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Church of Virgin Mary & St. Athanasius

Prepare to Serve Program

Theistic and Atheistic View of the Universe

Oct 26, 2025

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Apologetics Vs. Evangelism

Apologetics

Evangelism

What is it

To defend false teaching

To bring Christ to those who don’t know Him yet

Biblical Reference

“Go t

herefore and

make disciples

of all the

nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching

them to observe all things that I have

commanded you; and I am with you always,

even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-

20

Books to use

and always be ready to give a

defense

to

everyone who asks you a reason for the

hope that is in you, with meekness and

fear.”

1 Peter 3:15

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts,

It’s a commandment;

The world needs it

Why do it?

Any book but the Bible*

* but, you must know the Bible

Mainly just the Bible

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Common definitions

God (Theos)?

Interested

God exists

Strong belief

Gnostic Theist

Weak belief

Agnostic

Theist

God doesn’t

exist

Strong belief

Gnostic

Atheist

Weak belief

Agnostic

Atheist

Not interested

at all

Apatheism

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Common definitions, alternate view

“I don’t think God exists”, or “God doesn’t exist, but I could be wrong”

Gnostic Atheist

Gnostic Theist

Agnostic Atheist

Agnostic Theist

Agnosticism

A person who does not believe in the existence of a God or any Gods

“I think God exists”, or “God exist, but I could be wrong”

A person who strongly believes in the existence of a God or any Gods.

Theos = God

γνώση (gnósis) == knowledge

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The Journey from Atheism to Theism

A creator

How we best describe the universe? Atheist or Theist point of view?

Authenticity of the Bible�

How do we know what we know about Him is true

One Truth

Logic and Logical Fallacies Does A truth exist vs Pluralism?

God

Which God best fit the creator of the universe?

Minor the minors

One off topics: Violence of the OT, Miracles, Noah’s Ark, Homosexuality, Christian dominations

How do we know resurrection is true?

He truly resurrected from the dead

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Effects pointing to a creator

Atheist vs. Theist to explain the universe

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Does GOD Exist?

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Breakdown of the word GOD

Goodness

Origin

Design

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Breakdown of the word GOD

Goodness

Origin

Design

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We need a God to exist- Goodness Effect

How did we get our Objective Morality from?

How could the whole world (Except criminals and psychopath) agree on things as Honor, Love, Care…etc?

Atheist view: We get morality from the societies we live in.

But which society, how about historical changes. This is merely subjective morality

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Morality Measurements- objective morality

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How do we know right from wrong

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… so the question still stands, How did we get our Objective Morality from?

Theist view: There must be a creator/Moral Law Giver, or something outside of us as humans that gave us the objective morality.

Christian view: “So God created man in His own image;” Genesis 1:27

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Knowing Evil requires knowing a GOOD God… let me explain!

Evil

Morality

Moral Law

Moral Law Giver

I can have sun without shadow,

but I can’t have shadow without Sun

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Breakdown of the word GOD

Goodness

Origin

Design

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We need a God to exist- Origin Effect

Atheist view: Time/Space/Matter always existed. We always had a universe, ours just happen to have a planet that could sustain life.

SPACE, TIME, MATTER

SPACE, TIME, MATTER

SPACE, TIME, MATTER

So, where did SPACE, TIME, MATTER come from?

“Almost everyone now believes that the universe, and time itself, had �a beginning at the Big Bang” – Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking

Theist view: Everything that had a beginning, had a cause. �The universe had a beginning, therefore, the universe had a cause.

Whoever/whatever created the universe could never be made out space, time or matter

For Anything to exist, we need 3 things: �

SPACE,

TIME,

MATTER

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Breakdown of the word GOD

Goodness

Origin

Design

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We need a God to exist- Design Effect

Atheist view: Time, Chance, and natural laws of physics caused all things to be design the way we observe them in the universe

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We need a God to exist- Design Effect

If the Gravitational Force were altered more than 1 part in 1040, the sun would not exist and the moon would crash into the earth or sheer off into space

Theist view: A very intelligent cause/designer designed this.

Information in our cells: How could our DNA be made this way?

We have ~30,000,000,000,000 cells, each of which has

3,000,000,000 DNA base pairs

It’s one thing to CREATE at the Big Bang moment, it’s another to keep nature going the way it is.

Humans, animals, and plants continue to grow in the exact same direction? WHO designed that?

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A Good God needs to exist for the universe to exist

Goodness

Origin

Design

Evil

Morality

Moral Law

Moral Law Giver

Q: either

  1. Something created all things out of nothing?

Or

  1. Nothing created all things out of nothing?

Which one makes more sense!?

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References: Why a creator needed to exist?

Chapter 13