EETTEERRNNAALL PPEERRSSUUAASSIIOONN Does God Exist? the Christian Apologetics Book I wish I’d had years ago ….. AAllaann LLoowwnnee ETERNAL PERSUASION Does God Exist? The Christian Apologetics Book I wish I’d had years ago ….. What is Proof? Near-death Experiences of The Anthropic Principle & Heaven Fine Tuning of the Universe Angels, Dreams, and Visions Science and God Historical Evidence for Jesus Fulfilled Prophecy Problems of Pain, Evil, etc. Answered Prayer Why Does God ‘Hide’? Changed Lives Why Christianity? The Gospel Makes Sense What is the Gospel? About the book. When my son was stricken with a devastating illness, my faith was shaken to its foundations. He had left his early faith in Christianity while at high school, and I felt an enormous burden to help him get back to God before it was too late. We enlisted the help of our church pastor, but I wanted to give my brilliant scientist son convincing evidence for God myself. Where could I turn? I started writing emails to him, describing what I based my own faith on - and this book is an expansion of those emails. Many church-goers are unconvinced of their own faith, hoping what they believe is truth, but without a solid rock foundation. My aim is writing this book is to provide that evidence. It has been gleaned from a wide range of sources and some material will certainly be new to you, and some will shock, even amaze you. About the author. Alan Lowne is a British-born electronics engineer and CEO of a small import company Saelig Co. Inc. (www.saelig.com). He has been a Christian since university days, when members of a student Christian group invited him to a meeting with the title “Can God Be Known”. He soon found out the answer. He lives in Rochester, NY with his wife Carol and is a member of Edgewood Free Methodist Church. SAELIG BOOKS SAE 012510 For D.R.L. 1 In memoriam Copyright ©2010 Alan Lowne, All Rights Reserved. Fairport, NY. Saelig Books. SAE012510 The author may be contacted at [email protected]. 2 3 Contents (read in any order!) The reason for this book ................................................................................................................5 My perspective .............................................................................................................................8 Rev. Wally Fleming’s input .......................................................................................................... 11 What is proof?............................................................................................................................ 13 The Anthropic Principle and Fine Tuning of the Universe................................................................ 15 Science and God ......................................................................................................................... 44 Fulfilled Prophecy ....................................................................................................................... 52 Answered prayer ........................................................................................................................ 56 Changed lives ............................................................................................................................. 62 The Bible and the Gospel Make Sense .......................................................................................... 64 Heaven and Near-death Experiences ............................................................................................ 66 Angels, Dreams, and Visions ........................................................................................................ 95 Miracles - Modern Day. ............................................................................................................. 102 Is the Resurrection Reasonable? ................................................................................................ 112 Historical Evidence for Jesus ...................................................................................................... 125 Problems – pain, evil, etc? ......................................................................................................... 131 Why does God “hide”? .............................................................................................................. 138 Why Christianity? ..................................................................................................................... 144 What is the Gospel? .................................................................................................................. 149 Duncan’s Response ................................................................................................................... 162 Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 164 Appendix: ................................................................................................................................. 167 4 The reason for this book In October, 2006, my wife and I were raking leaves in our front yard, concerned that we had not been able for a few days to contact our son 3000 miles away in Oxford, UK. Duncan was a PhD student at Oxford University in England, working on a Brain-Computer Interface project. Finally, we heard the phone ring and answered it to hear his wife say that Duncan had collapsed suddenly in the street and was in hospital. The previous month he had stopped breathing while asleep and was miraculously roused by his wife who woke up to the sound of a radio nearby. Little did we all know that this was the first sign of something terrible about to occur. My wife and I decided immediately to go to England to be with Duncan. Within 3 hours we were on a plane bound for Heathrow, to stay – as it turned out, for 8 long months - with accommodating relatives near Oxford. After a week of suspenseful tension, Duncan was diagnosed with Stage 4 glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. Duncan was a vibrant young man, who had wide-ranging abilities and interests: extremely proficient in Japanese, Greek and Latin, competent on violin, piano and guitar, adept in many martial arts; he was pursuing computer studies for developing brain-computer interface techniques to allow quadriplegics the ability to communicate by means of thought. Duncan was always looking out for those who were disadvantaged in life. When he was sick at Christmas, and could hardly walk, his chief aim on Christmas Day was to visit a Japanese friend and fellow student in an Oxford hospital on the other side of town, far away from her own home and family, taking his friend’s favorite cookies to her, with the aid of his young wife Kristin. It became imperative for me and my wife, in light of our Christian convictions and assurance, to try to bring Duncan back to a relationship with his Creator – a relationship gradually lost over the years since childhood. Reasons for Duncan’s departure from Christian faith (announced suddenly one day as “I’m all done with organized religion” when refusing to go to church) was subtle, but apparently caused (we discovered after it was too late) by a number of events in his upbringing: by the terrible treatment by Christians given to a teacher at a Christian school who had fallen into moral difficulties; by the actions of W.V Grant, a preacher who turned out to have used deceptive practices; and other instances where Christians did not faithfully represent Christ. The church’s actions, and by that I mean individual Christians, certainly have a lot to answer for in causing others to stumble. Education at school in the Greek didactic style caused Duncan to question everything, and influence from atheistic friends left him without any faith to stand on – a situation for which I blame myself. Often, a scientifically-trained skeptic or atheist is governed by two main principles: 1) all beliefs must be supported by observational evidence, and 2) beliefs that contradict observational evidence cannot be tolerated. The skeptic states that there is no god, ignoring observational evidence suggesting that the universe has a cause which cannot be detected observationally. Though we encouraged Duncan to attend Christian groups at Case Western University, he chose to gather with friends without Christian roots. He always showed great concern for others, however, and in Christian terms I would have said he had a “pastor’s heart”. Even when sick in hospital, his concern was for fellow patients who had no visitors, in contrast to his own family 5 constantly at hand. I believe that may be one reason why he did not receive his healing, though we prayed, believed, and fasted for it, since he didn’t see why he should be healed and others not. So I began sending Duncan emails as the easiest and most comprehensive way to explain and present logical reasons why it is not crazy or mindless to believe in God, and in Jesus. These emails had some of the same topics as this book, which is an expanded version of the arguments I set before Duncan, and wished I’d had prepared for him before he became ill. My wife and I loved Duncan dearly, but early on thought we would be unable to influence his faith beliefs, especially with a new, unbelieving wife, and so we neglected our responsibility, expecting to address the subject in later years. There were no later years. His decline and passing were tragic in the extreme, and very hard to understand. Even though we and