Please help with answers!

[notsure13]

since adam and eve is not true, god creating the world in days, etc. does that discredit the whole bible? how do i know what to teach my child so that they have faith and not get laughed out of school?
why does mark zuckerberg get to make billions and be an atheist?
why does seth macfarlance make billions as an atheist, and overslept his 9-11 flight that would have killed him yet so many faithful people got killed who didnt spend their whole lives making a joke of religion like seth has?
if everything is god’s will why pray?
dont you think so many people that were on the planes that were praying?
why should i thank God for the little i have when people who make fun of God have so much more?
why did God/Jesus hide himself so much?
if God created this world why is it so imperfect?
do statements such as “religion is the last of mythology” rock your faith?
if people like stephen hawking dont believe in God, why should i trust people like kirk cameron?
within the next 50 years the percentage of atheists will outnumber christians most likely, am i setting my child up to be an outcast?
why does God/Jesus hide so well?
do you hang on to god of gaps theories? if so is your faith rocked every time you lose a gap?

i am so confused! please help! i am begging to have God in my life. I am just begging you guys to please help answer which ever questions you would like. i promise i am not here to bash religion i just have so many questions i am begging for help with.

thanks so much you guys

 

[Trishie]

These people who reject God but have so much on earth, are to be pitied rather than envied, as we might even live to 100, but what is that against eternity, when those who love God above all, and others as self, with practical love, will have an eternity of joy!

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.The Beatitudes

He said:    3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

 

[Trishie]

Dear notsure, you speak of the difficulties that good people can suffer. I thought it might help to talk about the best woman who ever lived regarding some of the things we know she struggled through. I’ll just copy some stuff I wrote about her, as you have a lot of questions, and I’ll see if I can answer any more. In the meantime…the best woman ever born, some of her hardships:

---

Mother Mary you went through so much in your life as mother.
Through Joseph’s kindness and the angel’s visit you escaped stoning;
then almost ready to give birth you travelled over rough roads to a strange town and gave birth amongst animal smells in a stable, and had only a food trough as a cradle for your precious Son.

The news came through that Herod was murdering baby boys in his attempt to destroy you Son, so you, Joseph and the little One escaped to Egypt, where you had no relatives or friends, and didn’t speak the language, however despite these handicaps, Joseph had the find work to support Jesus and you. Eventually you and your Son and Joseph returned to your native country, but to a different area where Joseph was again out of work until he could build up his business…no social security…

You lived by faith, in ordinary life well lived, working hard, sewing, mending, washing clothes in the river, no modern appliances, no running water.

Jesus scared you by disappearing for three days when He was twelve, but after that He settled again quietly, and no doubt learned Joseph’s trade.

But eventually He threw in His work and income, and lived an insecure life, travelling, moving amongst good and bad people. You heard the talk, good and bad, and rumours that made you fearful for His safety and His life. You understood why, but a mother, when faced by her son’s arrest, torture, and a death reserved for criminals, how absolutely devastated in mute misery, your heart. How grieved were you also, to see no one else come as you anxiously glanced down the road to see if any of His closest friends, and His chosen ones, other than John, would come to stand by Him, and of the crowds that had hailed him a few days before, only a handful of women, and John, and the executioners were there… His abandonment was so painful to your already lacerated heart and mind shocked with grief though your spirit remained faithful and resolute.

Mother, our Mother, given to us from the Cross by Jesus,pray for our sister, whose doubts and weariness comes from her discouragement and sorrows.

Perhaps you could explain why you think you child will be “laughed out of school”?
It would make it easier to respond to that question.
Her main commitment as a Catholic girl is to live in love, make her choices out of love and kindness for the people she encounters, and to live the Sacraments in love and worship of God alongside you and obey the Commandments
Do you feel she will say or do things that will cause ridicule?
**

Regarding some questions about the Bible being true, you might find sites like this helpful**:
catholic.com/tracts/adam-eve-and-evolution

marianland.ixwebhosting.com/stjoe0208/joseph002.html

catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0117.html

 

[CEM5]

hello notsure13,

The Bible is to be believed because its words were inspired by the Holy Spirit. We must first understand that the Bible is not a history book (although it does contain some history) nor is it a science book. The Bible is a love story: God’s tremendous love for us, His children. It is a book that teaches us morals and faith, and about God’s greatest gift to us: Himself. The story of Adam and Eve can be literal, but that is not the main teaching of Genesis. Genesis – the story of creation – is about how God created everything from nothing, and made mankind in His image (not a physical image, but the image of the unseen: our soul that was created to exist forever, and our capacity to love, along with free will and intelligence). It teaches that humans chose to turn their back on God and sin, therefore introduced death into the world because of our fall from God’s grace by our disobedience. Nonetheless, knowing this beforehand, He still created us and planned on our redemption by coming to us in the form of Jesus in order to restore this lost grace. Salvation from eternal death can be ours by accepting God through baptism and being obedient to His will.

Our life on earth (and therefore any suffering we experience) is just a blink in the eye of eternity. We can still find much to be thankful of and see the beauty in the world that God created for us.

As another poster stated already, we are to pity those who have refused the gift of eternal salvation by chosing to fool themselves into saying God doesn’t exist.

Recall the three temptations of Christ? Satan promised that if Christ worshipped the devil (Satan) instead, he would grant Christ riches and fame. The Bible states that Satan is the prince of this world (for now). Those worldly things are just temporary. Sadly, those who chose to follow evil instead forget that Christ is the King of kings, and will bless us eternally when we keep the faith till the end of our lives.

Who wouldn’t want that over the fleeting and temporary “things” of this world?

God bless you,
CEM

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

since adam and eve is not true, god creating the world in days, etc. does that discredit the whole bible? how do i know what to teach my child so that they have faith and not get laughed out of school?
why does mark zuckerberg get to make billions and be an atheist?
why does seth macfarlance make billions as an atheist, and overslept his 9-11 flight that would have killed him yet so many faithful people got killed who didnt spend their whole lives making a joke of religion like seth has?
if everything is god’s will why pray?
dont you think so many people that were on the planes that were praying?
why should i thank God for the little i have when people who make fun of God have so much more?
why did God/Jesus hide himself so much?
if God created this world why is it so imperfect?
do statements such as “religion is the last of mythology” rock your faith?
if people like stephen hawking dont believe in God, why should i trust people like kirk cameron?
within the next 50 years the percentage of atheists will outnumber christians most likely, am i setting my child up to be an outcast?
why does God/Jesus hide so well?
do you hang on to god of gaps theories? if so is your faith rocked every time you lose a gap?

i am so confused! please help! i am begging to have God in my life. I am just begging you guys to please help answer which ever questions you would like. i promise i am not here to bash religion i just have so many questions i am begging for help with.

thanks so much you guys

See, you are pretty confused and it is impossible to asnwer them all.
I tell you: Jesus Crhis won over the Roman and Greek gods, over barbarians, over internal divisilons during centuries,over Reformation, Inquisitions, Lileralism, Modernism, Atheism. Won over Communism which imploded in front of Christ.
Who are those heroes of your the Fecabook guy, Stephen Hawking and the liked? They are zero in front of Jesus Christ. One day they’ll be judged by Him.
Trust me, Chirst is as winner, Chirst is God, christ is the Mighty Power, the Whole Wisdom, The Supreme and Infinite Intelligence, the Creator of Heaven and the Universe, The Beginning and the End.
Don’t question him (you may do,but take you questions like the child questions: “Why does not the horse fly?”) it is up to Him to question you. For it was He who created you and your child.
Chirst is a winner. Sometimes he looks like the underdog, but it islike the movies, just to make suspense. He winsalways in the end.
Look, He was in the cross and He won.
Don’t worry, He is always with you, in bright and in dark times.
Put yourself and your child into His hands and close your eyes like the child who trusts His Mother and sleeps while she go through dark valleys, stormmy currents and dangerous deserts.
He sleeps for He knows that Christ is a winner.

 

[notsure13]

Trishie:

Perhaps you could explain why you think you child will be “laughed out of school”?
It would make it easier to respond to that question.
Her main commitment as a Catholic girl is to live in love, make her choices out of love and kindness for the people she encounters, and to live the Sacraments in love and worship of God alongside you and obey the Commandments
Do you feel she will say or do things that will cause ridicule?
**

Regarding some questions about the Bible being true, you might find sites like this helpful**:
catholic.com/tracts/adam-eve-and-evolution

marianland.ixwebhosting.com/stjoe0208/joseph002.html

catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0117.html

because the scientific explanation for life is not that God had anything to do with this world. so if my daughter basically would have to throw away her science book to believe any of the teachings in the bible about how the world was created.

 

[notsure13]

hello notsure13,

It teaches that humans chose to turn their back on God and sin, therefore introduced death into the world because of our fall from God’s grace by our disobedience.

thank you all so much for your replies…

so to believe this, you have to believe that we started as Adam and Eve. if you believe in evolution, which i cant get myself to deny. death existed long before humans. have any of you read “the language of God” by Francis Collins?

 

[CEM5]

because the scientific explanation for life is not that God had anything to do with this world. so if my daughter basically would have to throw away her science book to believe any of the teachings in the bible about how the world was created.

This is not incompatible with the teachings of the bible. God created ALL things, and even the events listed in Genesis seem to agree with the Big Bang theory (and that is just what it is: a theory that has yet to be proved true). We have the beginnings of creation from nothing, then the planets, stars, moon, life on earth as plants, birds, fish, and lastly man. How is this not in the same teachings as “science”?

To that same degree, science cannot explain how life came to be on this earth. Where did the first signs of life come from? How did those one-celled amoebas with no brain, no intelligence, all of a sudden “decide” to get together to create innumerable different species of life and plants on this earth? Everything would have had to be created at the same time in order to sustain this life on earth. Man and woman would have had to be created at the same time in order to reproduce. All life would have had to have a male and female counterpart in order to reproduce, and science cannot explain how this feat was accomplished without some form of Intelligence “out there” to get this process started.

Atheists do not like to dwell on these facts nor does science explain this.

 

[CEM5]

P.S.

Evolution (humans coming from apes) has not been proved and it is still just a theory. Regardless, there was “something” (I say God) that created these apes, and guided the evolution of mankind, if this were true. There is no link yet to prove we evolved from apes, nonetheless, if we did, then with certainty it was God who had a hand in this process. And from these apes, there had to have been the first “human”, and most definitely they would have had to be male and female in order to reproduce the human race. Therefore, there is your “Adam” and your “Eve”.

Look at nature: see all the numerous various species of apes, chimpanzees, etc in the same “family”, yet not one of them has changed over the years into humans. For that matter, why don’t those same amoebas that all life supposedly evolved from, continue to bind together and still create new life forms? Strange when you really think about it, eh? But not for believers in God.

blessings,
CEM

 

[Hokomai]

P.S.

Evolution (humans coming from apes) has not been proved and it is still just a theory. Regardless, there was “something” (I say God) that created these apes, and guided the evolution of mankind, if this were true. There is no link yet to prove we evolved from apes, nonetheless, if we did, then with certainty it was God who had a hand in this process. And from these apes, there had to have been the first “human”, and most definitely they would have had to be male and female in order to reproduce the human race. Therefore, there is your “Adam” and your “Eve”.

Look at nature: see all the numerous various species of apes, chimpanzees, etc in the same “family”, yet not one of them has changed over the years into humans. For that matter, why don’t those same amoebas that all life supposedly evolved from, continue to bind together and still create new life forms? Strange when you really think about it, eh? But not for believers in God.

blessings,
CEM

Genetic material such as mtDNA is passed on only through descent. We, and other apes, share genetic material. Therefore we must have a common ancestor. Therefore, evolution into ‘apes’ and ‘humans’ has taken place. Evolution is NOT a theory. Evolution is a fact. The theory of evolution is the theory of HOW evolution happens, not THAT it happens.

 

[someguy14]

The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar.

Hearken , my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

 

[someguy14]

The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar.

Hearken , my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

 

[starsmurf]

since adam and eve is not true, god creating the world in days, etc. does that discredit the whole bible? how do i know what to teach my child so that they have faith and not get laughed out of school?
why does mark zuckerberg get to make billions and be an atheist?
why does seth macfarlance make billions as an atheist, and overslept his 9-11 flight that would have killed him yet so many faithful people got killed who didnt spend their whole lives making a joke of religion like seth has?
if everything is god’s will why pray?
dont you think so many people that were on the planes that were praying?
why should i thank God for the little i have when people who make fun of God have so much more?
why did God/Jesus hide himself so much?
if God created this world why is it so imperfect?
do statements such as “religion is the last of mythology” rock your faith?
if people like stephen hawking dont believe in God, why should i trust people like kirk cameron?
within the next 50 years the percentage of atheists will outnumber christians most likely, am i setting my child up to be an outcast?
why does God/Jesus hide so well?
do you hang on to god of gaps theories? if so is your faith rocked every time you lose a gap?

i am so confused! please help! i am begging to have God in my life. I am just begging you guys to please help answer which ever questions you would like. i promise i am not here to bash religion i just have so many questions i am begging for help with.

thanks so much you guys

Hi notsure13,

I’m an astrophysicist so I’ll so my best to help with your questions.

1 - The story of Adam and Eve was written about 3000 years ago, the Creation in Seven Days passage was written about 2500 years ago. They were written in a different language, in a different culture which did not have the scientific knowledge that is part of everyday life (eg we know that the sun will rise tomorrow and it is not dependant on a giant dog failing to eat it in the night). The people who wrote these passages and the people who heard them did not ask themselves if this was an exact, historically accurate description, they did not see that as important. The Bible is a spiritual guide, not a science or history textbook. You have to understand that the Bible is not one book, it is a collection. It is not obvious to us, but the Creation in Seven Days passage is a poem. We do not expect a poem to be literal but to use imagery to tell us something.

I have actually been writing a book on science and the Bible, and if you take the above into account, both creation stories are quite accurate. As two quick examples, after the Big Bang, the universe was a “sea” of energy. As the universe expanded and cooled, the first thing to form was radiation (in the form of gamma rays). Another word for radiation is light. What is the first thing Genesis says God created?

In the Adam and Eve story, the expulsion from Eden seems to that match the point in our evolution where we began to walk upright, probably when the lush forests that had been our home died and became savanna. This led to a much harsher enviroment in which to survive. One of the “punishments” mentioned when they are expelled is that it will be much more painful for Eve to give birth. When our ancestors began to walk upright, it required a stronger pelvis, to support our whole weight. The birth canal narrowed, making it more painful and dangerous for human females to give birth than it is for other primates.

If you teach your child this way, he or she will not get “laughed out of school”. Many scientists are religious, there is no conflict between the two.

I’ll answer the others in another post but to stick to the “sciencey” ones:

1. Stephen Hawking may not believe in God, but many scientists do. As I said above there is no conflict between the two. People like Albert Einstien believed in God. There is a famous story of a unversity science student in France in the late 1800’s who was on a train with a man who he took to be a fairly wealthy person from “peasant” stock. He saw the man take out a rosary and asked him if he still believed in such things, when the man said yes, the student advised him to “throw that thing out of the window and hear what science has to say about it”. The man replied “Science? I do not understand this science.” The student noticed tears in his eyes, and feeling a little guilty for upsetting the man said, “if you give me your address, sir, I will send you some information on it.” The man reached into a pocket and handed the student his card. The student read it and spent the rest of the journey in very embarassed silence. It read “Louis Pastuer”, he’d been talking to the most famous scientist in France and one of the greatest in history!

I’m sorry, I don’t know who Kirk Cameron is, I’ll google it and get back to you with that.

1. If you use the God of gaps arguments then when these gaps disappear you have a problem. Many people see evolution as a threat to their faith because they think that if evolution is true that means that the Bible isn’t. If you approach the Bible with an understanding of how and why it was written, and understand the basics of science, then you can combine the two with no problem.

 

[starsmurf]

This is not incompatible with the teachings of the bible. God created ALL things, and even the events listed in Genesis seem to agree with the Big Bang theory (and that is just what it is: a theory that has yet to be proved true). We have the beginnings of creation from nothing, then the planets, stars, moon, life on earth as plants, birds, fish, and lastly man. How is this not in the same teachings as “science”?

Atheists do not like to dwell on these facts nor does science explain this.

I admire your faith CEM5, but you do not understand science. The Big Bang is a theory but in science a theory is something which has passed tests to see if it is correct or not. The word theory does not suggest doubt. The Big Bang has been proved as we have found the Cosmic Microwave Background, a sort of echo of the Big Bang. Your statement that the order in Genesis is correct is not quite true, you can’t have planets before stars, stars existed long before the first planets. I am writing a book on science and the Bible and if you understand science then you can explain how they agree, but the way you outlined is not correct.

Your questions in a later post on evolution show that you actually don’t understand it. Asking why other primates haven’t turned into humans is like asking why your cousins haven’t turned into you. We share a common ancestor with primates, they have evolved just as much as we have, just in a different way. They couldn’t turn into humans as the enviromental pressures that caused our evolution do not exist today. It would also take millions of years for them to become human-like.

Please stop seeing science as a threat to religion, it isn’t, Pope John Paul II said that faith and reason are the two wings on which we soar to God and pointed out that you cannot fly with one wing. Pope Benedict XVI has said that evolution is not incompatible with the Bible, and the Vatican Observatory (many of the staff are priests and monks) hosts an annual conference that is highly respected in the scientific community. My studies of astrophysics have given me insight into just what a wonderful universe we live in. Science asks “what? where? how? when?”, religion asks “who? and why?” They are not incompatible, they are complimentary.

 

[starsmurf]

1. since adam and eve is not true, god creating the world in days, etc. does that discredit the whole bible? how do i know what to teach my child so that they have faith and not get laughed out of school?
2. why does mark zuckerberg get to make billions and be an atheist?
3. why does seth macfarlance make billions as an atheist, and overslept his 9-11 flight that would have killed him yet so many faithful people got killed who didnt spend their whole lives making a joke of religion like seth has?
4. if everything is god’s will why pray?
5. dont you think so many people that were on the planes that were praying?
6. why should i thank God for the little i have when people who make fun of God have so much more?
7. why did God/Jesus hide himself so much?
8. if God created this world why is it so imperfect?
9. do statements such as “religion is the last of mythology” rock your faith?
10. if people like stephen hawking dont believe in God, why should i trust people like kirk cameron?
11. within the next 50 years the percentage of atheists will outnumber christians most likely, am i setting my child up to be an outcast?
12. why does God/Jesus hide so well?
13. do you hang on to god of gaps theories? if so is your faith rocked every time you lose a gap?

i am so confused! please help! i am begging to have God in my life. I am just begging you guys to please help answer which ever questions you would like. i promise i am not here to bash religion i just have so many questions i am begging for help with.

thanks so much you guys

Hi again notsure13,

I’ll try to help with the rest of your questions. To aviod repeating myself, I’ll try and group them together in similar themes. I’ve put numbers into the quote so that you know which questions I’m refering to, I forgot to do that in the last post

Questions 2 and 3 are about why people who don’t believe in God have good things happen to them. We can’t answer that because we are not God, even though we’d like to tell Him just what He should be doing! Mark Zuckenberg has pledged his billions to charity, along with people like Bill Gates. Perhaps his billions will relieve suffering such as providing treatment for and discoving cures and vaccines for diseases that plague the Third World and are not being investigated by the big pharma companies because they don’t see the profit in it.

As for Seth MacFarlane, we heard about his escaping the horror of 9/11 because he is famous but there were others who also escaped who are religious. As to why he survived and others who were good people did not, remember that all the people who died on 9/11 didn’t die in a natural disaster, they died because some evil men thought that they should deliberately muder thousands of people because of their political and religious ideas. I’m sure that God was yelling “Don’t do it!” at those guys the whole time, but they refused to listen to Him.

We also don’t know what will happen to those two men and others like them, they may well become religious later in life. They could also be so now, but we just don’t know about it.

Your questions about prayer (4 and 5) see it as a straight exchange. I pray for X and God does X. That isn’t what prayer is about. Prayer is a conversation with God, a chance for us to get closer to him. You wouldn’t think much of a friend who only ever spoke to you when they wanted something. Prayer allows us to build a relationship with God. When we pray for God’s will to be done, we are acknowledging that God knows what is best. Was it God’s will for 9/11 and other acts of evil to happen? Of course not, as I said above they happen because the people who carried them out did not listen to God. Why didn’t God miraculously stop the planes hitting their targets or the ground, or allow those who prayed to Him to survive and walk unharmed through flames? I cannot answer that directly but I have a personal view on it which I hope will help you.

I suffer from a very painful disease that started when I was a very young child. I would lie at night, screaming in agony with my father watching me helplessly. About once a month I would get an infection and the pain would become even worse. On those nights, my dad would call a doctor out and I would be given an injection and it would kill the pain and make me sleepy. Now, imagine someone watching this asking why I don’t get that every night. Then this person discovers that my dad is actually himself a doctor and has that very drug in his case downstairs, he has needles, syringes and the ability to give the injection. Why didn’t he? My dad didn’t give the injections on the other nights because he loved me. If he had done so, the effects of that drug would have left me woozy and unable to go to school or learn at home, I would become an addict, I would need more and more to get the same effect and finally they would be unable to increase the dose without killing me. I see this as similar to why God doesn’t perform miracles more often, they would blunt our free will and our learning, we would come to depend on them, we would need more and more miracles to stop suffering and when our loved ones died, because we had not had lesser sufferings to teach us how to dealt with pain, we would be unable to cope. It must have hurt my father not to be able to relieve my pain and it would have been so tempting to say “just this once…”. It must have hurt God not to perform a miracle and save all those people.

I’ll continue in post 3…

 

[JRKH]

You ask some good questions - ones that often come up in discussions with Atheists etc. Some are good questions that can lead to deepening faith, some serve more to divert than to enlighten. Lets’ see what we can do to help clear them up in as simple a manner as possible.

since adam and eve is not true, god creating the world in days, etc. does that discredit the whole bible? how do i know what to teach my child so that they have faith and not get laughed out of school?

Who says that Adam and Eve are not true? I believe that the Church still holds that there was an Adam and Eve, our first parents who sinned…See Here in the CCC.
The thing to remember about the bible is that it is not a cohesive singularly whole book, but rather a collection of books written over many centuries, in different styles and for different audiences. In each case, God inspired a human to write in a manner that would communicate effectively to that audience.
Genesis was something that evolved as an oral tradition for many many generations before being written down and the audience, shepherds, nomads, farmers etc. certainly would not have the capacity to understand the intricacies of the universe as we know them today so the style, the wording, the time frames etc. were chosen by God to effectively teach the essentials in a way that the audience could understand.
We do the same thing with our Children…for instance a parent might explain to a child that, “thunder is the clouds bumping together”.
Genesis speaks more often to the why of things, and less to the how.
I personally find no reason or conflict between genesis and evolution.

why does mark zuckerberg get to make billions and be an atheist? why does seth macfarlance make billions as an atheist, and overslept his 9-11 flight that would have killed him yet so many faithful people got killed who didnt spend their whole lives making a joke of religion like seth has?

The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike (Mt 5:45)…Will Zuckerburg’s billions mean anything when he is dead? No…So do not worry about how much money someone has be they Christian or Atheist…

As to when and why people die?? This is a temporal world view that we, as Christians need to change. Those who “died” in the grace of God, are not dead. Those who still “live” yet deny God, are already dead. See John 11:25-26

if everything is god’s will why pray?

To bring us in line with God’s Will.

dont you think so many people that were on the planes that were praying?

Certainly they were praying and those who did, and trusted in God, are not dead but have received crowns of martyrdom. Why be sad for these?

why should i thank God for the little i have when people who make fun of God have so much more?

Those who have little materially often have much more spiritually. Do not measure wealth by the things that must be left behind at death. Measure wealth by your treasure in heaven.

why did God/Jesus hide himself so much?

God is around us constantly. WE need only open our eyes to Him.

if God created this world why is it so imperfect?

The world is perfect for the work God has for it.

do statements such as “religion is the last of mythology” rock your faith?

Nope - Why should it?

if people like stephen hawking dont believe in God, why should i trust people like kirk cameron?

Trust God, not man!!

within the next 50 years the percentage of atheists will outnumber christians most likely, am i setting my child up to be an outcast?

No - You are setting your child up to be a “Light in the dark, a voice in the wilderness”

why does God/Jesus hide so well?

God does not hide from us, we hide from God.

do you hang on to god of gaps theories? if so is your faith rocked every time you lose a gap?

Science is wonderful at explaining the how of things but not so good at explaining the whys of things. To me there is no real conflict between what science teaches us and what I believe about God. Mainly because i do not put God in the box of my limited understanding.
God is a creator; a builder; a loving father who is Love itself. If you think about this you will see it is true. All of the things that comprise true Love, are God. Love builds, it does not destroy, Love seeks the greatest good, not some short term gain, Love looks out in selfless devotion, it does not look inward in selfish greed. This is the God we believe in and Love. This is not a God, or a faith, to be troubled by changes in our narrow and shallow knowledge.

i am so confused! please help! i am begging to have God in my life. I am just begging you guys to please help answer which ever questions you would like. i promise i am not here to bash religion i just have so many questions i am begging for help with.

You have come to a good place. I believe this is the best place on the internet for your questions. I hope my feeble attempts to answer your questions will give you some good information or thoughts.
We struggle to understand what cannot be fully understood when the path to God really requires a different approach. We fill our minds with the noise of questions, queries and doubts, when what is needed is quiet and trust.
So - try to combine the two things. Do seek, do question, but then rest. Be quiet - and listen for God to answer. It takes time, but He does answer.

Peace
James

 

[starsmurf]

1. why should i thank God for the little i have when people who make fun of God have so much more?
   7)why did God/Jesus hide himself so much?
2. if God created this world why is it so imperfect?
3. do statements such as “religion is the last of mythology” rock your faith?
4. within the next 50 years the percentage of atheists will outnumber christians most likely, am i setting my child up to be an outcast?
5. why does God/Jesus hide so well?
6. do you hang on to god of gaps theories? if so is your faith rocked every time you lose a gap?

And onto the last lap!

Questions 7 and 12 are basically the same, why doesn’t God make Himself better known? The problem with our “knowing” God is that He is infinite and our minds are finite. It is like the problems that people have in my science (astrophysics) trying to grasp some of the ideas in areas like cosmology, relativistic astrophysics etc. They are too different for people to be able to imagine them. We cannot “see” God because it is like when we tiny humans stand on the Earth, it looks flat because it is so much bigger than us. God is simply beyond what our tiny minds can comprehend so we can’t see Him.

Question 8 asks why the world is imperfect. Much of the suffering in the world is caused by humans. People starve and die of unclean water not because there is not enough food in the world but because we do not want to share what we have. We do not want to pay for these people, our brothers and sisters in Christ, to have clean water to drink. War and other human evils are responsible for much of our suffering today. These things happen because God gave us free will, we are free to choose evil, to go against God’s plan. Without free will, however, there would be no love, as love has to be a free choice.

As for natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunami, they are unfortunately essential to have a planet that can support life. Hurricanes and other weather events are necessary to redistribute energy in the atmosphere, if that didn’t happen, the planet would be uninhabitable. Earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunami are a result of plate tectonics which keep our planet from freezing or overheating. Plate tectonics help recycle carbon in our atmosphere, too little and the atmosphere freezes, too much and the oceans boil off. By the way, this will not save us from global warming, the last time a massive series of volcanic eruptions took the carbon dioxide levels too high, it took 60,000 years to get back to normal.

As for question 6, I don’t know your personal circumstances, but I am on very little money, I live alone and I have a very painful disease and other medical problems, this leaves me isolated (I have no friends living anywhere near me). What do I have to thank God for? Well, I can thank Him that I don’t live in a country where my disease would have killed me because there is no medical care, I don’t live in a shack in the Third World, I get to eat everyday and I’m not starving, I have clean water to drink. I have a family who love and care for me, I wasn’t abused as a child, I don’t have some of the diseases I’ve seen in other people when I’ve been in hospital. I have much to thank God for. I may not be a millionaire but money doesn’t buy happiness, it wouldn’t take away my pain.

Questions 9 and 13 are things that I personally do not find to be much trouble, I already addressed the “God of gaps” problem in my first post. Myths are ways of addressing a truth through an analogy, the story of Eden is a “myth” but it was written, not to tell us about the origin of the human race (though there are little clues in there), but to address the problem of evil. Some of the events in the Bible are not real, historical descriptions but they were not written as such and the first hearers understood that.

As for question 11, a current trend does not mean that it will continue for the next 50 years, the circumstances people live in in 50 years will be very different and there is no way for us to know how many people will be religious. Many people in the 1950’s said that by 2000 religion would be dead. That didn’t happen. I live in a country where the majority of people do not attend church, I grew up in a family who are all atheists and agnostics. I made up my own mind and joined the Catholic Church. I am certainly not an outcast! Most non-religoius people take the view that another person’s beliefs are their business. Your questions betray an anxiety about your child being rejected and laughed at because of religion, I don’t see that happening. Also, my own experiences show that being brought up in an atheist family doesn’t mean you’ll be an atheist so being brought up in a religious family doesn’t mean that you will be religious as an adult. I get the feeling that someone in your life is challenging your religious beliefs and telling you that religion is dying and that to bring your child up in this way would be to cripple them emotionally, socially and intellectually for the rest of their life. None of that is true. As long as you teach your child to think and to respect other people’s beliefs or lack of them, you have no worries.

I hope this has helped!

God bless.

 

[JRKH]

Smartsurf,

Great set of postings. If i had read yours first, I likely would not have posted at all…You have said it all so well.
Thanks…

Peace
James

 

[Jcnava15]

since adam and eve is not true, god creating the world in days, etc. does that discredit the whole bible?

I assume that you saying that Evolution is true, therefore genesis is false, there Adam and Eve is false. However, with Evolution, only a literal interpretation of Genesis is false. However many Christians even from the early church did not agree with a literal interpretation of Genesis. People such as St. Augustine, and St Gregory of Nyssa (331-396) “taught that the Creation was potential - that God imparted to matter its fundamental laws and properties, but that the objects and completed forms of the Universe then developed gradually, under their own steam, out of primordial chaos.”

how do i know what to teach my child so that they have faith and not get laughed out of school?

I don’t know, maybe you can teach your kids to be strong, and confident. Even without faith they will face ridicule at some point or another.

why does mark zuckerberg get to make billions and be an atheist?
why does seth macfarlance make billions…?

We will all give an account to God for our lives. Do not focus on the lives of others, and how they are tripping up or not, first focus on your life. Remember Jesus told his apostles not to judge others about the speck of dust in their eyes until they first removed the plank from their own.

if everything is god’s will why pray?
dont you think so many people that were on the planes that were praying?

I tell you this with the utmost sincerity; prayer is much more than asking God for things. Prayer is a two way interaction between God, and the person. God assures us that he knows what we need before we ask it, but for me the way in which I know God to be real is when I communicate with him. Prayer is a transformative process that draws you closer to God.

why should i thank God for the little i have when people who make fun of God have so much more?

Why does it matter? I was reading about a man who had a afterlife experience. This man was a very wealthy man, a top investor, even made the covers of some business magazines. After his experience, he came back, and sold everything he had, and now he lives in a small studio apartment, and spends his life helping everybody he can.

Seek first the Kingdom of God, and everything else will be added to you.

why did God/Jesus hide himself so much?

What do you mean?

if God created this world why is it so imperfect?

Well there are various answers to this. Some are more satisfactory than others, but I think you must look at the terms. God is by definition perfect, he is unchanging. This universe is not God (not perfect), this universe contains time, at each instance of time we are in transition to and from one state of time to the other. Something that changes is not perfect. Imperfection is built into this universe because it is a natural by product of time.

do statements such as “religion is the last of mythology” rock your faith?

No, why should it? Creationists call Evolution a myth, does that say anything about the truth of either views?

if people like stephen hawking dont believe in God, why should i trust people like kirk cameron?

Well maybe you shouldn’t trust either of them. Kirk Cameron with all his good intentions, is not a “intellectual” heavy weight. Stephen Hawking is a materialist, and very guilty of scientism. Both of these people are unreliable to base theological perspectives on.

There are plenty of Physicists who believe in God. Personally I like John Polkinghorne. his page.

within the next 50 years the percentage of atheists will outnumber christians most likely, am i setting my child up to be an outcast?

You seem to be very concerned about the opinions of other people. Faith is not about reputation, it is about the truth.

do you hang on to god of gaps theories? if so is your faith rocked every time you lose a gap?

Faith in God is not based on intellectual trends. Intellectual trends change all the time. For example scientists are now thinking that Einstein’s physics may soon be overturned due to new research at CERN.

i am so confused! please help! i am begging to have God in my life. I am just begging you guys to please help answer which ever questions you would like. i promise i am not here to bash religion i just have so many questions i am begging for help with.

The most important thing you can do is pray with fervent sincerity. This is how I came to know God exists. I prayed that he would be more than an intellectual idea, and instead a reality. I prayed, and reminded him continuously that he said “ask, and you shall receive, knock and it will be opened”. I did not stop until he answered. And when he answered… that was very powerful,( I don’t mean I had a sensory experience either). Ask him the same thing, and hold him to it.

Be diligent, and sincere in your search for God. Even though prayer may seem boring, or tiresome, I promise you it is very powerful. I keep a prayer journal, and whenever I have doubts about God, or my faith is weak, I read my prayer journal and I find comfort when I say “Oh yea, duh, I forgot about that time”.

 

[notsure13]

you guys have given me some amazing answers. another question that my brain is now struggling with is, if our brains are too small to understand God’s mind. what would make us think our small brains are smart enough to be correct in believing in something that fact cannot prove?

starsmurf- do you have a website or blog?