\nPart two of Tim Kellers\u2019 The Reason for God<\/a>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=ur2&o=1\")
begins discussion of the reasons for faith. Chapters 8 and 9 form one whole, dealing with clues for the existence of God \u2013 within nature and within ourselves. There is no logically incontrovertible evidence for the existence of God \u2013 but the preponderance of the evidence can be persuasive.\n
\nWhat are these clues for the existence of God?
\n1. The origin of the Universe \u2013 did the Universe simply flash into being? All of the scientific evidence points to an origin for the universe in a flash of energy from an infinitesimally small point. Before that \u2013 we know nothing.
\n2. The tuning of the universe for life. Life is rare in our universe \u2013 and dependent upon an exquisite balance of conditions. The \u201codds\u201d for us to exist are small, some claim infinitesimally small.
\n3. The regularity of nature.
\n4. Beauty. Art, music, nature \u2026 Are beauty, love, and longing simply biochemical responses inherited to increase survival probability? We may,therefore, be secular materialists\u2026 But in the presence of art or even great natural beauty, our hearts tell us another story. (p. 134)<\/em>
\n5. The desire for God, for meaning. This can be rationalized \u2013 but an evolutionary explanation is a tacit acknowledgment that there is ultimately no meaning or purpose.
\n6. Moral law, moral obligation. We are told that all moral values are relative \u2013 live and let live. But do any of us actually believe this? The presence of moral law, moral obligation, and altruism are capable of evolutionary explanation \u2013 and such an instinct may well provide a survival advantage to the species. Of course \u2013 now that we have evolved and learned enough to know that morality is nothing but instinct why should we care? If there is no God there is ultimately no rationally demonstrable distinction between moral and immoral or amoral behavior.
\nKeller frames the ultimate question like this:<\/p>\n
If a premise ( \u201cThere is no God\u201d) leads to a conclusion you know isn\u2019t true ( \u201cNapalming babies is culturally relative\u201d) then why not change the premise<\/em>? (p. 156)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Secular materialism is bankrupt\u2014but\u2026where do we go from here? Well that starts in the next chapter and the next post of course.
\nHow about you? What do you find to be convincing evidence for the existence of God?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This post is by RJS Part two of Tim Kellers\u2019 The Reason for Godbegins discussion of the reasons for faith. Chapters 8 and 9 form one whole, dealing with clues for the existence of God \u2013 within nature and within ourselves. There is no logically incontrovertible evidence for the existence of God \u2013 but the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[337],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology"],"yoast_head":"\n
Our Reasonable Faith 10<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This post is by RJS Part two of Tim Kellers' The Reason for Godbegins discussion of the reasons for faith. Chapters 8 and 9 form one whole, dealing with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Reasonable Faith 10\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is by RJS Part two of Tim Kellers' The Reason for Godbegins discussion of the reasons for faith. Chapters 8 and 9 form one whole, dealing with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-05-29T05:30:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-09-11T14:01:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=ur2&o=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"RJS\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"RJS\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/\",\"name\":\"Our Reasonable Faith 10\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-05-29T05:30:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-09-11T14:01:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/716551d3a3f8c156aabfd47c0bce89a0\"},\"description\":\"This post is by RJS Part two of Tim Kellers' The Reason for Godbegins discussion of the reasons for faith. Chapters 8 and 9 form one whole, dealing with\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Our Reasonable Faith 10\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/716551d3a3f8c156aabfd47c0bce89a0\",\"name\":\"RJS\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/rjs1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Our Reasonable Faith 10","description":"This post is by RJS Part two of Tim Kellers' The Reason for Godbegins discussion of the reasons for faith. Chapters 8 and 9 form one whole, dealing with","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Our Reasonable Faith 10","og_description":"This post is by RJS Part two of Tim Kellers' The Reason for Godbegins discussion of the reasons for faith. Chapters 8 and 9 form one whole, dealing with","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2008-05-29T05:30:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2010-09-11T14:01:54+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=ur2&o=1"}],"author":"RJS","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"RJS","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/","name":"Our Reasonable Faith 10","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-05-29T05:30:01+00:00","dateModified":"2010-09-11T14:01:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/716551d3a3f8c156aabfd47c0bce89a0"},"description":"This post is by RJS Part two of Tim Kellers' The Reason for Godbegins discussion of the reasons for faith. Chapters 8 and 9 form one whole, dealing with","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/05\/29\/our-reasonable-faith-10\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Our Reasonable Faith 10"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/716551d3a3f8c156aabfd47c0bce89a0","name":"RJS","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/rjs1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}