10 Questions that every Intelleigent Christian must answer

[cypher86]

huh? confusing...
you see other's disabilities, and yet you yearn for what they have? isn't that contradictory?
so you yearn for their disabilities then?

I guess it really is hard to get an idea across such a limiting medium. please read what I have written in the example. Hmm.. let my try to make another analogy, one that HOPEFULLY you will be able to understand.

Juan has cadbury, hershey's, Pepsi. Pedro has cadbury, hershey's, chicken.

Juan sees Pedro and thinks to himself "thank you lord that I have Pepsi" (*)
Pedro sees Juan and thinks to himself "thank you lord that I have Chicken" (**)

* - Juan saw something he had the Pedro didn't have and was able to appreciate that thing/gift/ability better. The same goes for Pedro, he saw something he possessed that Juan did not and was able to appreciate it better.

PLEASE Lord Tell me that now you get my point bluedes? if you misunderstand this one more time i'm gonna need a dose of captopril.

[cypher86]

just admit it and get straight to the point, you don't care about other people's disabilities.. but you do care about their strengths and skills, and so you yearn for those advantages..

its quite hypocrital going about it in a pretentiously "kind" way.. but then again, that's still machiavelli at work.. you're just using God to augment your strategy..

Lord I'm gonna need a translator coz I dont understand what the hell your talking about.
I dont mean this in any disrespectful way but, Do you even read/re-read what I posted?

Because if you did, you wouldn't be saying those things

Honestly dude, please try to re-read the things I have written down and you will come to realize that what you have posted doesn't make any sense!

[bluedes]

Lord I'm gonna need a translator coz I dont understand what the hell your talking about.
I dont mean this in any disrespectful way but, Do you even read/re-read what I posted?

Because if you did, you wouldn't be saying those things

Honestly dude, please try to re-read the things I have written down and you will come to realize that what you have posted doesn't make any sense!

brad, you're only saying it "kindly".. but still you're comparing yourself with what others have and dont have..

i think its you who does not understand the point I just made.. simple ra na brad.. ayaw flower-flowery imong explanation..

question: can you not be thankful without looking at what other people don't have?

[kebotDiNaMute]

brad, you're only saying it "kindly".. but still you're comparing yourself with what others have and dont have..

i think its you who does not understand the point I just made.. simple ra na brad.. ayaw flower-flowery imong explanation..

question: can you not be thankful without looking at what other people don't have?

Its true brad, you are hard to be understood... hmmm... I think we got a very different perspective... i cant say more...

[bluedes]

Its true brad, you are hard to be understood... hmmm... I think we got a very different perspective... i cant say more...

thanks brad..

[cypher86]

brad, you're only saying it "kindly".. but still you're comparing yourself with what others have and dont have..

i think its you who does not understand the point I just made.. simple ra na brad.. ayaw flower-flowery imong explanation..

question: can you not be thankful without looking at what other people don't have?

Exactly!!! now you somehow get it(it certainly took you long enough). Althought its not exactly what I meant but you are on the right path.

Comparing yourself with others and feeling good that you have something that another doesnt have is one of the things covered by Schaddenfreude.

Its not only being thankful of having something that others dont have but also feeling a sigh of relief that you dont get to have that misfortune.

Now go read some more... your just starting to scratch the surface of what I meant

[bluedes]

Exactly!!! now you somehow get it(it certainly took you long enough). Althought its not exactly what I meant but you are on the right path.

Comparing yourself with others and feeling good that you have something that another doesnt have is one of the things covered by Schaddenfreude.

Its not only being thankful of having something that others dont have but also feeling a sigh of relief that you dont get to have that misfortune.

Now go read some more... your just starting to scratch the surface of what I meant

huh?! sorry, i dont subscribe to that Schaddenfreude.. I prefer not to compare myself to others (if possible)..

[munzter666]

awww, feeling good at the expense of someone else's misfortunes.

[piggychan]

I hope Intelligent Chrsitians like kebot, bungot 25 and rcruman can answer these 10 SIMPLE QUESTIONS!

1. Why won’t god heal amputees?
2. Why are there so many starving people in our world?
3. Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the bible?
4. Why does the bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense?
5. Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery in the bible? s
6. Why do bad things happen to good people?
7. Why didn’t any of Jesus’ miracles in the bible leave behind any evidence?
8. How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you?
9. Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood?
10. Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians?

BTW, I don't believe in the Anthropomorphic GOD of the Literalist Christians but I know there is a GOD which is UNKNOWABLE that is beyond belief in the BIBLE!

1. Why won’t god heal amputees? because Christ wants us not to be lazy, thats why he gave us hands and feet to toil.. there are amputees out there coz Christ wants us to realize that we should appreciate our lives, that we are not living miserable.. for the ampupated ones, mas kugihan pa sila sa complete ug lawas.. what a shame..
2. Why are there so many starving people in our world? mao na gi-ingon, Do your best and God will do the rest. he gave us brains to think and instincts to survive.. instincts so we know what we need, brain satisfy our needs in a rightful manner or right way
3. Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the bible? -- which book? proverbs ug parables man ako basahon gud..
4. Why does the bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense? Such as the idea that the universe is only a couple of thousand years old, that Jonah lived inside a whale for 3 days etc. -- do you know how big a whale is?! it may eat weeds but you can build a house inside its mouth! 3 days isnt much, we can survive with only water for 40..
5. Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery in the bible? slavery? uhm... i dont think so.. its more on like "obeying your parents."
6. Why do bad things happen to good people? because everything happens for a reason.. i know one, it happened to my cousin, he's dead now.. may he rest in peace.. bad things happen because they are eye openers.. huwata lang, pohon maningning ka kay daghan nasad mamatay tungod sa climate change.. now do you blame Christ for this? its the result of humans cunningness without considering the consequences..
7. Why didn’t any of Jesus’ miracles in the bible leave behind any evidence? more is yet to be discovered.. and hala oi, i consider sad kuno ang environmental factors, most of it were withered.. but still linkable..
8. How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you? haller, if he appears in front of us, all of us, we will all be greedy, asking for this and that, kay gusto sa mga tao hayahay diretso way kalisod (but di mana pwede oi, 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration), but then ka boring ana oi, kay youll get to ask anything..
9. Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood? its for cleansing and sort of a way that you accept him in your life.. thats what my all time favorite priest told me.. priest sa Mary Help..
10. Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians? because they NEVER put Christ in the middle of the family.. awful..

lingaw2 ra ni ako.. "why" is soo untherapeutic oit..
perfect imo ihatag nako if were on the same boat and youll give me an F if were not..

[Existanz]

1. Why won’t god heal amputees? There are cases where people claim to have been healed by miracles. One can’t help but to notice that these are in almost every case thing’s that might just have got better anyway.

- Perhaps it is because nobody had yet acquired or posses a faith that is comparable to what Christ had that could bend the laws of nature, multiply loaves of bread and turn water to wine. If some people claim that they were healed by miracle it is because they believe they are going to be healed anyway. The body naturally heals itself and that medicine only accelerates that healing process by acting as trigger to nudge the brain into action. The miracle is not that people were healed from certain ailment; it is the people who came to believe that they are going to be healed despite medical findings that told them the contrary. A leap of faith is a miracle- it is a divine grace.

2. Why are there so many starving people in our world? If you propound that God listens to you and answers your prayers, how can you believe that he answered your prayers for a raise and yet allows millions to die from starvation and disease?

- I admit without shame that honestly I do not know how to answer question number two. I asked the same question myself and tried to find ways to justify the apparent absurdities of God’s ways in this world. I realized I could not seem to find some semblance of justice to what is happening to other people and surprisingly 1 Corinthian 1:25 said it so bluntly. I guess there is nothing left to say but accepts Proverbs 3:5 “Trust the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding”.

3. Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the bible? There are probably more than you realize - the demands listed in the post (to kill anyone who works on the sabbath day, homosexuals, girls that are not virgins when they marry etc.) just scratch the surface. And ‘the bible corrects itself elsewhere’ isn’t a defence; how can you full heartedly trust something that contradicts itself?

- Well the Bible tells us why people were condemn by God to death and need not to be explained further. I think certain contradictions do exists in the Bible and perhaps can be attributed to certain factors and many may hate to admit it, that to some extent God’s actions sometimes do appears contradictory to human understanding (1 Cor. 1:25). Even in Science contradictory theories do exists and sometimes can not be satisfactorily reconcile. For instance the celebrated head on collision between two theories that defines reality, the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, if I’m not mistaken is still on a knot. Still this does not diminished the validity of both ideas, which had given us the nuclear energy, silicon chips and other technological wonders.

4. Why does the bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense? Such as the idea that the universe is only a couple of thousand years old, that Jonah lived inside a whale for 3 days etc.
- Not anti-scientific nonsense but rather stories of human weakness, love, despair, hope and faith told without scientific reflection. Perhaps the point of the Bible is all about God’s love and man’s salvation, if only people tries stick to that there would had been no problems at all with science. But I guess some people will always (naturally by human nature) try to find some foothold of reason to a belief and sometimes find it hard to admit to themselves that faith in a God is a flight from human reasons in the first place.

5. Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery in the bible? The post includes examples of how ’slaves should obey their masters as they would obey Christ’, amongst others. Personally I would substitute this one for something else. Perhaps ‘why is God so jealous and unforgiving in the old testament?’

-Through sin we became slave.

6. Why do bad things happen to good people? Such as their deaths in painful ways. If they are going to meet God anyway, why deprive them of their lives?

- Bad things happen to both good and evil people. I think death and sufferings are just but God’s way of letting people think there is a god without God encroaching on human freewil. If one believes in God all sufferings would be simply temporary discomforts in a journey we called life. The seemingly inequality in life plus the sufferings of people around the world give sense as to why one believe in a God. No philosophy could satisfactorily give justice to a person born in the worst place and at the worst time, to live a lifetime of sufferings and then cease to exists. This is perhaps the same reason why God made the universe so big for a minute and seemingly fragile creature as we are, so that when we look at it’s magnificence we may realized our insignificant and passing existence and force us to ask the meaning of our being.

7. Why didn’t any of Jesus’ miracles in the bible leave behind any evidence? It’s quite strange. All we really have is a book compiled 200 years after his death, written mostly by people who never met him.

- I leave it to conspiracy theories to come up with an answer as to why there are no traces of a historical Jesus. Frankly I don’t know the answer to the problem but I know how to answer the underlying question, whether there is still sense in believing Jesus’ teachings since his historical significance has been eroded. Just read what Jesus’ tries to tells us and ask yourself whether the message he was imparting to us has been affected.

8. How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you? If he’s all-powerful and timeless, why wait for a second-coming?

-The easiest way to know why Jesus’ has never made an appearance is by reading the New Testament. Regarding his second coming I guess The Father have not yet deemed the world worthy to be cast away, that there are still good things left for this world.

9. Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood? If you actually consider this for a second, it sounds more Satanic than Christian. And no, if you are Catholic as opposed to a derivative such as an Anglican, you believe that you are really consuming Jesus’ flesh and blood.

- Jesus blood means his sacrifice on the cross and his body, the bread, is his teachings. We commemorate this by the act of communion. The whole thing may sound like cannibalism to a mind filled with malice reflection.

10. Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians? “What God has put together, let no man put asunder”? But it happens regardless.

- This not surprising actually if you read the Bible and realized that all people therein mention to be men of God were also men of weakness and shortcomings. Nevertheless, God loves them just the same.

I don't believe in the Anthropomorphic GOD of the Literalist Christians but I know there is a GOD which is UNKNOWABLE that is beyond belief in the BIBLE.

- Everything that had been claimed what God is and not remains to be seen.