The Divine Challenge
On Matter, Mind, Math & Meaning
107 in stock
| Weight | 0.92 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 8.5 × 5.4 × 1 in |
| ISBN | 9780851518879 |
| Binding | Paperback |
| topic | Apologetics, Worldview |
| Original Pub Date | 2004 |
| Banner Pub Date | Nov 30, 2004 |
| page-count | 336 |
| format | Book |
Book Description
Since the Beginning of time man has challenged God’s supremacy, striving to dethrone God and reinterpret the universe according to his own standards and purposes. In response God, who is determined to destroy the wisdom of the wordly wise and to unmask it for the foolishness that it really is, issues his own challenge to sinful man. Arrogantly, modern scientific man takes up that divine challenge, arming himself with scientific knowledge and technological power. Indeed, man has convinced himself that this rational wisdom has made foolish the wisdom of Scripture, with its tall tales of a personal God, of life after death, and of heaven and hell. ‘Such notions’, Einstein declared, ‘are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls.’
John byl argues that the Christian worldview provides the only foundation for logic, mathematics, science and morality. The Divine Challenge aims to substantiate this bold claim. Byl shows the failure of today’s predominant philosophies to provide a coherent worldview that can yield a plausible account of the various aspects of life as we experience it. Only a Christian worldview, squarely based on the truth of the Bible and the comprehensive sovereignty of God, can give our lives coherence, meaning, purpose and hope.
Table of Contents Expand ↓
| Preface | xiii | |
| 1. | List of Diagrams | xii |
| THE CHALLENGE FRAMED | 1 | |
| Is God Dead? | 4 | |
| The Mysterious Trio – Matter, Mind and Math | 7 | |
| 2. | WORLD VIEW WARS | 12 |
| World view Questions | 13 | |
| We Need Assumptions | 15 | |
| World views in Conflict: | ||
| Theism, Naturalism, Relativism | 17 | |
| Judging Worldviews | 19 | |
| Science and Common Sense | 21 | |
| Basics of Common Sense | 22 | |
| Basics of Science | 23 | |
| Logic and Truth | ||
| Contradictions of Absurdity | 24 | |
| Refuting Oneself | 25 | |
| What Is Truth? | 26 | |
| Everything Has a Reason | 27 | |
| Conclusions | 28 | |
| Appendix: A Brief Primer on Logic | 28 | |
| 3. | NATURALISM | 32 |
| The Days of Myth and Magic | 33 | |
| The Impact of Christianity | 35 | |
| The Scientific Revolution | 36 | |
| Basics of Naturalism | ||
| Nature Is the Ultimate Reality | 40 | |
| Nature Is a Closed System | 41 | |
| Man Is a Mere Machine | 41 | |
| Only Sense Knowledge Counts | 42 | |
| Man Sets the Standards | 42 | |
| History Has No Purpose | 42 | |
| Conclusions | 42 | |
| 4. | MYSTERIES OF MATTER | 44 |
| Why Does the World Exist | 45 | |
| Why Is the World Orderly? | 48 | |
| Why Is the World Uniform? | 51 | |
| Why Can We Understand the World? | 53 | |
| How Can Math Make Matter? | 57 | |
| How Does the One Relate to the Many? | 59 | |
| Conclusions | 61 | |
| 5. | CHANCE, CAUSE AND CHAOS | 63 |
| The Puzzle of Gravity | 64 | |
| Causes of Chaos | 66 | |
| The Strange World of Atoms | 68 | |
| Predicting Uncertainty | 71 | |
| Is Chance a Cause? | 72 | |
| Does Everything Have a Cause? | 73 | |
| Making Sense of the Atomic World | ||
| An Unknowable World | 74 | |
| A Determined World | 75 | |
| Mind Makes Reality | 77 | |
| Many Worlds | 78 | |
| Taking Your Pick | 78 | |
| Mind over Matter? | 80 | |
| Conclusions | 81 | |
| 6. | FROM MATTER TO MIND | 82 |
| Making Matter Come Alive | 84 | |
| The Complexity of Life | 84 | |
| The Tale of the Selfish Genes | 87 | |
| Implications of Information | 90 | |
| Detecting Design | 91 | |
| Does Life Have a Purpose? | 93 | |
| Turning Matter into Mind | 95 | |
| Mysteries of Mind | 96 | |
| What Are Thoughts about? | 97 | |
| Is Mind More than Brain? | 98 | |
| Emerging Mind | 98 | |
| Dismissing the Mind | 100 | |
| Are You for Real? | 101 | |
| Meme Machine Minds | 103 | |
| Can You Believe Your Beliefs? | 106 | |
| Thoughts about Thoughts | 108 | |
| Turning Thought into Action | 109 | |
| Conclusions | ||
| 7. | FROM MIND TO MATH | 111 |
| Let’s Be Reasonable | 112 | |
| Who Knows? | 112 | |
| Can You Trust Your Mind? | ||
| Survival or Truth? | 113 | |
| Physics or Purpose? | 115 | |
| Justifying Truth | ||
| Where in the World is Truth? | 116 | |
| A Question of Logic | 117 | |
| Math Is Ideal | 118 | |
| Are There Absolutes? | 118 | |
| Where Are the Standards? | 121 | |
| How Do You Know? | 122 | |
| Is Non-Science Nonsense? | 123 | |
| Making Sense of Sense | 124 | |
| The Ideal Connection | 125 | |
| The Gift of the Gab | 126 | |
| Beauty and the Naturalist Beast | 129 | |
| Conclusions | 131 | |
| 8. | MYSTERIES OF MATHEMATICS | 133 |
| The Classical View on Math | 134 | |
| Math is an Ideal World | 135 | |
| Math in the Mind of God | 136 | |
| Removing God from Math | 137 | |
| Putting Math on Its Feet | 138 | |
| Math in Crisis | 140 | |
| Man-made Math | 144 | |
| Evolution-made Math | 147 | |
| Are Numbers Real? | 149 | |
| Conclusions | 153 | |
| 9. | BEYOND NATURALISM | 155 |
| Naturalism’s Failures | 156 | |
| The Magic of Emergence | 157 | |
| The Dangers of Self-Refutation | 159 | |
| The Post-Modern Backlash | 160 | |
| The Loss of Truth | 160 | |
| Playing with Words | 160 | |
| Power Makes Truth | 162 | |
| Post-Modern Post-Mortem | 163 | |
| The Ghost of Naturalism | 166 | |
| What Does a Worldview Need? | 167 | |
| Creating a Natural God | 168 | |
| Do Atoms Have Feelings? | 170 | |
| Finding Firm Ground | 171 | |
| Appendix: How to Refute Scepticism | 173 | |
| Testing Assumptions | 173 | |
| Trying out the System | 174 | |
| An Impossible Life | 175 | |
| 10. | THE CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW | 178 |
| Basics of the Christian Worldview | ||
| God Is the Ultimate Reality | 179 | |
| The Universe Totally Depends on God | 183 | |
| Man Was Created to Be God’s Steward | 185 | |
| God Created Man to Know | 187 | |
| God Sets the Standards | 189 | |
| History Unfolds God’s Plan | 190 | |
| Examining the Christian Worldview | 190 | |
| A Total Worldview | 190 | |
| Justifying Worldview Tests | 191 | |
| The Test of Experience | 191 | |
| The Test of Scripture | 192 | |
| The Test of Consistency | 193 | |
| The Test of Livability | 193 | |
| The Danger of Compromise | 194 | |
| Conclusions | 195 | |
| 11. | GOD AND THE PHYSICAL WORLD | 196 |
| God’s Creation | 197 | |
| Why We Can Understand the Universe | 197 | |
| God’s Providence | 198 | |
| God Uses Secondary Causes | 199 | |
| Miracles Happen | 199 | |
| Does God Play with Dice? | 201 | |
| Providence and Chance | 202 | |
| Does God Limit Himself? | 204 | |
| Knowing an Uncertain Future | 206 | |
| Butterflies and Storms | 208 | |
| Conclusions | 208 | |
| 12. | FREE WILL AND RESPONSIBILITY | 210 |
| What Is Human Free Will? | 212 | |
| Two Views on Free Will | 213 | |
| Freedom within Uncertainty | 214 | |
| The Need for Chance | 214 | |
| A Missing Proof | 215 | |
| Freedom Shackled | 216 | |
| Limiting God | 216 | |
| God’s Knowledge of Our Choices | 218 | |
| Where Does It Lead? | 220 | |
| Freedom within Reason | 221 | |
| More than Physics | 222 | |
| Forming Your Fate | 223 | |
| Do You Really Have a Choice? | 224 | |
| Who Is Responsible? | 226 | |
| The Bible and Responsibility | 227 | |
| The Problem of Evil | 231 | |
| Conclusions | 235 | |
| 13. | BODY AND SOUL | 237 |
| What Is the Soul? | 239 | |
| Body and Soul in the Bible | 240 | |
| Human Souls Survive Death | 241 | |
| Body, Mind and Common Sense | 243 | |
| Do You Need a Soul? | 244 | |
| Probing an Immaterial Mind | 245 | |
| How Do Minds Operate? | 246 | |
| Minding Energy | 248 | |
| Where Is Your Mind? | 250 | |
| Who Made Your Soul? | 251 | |
| Conclusions | 253 | |
| 14. | A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF MATHEMATICS | 254 |
| God and Math | 256 | |
| God and Logic | 257 | |
| God and Number | ||
| Infinity | 258 | |
| The Trinity | 259 | |
| Connecting the One to the Many | 261 | |
| God and Necessary Truths | 262 | |
| How Do We Learn Math? | 265 | |
| Our Inborn Abilities | 265 | |
| The Rule of Logic | 267 | |
| The Leaps of Intuition | 267 | |
| How Can We Justify Math? | 269 | |
| A Bible-based Math? | 269 | |
| Classical Math and God | 270 | |
| Some Simple Set Theory | 271 | |
| Counting beyond Infinity | 273 | |
| The Axiom of Choice | 274 | |
| Justifying Math as a Whole | 276 | |
| Conclusions | 277 | |
| 15. | THE CHALLENGE SETTLED | 279 |
| Brief Summary | ||
| The Nature of Worldviews | 280 | |
| Naturalism and Relativism | 281 | |
| The Christian Worldview | 282 | |
| Assessing Christianity | 283 | |
| Defending the Faith | 284 | |
| Why (Post-) Modernists Reject Christianity | 286 | |
| World Stories: Human and Divine | 289 | |
| The Return of the Pagans | 291 | |
| Finale | 293 | |
| Bibliography | 299 | |
| Index | 311 | |
| DIAGRAMS | ||
| Figure 1.1: Three Worlds and Three Mysteries | 9 | |
| Figure 4.1: Some Simple Mathematical Shapes in Nature | 50 | |
| Figure 5.1: The Double Slit Experiment | 69 | |
| Figure 6.1: The Simple Cell | 86 | |
| Figure 6.2: The DNA Molecule | 88 | |
| Figure 8.1: The Mandelbrot Set | 150 |
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Description
Byl argues convincingly that only a Christian worldview based on the truth of the Bible and the sovereignty of God can give life the coherence, meaning, purpose and hope men crave. 336pp.
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Byl argues convincingly that only a Christian worldview based on the truth of the Bible and the sovereignty of God can give life the coherence, meaning, purpose and hope men crave. 336pp.
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