Reflective Integration Assignment - Dec. 10 @ 7_19 pm
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Reflective Integration Assignment
Stephanie Daily
Colorado Christian University
PHL-205A-35014-FA23
Efrain Quintana
December 10, 2023
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Reflective Integration Assignment
If it’s ok with you, I’d like to tell you my story. I did not grow up learning about God or
going to church. For some reason, I believed God existed, but it never went further. My mom
once asked me when I was young if I wanted to go to church because my friends went, and I told
her no. I said they hated going because it was boring. I grew up with a single mom, and we lived
with my grandparents. Fast-forward to the age of 19, I got pregnant. A couple of years later, I
married the father and we had 2 more kids. I knew I wasn’t happy, but I thought I was doing
right by staying with his dad. I don’t know why I wasn’t happy, he wasn’t a bad guy at all. I tried
finding my happiness. We eventually divorced and I immediately jumped into dating. I was still
trying to find what was missing in my life. I got serious with another man and my life went down
hill very fast. He didn’t believe in God. He said the old joke of, “I’ll catch fire if I walk into a
church.” My life started to become very checkered with all the sins that go with the “party”
lifestyle. I said it was ok because I only did it when my kids were with their dad. When they
were with me, I didn’t “party”.
Sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll.
We frequented clubs in the city,
usually gay bars. I was having a great time, but there was still something missing. I got pregnant
and we got married. He was a narcissist and narcissistic abuse is a real thing. Eventually, I was
able to leave him. I went on a very long walk and found myself in a church. I just sobbed sitting
there. A few days later, I was sitting in my bedroom with an urge to go to church. I reached out to
some friends that went to church. I visited a couple. I started reading the Bible and praying. One
night, I asked God to help me understand a passage I was reading. The very next day I showed
up to church and that exact passage was up on the screen. The pastor broke it down and
explained it during the service. I couldn’t believe it. Then I had the hardest year of my life. I got
divorced, terrible custody battle, while my son was in the hospital my dad passed away, my
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daughter tried to kill herself, my son who was in 7
th
grade quit going to school so ended up in
court with him and then my mom was put in ICU. I remember thinking, if this is what happens
when I follow God, I don’t want to. But this voice inside me told me to keep pushing and keep
trusting. So I did. The next few years got better but it was still hard. Raising 4 kids as a single
mom, with an ex that liked to play games had it’s trying times. But God always provided what
we needed. Unexpected checks. Extra hours at work. Food just showing up at our doorstep.
A
friend I hadn’t talked to in over a year called me and said she felt God telling her I needed help
and gave me a check for the amount I was short for my rent. And then God lead me to my
purpose. I had to go through all of that because now I am helping other single parents. He turned
my ashes into beauty.
You know, there is scientific evidence for the evolving of all species, but there is none for
natural selection as the mechanism of evolution, (Kreeft, 1998, Argument from Design section).
You can find different patterns and order in scientific observation that suggests a supreme
intelligence. (Steinkraus & Mitias, 2023, p.84).
I was reading an article called the Argument from Design and in it, it told of a great little
story that made me think. I’d like to share with you.
When the first moon rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, two U.S. scientists stood
watching it, side by side. One was a believer, the other an unbeliever. The believer said, "Isn't it
wonderful that our rocket is going to hit the moon by chance?" The unbeliever objected, "What
do you mean, chance? We put millions of manhours of design into that rocket." "Oh," said the
believer, "you don't think chance is a good explanation for the rocket? Then why do you think it's
a good explanation for the universe? There's much more design in a universe than in a rocket. We
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can design a rocket, but we couldn't design a whole universe. I wonder who can?" Later that day
the two were strolling down a street and passed an antique store. The atheist admired a picture in
the window and asked, "I wonder who painted that picture?" "No one," joked the believer; "it
just happened by chance." (Kreeft, 1998, Argument from Design section)
Have you heard of a cosmological argument? “The argument that demonstrates the
universe was caused, and that the cause is sufficient for its effect, is called the cosmological
argument for God’s existence. Some claim energy by itself was sufficient to cause our universe.
But while the universe is full of energy, energy itself has never been shown to create information
like the ordered information we see in human DNA.” (Myers & Noebel, 2015, p. 34) Even
Spirkin, who wrote a book on Marxism, says causality is everywhere. (Spirkin, 1984, The
Principle of Causality section). The human body is an amazing example. If everything is by
chance and not created, how can the human body function like it does? “If there is intelligence in
the effect (man), there must be intelligence in the cause. But a universe ruled by blind chance has
no intelligence. (Kreeft, 1998, Argument from Design section)? Take the brain, the most complex
organ of the human body. We couldn’t function if it operated by chance.
Then we have the natural laws. As Steinkraus and Mitias said, “The presence of natural
laws may imply a designer, but the reliability and trustworthiness of those laws clearly does.
(Steinkraus & Mitias, 2023, p. 85) There is chaos in the world and unknowns, but then new
discoveries are revealed that enable us to understand that chaos and help predict the unknowns.
(Steinkraus & Mitias, 2023).
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but I find it a fascinating statistic. “Note that those
scientists who have the clearest and firmest laws in the natural sciences are often likely to believe
in intelligent purposive divinity. But scientists in the psychological and social sciences, where
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laws are scarcely firm and vary among countries (as do the laws of psychology and sociology in
the USA), frown on a theistic view of the universe and try to explain away belief in an abiding
intelligence, not by denying objective (Steinkraus & Mitias, 2023, p. 86).
Genesis 1:28, “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number;
fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every
living creature that moves on the ground.” (
NIV Beautiful Word Bible
, 1973/2019, Genesis 1:28).
And that they did.
I hope I was able to give you a little food for thought. I’d be happy to answer any
questions that you have, to the best of my ability.
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References
Kreeft, P. (1998).
Fundamentals of the faith
. Ignatius Pr.
Myers, J., & Noebel, D. A. (2015).
Understanding the times: A survey of competing worldviews
(1st ed.). David C Cook.
NIV Beautiful Word Bible
. (2019). Zondervan. (Original work published 1973)
Spirkin, A. (1984).
Dialectical materialism
(1984th ed.). Central Books Ltd.
Steinkraus, W. E., & Mitias, M. H. (2023). Religious claims about the person. In
Taking religious
claims seriously
(pp. 171–183). BRILL.
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004495197_011
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