MESSAGE INTRODUCTION
As we understand how to defend the Christian faith, we are often caught off guard by the incredible faith displayed by our opponents in very bad ideas. It takes a tremendous exercise of faith to believe in self-creation theories, and as R.C. will point out in this lecture, the faith of the true believer is not enough to save a very bad idea from destroying itself.
This idea's time has come and gone.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To review the possible alternatives to reality.
2. To critically review the alternative of self-creation.
3. To understand how important this idea is to many agnostic systems of thought.
QUOTATIONS AND THOUGHTS
Dear me, the Lord got on very well before I was born, and I'm sure He will when I am
dead. (C.H. Spurgeon)
God is not in need of anything, but all things are in need of God. (Marcianus Aristides)
God is the cause of all causes, the soul of all souls. (A.H. Strong)
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. What possible alternatives are there to explain reality?
a) Illusion
b) Self-creation
c) Self-existence
d) Creation via self-existent being
II. Self-creation is the most frequent alternative offered to theists
a) This is a generic principle that subsumes many generic principles and arguments.
b) Self-creation is analytically false; it is false by definition. For something to be its own cause, it would have to preexist itself. It would be and not be at the same time and in the same relationship.
III. Past and Current Theories of Self-Creation
a) French encyclopedists such as Denis Diderot (1713-1784) were determined anti-theists, and suggested spontaneous generation as the means of creation.
b) The counter argument to this teaching is ex nihilo, nihil fit—out of nothing, nothing comes.
c. In 1953, a Nobel Prize winner said that we should replace the idea of spontaneous generation with the concept of gradual spontaneous generation.
d) The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 25, 1990. A famed physicist explained on that day that the beginnings of the universe occurred 15-20 billion years ago, when it exploded into "being." But this is more a philosophical statement than astrophysical one.
e) "Creation by chance" is the most popular way we hear this taught today. Space+ time + chance = stuff is the overly hopeful way in which this is formulated.
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