islam also recognizes many of the same prophets as Judaism and Christianity, such as Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, and “Jesus”. 26 https://www.fairfield.edu/undergraduate/academics/schools-and-colleges/college-of-arts-andsciences/programs/judaic-studies/index.html - Problems As a “Muslim” background believer, I think that Islam’s most significant problem is the oscillation between believing the previous texts and not believing them. According to Islam, the Quran came to confirm the previous books, the Torah, and the Gospel (Surah 3:3). For this reason, we can say that the Quran is the last all-embracing scripture of God. The Torah and the Gospels share common Scriptures, but the Quran does not. Although traditional Islam does not teach this, most Muslims today believe the Torah was revealed to Moses but it has been corrupted due to the Jews’ lack of faith. And then, some views say that the Gospel has been changed, or Jesus couldn’t find time to write God’s revelations. For this reason, the Gospel was not actually written, the Gospel was the hearers of Jesus. In this case, we can conclude that God must be a weak deity because He could not preserve His word. During the Abrahamic dynasty, Ishmael didn’t exactly follow the faith of his forefathers and he was not the son of God's promise. However, Ishmael was the ancestor of Arabs. As prophets came from Isaac, Jacob, and 12 Tribes’ lines, Muhammad would have been an exception. My illustration for this case is that the Holy Scriptures (the Torah, Psalms, the Gospel and the Quran) were a four-volume novel, but the last one was not related to the rest in terms of author, events, and beliefs. In addition, the covenant is one of the most significant expressions in both the Torah and the Gospel, but we don’t come across a covenant in the Quran. ii. Judaism - Belief Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. It actually lies in the Jewish identity because Abraham is hailed as the first Hebrew and the father of the Jewish people. And God promised him that Isaac, his second son, would inherit the land of Canaan. After decades the descendants of Isaac's son Jacob were enslaved in Egypt then God commanded Moses to lead the Exodus from Egypt before they received the Torah. Torah and the rest of the Tanakh* centered on the Messiah who came from both Abraham and David’s line to save the people of God. - Problems The problem as I see it is that Jews should be waiting for the Messiah. According to the scriptures, the Messiah should have come and destroyed evil and established an eternal kingdom. They believed that the Messiah would come and save them from the captivity of the Romans. But Jesus came and talked about forgiveness, love, and the kingdom of heaven (not physical just as the Jews expected). Because of this Jesus is still rejected by the Jews. But the Tanakh underscores that the Messiah would suffer, be persecuted, and be killed. It also tells that God would make a covenant with all nations through the Messiah. d. Christianity Thus far, we may say there are countless gods, beliefs, and religions. If God exists, which one would be the true God? The doctrine of God in Christianity is unique and inconceivably hard to understand. Sometimes people say it’s polytheism and some say it is monotheism. But the actual definition of God is the Trinity which means God exists in three Persons, namely The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. Trinity is one of the most difficult concepts for people because sometimes, as noted earlier, it is impossible for any human being to fully understand. The Bible (the Torah, Tanakh, the Gospel, etc.) teaches that there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). However, we can see a relationship between three different persons in God (Genesis 1). In the Bible, Jesus is the one who is the Son of God, is equal with God (Luke 22:70, John 5:17), lived a sinless life (Hebrews 4:1), has died and risen from the death (Matthew 27-28), is the only way to God (John 14:6), is the anticipated the Messiah (Matthew 1:16, prophets eg. Micah, Isaiah), and who will return to judge (Matthew 25:31-46). Unlike Judaism and Islam, when you look at Christianity you don’t see a dilemma or contradiction. 7. The Deity of Jesus - Who is Yet to Come? The deity of Jesus is a vast topic. Through the Bible story, we come to understand who Jesus is and all His glory. Looking at the overarching story helps us to know Jesus because we see a central topic in the Bible about what our God has done and what is new in Christ. There are covenants in the Bible (Judaism and Christianity have - Islam does not), and God’s covenant focuses on one individual, the king. God promises a son whose throne will never end. (2 Samuel 7 14). Each covenant relates to Jesus’ coming and salvation through Jesus. Therefore, the overarching story of the Bible points to a coming Messiah. But is the Messiah a deity or a man? When we look at the prophets, they answer the question of who will come, what kind of salvation, and how the Messiah will bring salvation. The first question is critical because God answers this question through several prophets. For example, in Ezekiel 34:15-16, He declares that I myself… a. Historical Evidence of Jesus Before discussing Jesus’ deity, we should focus on His existence: what does it mean? Some Atheist views argue that Jesus never existed; He was just a historical figure for Christians to maintain their faith. An English scholar N. T. Wright claims that “It would be easier, frankly, to believe that Tiberius Caesar, Jesus' contemporary, was a figment of the imagination than to believe that there never was such a person as Jesus”27 So Jesus definitely existed,, but couldn’t He be a magician rather than God? e will address this question in the last section. - In this section, we will delve into Jesus’ existence in a historical context. Let's put the Bible aside for a moment. Josephus (37-100 AD), one of the most influential historians of his time, 27 Jesus and the Victory of God (Fortress, 1996) identifies Jacob as the “brother of Jesus-who-is-called-Messiah.” He talks about a man “who did surprising deeds” and was convicted to be crucified by Pilate: Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.28 Pliny the Younger (61-113 AD) wrote to Emperor Trajan (53-117 AD) that early Christians would “sing hymns to Christ as to a god.”29 In the earliest literature of the Jewish Rabbis, Jesus was accused as being the illegitimate child of Mary30 A Syriac Stoic philosopher, Mara bar Serapion (50 AD - ) refers to the execution of "the wise king of the Jews (kaynak).” In addition, when we examine the historical evidence for Jesus, we must also think of the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, during which the Romans destroyed the city and the Second Jewish Temple. They could have also destroyed more evidence for Jesus’ existence. b. Jesus and The Trinity As mentioned earlier, Christians believe that God exists in three coequal, coeternal, and consubstantial divine persons. One member of these persons is God the Son, Jesus Christ. Basically, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different Persons, but each Person is wholly God, and there is only one God. Because of the qualities of personhood, for example, Jesus prayed to God the Father. However, They are also equal in Their divine qualities (uncreated, immutable, holy, eternal etc.). The simplest explanation of the Trinity is that God is big. Really big. Bigger than we can comprehend. If God was something humans could fully comprehend, He couldn’t be so big. c. Illustrations and Figures People consider the Trinity to be contradictory because it is extremely hard to explain. Trinitarian Illustrations can help us understand it, but we must not forget that they can’t explain it completely. I believe the shortest, simplest, and perhaps the best explanation of the Trinity is one being in three Persons. First of all, we must think of “what” and “who”. Let’s start by asking a few questions. Who am I? And what am I? The answers are that I am Dogu and I am a human. To 28 Antiquities 18.3.3 63-64 Pliny Book 10, Letter 96 30 Sanhedrin 43a 29 enhance the answers, who is Optimus Prime? And what is Optimus Prime? He is Optimus Prime; he is both a truck and a robot. So, Optimus Prime is one who and two whats. As for God, He is three whos and one what, specifically, three Persons in one God. In the great commission, Jesus states, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” He uses the singular form of “name” rather than the plural. So, one name is shared in three Persons, which shows us God’s uniqueness. The Bible claims that the Son is the radiance of God's glory (reference). Think of the sun above us as a star. When we are dazzled by the “sun,” what we are actually seeing is the radiance of the sun. But we don’t say “the radiance of the sun,” we directly identify it as the sun. The third illustration is that God always exists as love - and friendship and community and relationship. We must know that God didn’t start loving us when we began existing. God exists as love in Himself. Perhaps love is one of the most important teachings in the Bible. We need an object to love, but in eternity past, was there anyone for God to love? The Persons loved Himself altogether and separately because true love is not narcissistic, and it includes both giving and receiving. To play with equations, we undoubtedly know that 1 x 1 x 1 = 1 An American engineer Dr. Henry Morris explains the Trinity through the three things of the universe: matter, space, and time. Matter = mass + energy + motion Space = length + height + breadth Time = past + present + future If you remove any of those three, the universe will be destroyed. Think of a 2D game, for example, Pac-Man, when you talk to a Pacman, you can’t explain what height is. Because it is a 2D being. And if God is above our dimension, it is natural that we can’t fully understand what God is. The most common illustration for the Trinity is water. Water can exist as a liquid. It can turn to vapor by heating. When you cool it, it will eventually freeze into a solid. But it’s all water. The illustration I like to use goes like this: when you are talking to someone on the phone, who/what are you talking to? The person or the person’s voice? You answer your phone by saying “This is Emily”, why not “I am Emily” (I think you can use the second option in English, but when I think in Turkish, you are referring to your voice by saying “it.”) Emily might be a mother to her children, a wife to her husband, and daughter to her parents. She can even be all three at the same time. As I said, the Trinity may be a profound mystery and confusing and these illustrations can’t explain it completely. And I would like to warn you that there could be errors in the illustrations. Using the definitions can be still confusing but is better. d. Incarnation Basically, Incarnation means that God took on a human form by becoming Jesus. The major question here is why God took on human form. My answer is to the question, God approaches people as they are able to understand Him. For example, during the empire eras, kings or emperors called for their nations by saying “Obey my rules and I will give you shelter, protect you." And God approached His nation, Israel, in the same way as a king. However theologically speaking, sin is expensive and the cost of it is death. And all of us must pay for this. For this reason, it was necessary for Jesus to be born “under the law.” So, Christ came in the flesh to pay our debts. Second, it was necessary for the Savior to shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins. Because blood was necessary for the atonement of sins according to God's Law. Without being incarnated, how could the Savior shed His blood? As part of God’s plan, Jesus became human to die in our place as a sacrifice. Moreover, the resurrection was required to fulfill the Law, and to pay the death debt. e. Yahweh and Jesus But still, how can Jesus be God? Most people claim that God in the Old Testament and Jesus are two separate entities. I believe that the essential proposition for this view is that both Yahweh and Jesus shared similar names, titles, and qualifiers. Statement Yahweh Jesus I am (the statement) Exodus 3:14 John 9:9 Saviour Isaiah 43:11 Hebrews 5:9 The First and The Last Isaiah 48:12 Revelation 1:17-18 The King Deuteronomy 10:17 Revelation 19:16 Judge Psalm 75:7 2 Timothy 4:1-2 Shepherd Psalm 21:3 1 Peter 5:4 (Sample statements and verses, available for improvement) The expression “the Lord” was also used for Jesus by converted Jews (John 20:28). But the harsh point of the expression, the Romans called Caesar “Lord (Kurios),” which was a term for God. The reason the Romans persecuted the Jews was that the Jews didn't call Caesar Lord. The Jews do not dare call any human being “Lord” directly. But even experienced biblical scholars (for example, Paul) have called Jesus “Lord.” Additional verses: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9). “Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). f. The Resurrection I believe that, if the resurrection happened, then other things such as creation and God’s existence make more sense. Because the resurrection is the most central part of Christianity, believing in the resurrection also requires believing in miracles and seeing God as the one who made the resurrection happen. Actually, the resurrection was the reason why I became a believer. I just asked this question to myself, “What did the witnesses - or disciples - gain?” In Turkey there is a general belief that the disciples made Christianity up. Speaking of witnesses, the first witnesses of the empty tomb were women. According to Jewish culture, women were not able to be reliable witnesses. For this reason, using women to prove this big event would have been illogical. Meanwhile, there are many hypotheses that attempt to explain the empty tomb (such as the disciples stole the body, the women got lost on their way, etc.), but none of them can explain the accounts for the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. To return to my question, the disciples were fearful and doubtful. For example, Peter rejected Jesus three times. Thomas - known as Doubting Thomas - did not even believe Jesus was resurrected. They saw their teacher on the cross with these characteristics and something happened. They started proclaiming the kingdom of heaven and declared that Jesus had risen from the dead. What changed their beliefs in just a few days? They must have seen something big enough to change them. According to history (non-biblical sources), Peter was crucified, upside down at his request (he didn't feel worthy to die in the same way as his teacher). Thomas is said to have been preaching about Jesus as far east as India and was killed by four soldiers. As for the rest of the apostles, Paul was beheaded, Philip was arrested and cruelly put to death, and Matthew was stabbed to death in Ethiopia. According to Josephus, James was stoned and then clubbed to death. Matthias and Andrew were sentenced to death by burning. Again, the question, what did they gain? Money, fame, peace, love, family, or wellness? After witnessing the pitiful death of their teacher and founder of their faith, they also simply died. 8. Conclusion Despite many scientific perspectives and various beliefs, my conclusion is that God is good news. Indeed, the goal of this paper was not to prove the existence of God. But we can see that the opposing arguments are unable to disprove the existence of God. Whatever you believe in, we Christians have endless respect. Through this research paper, we have examined many arguments. But the important thing to consider is how these arguments will affect our relationship with God and others. "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3). Notice the importance of this verse; will we be the preparers? Bibliography 40 Questions About Creation and Evolution. (2014). Grand Rapids, MI 49505-6020.: Kregel Publications. Barr, S. M. (2016). The Believing Scientist: Essays on Science and Religion. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Cosmological Argument. (2004, Jul 2004). 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