Summary
Highlights
An agnostic asks a religious man why he should believe in God. He wants to know why believing in God is more probable than not.
The first reason is the order and design of the cosmos, suggesting an intelligent mind behind it. Order demands an intelligent mind behind it and doesn't come about by chance.
Life always comes from life. It is more reasonable to believe in the beginning God, rather than the beginning matter and energy. Believing that life came from non-life is not plausible or reasonable.
There are at least a few moral absolutes, not just ethical gray areas. There are at times ethical black and white situations.
Love is crucial. The only way love can be real is if there is more to reality than matter and energy; there has to be a God who creates us with the ability to love.
The student argues about order, saying he has seen order from chaos and questions whether order implies a good entity.
The student argues that scientists could create life from the right materials and electric charge.
The student doesn't understand the point about love. A story is used to explore if there's no God, there is no innate human ability to genuinely care for somebody else.
Moral absolutes can be found first in conscience and secondly by asking if God has revealed a standard, where one can measure conscience against. The student says he's extremely selfish and acts in his own interest.
Agnosticism is an intellectual option, but a practical impossibility. Priorities and ethical decisions show what one believes in. The way you live your life shows whether you acknowledge God or not, and goes to the heart of human existence.