Читать книгу Cartoon Key To Heaven - Fr. Robert J. Schubert - Страница 3

1.The argument to the First Cause

The oak tree I see came from an acorn.

That acorn came from another oak tree.

That oak tree came from another acorn.

That acorn came from another oak tree.

But WAIT a minute!

..You cannot go on like that forever!

There must have been a first oak tree

No. 1

Or a first acorn.

No. 1

And that first tree or first acorn could not cause itself.

So, there must have been a cause of the first acorn or the first tree.

The ultimate cause must have been uncaused.

THE UNCAUSED FIRST CAUSE OF ALL THINGS

That First Cause we call - God

2.The argument to the First Mover (or First Energizer)

Nothing moves of itself.

Even you –

Need food –

To give you strength to move.

Don’t eat for a few weeks - and see if you move –

Where does the food get the energy to give you?

From the ground –

From the rain –

From the sun –

But where did these things get the energy to give it to the food you eat to give you energy?

From the FIRST MOVER, THE FIRST ENERGIZER of all things.

That First Mover we call - God

(The only alternative is an unending series of things in motion-which is impossible because, no matter how long a rope is, it will never move unless it’s pulled. Or, to put it another way... can a dozen blind men see?)

3.The argument to the Necessary Being

See this chain

It’s hanging in the air. If we want to keep it there, we better hang it on a hook.

Close your eyes... and imagine that you are not here

I am not here

The world is not here

Nothing is here – absolute nothing

The point is – IF NOTHING IS HERE TO BEGIN WITH, CAN ANYTHING EVER BE?

From nothing comes nothing,

If there was nothing in the beginning,

There IS nothing now.

To be consistent, an atheist cannot be content

To deny the existence of God

He must deny the existence of ANYTHING.

No - You cannot be

I cannot be

the world cannot be

nothing can be

But, if you are convinced that you really are here – that I am here

That the world is here – That anything is here

If you are convinced that the hook is necessary to hang the chain –

If you are convinced that from nothing comes nothing, then you must be convinced that in the first place, there was...

A NECESSARY BEING

This Necessary Being has to be a personal being because He has a mind (see next argument) – and – because persons are the effects of the First Cause and the Cause cannot be less than the effects.

That Necessary Being we call - God

4.The Argument to the Great Mind (to the Great Lawgiver)

If you go to the beach and see the rocks strewn about –

And you come back an hour later

And see them in an orderly pile –

You don’t say, “Look what happened by chance”.

You say, “Look what ‘someone did’”.

You know there was a mind at work

Because there is order.

The universe is orderly.

There must be a mind at work to create the order.

The universe has laws:

There are laws of physics (e.g. Gravity)

There are laws of chemistry (e.g., 2 parts of H and 1 part of O makes water)

There are laws of astronomy (the courses of the planets, - the traffic laws of the skies)

Laws demand a lawgiver.

The great order in the universe demands a Great Mind.

The great laws of the universe demand a Great Lawmaker.

That Great Mind, that Great Lawmaker we call - God

5.The argument to the Great Judge

Sometimes you feel like patting yourself on the back for something you did.

Sometimes you feel you deserve a good swift kick for something you did.

There is a law written in your heart, - the law of your conscience –

Telling you there is a Judge

Who will reward for good

and punish for evil

This Great Judge we call - God

6.The argument from Universal Belief

No nation or tribe, no matter how uncivilized,

how isolated,

has been without religion.

Common sense, therefore, - the common sense of all nations and tribes – the common sense of the whole human race – tells us that human reason demands belief in the existence of God.

An Example or Two to Use on Your Friends

If this clock could make itself –

You need no clockmaker to explain that the clock is there.

Here’s another clockwork –

Everything on time – seasons, tides, years, months, days, the position

of the PLANETS and the STARS, etc.

If a little clockwork in the clock on top needs a clockmaker, -

Doesn’t the big clockwork need a Maker, too?

An astronomer used this one, -

See this globe –

It made itself

Foolish you say?

Then Foolish to believe the real one –

of which the man-made globe is only a small imitation – made itself.

Yet the atheist says: “The little one, the imitation, needs a maker,

The big one, the real thing, needs no maker.”

(And that is why the Bible says: “The fool says in his heart: there is no God”.)