Contradictions?!

[lemonbeam]

Hi, can you please help me understand these verses:

Romans 4:2 says Abraham was justified by faith and not his works while James 2:21 says Abraham was justified by his works.

In Exodus 4:21, in which Yahweh says “but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.” Why did Yahweh harden the Pharaoh’s heart knowing that the Pharaoh would then not allow the Israelites to leave following each plague?

–

Also, I am conversation with an atheist and I put fourth the argument that the Big Bang had too have a cause, something can not come of nothing. And he replied with the following: ''Energy does have the ability to appear out of nothing. It is called quantum fluctuation, and is a part of quantum mechanics. Also, why couldn’t the universe simply have existed forever? And If there is no evidence for something, what reason is there to believe it in the first place? Why not believe in Zeus, Krishna, or perhaps Thor? Maybe there is a god that punishes those who are theists and rewards those who are atheists. They are all equally valid. The only rational position is to say no gods exist as there is no evidence.

How do I respond to this?

 

[lemonbeam]

 

[1edyson]

Hi, can you please help me understand these verses:

Romans 4:2 says Abraham was justified by faith and not his works while James 2:21 says Abraham was justified by his works.

In Exodus 4:21, in which Yahweh says “but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.” Why did Yahweh harden the Pharaoh’s heart knowing that the Pharaoh would then not allow the Israelites to leave following each plague?

–

Also, I am conversation with an atheist and I put fourth the argument that the Big Bang had too have a cause, something can not come of nothing. And he replied with the following: ''Energy does have the ability to appear out of nothing. It is called quantum fluctuation, and is a part of quantum mechanics. Also, why couldn’t the universe simply have existed forever? And If there is no evidence for something, what reason is there to believe it in the first place? Why not believe in Zeus, Krishna, or perhaps Thor? Maybe there is a god that punishes those who are theists and rewards those who are atheists. They are all equally valid. The only rational position is to say no gods exist as there is no evidence.

How do I respond to this?

Romans and James, in proper context is not a mutually exclusive issue, its a both and, Abraham was justified by his faith in the sense that he trusted in Gods will and in faith, responded to the action he was called to perform, we know the end of the story, God ultimately didn’t ask him to kill is son, but was testing him on his trust to cooperate. Works alone don’t justify, they only play a salvific role as a response to an act of Faith. But remember Faith nor Works Save, Gods free gift of salvation is attained through God’s Grace ALONE, but we are called to respond with our Faith working through Love.

Exodus - I heard a good explanation on this on the radio program a few weeks ago, a 9 year old girl asked the same question, and can’t fully articulate the response, but I believe it was Fr. Vincent that answered so you may want to ask that in the Ask an Apologist forum.

Quantum Fluctuation
From my quick read about Quantum Fluctuation it’s not really used as an argument about the creation of the Universe, basically it states that particles of matter and anti-matter can appear at the same time for very short periods. But it still states that the particle of matter that appeared in a vacuum has to be balanced with another oppositely charged particle. If I am reading it correctly. But still it doesn’t seem to account for the age of the universe, if these quantum fluctuations are only very very temporary. If that we’re the reason for the universe then the universe would not have lasted very long. This is not scientific fact, only my opinion on something I’ve glanced over very slightly so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[lemonbeam]

Romans and James, in proper context is not a mutually exclusive issue, its a both and, Abraham was justified by his faith in the sense that he trusted in Gods will and in faith, responded to the action he was called to perform, we know the end of the story, God ultimately didn’t ask him to kill is son, but was testing him on his trust to cooperate. Works alone don’t justify, they only play a salvific role as a response to an act of Faith. But remember Faith nor Works Save, Gods free gift of salvation is attained through God’s Grace ALONE, but we are called to respond with our Faith working through Love.

Exodus - I heard a good explanation on this on the radio program a few weeks ago, a 9 year old girl asked the same question, and can’t fully articulate the response, but I believe it was Fr. Vincent that answered so you may want to ask that in the Ask an Apologist forum.

Quantum Fluctuation
From my quick read about Quantum Fluctuation it’s not really used as an argument about the creation of the Universe, basically it states that particles of matter and anti-matter can appear at the same time for very short periods. But it still states that the particle of matter that appeared in a vacuum has to be balanced with another oppositely charged particle. If I am reading it correctly. But still it doesn’t seem to account for the age of the universe, if these quantum fluctuations are only very very temporary. If that we’re the reason for the universe then the universe would not have lasted very long. This is not scientific fact, only my opinion on something I’ve glanced over very slightly so take it with a grain of salt.

Thank you for taking the time to post this great response

 

[Mark77]

Hi, can you please help me understand these verses:

Romans 4:2 says Abraham was justified by faith and not his works while James 2:21 says Abraham was justified by his works.

In Exodus 4:21, in which Yahweh says “but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.” Why did Yahweh harden the Pharaoh’s heart knowing that the Pharaoh would then not allow the Israelites to leave following each plague?

–

Also, I am conversation with an atheist and I put fourth the argument that the Big Bang had too have a cause, something can not come of nothing. And he replied with the following: ''Energy does have the ability to appear out of nothing. It is called quantum fluctuation, and is a part of quantum mechanics. Also, why couldn’t the universe simply have existed forever? And If there is no evidence for something, what reason is there to believe it in the first place? Why not believe in Zeus, Krishna, or perhaps Thor? Maybe there is a god that punishes those who are theists and rewards those who are atheists. They are all equally valid. The only rational position is to say no gods exist as there is no evidence.

How do I respond to this?

Typical atheist trying to explain God with science when God is the cause of science and outside of its limitations.

“Energy does have the ability to appear out of nothing.” That is irrational nonsense, something cannot come from nothing.

“The only rational position is to say no gods exist as there is no evidence.” That is the only irrational position! To claim that all life, all matter, the entire universe, everything that is perfectly ordered and incredibly complex, came from a random mistake? Totally irrational.

Just because we don’t fully understand God, or the Creator, or the First Cause, if that is easier for your atheist friend to swallow, doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist.

As Pope Benedict wrote in his book, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, "We are dealing here with the vast question as to how we can and cannot know God, how we are related to God and how we can lose him. The arrogance that would make God an object and impose our laboratory conditions on him is incapable of finding him. **For it already implies that we deny God as God by placing ourselves above him, by discarding the whole dimension of love, of interior listening; by no longer acknowledging as real anything but what we can experimentally test and grasp. **To think like that is to make oneself God. And to do that is to abase not only God, but the world and oneself, too. (P. 37)

Just think about that for a while! (“Put that in your pipe and smoke it” as my friend used to say!)

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

Mark

 

[Maranatha33]

Quantum Fluctuation
From my quick read about Quantum Fluctuation it’s not really used as an argument about the creation of the Universe, basically it states that particles of matter and anti-matter can appear at the same time for very short periods. But it still states that the particle of matter that appeared in a vacuum has to be balanced with another oppositely charged particle. If I am reading it correctly. But still it doesn’t seem to account for the age of the universe, if these quantum fluctuations are only very very temporary. If that we’re the reason for the universe then the universe would not have lasted very long. This is not scientific fact, only my opinion on something I’ve glanced over very slightly so take it with a grain of salt.

From my understanding, quantum fluctuation is still just a “magic act.” It is a fancy name for saying “there was nothing, then there was something.” And despite this application of quantum physics, it is still their “something from nothing” dilemma.