Forthright Magazine http://www.forthright.net Straight to the Cross Keep up with the news. Get an email notice whenever Brotherhoodnews.com is updated. Click here for this free service: http://brotherhoodnews.com/ COLUMN: CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES A Fundamental, Fool-Proof Argument by John Henson The most powerful argument for the existence of God comes from a simple statement. In his 1976 debate on the proposition, "I know there is a God," Brother Thomas B. Warren's first affirmative argument proving the proposition was, "Any object is either human or non-human." From that statement, came his affirmative argument. The syllogism he provided his opponent, Dr. Antony Flew was simple: 1. If there is even one characteristic, attribute or property of even one human being which could have come into existence only by the creative power of God, then that one human being is proof that God does exist. 2. There is at least one characteristic or attribute or property of at least one human being which could have come into existence by the creative power of God. 3. Therefore, that one human being constitutes proof that God does exist (when the evidence is recognized and reasoned about properly.) According to the rules of logic, the syllogism is valid. If the major and minor premises are true, then the conclusion must be true. The proofs for the premises are truly simple, pure and beautiful and can never (and I mean never) be refuted. Warren began his proof by drawing a strong disjunction: either creation or evolution is true. There can be no middle ground (law of the excluded middle). Oh, there are people who wish there was a middle ground between the two. They'd like to take both God and evolution, but as Warren showed, there is no way to do so. Creation implies the existence of God. It always has. There has never, never been an instance in which it does. And, when others begin to beg permission to link God and evolution together, we must remind them that creation implies only the existence of God as the creator. (Theistic evolution will be discussed in another column.) Warren's next proof is evolution implies that either a human was born or transformed from an animal. As evolution itself teaches, humans are descended from other animals, chiefly apes. Of course, this begs the question, "Has anyone ever seen a human born from an ape or transformed from one?" The answer must be no. No one has ever seen it and there is no evidence such has ever happened, though science has been looking high and low for it. Therefore, creation must be true and therefore God must exist (modus ponens). In addition, every proposition that implies a false proposition is, itself, false. Any attempt to propose evolution as the means whereby the universe came into existence is false. How simpler or more beautiful can this be? I may only posit one other statement, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," (Genesis 1:1). ---- Read this article online, write your reaction, and read others' comments as well. Click here: http://tinyurl.com/2c99foj You can help get the word out. Here's how: http://www.forthright.net/editorial/lend_a_hand.html