The Argument from the World as an Interacting Whole for the Existence of God (2)

The Reasons to Believe #55

Our Reasons to Believe Scripture passage for today is 2 Corinthians 10:5. It reads, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 

Our Reasons to Believe quote for today is from Sir Isaac Newton. He said, "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily."

Our Reason to Believe powerpoint today is titled "The Argument from the World as an Interacting Whole for the Existence of God" (part 2) from "The Handbook of Christian Apologetics" by Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli:

Today, we are going to continue our discussion of this argument with three conclusions:

1. Since the parts make sense only within the whole, and neither the whole nor the parts can explain their own existence, then such a system as our world requires a unifying efficient cause to posit it in existence as a unified whole.

2. Any such cause must be an intelligent cause, one that brings the system into being according to a unifying idea. For the unity of the whole --- and of each one of the overarching, cosmic-wide, physical laws uniting elements under themselves --- is what determines and correlates the parts. Hence it must be somehow actually present as an effective organizing factor. But the unity, the wholeness, of the whole transcends any one part, and therefore cannot be contained in any one part. To be actually present all at once as a whole this unity can only be the unity of an organizing unifying idea. For only an idea can hold together many different elements at once without destroying or fusing their distinctness. That is almost the definition of an idea...