By Rick Vacek
GCU News Bureau
Mark Mittelberg is from Denver, and he started his Chapel talk Monday morning in the Grand Canyon University Arena by professing his devotion to that city’s professional football team.
Coincidentally, the Denver Broncos are the top-ranked defense in the National Football League. Mittelberg, a best-selling author and apologist, is a top-ranked defender of Christianity, and he’s ready to tackle anyone who doubts the existence of God.
“I stand here fully convinced that Christianity is the truth,” he said authoritatively, “and I believe you can be a confident Christian — that’s why I wrote that book.”
That book is “Confident Faith,” which declares, “You can enjoy a robust Christian faith that you can share with skeptical friends. There is a firm foundation for your beliefs.”
Mittelberg said there are 20 reasons why we can know and show that Christianity is true, starting with these: design in the universe points to the existence of an intelligent designer, the incredible fine-tuning that we find in our world required an intentional fine-tuner, and the origins of the universe point to a divine originator.
Specifically, he presented an argument that (1.) Whatever has a beginning has a cause, (2.) The universe had a beginning (commonly called the Big Bang), and therefore, (3.) The universe has a cause — one that is, by definition, outside the physical realm (therefore spiritual?) and outside of time since time itself began at the Big Bang (therefore eternal?). He said the cause is incredibly powerful to bring a universe out of nothing (omnipotent?), and incredibly wise to simultaneously fine-tune all that was needed to sustain life (omniscient?). He added that “He must also be loving, to allow us life, and the ability to come here to think about these things today. … Doesn’t this spiritual, eternal, powerful, wise and loving cause behind the universe sound suspiciously similar to the divine figure we read about in the biblical book of Genesis?”
Mittelberg also said that the vast amount of information encoded into DNA points to a divine encoder, and he cited studies that have shown the amount of genetic information contained in a single human cell. It would take 31 years to read all that information, he said, and if it were printed out, the stack of paper would equal the height of the Washington Monument, which stands 555 feet, or about 55 stories high. This points, he claimed, to an incredible mind behind such mind-blowing information.
“A lot of people think science and religion are enemies,” he said. “No, science and religion are friends, and they’re pointing increasingly to the same reality of God.”
Some atheists have taken to buying billboard space, such as the ones Mittelberg noted: “There’s probably no God, so stop worrying and enjoy your life,” and “God is an imaginary friend — choose reality and it will be better for all of us.”
But Mittelberg said debates between Christian scholars and atheists in recent years haven’t gone well for nonbelievers, and he pointed to one in which the atheist got “spanked … like a foolish child.”
Put the evidence all together, and Mittelberg comes to a simple conclusion: “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.”
● For a replay of Mittelberg’s talk, click here.
● Next week’s Chapel speaker: Todd Clark, Christ’s Church of the Valley
Contact Rick Vacek at (602) 639-8203 or [email protected].
