Apologetics: Pointers to Faith (Conclusion)

Pointers to Faith – Making Sense of Life and our Experience in the World

Class Date: May 17, 2023

The Christian Faith is not primarily about the “fact” that there is a God. It is about who that God is, who we are in relation to God, and how the divine revelation recorded in scripture gives us an entire world view that makes sense of life. Apologetics attempt to demonstrate that the Christian faith offers a nobler and more profound vision of life than other world views. This involves reason, intuition, and felling. This class looks at some of the ways this is done.

The first argument relates to the origins of the universe. Since the time of Aristotle, philosophers and scientists assumed that the universe always existed. This started to change as astronomers developed more sophisticated ways of observing stars and galaxies. By the 1600’s it became a settled fact that the universe had a beginning and that billions of years from now it will have an end. The question remains; who or what was the cause of the beginning of the universe? From a scientific point of view, this may be an unanswerable question. The Christian faith offers an answer that makes sense – that a creator God made the universe. This is a pointer to faith, but not proof. Consider also “cosmological constants” such as the force of gravity and the mass of subatomic particles. These too can serve as pointers to faith. They point to a higher intelligence that designed the universe to be a place where life can exist.

Also related is the fact that the physical world is something to be understood both mathematics and through reason. Human intelligence corresponds to the way in which the physical world functions. We have a rational soul and we live in a rational universe. Human nature also has desires, feelings, and passions. This also relates to the idea of being created in the image of God. God is beauty, God creates beauty, and so we, as God’s children, are similarly attracted to and desirous of beauty. The idea that we are God’s children makes sense of our life experiences and points to a transcendent reality that we strive for.

Our “pursuit of happiness” suggests an inborn desire for something that will fill our souls with joy. From a biblical point of view, we were created to live in a close relationship with God. God is a person who loves each of us and gave the life of his Son so that we can be reconciled to him. Our human desire is to be loved and accepted. The Christian faith makes sense of this. To live a truly human life, we must love God above all things, and our neighbor as ourselves.

This also brings up the idea of what is moral and good. A random world has no foundation for right and good. We know that stealing, murder, rape, or lying are wrong for two reasons. According to the idea of “natural law”, there is a sense in which right and wrong, good and evil are objective realities. Human beings of all cultures have a similar moral code. Secondly, a person is not considered fully human without a conscience. We are children of God made in his image. This is one of the most important aspects of the Christian faith.

These are a few of the ways the Christian faith makes sense of ourselves and the world we live in. We have dim perceptions of the presence of God in the world and inside us. Our desire for a transcendent good that lasts is our inborn desire to live in relationship with God. It is clear that the world as it now exists is in deep need of redemption. The Christian faith provides a world view and a path to get to where we desire to be that fits with the reality of life.