Does God Exist? Dr Ali Ataie responds to the New Atheism (2022-08-22) #

0:00:03 does god exist well according to prominent figures in the new atheist movement the answer is a 0:00:10 resounding no and if you look at the the books and the the speeches and the youtube videos of 0:00:17 people like richard dawkins sam harris christopher hitchens and daniel dennett you'll read lots of 0:00:24 uh alleged reasons and arguments why god does not exist uh to give one example the uh the erstwhile 0:00:31 british author who sadly passed away a few years ago christopher hitchens wrote this book god is 0:00:37 not great and on the back cover he gives his reasons why god is not great makes the 0:00:44 ultimate case against religion in a series of acute readings of the major religious 0:00:50 texts christopher hitchens demonstrates the ways in which religion is man-made 0:00:57 dangerously sexually repressive and distorts the very origins of the cosmos 0:01:03 above all hitchins argues that the concept of an omniscient god has profoundly damaged 0:01:10 humanity and proposes that the world might be a great deal better off without him 0:01:18 now you'll be relieved to know i'm not going to be reading chunks of christopher hitchens 0:01:22 book um what i'm going to do is uh share with you now a video by someone called professor alia tai 0:01:31 and this is an extraordinary tour de force he looks at the arguments uh marshalled by the new 0:01:39 atheist movement particularly hitchens dawkins harris and dennett which led many people to 0:01:44 question that their faith and he takes them apart deconstructs them and in extraordinary 0:01:51 speech discussion he shows why not only they are wrong but why god definitely exists so the answer 0:01:59 to the question is yes so i've got permission uh from dr alia tai to share this video with with you 0:02:06 um and i think it's one of the most extraordinary uh presentations of uh the arguments for the 0:02:12 existence of god from a muslim perspective as well as an analysis of the claims of the new 0:02:20 atheists so without more ado i hand over to dr ali atai until next time so the uh objective 0:02:31 tonight is to answer the question does god exist the answer is yes thank you good night
0:02:42 just kidding okay here we go so there's two approaches to the god question the first approach 0:02:50 is called presuppositionalism presuppositionalism so this deals with revealed theology which happens 0:02:56 to be my specialty by the way comparative theology this is where we presuppose 0:03:01 the existence of god so god exists but we seek to know him more personally we seek to 0:03:07 have marifa more gnosis or episteme whichever word you like of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala this is done 0:03:13 through revelation so like a muslim and christian debate right what's a muslim and christian going 0:03:19 to debate about they're not going to debate about does god exist they both presuppose 0:03:23 the existence of god god does exist right and most would say they worship the same god so the answer 0:03:30 to the the topic of that type of debate is how does the how does this god reveal himself does 0:03:35 he reveal himself through jesus christ through the bible through the new testament or does god 0:03:41 reveal himself through the quran and the prophecy given to our master muhammad sallallahu alaihi 0:03:46 is jesus god this is another topic that will be discussed at that type of debate so that's one 0:03:53 approach to god the presuppositionalist approach another approach to god is the 0:03:58 evidentialist approach the evidentialist approach evidentialism so here we're looking for evidence 0:04:05 for the existence of god and we're going to use logic we're going to use reason 0:04:09 philosophy and science we're going to employ deductive or syllogistic arguments 0:04:15 that are not strictly theological but may have strong theological implications so here 0:04:20 the muslim and the christian will actually join forces right in order to find evidence or provide 0:04:26 evidence for the atheist that god exists so tonight i'm going to be looking primarily 0:04:30 at the latter approach the evidentialist approach so we're going to put the polemics on hold a 0:04:35 little bit and give our christian friends a little rest inshallah to allah tonight 0:04:39 okay so let's look at examples of of syllogisms this is a form of argument that is attributed to 0:04:46 aristotle aristotle said there are three things that affect the strength of an argument he called 0:04:51 them lagos ethos and pathos in greek lagos means logic right knowledge the knowledge of an argument 0:05:00 and then he said ethos the strength of the character of the one making the argument 0:05:05 right so someone like in hadith we have looking at the acumen of people in the senate of a hadith is 0:05:11 very important for them to have high religiosity right and then he said pathos pathos means that 0:05:19 you know how you read something read a response this is listener response 0:05:22 is that person making that argument does he affect the audience does he affect them is it 0:05:27 transformative right oftentimes what we find with atheists is they don't have knowledge of the topic 0:05:35 they don't have good character because a lot of the things that they say is ad hominem attacks 0:05:39 but they have a lot of pathos they have a lot of charisma they're good speakers and i'm thinking 0:05:44 about someone like christopher hitchens we'll get back to him inshaallah so give you an example 0:05:49 of a syllogistic argument very simple premise number one all men or mortal all men are mortal 0:05:58 okay everyone following premise number two george washington was a man 0:06:04 therefore our conclusion which is inescapable and it follows logically is that george washington 0:06:11 was a mortal right so our two premises all men are mortal george washington was a man 0:06:17 is solid is self-evident you can call it axiomatic any sincere or sane person 0:06:24 will concede these premises right unless somebody says well george washington was a jinn 0:06:30 well generous or mortal he was a vampire he can't die right a sane or sincere person will say this 0:06:36 is a logical argument no problems let's look at a different type of argument premise number one 0:06:42 the universe is ordered premise number two this is either by chance or by design premise number three 0:06:50 this is not by chance therefore our conclusion our inescapable conclusion is that this is by design 0:06:59 this is a logical argument however you might say my first premise the universe is ordered 0:07:06 is not self-evident i haven't proven that so this is an example of what's known as a question 0:07:10 begging argument right i haven't established my premises right i have to do that first also you 0:07:17 can have an argument that flows logically but whose premises are axiomatically false they're 0:07:24 irrational for example premise number one all donkeys can speak english premise number two 0:07:31 gary is my pet donkey therefore my conclusion is gary can speak english the logical argument 0:07:38 but the argument is axiomatically untrue now if you look at the arguments of the four horsemen of 0:07:45 the new atheist movement who are the four horsemen christopher hitchens richard dawkins sam harris 0:07:53 and daniel dennett right best-selling books god is not great the god delusion and end of faith 0:08:00 they're arguments against god they primarily revolve around issues of social impact of 0:08:07 religion so religious people are bad so god does not exist see look at hitler he was a catholic 0:08:15 look at these pedophile priests look at suicide bombers look at isis right god doesn't exist 0:08:23 so if we put their argument into a syllogism it would sound something like this premise number 0:08:28 one theists say god is good premise number two god created man premise number three man 0:08:36 does evil man does none good therefore god does not exist this argument is illogical illogical 0:08:46 this is an example of what's known as a non-sequitur argument it does not follow so you 0:08:52 have people like bill maher and sam harris right they go on tv they're talking about isis right 0:08:59 and they say well you know isis by the way a few thousand people out of a religion of 1.5 billion 0:09:05 right and you say you have isis and they're violent thus islam is violent i can use the same 0:09:10 type of argument and say look five of the last 12 nobel peace laureates five of the last 12 nobel 0:09:19 peace laureates were muslim right therefore all muslims are peaceful would he accept this argument 0:09:25 would they accept this argument certainly they wouldn't i can make another argument a little more 0:09:29 brazen say look sam harris his mother is jewish that makes him ethnically jewish in atheists 0:09:35 but ethnically jewish bill maher his mother is jewish that makes him ethnically jewish therefore 0:09:40 all ethnic jews are bigoted and full of hate would they accept this argument of course they wouldn't 0:09:46 accept this argument you see these four horsemen as i call them they think if you turn all of the 0:09:52 mosques the synagogues and churches into starbucks chuck e cheese and hooters we can just sort of all 0:09:59 hold hands and sing imagine by john lennon right and no religion too right interesting john lennon 0:10:08 a satanist have you seen the uh the cover of the sergeant pepper's lonely hearts club band 0:10:14 all these people look in the upper left alistar crowley the founder of the church of satan look 0:10:19 it up don't take my word for it anyway the classical atheists the original gangsters 0:10:25 of atheism freud russell and nietzsche nietzsche who said god is dead freud who said god is dead 0:10:34 right they at least were smart enough to know that if you take religion out of the equation 0:10:41 the world would fall into this nihilistic quagmire you would have utter social and moral depravity 0:10:47 they understood that it was primarily religion that moralized people and that the purpose of 0:10:52 religion was to make one better more compassionate human being as voltaire said if god did not exist 0:10:57 we would have to invent him as dostoyevsky said if there is no god then everything is permitted 0:11:04 in other words if you don't have any moral authority then what's your moral anchor 0:11:08 survival of the fittest do it thou wilt do you know what the moral anchor is in the abrahamic 0:11:14 tradition rabbi akiva a second century rabbinical sage was asked what is the torah he recited 0:11:21 three verses deuteronomy 6 4 deuteronomy 6 5 leviticus 19 18. god is one love god love your 0:11:30 neighbor love of god and love of humanity the prophet isa alaihissalam was asked mark 12 29 0:11:36 what is the greatest commandment he repeated these three commandments love god god is one
0:11:47 god is one love the lord thy god and love your neighbor 0:11:51 subhanallah this is the moral anchor the prophet salallahu
0:12:09 madrasa right is mercy how many times you mentioned mercy the show the mo the the most 0:12:16 merciful shows mercy to those who show mercy show mercy to those on earth and the one in 0:12:20 heaven will show you mercy subhanallah or today may allah bless him he quoted 0:12:24 a beautiful hadith that i thought for you from the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam
0:12:32 this was in berkeley when he quoted this here in charlotte may allah reward him none of you will 0:12:38 enter paradise until you truly believe none of you will truly believe until you love one another 0:12:44 shall i tell you of something that will increase your love of salam spread peace amongst yourselves 0:12:50 fakhruddin the great exiget from our tradition he said al-islam what is islam
0:13:00 is to worship the creator and show mercy towards his creation now without this essential 0:13:05 understanding of religion without religion morality becomes relative human beings become 0:13:12 little more than cattle chunks of flesh and blood soulless easily slaughtered dispensable 0:13:20 atheists are material reductionists thus speaking of social impact no one has more 0:13:27 blood on their hands than atheists let's talk about the big four as i call them chairman mao 0:13:34 joseph stalin paul pot mussolini over 100 million lives 100 million hitler was a catholic no doubt 0:13:44 about it he killed six million jews i've done the math those men are 17 hitler's 17 times over why 0:13:51 no god no day of judgment no incorruptible soul survival of the fittest that's natural selection 0:14:00 in sharia we have rules of engagement in islamic sacred law women and children are not targeted 0:14:06 this is considered to be tawatur it is simply wrong even abdullah ibn kamiyah the man who killed 0:14:11 musa and he thought he was the prophet salallahu sallam when he realized this is not the prophet 0:14:19 and he saw the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam he charged towards the prophet with his horse 0:14:23 a woman stood in front of him nusaiba bintukab radhillahu and he stopped dead in his tracks 0:14:30 a pagan arab has the decency not to strike a woman on the battlefield 0:14:35 but you find these secular societies in the world so-called first world that are dropping 0:14:40 two thousand pound bombs on innocent men women and children subhanallah so if your rules of 0:14:48 engagement are determined by what you feel benefits you and your people at a particular time 0:14:57 that's real politics right that's american foreign policy atheism and secular democracy they lack 0:15:04 principled morality it gives birth to false flag operations like nero you know the emperor nero 0:15:11 he set fire to his own city rome and then he sat back playing on his fiddle as the city was burning 0:15:17 and he blamed the christians and then he would dip christians in the hot wax put them on stakes 0:15:22 and use them as street lamps this is nero right uss maine give you a more contemporary example 0:15:30 scientifically proven that this explosion came from inside the uss maine itself scientifically 0:15:35 proven a total study was done on this in 2002 remember the main to hell with spain this is what 0:15:41 got us into the spanish-american war and this is how america took control of the philippines 0:15:46 the false flag operation the gulf of tonkin never happened lyndon johnson goes on tv and he says 0:15:53 our boys are floating in the water end quote no they weren't total lie that's what got us in the 0:16:00 vietnam sixty thousand americans killed over three million vietnamese lack of principled morality 0:16:08 right leads to little boy and fat man you know who little boy and fat men are these are the names 0:16:14 that truman gave the atomic bombs that killed 300 000 people on impact 300 000 people that's 0:16:21 three football stadiums that's four football stadiums you know how many people died in all 0:16:25 of the ghazalat of the prophet sallam in 23 years they've done the math he's done the math how many 0:16:32 people muslim and non-muslim and all the military expeditions of the prophet salallahu salaam 1018
0:16:39 1018 about 700 mushrikeen 300 muslims you have 300 000 people on impact 0:16:46 hey that's good for us totally unnecessary the japanese economy was in shambles there was an 0:16:51 oil embargo placed on them by fdr years before there's no way they're going to win the war 0:16:56 but we have human guinea pigs real politic lack of principled morality
0:17:03 okay invasions of false countries invasions of countries under false pretenses the theft 0:17:08 of natural resources in 2006 i read an article washington post it said 650 000 civilians in 0:17:17 iraq have been killed in october of 2006 because this country was invaded under false pretenses 0:17:24 650 000 that number is well well into the millions that's called the genocide you know 0:17:30 interestingly the quran does not accept atheism it doesn't accept it everyone worships something 0:17:36 allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says have you seen the one ara
0:17:41 have you seen the one who takes his his hawa his caprice as his god people worship 0:17:47 themselves they're called beliebers you know what a believer is right how many believers 0:17:53 do i have out here hopefully no one here is a belieber a follower of justin bieber that's what 0:17:57 he calls them god complex one of my teachers said everyone has in their heart the seeds 0:18:03 laying dormant ready to be watered if need be ready to be watered the claim of the firaoun 0:18:11 i am your lord the most high laying dormant in the heart of every person people worship money 0:18:18 ben franklin people worship their achal there's a good book recommendation here comes the first 0:18:23 book recommendation it's called god in the new atheism by john hot h-a-u-g-h-t h-a-u-g-h-t he's 0:18:31 a jesuit he's a christian he's a catholic makes a good point he says atheists believe everything 0:18:36 can be explained with one answer he calls it explanatory monism right all you need is the 0:18:42 intellect the intellect can answer everything just use your intellect you can figure everything out 0:18:48 very simplistic way this is their method says look what if your mother is uh boiling 0:18:53 water one day and you walk into the kitchen see what are you doing she says i'm boiling water 0:18:58 see that's great but what are you doing i'm separating molecules 0:19:05 beautiful but what are you doing i'm making tea why for you why because i love you 0:19:12 right this is what you can't get from science this is what you can't get from atheism why why the 0:19:18 universe it's interesting uh uh william chidik uses this in his book he says look a scientist 0:19:24 put him in front of the mona lisa tell them tell me about this painting so scientists will you know 0:19:31 do radio carbon 14 dating on the canvas he'll say that this paint is from florence from 1585 0:19:36 whatever he's going to do all this information a lot of information great but then put a child in 0:19:41 front of that painting and the child is thinking what is the artist what is what does the smile 0:19:45 mean what is the artist trying to tell me who has more insight into the mind of the painter 0:19:51 the scientist or the child the child because the child is asking the more profound question of 0:19:56 why dr lawrence krauss atheist cosmologist arizona state university says we can date the 0:20:03 universe to four decimal places 13.72 billion years that's great but why why the universe 0:20:11 this is something you get from revelation this is something you get from scripture 0:20:17 read chris hedges three more book recommendations american fascism 0:20:21 great book number two i don't believe in atheists number three when atheism becomes religion 0:20:28 here's a preview from amazon hedges claims that those who have placed blind faith in the morally 0:20:34 neutral disciplines morally neutral disciplines of reason and science create idols in their own image 0:20:41 a sin for either side of the spectrum he makes a case against religious and secular fundamentalism 0:20:47 which seeks to divide the world into those worthy of moral and intellectual consideration and those 0:20:52 who should be condemned silenced and eradicated he uh characterizes the new atheists as those who 0:20:59 attack religion to advance the worst of global capitalism intolerance and imperial projects 0:21:07 okay and this leads me to my first argument to the existence of god this is called the moral argument 0:21:14 for the existence of god here's the thesis in the absence of god there would be no objective moral 0:21:21 values no higher moral authority there would be socio-cultural relativism right and wrong would 0:21:29 be determined by a dominant group there would be it would be totally subjective and that is 0:21:34 violent if my society feels that our morals and values perpetuate our group why should we consider 0:21:41 your morals and values let me quote to you richard dawkins quote there is no good nor evil 0:21:48 there is no good nor evil we are machines to propagate dna on atheism you cannot be immoral 0:21:58 you cannot be immoral there is no real with a capital r right or wrong just a societal construct 0:22:05 science can't prove morality you can't prove to me that murder is wrong through the scientific 0:22:11 method you can't prove morality the religion of scientism if you want to call it that where 0:22:15 the aqua the intellect is worshiped cannot prove certain things thank you very much 0:22:21 like morality science can't prove metaphysical events can science prove that washington crossed 0:22:26 the delaware no not through the scientific method why because you can't reproduce that event it's 0:22:32 in the past science can't prove love emotions science can't prove math it presupposes math 0:22:39 if you say science proves math then you argue in a circle science doesn't know what consciousness 0:22:44 is what is consciousness uh chemicals mixing in your brain but what is memory what is thought 0:22:50 what is what is imagination there are no answer for these things these are metaphysical science 0:22:55 can't prove everything so we have to move past explanatory monism science cannot give us morality 0:23:03 it is fundamentally non-moral i'm not saying atheists are immoral 0:23:07 don't get the wrong idea there are many atheists that are very very moral but there's nothing in 0:23:11 science that compels anyone to be moral let me say it again there is nothing in science 0:23:18 that compels anyone to be moral you can't extract charity and justice and selflessness 0:23:27 and compassion from a double helix from a chromosome from a test tube
0:23:33 those things are extracted from scripture on atheism we're all just animals a slightly 0:23:40 more evolved primate second cousin to the chimp animals don't have moral duties so why should we 0:23:48 most atheists would actually concede that we have moral duties if you're sitting on a beach and 0:23:52 there's a kid drowning it's your moral obligation to try to save that kid but why why put yourself 0:23:58 in harm's way did we evolve to put ourselves in harm's way where does this altruism come from 0:24:04 show me the gene speaking of evolution to go from a primeval ape to a human being takes trillions 0:24:14 of transitional forms trillions of mutations in transitional forms to go from a dinosaur to a bird 0:24:21 a whale to a cow right trillions it's interesting darwin in the origin of species in 1863 says we're 0:24:28 going to find them eventually we're going to dig up the earth we're going to find all these 0:24:31 trillions of transitional forms from ape to human being what have we found what does the fossil 0:24:37 record show trillions no billions no millions yeah no thousands no hundreds come on 100 no a dozen no 0:24:50 six or seven maybe and they're probably extinct apes that they say oh these are the missing 0:24:56 these are the trillions of transitional forms okay interesting and here's something more interesting 0:25:02 called darwin's doubt darwin actually said if i believe that my brain actually came from monkeys 0:25:07 why should i even trust my brain in the first place why should i trust my intellect how do i 0:25:13 know that in a thousand years my ancestors aren't going to look back at me and say look how stupid 0:25:18 those homo sapiens were in 2014 look what they thought just like we look at apes today in the zoo 0:25:23 who are taking fleas out of their heads and flinging their feces at the window that's how 0:25:27 they're going to be looking at us right why should i even trust my intellect if it came from a monkey
0:25:35 and they say well 98 of our dna is the same as a chimpanzee 0:25:39 we have 98 identical dna well there's a two percent difference and in that two percent 0:25:44 there's something called intellectus there's something called intellect this is our differentia 0:25:49 according to aristotle this is what makes this difference this is the meaning of allah
0:25:56 that god created man in his own image meaning with 0:26:00 intellect this is what makes us different not unnecessary not necessarily our physical bodies 0:26:04 an eagle can spot a fish under water i can't do that put me in a room with a gorilla i'm done 0:26:10 but i want to see a chimpanzee play a violin build a skyscraper do some trigonometry but 0:26:17 it's not all about the intellect it's about being a moral person an ethical person
0:26:34 you dominate magnificent character this is a true human being this is a civilized human being 0:26:41 good and evil has no referent if god doesn't exist unless we redefine good and say that it's 0:26:47 something that makes your life more pleasurable that's what good is and of course this is 0:26:52 dangerous your pleasure might be somebody's torture right what if you take pleasure from 0:26:57 killing children and burying them in your backyard on atheism that's not immoral because atheism 0:27:04 science does not deal with morality that's not immoral that's not wrong that's just not socially 0:27:09 acceptable like breaking wind in public but what if it was socially acceptable not breaking in 0:27:15 public killing children and burying them what if it was socially acceptable on what grounds 0:27:20 does richard dawkins condemn child exploitation or rape if that society finds it acceptable 0:27:27 and conducive to their perpetuation on what grounds can he say this is morally wrong
0:27:36 it's revelation that gives us the ten commandments the noahidic laws moral imperatives 0:27:44 means things that are known whether you believe they come from revelation directly or whether 0:27:48 they're infused to use aquinas's term upon our very souls we just know them they're on our souls 0:27:55 something the atheist denies the existence of we have objective moral values don't murder don't 0:28:01 steal don't commit adultery respect your parents don't oppress speak the truth let's go back to 0:28:09 ancient athens where petersey was commonplace peterst if you don't know what it is look it up 0:28:15 socrates walked into the gymnasium you know what gymnasium means in greek a place of naked boys and 0:28:20 he bragged i walked in they were wrestling they were oiled up i wasn't even aroused this is what 0:28:26 he says this is ethos for the ancient uh athenians right this is their ethics this is their culture 0:28:33 simply what the majority was doing but in sparta another greek city-state if you do that they're 0:28:39 going to kill you that's a capital offense if a jew walked into athens at that time a jew he could 0:28:45 condemn it because he has moral uh principled objective morality because he has a scripture 0:28:51 but an atheist could say well that's their culture they rape children that's their culture or he can 0:28:57 say no this is wrong and then we press the atheist how is it wrong it's just wrong why 0:29:05 who told you that it's just wrong why show me the gene show me the test tube 0:29:12 where does he get his morality from not from a test tube they say you know we have the problem 0:29:17 of evil theists believers in god they have the problem of evil theodicy atheists have the problem 0:29:23 of good this is what william dempsky calls it the problem of good because dawkins says every single 0:29:31 human interaction is because they want to prolong their species or they want reciprocal advantage 0:29:36 i scratch your back you're going to scratch mine because at the end of the day we're all 0:29:40 apes direct quote from richard dawkins planet of the apes all right so give a simple example why 0:29:48 would i offer my seat to an old woman on the train do i want to prolong my species do i want her to 0:29:56 tip me or something give me give me a dollar do i want something from her take advantage of her no 0:30:02 why would i give blood to people and no one's around to see it just anonymous i donate blood why 0:30:08 would i do that is this how i evolve am i trying to perpetuate my species am i trying to uh get 0:30:14 some sort of mutual advantage from somebody that's why mother teresa is an atheistic moral enigma 0:30:20 for the atheist hugging lepers right a model of sacrifice charity and altruism and that's 0:30:26 why they went after her that's why hitchens has this book that he says she was all about money he 0:30:30 calls it with apologies the missionary position that's the name of his book about mother teresa 0:30:36 she's all about money because she's an enigma someone who's selfless 0:30:40 that goes against what we've been teaching why would someone evolve to be like that very strange 0:30:46 so that's the moral argument let that one marinate for a little bit let's move to another argument 0:30:52 it's called the cosmological argument this is an argument that's espoused by a muhammad al-ghazali 0:30:58 into philosophy it's advocated by william lane craig a modern proponent he wrote a book called 0:31:04 the kalam cosmological argument it's another book i recommend for you kalam chasmologic cosmological 0:31:10 argument so here's the argument premise number one whatever begins to exist has a cause 0:31:16 premise number two the universe began to exist therefore the universe has a cause now this is 0:31:23 not strictly theological but has theological implications i'll say it again premise 0:31:27 number one whatever begins to exist as a cause premise number two the universe began to exist 0:31:34 premise number three the universe has a cause right what can cause a universe now there's a 0:31:39 rule in classical metaphysics ex nihilo nihil feet which means from nothing comes nothing from 0:31:47 nothing comes nothing right now most atheists whether they're cosmologists or physicists 0:31:52 or biologists like richard dawkins lawrence krauss stephen hawking quentin smith daniel dennett roger 0:31:59 penrose they say that the universe the cosmos came from nothing this is true we believe in creatio 0:32:07 x nailo creation from nothing allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created from nothing god caused it but they 0:32:14 say it's uncaused that the universe is uncaused from nothing unprovoked it popped into existence 0:32:22 from literary nowhere from nowhere uncaused quentin smith university of western michigan
0:32:32 he says he's atheist the universe came from nothing by nothing for nothing let's 0:32:41 say it again the universe came from nothing buy nothing for nothing that's a metaphysical claim 0:32:49 that's a metaphysical claim that's not a naturalist claim that's a metaphysical 0:32:54 claim daniel dennett he said it's like the universe picked itself up by its bootstraps 0:33:00 can you pick yourself up by your bootstraps if you did that i would say this it's 0:33:06 a miracle this is a break of natural law it's a miracle it's a metaphysical claim 0:33:11 right very interesting how can something come from nothing uncaused 0:33:16 is that science theist frank turek he said he wrote a book called i don't have 0:33:21 enough faith to be an atheist believing that something can come from nothing 0:33:26 is worse than magic said pull a rabbit out of my hat right that's going from something to something 0:33:34 but to take a universe out of nothing is a big supernatural metaphysical claim stephen hawking 0:33:42 says the universe can spontaneously create itself out of nothing that's not naturalism 0:33:49 that's a supra rational statement that's a religious statement what is nothing nothing is 0:33:56 what stones dream about this is aristotle what do stones dream about nothing that's nothing 0:34:04 not simply empty space you know i do this trick with my kids i say is there anything in my hands
0:34:12 they say no and i go up there's something there right but even if i go like this 0:34:19 there's nothing there but is there really nothing there near that show let's make a deal 0:34:24 would you like door number one or door number two door number one they open it oh it's nothing 0:34:28 is that what i'm talking about when i say nothing no nothing is the absolute absence of being 0:34:35 right so stephen hawking says this this is what he used to say he says at the subatomic 0:34:41 level the subatomic level in the quantum vacuum right quantum physics nobody really understands 0:34:48 quantum physics in the quantum vacuum you have a proton that comes in and out of existence and 0:34:56 he says this is something from nothing a proton coming in and out of existence the light quantum 0:35:02 the photon right the problem with this is that the quantum vacuum is certainly not nothing it's a sea 0:35:09 of fluctuating energy it's highly volatile it's very unstable now the latest from hawking is this 0:35:17 he says if you extrapolate the universe backwards right because the universe is expanding 0:35:23 isotropically it's expanding evenly isotropically we know this from uh recent discoveries 1929 the 0:35:31 red shift of of galaxies called hubble's law right that universes are running away from each other 0:35:37 if they were coming closer it would be blue but it's red on the spectrum right according to the 0:35:42 doppler effect microwave background radiation was discovered in 1965 by penzias and wilson 0:35:49 the afterglow of the big bang so this is called the hardel hawking standard model sometimes it's 0:35:54 called the friedmann la montre standard model big bang cosmology right so stephen hawking is 0:36:00 saying if you extrapolate the universe backwards backwards you come to a point of singularity 0:36:07 okay no problem point of singularity but then he says what is this point of singularity it 0:36:12 is an infinitesimally small black hole a small infinitesimally small black hole you see this 0:36:19 is how he sidesteps infinite regression because in a black hole there's no time there's no time 0:36:26 you know infinite regression what came first the chicken or the egg uh the egg where the chicken 0:36:31 laid the egg uh the chicken the chicken came out of an egg an egg the chicken laid an egg 0:36:37 i don't know right how do you get out of infinite regression 0:36:42 no time in this black hole the problem with this is that a black hole is the resulting state 0:36:48 of a solar explosion it's not an initial condition it is matter and matter requires motion 0:36:57 and motion requires time so we might ask what is before the black hole the black hole 0:37:03 is certainly not nothing it is something where did the singularity come from now 0:37:08 uh lawrence krauss he wrote a book called a universe out of nothing arizona state four 0:37:13 more cosmologists atheist he says like i said the universe is 13.7256 billion years old this nexus 0:37:21 known as space-time the space-time continuum it came into being at the big bang in fact space-time 0:37:28 and matter came into being right this is called cosmogenesis but how did it do it by itself 0:37:37 it created itself this is a faith claim this is a metaphysical claim what if i told you i 0:37:44 created myself i'm making a supernatural claim about myself this is what they're 0:37:50 saying about the universe you see the only way to avoid infinite regress is to go metaphysical is to 0:37:57 go supernatural is to ultimately go theological so here's my conclusions about the cosmological 0:38:02 argument only a non-contingent being in other words one who is not subject to causality one who 0:38:09 is not subject to infinite regress because he is eternal also the one who is necessarily spaceless 0:38:17 timeless and immaterial because he created space time and matter he's also extremely powerful and 0:38:23 extremely intelligent he created a universe can bring a universe into being from nothing 0:38:30 but then they'll say well who caused god who caused god right it's god's very nature to be 0:38:37 pre-eternal remember the first premise whatever begins to exist has a cause god never began 0:38:43 to exist if we start asking that question then we question the very existence of the universe 0:38:50 why let's say i'm standing in a line and there's a brother in front of me 0:38:54 and i tell the brother i really want to give you a hug and the brother says ask the guy behind you 0:39:00 say hey can i give him a hug he says ask the guy behind me hey can i give him a hug he says ask the 0:39:06 guy behind me hey can i give him a hug ask the guy behind me and this goes on ad infinitum right add 0:39:14 infinitum me giving the guy a hug represents the big bang the universe will i ever give him a hug 0:39:22 no because you cannot traverse an actual infinitude you cannot traverse an actual 0:39:29 infinitude if you ask a question who created god then you haven't solved infinite regression 0:39:36 what is an actual infinitude in mathematics it's represented by the hebrew aleph the hebrew alif 0:39:45 what is an actual infinitude a number that transcends and contains all natural numbers 0:39:51 and cannot be increased why one by one an actual infinitude cannot be found in nature 0:39:58 and abu yusuf al-kindi has a certain analogy he uses xeno has one zeno's paradox achilles and 0:40:04 the tortoise hilbert's hotel mathematicians have different uh analogies they use to demonstrate 0:40:10 the impossibility of having an actual infinitude in nature we have a theoretical infinitude also 0:40:18 which is the lazy eight right a theoretical infinitude can be traversed 0:40:25 within finite space we do it all the time i'll say it again a theoretical infinitude can be traversed 0:40:34 within finite space my hand is above the table how many times can i cut this distance in half in 0:40:41 theory an infinite number of times half half half half will i ever get to an actual infinitude no i 0:40:49 won't go get to an actual infinitude because you can never get to an actual infinitude by adding 0:40:55 uh successive numbers together finite numbers together so to ask this question who caused 0:41:01 god another god who caused him another god who caused him another god this doesn't get us past 0:41:06 infinite regression because we have a universe an actual infinitude cannot be traversed right
0:41:15 so if it's if the universe is eternal then in the past with god's creating gods creating gods and 0:41:22 then the universe how did we get to today because we can't traverse an actual infinitude and get to 0:41:28 today but we are here today so infinite regression dies at the door of the eternal this is the only 0:41:36 way one can deal with infinite regression is a supernatural postulation metaphysical answer 0:41:45 interestingly allah wa ta'ala the verses in the quran 0:41:49 in which allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is described as
0:41:54 to split apart to break something apart
0:42:00 means to originate something the primal cause of something 0:42:04 allah is the primal cause god created the universe out of nothing
0:42:15 that is your lord there is no god but he he's your creator of 0:42:18 everything space time matter energy all of these created by allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
0:42:27 okay last argument it's called the teleological argument and then we'll open it up for questions 0:42:34 and comments inshallah so this argument has uh it was used by aristotle and plato the teleological 0:42:41 argument it's the most challenging according to hitchens for the atheists there's two versions 0:42:46 of it the first version is the traditional argument which argues for biological complexity 0:42:52 look at the human eye look at the human brain look at the systems within the human being 0:42:57 you know architects looked at the at insects when they wanted to build the eiffel tower 0:43:04 people looked at the wings of birds when they wanted to build airplanes 0:43:08 anthony flew who was 50 years an atheist at cambridge university suddenly came to 0:43:14 believe in god after 50 years he debated c.s lewis and suddenly he said you know 0:43:19 the human cell that's not chance and that's not evolution that's design and now i believe in god 0:43:26 he's a deist he's not a christian he's not a muslim he's on a jew but he believes in god 0:43:31 interestingly the two greatest scientists of all time were unitarian deists sir isaac newton 0:43:39 albert einstein these people believe in god not believing in god was out of the question 0:43:45 now there's another type of theological argument this is for the cutting edge version of it and 0:43:50 this argues for cosmic design due to fine tuning so you know the watchmaker analogy this is first 0:43:58 used by william paley in 1802 right dates back to cicero walking on the beach you find a watch you 0:44:05 pick it up you notice it's craftsmanship so what can you conclude that this just 0:44:10 formed itself by chance atoms came together and made this incredible little watch right well let's 0:44:17 say that you're an astronaut and you're on the dark side of the moon and you find a transformer 0:44:22 they made a movie about this right so you have three options why is that there number one out 0:44:27 of necessity does it have to be there no the moon functions without the transformer is it chance 0:44:35 so these atoms they just happen to form this incredible piece of machinery there's a chance but 0:44:41 probably not right or it's designed even if you don't know who put it there the best explanation 0:44:48 is that it was designed you don't have to have an explanation for the best explanation but you know 0:44:52 it's designed right so look at the earth itself the distance from the moon and sun if you're a 0:44:58 little bit closer a little bit farther there's no life on planet earth if the days were a little bit 0:45:03 longer life would cease to exist on earth if the access of the earth 23.5 degrees was slightly off 0:45:09 there would be no life on earth if the atmosphere changed a little bit solar flares would swallow us 0:45:16 up we would burn to a crisp there'd be no life on earth jupiter isn't a perfect place with perfect 0:45:22 mass it's a it's a solar cosmic vacuum cleaner all of these asteroids and comets that come to 0:45:29 earth they're pulled towards jupiter and it saves us subhanallah the solar system itself is like a 0:45:36 watch you know sir isaac newton he noticed that the planets they orbit around the sun in the same 0:45:42 direction and they're on the same plane and he said this is design now the atheist will say oh 0:45:48 that's what the theist does whenever he doesn't understand something he puts god in the gap 0:45:54 to god of the gaps whenever a theist a believer doesn't understand something he says oh that's god 0:45:59 god of the gaps but we understand how a watch works it doesn't negate its designer we understand 0:46:06 how the solar system works now it doesn't negate it's been designed so that argument doesn't work 0:46:11 now almost all atheists conclude that the universe is fine-tuned for the existence of 0:46:17 intelligent life and fine-tuned is a neutral term it's not strictly theological how is it fine-tuned 0:46:24 you see there are certain constants and quantities constants and quantities of the 0:46:30 four fundamental forces of nature that have to fall within an incredibly narrow range 0:46:36 what are the four fundamental forces of nature gravity electromagnetism weak nuclear force 0:46:42 strong nuclear force all of them and the point of singularity so let's look we'll come back to this 0:46:47 idea let's look at our syllogism uh premise number one the fine tuning of the universe 0:46:53 is due to either physical necessity which almost all atheists reject because you can 0:47:00 have a universe with different concepts and quantities and you'll have a universe 0:47:05 or it's chance and that's what atheists say yes it's chance or it's by design 0:47:12 premise number two it's not due to physical necessity or chance therefore it is due to design 0:47:19 and by design we mean a specified complexity specified created tailored with unimaginable 0:47:27 intelligence in pinpoint exquisite precision we'll let you know how that is william lane craig he 0:47:34 says there are 50 such constants and quantities present in the big bang that must be fine-tuned 0:47:41 in this way and their ratios to one another must also be fine-tuned to allow for life-permitting 0:47:48 universe the numbers become incomprehensible i'll give you some examples just to give you 0:47:52 an idea of the numbers the number of seconds in the history of the universe is 10 to the 17th the 0:47:59 number of seconds in the history of the universe is 10 to the 17th 10 with 17 zeros after it the 0:48:06 number of subatomic particles in the universe according to william dempsky is 10 to the 80. 0:48:13 okay now atomic weak force operates in the nucleus of an atom 0:48:17 an alteration of one part out of out of ten to the one hundredth one part 0:48:24 out of ten to the one hundredth would render life unsustained unsustainable in the universe 0:48:31 this is the incredible precision of the universe so let me put that in perspective for you let's 0:48:37 say i have a dart i have a single dart and in front of me there are a number of people 0:48:41 10 to the 100th which is impossible right that's a lot of people let's say they're standing in 0:48:45 front of me one of them has a target on his chest i throw the dart and it hits a target 0:48:52 that's just one of these fundamental forces that have to line up if gravity was changed by one 0:48:59 part out of 10 to the 40th there is no life in the universe the atheists say this is just chance we 0:49:06 got lucky the constants and quantities fell within this very very very small life permitting range 0:49:12 let me give you another analogy the lottery analogy let's say that i have a huge cosmic hat 0:49:18 a huge cosmic hat and i have 10 to the 40 number of white balls that i put into this cosmic hat 0:49:26 i give you one of these balls these white balls and you write your initials on it 0:49:30 and i say okay i'm gonna put this back into the hat okay then i'm gonna draw out a ball at random 0:49:38 if it's a white ball without your initials nothing happens nothing happens but if we draw out the 0:49:44 ball with your initials we kill you right you think i'm feeling a little saucy let's do it what 0:49:52 does 10 to the 40th 10 with 40 zeros impossible go ahead do it ah look what's your initial reaction
0:50:03 it was rigged that was rigged you fooled me it was designed right 0:50:10 look at the cosmic landscape possible universes there are 10 to the 500 possible universes 0:50:17 with different values of the constants consistent with the laws of nature 0:50:22 10 to the 500 the portion of these universes uh that can permit life is infinitesimally small 0:50:30 the range is incredibly minuscule what is life life is an organism's ability to take in food 0:50:36 process it grow and develop and reproduce after its kind and i'll end with this inshallah to allah 0:50:42 alvin platinga he's a professor at notre dame gives another analogy just imagine you have these 0:50:47 large dials like combination lock dials there's a million of them and they all go up to a thousand 0:50:55 and he says if you can get the right combination a million that go up to a thousand will give you 0:51:01 a billion dollars right that is more likely than a life permitting universe that is more likely 0:51:09 than a life-permitting universe so the result is allahu majjud that's how i'm ending inshallah