Not picking on you, but you are the biggest demographic, so it's easiest to use you guys for example for these questions that keep popping up in my head, which I would like answered in a logical way. This Atheist needs saving, but for you to convince me, you have to logically explain to me why your religion is the only one that's "right" and why I'm going to be lit on fire for eternity by a god that loves me more than I can imagine for not taking a 2000 year old book literally. Logically now. "God works in mysterious ways" is not an answer. It's the equivalent of "idk my bff jill"
1. Why the Judeo-Christian God? Why don't you believe in Ra, Krishna, Zeus, Thor, Nirankar, Bhagavan, Ba'al, Apophis, Anubis, Shiva, Waheguru, or Tenri-O-no-Mikoto? Is it that you've just adopted your parents beliefs without any proper research or consideration into other belief systems?
2. If your god is omnibenevolent, then why does evil exist?
3. If "we are all God's children", then how is Jesus "his only son"?
4. If god is omnipotent, then how come he had to send a martyr to die for sins that he created in the first place?
5. And while we're on the subject of sin, why would God create a sinful creation, just to judge them at the end of their lives?
6. And why would God send his only son to prohibit the fate that he was ultimately responsible for?
7. And if Jesus died for our sins, then how come people still die and go to hell for sins, and why are atrocities still committed today? Is it just me, or did Jesus not exactly change anything? People still kill and slaughter each other today, for both reasons related and unrelated to religion. Jesus Christ, talk about counter-productivity. Child molestation, disease, poverty, war, theft. All after Jesus's sacrifice and resurrection.
8. What about other historical martyrs? Why is Jesus so much more important? We've already established that his apparent martyrdom and resurrection didn't do much to cure the world of the "sin" that's still present today. Surely the Atheists, Jews, homosexuals, and communists who were slaughtered during the holocaust for being who they were are just as important as Jesus, right?
9. Hey, and what about this afterlife, this heaven? How can you prove the existence of a soul anyway? If memories and thoughts are retained in the brain, and the brain needs oxygen to survive and continue functioning correctly, and death leads to the brain not receiving a necessary amount of oxygen, then wouldn't the electrical signals that composed your thoughts and memories be damaged or lost, and therefore wouldn't the essence of who you are be lost as well? Brain damage suffered by a miner named Phineas Gage in the 1800s is a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
10. From that, can we safely conclude that you would have no memory or recollection of previous things when you die, and wouldn't your thoughts and memories end up being worm food to fuel the circle of life?
11. So we've ruled out the idea of a soul, the importance or significance of Jesus' martyrdom (assuming he even existed, died, and came back to life without brain damage in the first place, which is a stretch, considering what I just got done saying about souls), right?.
If so, then do you really wanna worship a God that indulges in such counter-productive and self-contradictory behavior? A god who places your eternal fate in whether or not you're willing to accept certain things about his existence on blind fate? Or maybe he just doesn't exist?
I mean come on, what kind of god would really punish you for not excepting the 'right' religion? One that's one hell of an ***. I mean, why would a loving God ever let things like Anecephaly, Spina-Bifida, AIDS, or cancer happen?
12. Oh, and why are we referring to God as "He"? Certainly if God is omnipotent he wouldn't be limited to human concepts like gender roles.
Of course, maybe my logical way of thinking is just crazy, and I'm being a stupid blasphemer who needs to be boiled alive or something, like Muslims do to Sikhs sometimes...
So I dare someone to answer these questions without saying something akin to "God works in mysterious ways" or citing the bible as actual evidence, because the bible was written by man, and even if it wasn't, it certainly has been corrupted by man through translation and misinterpretation.
Same goes for any other religious scripture. @ Wendy:
Nah, then it would lose its effect. These are mainly rhetorical. Meant to disturb people's preconceived and poorly-thought-out notions of the universe that hindners society's ability to progress. The more people who are blindly faithful who see this, the better. :) If you want real answers to these questions I suggest you break them down and ask one question per post.
EDIT* In that case, God works in mysterious ways :P Firstly, there's no real logic to these and I suspect have just been taken from an atheist website.
Anyway, between doing my work I'll try to answer as succinctly and simply for you.
1.Personal experience, I know you don't want to hear it but the bible. It's the most accurate ancient text, it's proven correct over and over again, and with more than 5000 copies 95-100% accurate to the original writings as compared to caesar, euripidies or any other ancient text, if you're going to accept those writings from other writers then "logically" you have to accept the bible. The bible is proven correct over and over again and has never been proven wrong, so logically the bible can be trusted to be 100% accurate in its accounts. There's no "logical" reason to think otherwise.
2. Evil exists because man has the free will to committ evil, and does so....a lot. Are you living under a rock?? read the paper, turn on the news.
3. Jesus is the natural, eternal Son of God, we are the adopted children of God through grace.
4. Someone had to die for our sins. Jesus paid the price so we don't have to.
5. We weren't originally created sinful. You really haven't read the bible have you?? You've just grabbed these off a site. This is funny embarrassing you
6. God wasn't responsible for sin. Read the first chapters if genesis
7. Jesus dying has given us the opportunity to be forgiven of our sins and go to heaven. If you don't choose to do that then you've chosen hell. It's your choice.
8. Since I have shown you that Jesus death did change things I guess this question is pointless now.
9. I'm not sure what a soul is, so don't know how to prove it lol. But it's obviously not a physical thing so I think that rules out the brain as proof it doesn't exist.
10. See above.
11. Now that the soul thing is back in this question is also pointless
12. Jesus referred to God as Father, last time I checked a father was male.
There you go....hope you're not too embarrassed now
where does the bible say the world is under 10,000 years old?? any proof of that??
Archaeological evidence http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/ab...
Don't you know how to use google?? Biblical places, names and events have been proven right, and never proven wrong
I know you like long reads so here's another link http://agards-bible-timeline.com/q9_hist... why do you ask these questions? do you want to be converted? If you throw a rock into a pack of dogs ,you will know the one you hit because he makes the most noise! you are making alot of noise.....come to christ and you will find peace, a peace the world can not give........take the red pill and every thing stays the same, take the blue pill.......and see how deep the rabbits hole really is.........choose. 1. Why the Judeo-Christian God? Why don't you believe in Ra, Krishna, Zeus, Thor, Nirankar, Bhagavan, Ba'al, Apophis, Anubis, Shiva, Waheguru, or Tenri-O-no-Mikoto? Is it that you've just adopted your parents beliefs without any proper research or consideration into other belief systems?
These other religions don't possess the same level of evidence (or any evidence, in many cases) that Christianity has -- primarily the well documented accounts of Jesus' life, death and resurrection.
2. If your god is omnibenevolent, then why does evil exist?
Free will.
3. If "we are all God's children", then how is Jesus "his only son"?
God's "only begotten Son" means God's *unique* son, not God's *only* son. We can also be considered God's sons because he is the author -- the father -- of life.
4. If god is omnipotent, then how come he had to send a martyr to die for sins that he created in the first place?
God didn't create sin. Sin is that which is contrary to God's will and character. Sin is the work of men, not God.
5. And while we're on the subject of sin, why would God create a sinful creation, just to judge them at the end of their lives?
The natural consequence of free-will is the ability to sin; otherwise, humans would be programmed machines. But while the result of free-will is sin, the good news is that we can accept God's grace and be forgiven.
6. And why would God send his only son to prohibit the fate that he was ultimately responsible for?
See above.
7. And if Jesus died for our sins, then how come people still die and go to hell for sins, and why are atrocities still committed today? Is it just me, or did Jesus not exactly change anything? People still kill and slaughter each other today, for both reasons related and unrelated to religion. Jesus Christ, talk about counter-productivity. Child molestation, disease, poverty, war, theft. All after Jesus's sacrifice and resurrection.
Jesus died for our sins so that if we come to him and ask for forgiveness, he'll forgive us.
8. What about other historical martyrs? Why is Jesus so much more important? We've already established that his apparent martyrdom and resurrection didn't do much to cure the world of the "sin" that's still present today. Surely the Atheists, Jews, homosexuals, and communists who were slaughtered during the holocaust for being who they were are just as important as Jesus, right?
Jesus' purpose wasn't to "cure" people of sin, but to provide us a way of reconciliation with him.
9. Hey, and what about this afterlife, this heaven? How can you prove the existence of a soul anyway? If memories and thoughts are retained in the brain, and the brain needs oxygen to survive and continue functioning correctly, and death leads to the brain not receiving a necessary amount of oxygen, then wouldn't the electrical signals that composed your thoughts and memories be damaged or lost, and therefore wouldn't the essence of who you are be lost as well? Brain damage suffered by a miner named Phineas Gage in the 1800s is a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
Very complicated topic, but look into "substance dualism." There are two camps: one that believes we are the sum of our physical brains; and another that believes we're more than our brains. I believe there are also "Christian materialists" who (I could be wrong here) believe that we're the sum of our physical brains, but when we die, God sustains our consciousness.
10. From that, can we safely conclude that you would have no memory or recollection of previous things when you die, and wouldn't your thoughts and memories end up being worm food to fuel the circle of life?
See above.
11. So we've ruled out the idea of a soul, the importance or significance of Jesus' martyrdom (assuming he even existed, died, and came back to life without brain damage in the first place, which is a stretch, considering what I just got done saying about souls), right?.
See above.
If so, then do you really wanna worship a God that indulges in such counter-productive and self-contradictory behavior? A god who places your eternal fate in whether or not you're willing to accept certain things about his existence on blind fate? Or maybe he just doesn't exist? I mean come on, what kind of god would really punish you for not excepting the 'right' religion? One that's one hell of an ***. I mean, why would a loving God ever let things like Anecephaly, Spina-Bifida, AIDS, or cancer happen?
See above. If God does not exist, then there is nothing "bad" or "evil" about disease, suffering, and so on: there is only bare existence -- molecules, atoms, quarks, etc. "Good", "bad", "right", "wrong", then do not even exist, only our personal tastes of what we like and don't like.
12. Oh, and why are we referring to God as "He"? Certainly if God is omnipotent he wouldn't be limited to human concepts like gender roles.
The Bible uses female imager Here's the deal, and this IS to pick on them.
If they would read that ENTIRE QUESTION you posted, they probably wouldn't be Christian. Why? Because if they'd be willing to read your entire question, they'd be willing to read at least THAT MUCH of their own bible. And if they did just that much, they'd see it was complete bulls***.
鈺斺晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲
鈺慣hose who regard a freedom from the false morals and obsolete
鈺憄ractices regarding sex or religion as debauched are doing naught
鈺慴ut corrupting their minds with foolishness.
鈺?
鈺慚y morals come from compassion; my compassion from
鈺憉nderstanding. And I seek to know and understand... everything.
鈺氣晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲鈺愨晲 Hmm.
I humbly recommend a book written by Neale Donald Walsch. Conversations With God. Might help...since all these are answered there in simple, easy to understand language. It's not as thick as the Bible or Qu'ran. And basing on your tone of questioning, I think you'll find it affirming too. Peace. Easy, if you're willing to accept it. Which I believe, both personally and doctrinally, you are not. Anyway.
Our God is the real one because He came here and showed us He was God, and rose from the dead no less. The accounts of his life are astonishingly reliable; though personally I'm less concerned with the historicity of the New Testament and more concerned with its Old Testament consistency. Which is also astonishing. Good business for sure.
Our God is the real one because all other religions conform to human desires, and ours contradicts them.
Our God is the real one because His account of creation is scientifically demonstrable.
Our God is the real one because His scriptures are perfect in internal consistency (despite coming from a great diversity of sources in terms of region, time period, authorship, and genre; compare to others sometime which are a disaster) and impeccably accurate in all surveys of life, wisdom, the human condition, love, personal interactions, grief, philosophy, and theology. (Obviously that last one is difficult to view objectively, but it brings supernatural results that are unlike any others.)
Evil exists because man mutinied against God and handed control of the world over to Satan. So where did Satan's evil come from? Pride, and lust for power. Why did he raise up against God? Well, heck if I know. Such a situation is way beyond our powers to speculate reasonably. But I know he's consumed with hatred over it now.
Now, who told you "we are all God's children?" It's not true. Jesus even told the hypocritical temple leaders "Ye are of your father the devil and your father's works you will do!" Further "objections" or purported "contradictions" along those lines stem only from ignorance of word usage.
If God did not send a perfect sacrifice for sin, the devil could accuse Him of being unjust. The whole Bible deals with this one issue: if God is perfect and thus perfectly just, He cannot forgive your sins.
God did not create a sinful creation, He created a good one. Your ignorance is really showing there.
Jesus didn't die for all sins, He died for the sins that would be redeemed. Again about the ignorance.
Speaking of ignorance, historical martyrs? (And for homosexuality no less?) They were people killed over ideology. BFD. Jesus Christ was not a martyr, he was a sacrifice. To God, not the devil. The devil has no power to throw you into Hell. The devil has no bearing on your fate at all; in fact, the two of you get along quite well. The Devil was not pursuing you to wreak justice, but someone was. Yes, God gave you a way to be saved from God. And that's the greatest, most important fact in all the universe.
Heaven is a question of the second life (and death.) Souls are there, but you can shut your eyes to the them if you want and say "There's no proof!" Of course there is, but nobody needs be bothered with proving it to some fool who doesn't want to accept it. The same logic could be taken regarding the soul, human love, or even New York City. Look up "rationalism" sometime, kiddo.
There's none of this "blind faith" stuff either. I don't know where you got that from. Christians only believe what they believe because they've witnessed such things in their minds and hearts that they are literally unable to believe anything but God. It's not just some stupid belief system or philosophy that someone came up with and others agreed upon; it's a globally impactful (in the systematic sense, not the sense of the whole world) complete top-down worldview which leaves the flesh no quarter and inspires nothing but hatred from people not (yet) touched by the grace to believe in God.
Nobody can believe God unless the Holy Spirit tells them to. No way at all. Their spirits are dead -- not weak, not searching, not a black dog and a white dog fighting... dead. A corpse can't drive itself to the hospital. God saves you purely by grace, through faith, in Christ, or it can't be done. But what you CAN do is invite/petition/seek that Spirit.
Your slander and light treatment of an infinitely holy, worthy God, by the way, is a far worse crime than all the cancer, domestic abuse, and crib death that have ever happened. Where's your justification for that, hot shot? But again, with the ignorance... tragedy and evil are the consequence of you f***ing up, not God.
Apparently a broken clock is right twice a day, though, as God is referred to as male (primarily for cultural reasons) but in reality He isn't actually male or female... He made US male and female but no such distinction is present in Him. Really, He isn't a person in the same sense that we are. We have some characteristics of Him, but He isn't one of us.
And lastly, the Bible wasn't written by man nor has it been corrupted, nor is it subject to interpretation in any significant way. You can go find copies that were written before the Old Testament finished happening, and they all say the same thing. Your accusation that the Scriptures are unreliable is founded on nothing but personal prejudice, and that springing from ignorance of the subject matter. (Not that I intend that as an attack, really, because most people know nothing about scripture at all. It's not unusual. I tell my friends that when you read the Bible, it's like having your own private oracle, because you get information that no one else ever reads!) |
