Case Study 1: The Existence of God
Trinitarianism
This is going to be a “real life” case study. You are to find a person who would be willing to sit down and talk to you for thirty minutes to an hour. In order to qualify, this person must be someone whom you think has doubts or troubles with the issue of God and His existence. He or she does not have to be an outright professing atheist (although this would be great), but someone who may be a practical atheist, or a seeker. This might be a family member, a co-worker, someone at the gym, or even someone from church.
• You are to inform this person that you are doing an assignment and ask if they have time for you to speak to them concerning the issue of God’s existence.
• Cover these questions before you begin:
1. Do you believe in God?
2. If so, on a scale of 1-10 how sure are you?
3. What makes you sometimes doubt his existence?
4. What makes you sure that he exists?
• After this, you are to go through the six possible answers to the question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” covered in class. (Refer to your notes.)
• Illustrate how all the answers except number six are formally absurd.
The object of this assignment is to present a logical argument for the existence of God. Your goal here is not to convince someone of the truth (although that would be great), but simply to present the arguments clearly.
After you are done, write a half page to a page summary of the encounter and hand it in. Online student are to post their summary in their class forum. Grades will be based upon the completion of the assignment, not the effectiveness of the presentation. Everyone who completes this will receive credit for the case study.
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March 4th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Trinitarianism - Case Study 1. The Existence of God
My most difficult challenge with these case studies is often finding the right person who is willing to subject themselves to these discussions. This time was no different, but eventually my wife agreed (though reluctantly).
First, a little background information. Sue and I have known each other since we were 14 and have been married since we were 19 (at this time, 37 years and counting). We were both raised Roman Catholic. She went to public school and I was immersed in Catholic Grade School and High School. In my mid-forties I went back to college and graduated from Boston College, a Jesuit institution. I have always had a strong awareness that there is a God, even when I was running from Him. Sue, conversely, seldom if ever gives a thought about it (Him).
As I began seeking the God of Scriptures years ago, I invited Sue to join me in attending church, a Protestant denomination. She politely declined and commented that I have always been drawn to spiritual things but she is ambivalent about such things.
So I opened the discussion asking if she believes in God? She said she did. I asked her to rate her belief on a scale of 1 to 10, she answered 7. When I asked her what makes her doubt His existence, she answered that she didn’t know. When I asked her what makes her sure that He exists, she again did not know. She admitted that she never gave it any thought. Knowing He exists should be enough.
So I then led into the discussion of “Why is there something rather than nothing?” Her verbal response was, “Huh?” Her body language said. “What kind of stupid question is that!” So when I offered the first response that “there really is nothing, it is all an illusion”, she suggested that I was “jerking her around”. I assured her that this is in fact a line of reasoning that some “philosophers” embrace and I comforted her by telling her that the following questions would be not quite as bad.
The possibilities of the universe being…self-created, created by chance, created by nothing, or always existed, made no sense to her. They all seemed to defy what was so obvious to her in creation. Then I presented the Kalam Cosmological Argument and though she was challenged by the strange thinking that was behind it, she agreed that the earth has to have a cause and the existence of a Supreme Creator is the only sensible conclusion.
After that was done, I took a few more minutes to explain the traditional arguments for the existence of God. She embraced the Cosmological and Teleological Arguments and sensus divinitatis. She was ambivalent about the Ontological Argument. She rejected the Moral Argument based upon the depravity of man (her observation, my label). She also found Pascal’s Wager to be very logical, practical and convenient but lacking any spiritual insight or commitment. Sue has never taken the time to examine these things and she was pleased to end the discussion.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Case Study #1—Trinitarianism
For my first case study in Trinitarianism, I interviewed my friend John. John is a believer. I explained that we would be discussing the existence of God as our topic. When I asked John the first question, do you believe in God, he answered as I expected that he did believe in God. On a scale of one to ten, he indicated that his belief was a 10. When I asked if he ever sometimes doubted God’s existence he indicated that he never had. When I asked him what made him so sure that God existed, he simply responded that He is. John used an analogy that he borrowed from C.S. Lewis. John said that he believes God exists in the same way that he knows that the sun exists, the moon exists and that I exist, because we do. As for the difficulty in not seeing God, John used another analogy borrowed from Billy Graham. He said that God was like the wind, you can not see the wind, but you can see its effects. After this, we moved to the question of why is there something rather than nothing. John’s response was that it was because God wanted it that way. God created the world for His glory, but not to be more glorified or to be glory in and of itself. God is a positively created God and His creation expresses His love. I next moved onto the six answers that we covered in class. We discussed how all other possibilities with the exception of a God-created universe were ultimately self-defeating and absurd. John had no objection to these arguments. I finally asked John which of the arguments he most associates himself with when proving the existence of God, he indicated that the moral argument most resonated with him. To John, the morality inherit in humanity is the most compelling evidence to him that there is a God. We concluded our discussion on the existence of God by see how this discussion could help us better communicate our faith. John told me that he is witnessing to his brother who is a non-believer. John said this information was helpful in organizing his thoughts on how to better to share with non-believers and to identify the arguments that are most used to object to the existence of God. In my line of work, we often use the term, unconscious competent to describe someone who does a good job, or believes correctly, but does not know the why behind their competency. It seems to me that this Theology Program in general, as well as this case study, further demonstrate how I am learning to be more conscious of my beliefs and why I believe the way I do.
March 4th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Case Study 1 for Trinitarianism
For my case study I enlisted the help of a relative who I knew had problems with believing in God in her past. This was an opportunity to not only share something what I’ve learned in this class but also to better know what she believes about God.
We discussed the four opening questions, for which I supplied my answers as well. (My responses are in parentheses).
Do you believe in God? Although I knew she had expressed doubts about God’s existence in the past, she said that yes she does. (Yes)
On a scale from one to ten how sure are you?
I was surprised and relieved that she gave a ten to that question. (10)
What makes you doubt His existence?
She said it was not so much that she doubted His existence but that He cares about us. (My doubts were due to all the random tragedies we are subject to in life).
What makes you sure that He exists?
She told me science; specifically the evidence of design in creation; also the historical accuracy of the Bible. (Prior to this case study I wrote down: “evidence from many sources; creation’s complexity; Biblical accuracy; answered prayer and inner witness of the Holy Spirit.”)
For the subject of “Why is there something rather than nothing?” I explained the seven major world views and their response to this question. I used the world view chart describing the world views and the arch illustrations in the workbook.
About theism, I described the concept of God’s transcendence in the realm beyond time, space and matter; of His immanence, how He continues to interact personally with the universe He created from nothing at all. Moving on from there I contrasted with the theistic view, deism, polytheism, pantheism, panentheism, pluralism and naturalism. Deism I described as unreasonable because it denies the record of God’s involvement with His creation as recorded in the Bible although it agrees with theism about creation ex nihilo; polytheism only believes in powerful beings “under the arch” and not qualified to be “God”, and that the universe existed from eternity past. Pantheism made no sense because it is evident we are not illusions; why would anyone want to imagine disease, suffering and death? Panentheism is similar to pantheism but speaks of a God who is dependent on His created universe as it is on Him. Pluralism, I pointed out goes against the law of non-contradiction as what is false cannot be true. And finally naturalism offers the only other choice for the complexity of creation besides belief in a transcendent creator; and it’s a bad one, because the odds against life just throwing itself together are far beyond astronomical. For the world views that believed that the universe had no beginning, I did my best to explain the Kalam cosmological argument and how an “actual infinite” (i.e. a beginningless series of moments) cannot exist.
Not only was this a good experience for me in that this is one of the first times I’ve had to share what I’ve learned, it also reassured me of my relative’s views about, and relationship with God.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Ok, I just realized that I never posted this case study here where it belongs but rather only emailed it to the assignments box! So here goes:
I picked Mark from the gym who I knew does not believe in God due to his sexual orientation.
1. He believes in God.
2. 9
3. I never “met him” but it just seems to make sense that there is a god.
4. We exist. That simple.
Mark has had rough times in life due to his life-style, the way he was raised and drug abuse. He “ran” from life until only the last two years (he is 29) where he has sort of “sobered up” from the mess he found himself in.
1. Does he doubt his existence sometimes? YES! Where was he when he was a kid, struggling to fit in?
2. Why are people confident about His existence? Because it makes more sense to believe in something then not believe in something.
3. Why is there something rather then nothing? Mark said he has NO CLUE”.
Mark liked the “cumulative argument” as we moved along cause he feels like there has to be a god but he doesn’t seem at all interested in the God of the Christian bible or in defining him. He feels more comfortable with the ” I pray and if he is god he hears me” kind of mentality. The bottom line is his life is better today cause he was so far down the ladder that he wanted the change.
I explain, in brief, the seven worldviews and I got the impression as I was going through them that he just was like “whatever works for you…works for you” and I took this a very post-modern, secular type reaction so I didn’t press.
In the final analysis, I spoke to him about Ex-Nihilo and he smiled on that and we parted way a little more friendly then ever before
March 6th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Trinitarianism: Case Study # 1
For this case study I chose my brother Stephen. I thought this was a good opportunity to share some of what I’ve learned, because I’ve sensed lately that he is seeking. We were raised Catholic and went to Catholic school. He turned away from organized religion and has considered himself to be “Spiritual” not “Religious”. I also turned away from Catholicism but turned toward a “non-denominational” church. I had a hard time putting our conversation into writing because it went in so many different directions. But here is a basic summary.
I was not quite sure of his theology as sometimes I think he’s a believer and other times he seems more like a practical atheist. So I decided to begin by discussing the various worldviews and found that he is a theist/pantheist. You will see why below.
1. Do you believe in God?
He does believe in God, but has trouble with some aspects of God. He expressed how he got turned off to organized religion because everything seems to be about condemnation, sin, punishment, God’s wrath etc. He also disliked that we always got pat answers and weren’t encouraged to ask questions and struggle through some of the issues. Another problem for him with religion is the fact that he’s gay. He has been with the same partner for 30 years and does not feel he chose to be gay as it would have been easier to be straight. So, he struggles with the strong anti-homosexual sentiment expressed by most religious groups. Even though he would like to go to church, he doesn’t feel he wants to be where he isn’t accepted. His views are unorthodox in that he believes in reincarnation, that hell is not a place but a state of isolation and heaven has 3 levels. Lastly, he believes in God, though he is not certain of Christ’s deity. So we talked about that for quite awhile and also mentioned that not all Christians discourage thinking and mentioned RMM, which I’ve been talking to him about.
2. On a scale of 1-10 how sure are you?
He gave that a 10.
3. What makes you sometimes doubt his existence?
He says he doesn’t have doubt.
4. What makes you sure that he exists?
He says all of the order in nature indicates a creator. And that despite all the health problems he’s had in his life from a young age (lots), he’s still content and believes God has given him adversity to strengthen him and build his character.
I discussed “Why is there something rather than nothing?” and he had no problem with that. He thanked me for doing this with him as he got a different perspective. Last night he forwarded an e-mail to me that he had received from someone he doesn’t know with a prayer asking Jesus to save him. He was amazed by that since he received that after our conversation. So, we’ll see how this goes.
March 7th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Case Study #1
I presented the Case Study to two believers with very different levels of understanding.
This proved quite interesting as the one individual had very little knowledge of what God might be like.
It was obvious that these individuals believed in God, so I asked them why they believed in God. It turns out to be a difficult question, but led nicely into the meat of the presentation. An explanation of the scale of assuredness was necessary in order to answer the 2nd question of how sure are you of your belief in God. One of the individuals was quite uneasy about the possibility of less than a 10 when rating his belief in God. They gave a list of answers for question #3 and 4. which lined up very well with the material to be covered.
It was difficult to draw discussion from one of the individuals as he would respond with a “that is absurd” to the first five possible answers to the question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” It took a wee bit of prompting and the suggestion that there are individuals who would respond to the question with “All is an illusion”, and what or how would he respond to them. The other member of my group had had to deal with some of the possible answers to the questions when interacting with family members, so she had some very interesting insights and responses.
As I mentioned above I realized the individuals might have different ideas of who God is, so I asked them to share what they thought he looked like. The first individuals suggested since we were created in His image that He had a body like ours and could be seen. The second individual suggested that the Bible says He is spirit. I left that particular discussion for another day, as there was going to be so many definitions and explanations needed in order to address the issue adequately.
One of the individuals did not appear to have a positive reaction to the discussion and was not open to new or differing ideas. The other individual has recently started exploring various worldviews, and as she had not considered some of the questions presented before this gathering, she enjoyed the discussion a great deal.
This case study turned out to be quite a challenge and an insightful learning experience.
March 20th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Case Study1; The Existence of God - Trinitarianism
By; Jay Foreman….finally!!
For this case study, I interviewed a married couple we have known for 20 years, Dr. Brad and his wife Ren Murray. They are very firm believers who helped me come to know Christ as my Lord and Savior. I thought that even though they weren’t “near atheists or non-believers… they would have great comments and interesting views for this subject concerning issue of God and His existence.
I asked them the four leading questions below;
1. Do you believe in God? They both said absolutely.
2. If so, on a scale of 1-10 how sure are you? After some thought, Brad said 9.90 and Ren said 10 right away.
3. What makes you sometimes doubt his existence? Brad said that being a Doctor…and very analytical, he sometimes thinks of the what if’s, no God, no heaven, no hell…. Ren had absolutely no doubts.
4. What makes you sure that he exists? Brad said his faith, his upbringing, his Bible studies but he couldn’t prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Ren echoed the same and added her experienced in life, and answered prayers.
These answers gave me the fuel I was really looking for to go through the six possible answers to the question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?”
I actually went back a little to “Why do people sometimes doubt God’s existence and reviewed the 6 reasons to help Brad see that he wasn’t alone, even as a believer.
From there we went into the 6 or 7 traditional arguments for the existence of God.
1. The Cosmological Argument of cause and effect was pretty straight forward. The Syllogism’s took a bit to grasp a hold of but they helped. They had no problem with Cosmological.
2. The Ontological Argument, Brad said that it assumes you believe that God IS necessary and it’s a hard sell for an atheist. He did agree that the greatest conceivable being (God) must exist. I spent time going over “The arch” and how God exit’s above the arch and this really helped.
3. The Teleological Argument was a no brainer for Dr. Brad. Being an Optimologist… he has studied the eye for all his adult life and understands the complexity of life and how God is an intelligent designer.
4. The Moral Argument was very easy, they are both C.S. Lewis fans, and really enjoyed the biblical passages in this.
5. The Sensus Divinititas Argument was easily understood because God has always filled their voids in life.
6. Pascal’s “Wager” and argument for faith, gave them comfort in that if there turns out not to be a God… no big deal.
7. We finished up with the Cumulative Case Argument, which he mentioned as a conclusion just before we talked about it.
After prayer and dinner, Brad said his 9.99 really had moved to 9.9999999999. His doubts had shrinked, Ren was even more excited for Brad. It was awesome. Amen
March 26th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Its getting harder and harder to find people to help with these case studies! I did this one with a friend who has been guestioning/ridiculing me about my faith. Personally I’ll take anything that shows any kind of interest rather than nothing. Anyway, in covering the questions at the start I got these answers: 1 I dont know, 2 didnt apply, 3 all the suffering in the world, 4 I’m NOT sure. I went through the answers to “Why is there something rather than nothing?” She was quite interested and asked several questions. Thanks to TTP I was able to answer or find the answers needed. After completing that I asked her the questions from the beginning again and got these answers: 1 yes, I think so, 2 6 or 7 3 same answer as before 4 the conversation we just had has me thinking differently now. All in all it was a very interesting cup of coffee with a good friend.