However, whereas Suber is a professional academic, I am not. Before reading any further, read my disclaimer and warning on my My Writings page.
Notes on Steve Kumar – Who
is God? (Tape recording, 9/9/2001)
Glenn
Mason-Riseborough (14/3/2002)
(Numbers in brackets refer to tape counter)
SK gives many real life stories throughout this sermon, mostly to clarify his points and give examples (though some are a little gossipy and beside the point). I have omitted mentioning them explicitly in these notes; I’m just sticking to the main substantive points (as I see it).
(042) SK asks the question “who is your god?”
Bible story of Jesus walking on water (Matt 14:22-32)
(118) Many people grab hold of a philosophy/ideology/religious view without examining it.
In the reading, the disciples were on the boat, and then Jesus came. Jesus comes for all of us.
(176) The disciples ask the question, “truly you are the son of God?”
GR: is it a question?
Leonard Sweet: “Western society is experiencing a greater spiritual hunger, but they are not turning to the church. They are turning to gurus, self-help books, and New Age movements where you can custom design your own god.”
R. C. Sproul: “The greatest spiritual need today is that people need to discover the true identity of God.”
(195) Three popular but false (according to SK) concepts of God:
1. Process God
From Whitehead’s process philosophy: God is changing and growing – it is a view of a limited god.
Problem: If God is limited, then he can’t answer all prayer; if God is limited, then the universe is bigger than God.
GR: (a) The first inference is precisely the point of process theologians – they see it as a strength, because it is a way of replying to the Argument from Evil (which they take to be a fatal problem for traditional theism). (b) The second inference does not hold.
2. Polytheistic view of God
There are many gods, e.g. Hinduism has 330 million gods.
Problem: (a) When there is more than one god, which god’s view prevails, and which god wins? (b) Contradictory (and not rational), because there is no supreme being, but God (to be God) must be supreme.
GR: (a) Many polytheists do not require that God must be supreme hence it is not contradictory (for this reason); i.e. they have a different definition of “God”; others hold that there may be more than one equally supreme god. (b) Some forms of Hinduism are not polytheistic, in the sense that they claim that each god is merely a manifestation of the absolute, and belief in each god is appropriate for different spiritual levels or cultures (e.g. Advaita Vedanta).
3. Pantheistic God
God is everything and everything is God. Implies that you are God, I am God, and the human race is God. It is a popular view for many people in Hollywood.
Problems: (a) An individual human is not God, because we do not know everything. (b) If the human race is God, then God does not exist.
GR: (a) SK misunderstands/misrepresents the pantheists’ position. The pantheist denies that you are God or I am God or the human race is God – the claim is that the whole is God (pan = all), not any part or individual. He is perhaps confusing Pantheism with New Age religions (Pantheism is not New Age, though they share some similarities). (b) Since the pantheist denies that God is an intentional agent, s/he does not require that God knows everything. (c) Problem (b) is incoherent/ridiculous; is SK suggesting that the human race doesn’t exist?
Overall, SK fails to show the incoherence of all three concepts of God considered, because he is begging the question. He starts out presupposing certain characteristics of God (a person, all-powerful, supreme, all-knowing, etc), which defenders of these three alternative views often deny (often explicitly and with reasons). He is not replying to these views on their terms, but is defining “God” in a certain way, then rejecting these other views when adherents of these views define “God” differently.
(243) A. W. Tawser (sp?): “What comes into our mind when we think about God, is the most important thing about us.”
Thus, from one’s view about God we can learn about his/her life and problems, and what he/she thinks life is all about.
And thus, if we have a faulty view of God, then we miss the purpose of life; if we have a deficient view of life, then we have a depressing life.
GR: Possibly true of some people, but not true of all people.
(260) Who is the god that we/you serve? Who is the god represented by Jesus Christ? Four points from the reading (above):
1. God watches over us. He is with us and he knows our pain and struggle.
2. (325) Jesus walked on water.
(a) Jesus walks with us and gives us courage to face our problems. He tells us not to be afraid.
(b) Jesus performs miracles. It is not recorded that Mohammed or Buddha walked on water, and we never see gurus walking on water.
GR: Many gurus or religious leaders claim (or their followers claim on their behalf) to have performed miracles of various kinds. Unless further evidence is produced (which SK does not do), Jesus is in the same position as many of these other leaders, with respect to claims of miracles.
Saying a miracle is impossible is not sensible, because speaking is a miracle.
GR: The conclusion is true, but not for the reason given. For the argument to be sound, SK needs to do a lot more work to show how speaking is a miracle, as the claim is not prima facie true. (i.e., show that all naturalistic theories of speaking must fail).
Atheism is contradictory, because life is a miracle. SK says that there are many reasons why this is so, but he doesn’t have time to discuss them.
GR: Same claim as above, and same reply.
The theory of evolution claims that monkeys started talking. The evolutionist must believe more miracles than the Christian, because they believe that dead matter came alive, and this is a miracle.
GR: (a) extreme
oversimplification/misrepresentation of the theory of evolution. (b) Same claim as that given with respect to
miracles and atheism, and same reply.
3. (393) God works in people’s lives – he transforms their lives. God is an active, living god.
4. (484) God waits for us to act and to serve him (Matt 23). We must get out of our comfort zone and walk on the water (like Peter).