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Does God Exist?

Why does this matter?

Why does the "existence of God" matter? Many people think that with an increasingly educated population education, religiosity will decline. But the evidence seems to reflect otherwise, and that belief in God is not only here to stay, but that it is growing.  

More than that, in a world where people of different beliefs are increasingly unable to talk across divides to one another, it matters all the more that Christians learn to articulate in rational terms what we believe, so that we are not only intelligible, but we present a compelling, credible case for what we believe. After all, if God is the God of truth, then we must learn to speak about Him in terms that truth-seekers can comprehend.

This is why talking about this topic matters.

 

The Singaporean mind

Singapore is a melting pot of Eastern and Western cultures and worldviews. Our beliefs are an interesting blend of Enlightenment scientific rationalism and deeply-held Confucian values. We practice a Western-style secularism, and are conscious of our Asian ethnic identities and the religious cultures that come with them. Our education system stresses to students that they are "global citizens", and our curriculum is modelled after leading British and American institutions of higher learning. And binding all of this together is our own brand of Singaporean "multiculturalism" which pragmatically accepts that there are different types of people with their own belief systems.

This is the backdrop that we come with when we talk about the "existence of God" rationally. None of us comes with a blank slate, as we have all been informed, formed and discipled by our education, experiences, history and social contexts. All of us – Christians and non-Christians alike – have been influenced by these ideas, and carry the biases inherent to them. When we speak of seeking evidence for the "existence of God", these assumptions and biases become very important because they inform the way we expect the arguments and evidences of the Divine to be made.  

  

Five classical arguments for the existence of God

In the first kick-off session for this season, we examined five classical arguments for the existence of God:

  • the cosmological argument -- that everything that exists had a Beginning, which had to be created by something which had No Beginning. That which had No Beginning and caused the Beginning, we call God. Thus God is the Uncaused Cause of all things.
  • the teleological argument -- that everything exists has an intricate design for its existence, which we attribute to God, who finely-tuned the universe and Designed all that is.
  • the ontological argument -- that Nothing does not become Something unless Something brings it into Being. Since Being cannot bring itself into being, it had to have an existence wrought outside of itself, which we attribute to God who is Ultimate Being.
  • the moral argument -- that God who is moral Himself, built the world with moral categories, which become the building blocks for our existence -- right, wrong, good, evil, noble, wicked, praiseworthy and vile.
  • the anthropological argument -- that the cosmic yearning in my soul calls out for a Being and Reason larger than itself, that makes me Human, and points to God.

 

A place to gather and discuss

The Tuesday Enquiry Group (TEG) was designed with these in mind, to help people expose and question their assumptions, and seek the kind of rational inroads that make sense to them. In a world and society where it is easier to hear people with views aligned to our own, Christians too, can exist in a bubble and struggle to see how faith makes sense. 

Thus at TEG, we wish to provide a place for conversations to take place. Conversations that expose and explore one's own assumptions, and the wealth of Christian thought and learning. We hope that non-Christians will find it to be a useful platform to see what Christians believe, and for them to ask their questions too. At the same time, it also serves as an opportunity for Christians to honestly voice their own questions in order to find clarity.

For the next 2 weeks, we will continue the focus on the doctrine of God and see how faith is not opposed to reason, science and the other good things in life such as philosophy and art. Following that, the TEG will spend 4 weeks taking a closer look at specific doctrines of the Christian faith.

Each session will usually begin with a short introduction, followed by a talk, and we’ll round the night with a time of discussion and Q&A. We hope that you will join us for these discussions!

Here are the details for the upcoming session! 

TEG 2019 poster 1   TEG 2019 poster 2