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APOLOGETICS SESSION 12
God Exists: The Cosmological Argument

Discussion Questions
  1. As a group, can you write out the outline of the cosmological argument by memory?
  2. Is the cosmological argument helpful to you personally? Explain.
  3. Do you think the cosmological argument for the existence of God could be helpful in evangelism? Explain.
  4. Looking at the outline (of the video) below, what stands out to you most? Why?​
Outline & Quotes from Video
  1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.​
  2. The universe began to exist.
    1. ​Atheists have typically said that the universe has been here forever.
    2. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
      1. ​The universe is slowly running out of usable energy.
      2. If the universe had been here forever, it would have run out of usable energy by now.
    3. Confirmed by scientific discoveries:
      1. ​1915 - Einstein: general theory of relativity: allowed us to talk meaningfully about the past history of the universe
      2. Friedmann & Lemaitre predicted that the universe is expanding.
      3. 1929 - Hubble measured the 'red shift' and confirmed that the universe is expanding, and that it sprang into being from a single point in the finite past, a monumental discovery!​
        1. Alternative theories have been proposed but have been refuted.
    4. "Scientists can no longer hide behind a past-eternal universe. There is no escape. They have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning." -Alexander Vilenkin
  3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
    1. Since the universe cannot cause itself, its cause must be beyond the space-time universe.
    2. It must be spaceless, timeless, immaterial, uncaused, and unimaginably powerful - much like God.
​
Conclusion: The Cosmological Argument shows that it is quite reasonable to believe that God does exist.

"Modern science is based on the principle: Give us one free miracle and we'll explain the rest... And the one free miracle is the appearance of all the matter and energy in the universe and the laws that govern it for nothing in an instant." - Terence Mckenna

Discussion Questions​
  1. How would you summarize the philosophical cosmological argument?
  2. In your opinion, which is most convincing of these two cosmological arguments: the scientific or philosophical?