THE CASE FOR GOD

From Worldometer,  COVID-19 new deaths:

           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa

June      9     1093    4732        1185       246         82

July     19       412    4606          715       675         85

           22     1205    7128        1293     1120        572

           26       450    4307         556       715        114
Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193
            3       467     4430         514       514        213

            5     1362     6292       1394       849        345

          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130
          16       522     4525         582       961        162
          18     1358     6312        1365    1089        280

          24       510     4356          679      854        100

          25     1290     5856        1215    1066        149

          30       369     4182         398       960          47
Sept     3     1094     5886          830    1083        174
            4     1033     5814          855    1066        115
            5       707     4822          646    1044        101
            6       432     4129          456    1008        110
            8       496     4477          516    1107          82
            9     1208     6222        1136    1168          82
           10    1090     5988          922    1213          97
           11      707     4983          800    1108          49

Summary:  A Sunday report is almost meaningless.

There is a 2009 book by Karen Armstrong entitled, The Case for God.  She answers critics like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett:

Armstrong claims that the fundamental reality, later called God, Brahman, nirvana or Tao, transcends human concepts and thoughts, and can only be known through devoted religious practice.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Armstrong is a 75-year old British author and former Roman Catholic sister.  In 2008 she won a $100,000 TED--Technology-Entertainment-Design--Prize.  Since 2018 the grant has gone up to $1 million, and is now called The Audacious Project, given to organizations with Big Ideas.  Anyone who attends a TED talk pays $6000, but the speakers aren't compensated.  However, everything is available later online for free.  In 2015 Bill Gates warned that the world was not prepared for the next pandemic, and, surely enough, it came, and the 2020 TED series was cancelled.

Back to God, is there any evidence?  Read the book, 50 Arguments for Faith from The Bible, History, Philosophy and Science, written in 2010 by two co-editors, Michael Licona and William Dembski.

Peter Kreeft has 20 arguments for God's existence, with one being Pascal's Wager.  He provides eight different arguments from history.  Frankly, I was not convinced.  Then, too, I got lost in the effort and gave up.  If you have a whole Sunday to waste, give him a shot.


In 1954 Albert Einstein wrote what is known as the God Letter, which sold in 2018 for $2,892,500:

The letter reads: “The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change anything about this.”

From the Huffington Post, here are 12 Famous Scientists on the Possibility of God.

• In 2009 President Barack Obama nominated Francis Collins to head the National Institutes of Health.  He's still there as the head, has recently been much seen on TV news channels about a future vaccine for this novel coronavirus, and is a believer of good science and God.

• You can read how they all feel.  Included were Galileo, Bacon, Darwin, Marie Curie, Hawking, Sagan, and other luminaries, like  Collins.
• According to Pew, 51% of scientists believe in some form of deity.  However, a 1998 survey of National Science Academy biological scientists showed that only 5.5% believed in God and 7.1% in immortality.  In 2013 members of the Royal Society of London were polled, and this was the result:

Note that biological scientists universally are non-believers.  I would say the results for both countries were similar.

So has the case for God been made?  It all depends on what you believe.  God will keep you alive, according to this wisdom from Texan Richard Overton, who still drives.  Well, actually, he passed away two years ago at almost the age of 113.

Overton gained media attention during the 2013 Memorial Day weekend when he told Fox News he would spend his Memorial Day "smoking cigars and drinking whiskey-stiffened coffee."^[11] Overton had been known to smoke about a dozen cigars a day.  Overton was invited to the White House where he met with President Barack Obama, and to the Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, where he was singled out by name for praise by the President.^[5][12][13]

There is something sacrilegious about ending a Sunday with the NFL, but then again, one wonders which subject is more popular in America today.  About the above Gallup poll, you have to wonder if the reason for church decline is a diminution of true belief or the NFL.

How can you resist the oldest quarterback matchup in pro football history?  Tom Brady (6'4") at 43 and Drew Brees (6'0") 41.  The first time they met?  It was in 1999, #11 Purdue at #4 Michigan.  Brady won in a blowout:  38-12.  And Tom has the Gronk back, who did not play last year.

Sally is soon to become a hurricane, with an eye for New Orleans beginning early Tuesday:

There is also Hurricane Paulette in the Atlantic, and the Bahamas are in the way.  However, she will then make a right turn and move to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.away from the USA.

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