DAY 358
CHALLENGE
“There is no one argument that demonstrates the Christian God exists. At most, each points to only a single aspect of the Christian God.”
DEFENSE
The arguments are not meant to be used individually. They’re meant to be combined in a cumulative case.
It would be possible to combine all the arguments into a single, highly complex argument, with many subarguments (similar to the way a computer program contains many subroutines). However, such an argument would be excessively difficult to follow. Consequently, apologists through the ages have broken the overall argument for the Christian God into smaller, more easily understandable pieces, which taken together provide a compelling case for the whole Christian vision.
Historical examples of this method are found in St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae (I:2–43) and Summa Contra Gentiles (I:3–102).
This present book is not a systematic treatise on the Christian understanding of God, so it doesn’t argue these points one by one. However, the arguments it does provide contribute elements of the Christian view of God:
- The kalam argument discusses God as the cause of the universe, who transcends space and time (see Days 46 and 47).
- The change argument discusses God as the ultimate and changeless cause of change in the world (see Days 73 and 74).
- The contingency argument discusses God as the first and necessary cause of all contingent things (see Days 168 and 169).
- The fine-tuning argument discusses God as the designer of the universe (see Days 178 and 179).
- The quantum mechanical argument discusses God as the one whose knowledge of the world makes it actual (see Days 230 and 231).
- Pascal’s Wager gives reasons why we should embrace the Christian view of God rather than skepticism (see Days 318 and 319).
Additional arguments in this book address:
- The concept of the Trinity (see Days 28, 39, 137, and 194)
- The status of Jesus as the Messiah (see Day 14)
- The Resurrection of Jesus (see Days 206–215)
Ultimately, everything in the book contributes to defending one aspect of the Christian faith or another, and no single entry is meant to prove the entirety on its own.