You ever look at Carl Sagan reasons why he doesn’t believe in the Christian God, since he’s the world’s smartest man he should have a compelling argument? [A link to a video clip of Sagan was then given].<\/p>\n\t
“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world?<\/em>” (I Corinthians 1:18-20).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If Carl Sagan was the world’s smartest man, perhaps he might manage a compelling argument. But Sagan did a poor job of making an argument in the video clip that you provided. I didn’t bother to listen to all of it, I just don’t have the time to waste. But the beginning has Sagan arguing that there are other possible ways that the world could have come into being. In particular, he argues that matter and energy could possibly be eternal. He doesn’t prove his point. He only asks a series of questions about possibilities. Since he acknowledges that creation by God is a possibility, I found it amusing that he made no attempt to eliminate this possibility.<\/p>\n
The problem is that arguing from possibilities doesn’t prove a truth. My parents could have found me in a cabbage patch, so does that prove spontaneous generation?<\/p>\n
Let’s just assume that matter and energy were eternal. The second law of thermodynamics says that entropy increases. That is everything decays to a steady-state where there is no greater or less energy throughout the universe. If matter was eternal, then the system should have been in a steady state of the greatest entropy. That isn’t what we see. Therefore, we haven’t reached the steady-state yet and matter could not have always existed.<\/p>\n
“The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here<\/em>” (Luke 11:31).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Instead of finding faith in self-proclaimed wisdom, put your trust in proven wisdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: You ever look at Carl Sagan reasons why he doesn’t believe in the Christian God, since he’s the world’s smartest man he should have a compelling argument? [A link to a video clip of Sagan was then given]. Answer: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[184,302,80],"class_list":["post-28713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-atheism","tag-creation","tag-evolution"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57566,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-science-the-source-of-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":28713,"position":0},"title":"Is Science the Source of Truth? (Article)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Mankind has long deluded itself into thinking it can accurately determine truth. In the past charlatans and deluded men thought they could divine truth by observing animal organs or through drug-induced trances. Eventually, the search for truth has given way to the use of human reasoning.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/01\/Candle-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":62864,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-science-the-source-of-truth-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":28713,"position":1},"title":"Is Science the Source of Truth? (Sermon)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Download Audio Text: I Corinthians 1:18-31 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mankind has long fooled themselves into thinking they can accurately determine the truth \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We call this search for Truth \u201cScience\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cKnowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method.\u201d -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94921,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-case-for-god-from-his-goodness\/","url_meta":{"origin":28713,"position":2},"title":"A Case for God from His Goodness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ken Marrs via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 4, December 1994 The existence of God can be proven in a number of ways. For instance: Teleologically (the design of the universe demands a designer) Cosmologically (nothing can come from nothing, everything must have an antecedent clause) Mathematically (if being mathematically\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93487,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-wisdom-walks-away\/","url_meta":{"origin":28713,"position":3},"title":"When Wisdom Walks Away","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Cleve Stafford There's a certain kind of argument that never ends well. No matter how calmly you speak, how clear your reasoning is, or how sincere your intentions are, the other person will not act accordingly. Proverbs 29:9 lays it out plainly: \"If a wise man has an argument\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34372,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-make-a-stand-against-homosexuality\/","url_meta":{"origin":28713,"position":4},"title":"How do we make a stand against homosexuality?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! First, I would like to say thanks for the website. My question is: how can we show others that homosexuality is wrong? \u00a0Our country will not hear any religious claims that marriage between two of the same sex is wrong. \u00a0I know we are to love everyone, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13339,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-christians-response-to-postmodernism\/","url_meta":{"origin":28713,"position":5},"title":"What is the Christian’s response to postmodernism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been learning about postmodernism recently and have been surprised to hear their views about reality is socially constructed and accepting contradiction. I am wondering what the Christian response is to postmodernism? How do you refute the social construction perspective? How do you respond to people that are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}