Fall Seminar 2023

Christians are often caught unprepared when confronted by honest questions by spiritual seekers, serious challenges by religious skeptics, and ridiculous comments by argumentative contrarians. Such encounters can be frustrating, unnerving and even embarrassing, and they often leave Christians wishing that they were better equipped to handle such situations. A major reason why so many Christians are hesitant to share their faith is because they feel unprepared to handle tough questions and challenges from non-believers. It only takes one or two such encounters before many Christians decide to never again risk sharing their beliefs. This course is designed to bolster Christians’ faith in the reliability of Scripture and the basic tenets of the Christian faith by addressing some of the most foundational issues of concern among serious Christians and serious seekers of truth. The course is divided into three segments:

1. Preface: Origins of Monotheistic Religion

• Where did belief in a God as revealed in the Bible come from?
• Did “religion” evolve from ancient pagan superstitions and fear of living in a hostile world, or was there an original divinely-revealed monotheism that devolved over time into a myriad of polytheistic religions and cults?

2. The God Who Is: Classical and Modern Arguments for the Existence of God

• Are the traditional (and modern) arguments for the existence of God still relevant and valuable – or have modern science and philosophy destroyed such beliefs?
• The ‘New Atheism’: A Critique
• Life Without God: The Human Predicament
• Atheism and Agnosticism: A Rational Assessment
• God Is: The Classical Arguments
  • Pascal’s Wager
  • Cosmological arguments
  • Teleological arguments
    • The argument for design (i.e., Intelligent Design)
  • Axiological (i.e., moral) arguments
  • Ontological (spiritual and transcendent) arguments.
• Why Won’t Atheists Believe in God?
  • Three reasons
• In Conclusion: The Best Explanation
• Practical Apologetics: Responding to Skeptics

3. Reason, Science, and Christian Faith

• True Faith and True Reason
• The Myths of Scientism
• A Critique of Scientific Naturalism
  • Intelligent Design
  • Some Common Objections… and Some Reasoned Responses

• Origins of Religion (Outline)
• Article: Origins of Monotheistic Religion
• The God Who Is (Outline) — Part 1
• Article: Pascal’s Wager
• Article: Nietzsche, Parable of the Madman
• The Existence of God – A Survey of Classical and Other Arguments
• The God Who Is (Outline) — Part 2
• The God Who Is (Outline) — Part 3

Instructor:
Dr. Jefrey Breshears

Dates and Time:
Wednesdays
August 16 – November 15, 2023
6:30 – 8:00 PM

Registration:
$60 or $100 per couple
No charge for students

Location:
Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Room 105
(This course is also offered online via Zoom).

Supplemental Resources and Readings:
Course outlines and supplemental articles will be provided.