This is one of the most basic questions a person can ask about reality. Those who conclude that God does not exist replace God with a substitute "prime reality" — that upon which all else depends, as conceived within an alternative worldview. Matter-energy is the prime reality according to people holding a viewpoint known as naturalism. TrueU compares the explanatory power of four worldviews: naturalism, pantheism, deism, and theism — each of which offers a different candidate for the prime reality. We will investigate these competing worldviews in the face of evidence drawn from cosmology, biology, and the human experience of morality. Once we have studied sufficiently the question of whether God exists, we will move on in lesson set #2 to ask "is the Bible reliable?" Does the Bible identify correctly the God who exists and reveal the divine plan for everything?
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ID is a scientific, not a religious, theory. However, like all scientific theories of origins, ID has religious implications. We will make the case that ID theory better accounts for the relevant evidence drawn from cosmology and biology than any competing scientific theory of origins. Although ID does not address the identity of the designing intelligence, this question can be handled when one couples the findings of design-oriented scientific research with other disciplines — especially philosophy, history, and theology. This is TrueU's approach to the "God question."
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Students should study TrueU (and the supporting documentation on the TrueU website) alongside more seasoned thinkers — parents, youth leaders, advanced college students, and other truth-seeking intellectuals. Students who rely upon private religious experience divorced from scholarship may seriously doubt Christianity once they enter college or otherwise encounter attractive non-Christian worldviews outside their own faith community. Jesus himself calls you to love God "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). TrueU will help you love God with "all your mind" by improving your critical thinking skills about life's biggest questions. Critical thinking is the formulation and evaluation of beliefs by rational standards. Indeed, Christians are biblically obligated to know and communicate the reasons for their faith with gentleness and love (1 Peter 3:15).
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TrueU is not a "teen resource" per se, but rather a tool to be used by parents, youth/college workers, and other leaders to help students solidify their own faith. The curriculum is especially designed for small group use. Students and parents/leaders should watch and discuss the videos together. This will not only prepare the students for the challenges they will face, but also give parents and community leaders a framework for offering support and encouragement.
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A limited license for public showing in schools and churches is granted with the following parameters:
- No fee of any kind may be charged for viewing the TrueU DVDs.
- TrueU may not be used, in whole or in part, for fundraising, commercial, or political ends.
- Each video lesson must be shown in its entirety (i.e., not excerpted or truncated).
- No derivative curriculum may be developed using any portion of this copyrighted material.
If you have further questions, please contact Focus on the Family's Legal Permissions department family-permission@custhelp.com
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Ask God to supply the human and financial resources to complete production. Ultimately, it is our prayer that the Lord will work through the TrueU curriculum to reach many people and draw them into close relationship with Himself.
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