Questions about God
Questions about God
I have been asked to help a friend who is doing some project for his seminary degree. He has requested that I provide him with a list of questions "about god" from a non-believers prospective. This seems...like the epitome of ill-posed questions. None the less...any suggestions. I think he may actually be hoping for specific objections to the existence of a deity. I am not sure...I kinda suspect he is hoping for a "letters to a skeptic" sort of exchange....that won't end well...let's hope it's legit.
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Doug
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Re: Questions about God
DOUG
1. Why did Jesus have to die for anyone's sins? If God is sovereign, he could just say, "OK, no one goes to hell for your sins." Instead, he has to take human form and get himself killed in order to take away sins. Why the human sacrifice? Besides, you can still go to hell for your sins. So Jesus' sacrifice accomplished nothing.
2. Since the Gospels are anonymous, why should we believe their implausible and contradictory stories? What authority can they have if their authorship is unknown and their stories are unsubstantiated by any outside sources?
3. Why is God's interaction with the world indistinguishable from chance occurrence? Study after study shows that intercessory prayer has no effect. God does not lift a finger to stop evil people, such as Hitler. The Bible shows God interacting with human beings all the time, even stepping in to make sure someone who collects sticks on the Sabbath gets stoned to death. These days, the fingerprint of God is nowhere to be found with certainty. People have to take things on faith. The more science finds answers, the less God is available as an answer. Doesn't this suggest that using God as an explanation is getting more and more difficult in a communication age and scientific age, and that perhaps using God as an explanation for things (lightning, mortality, etc.) was never the correct answer in the first place?
4. Since the Bible advocates against rebelling against kings (so that the United States should never have been founded), endorses slavery, and shows divine commands that require followers to commit genocide, patricide, infanticide, the oppression of women, etc. etc., shouldn't our society openly condemn the Bible as a book unfit to inform 21st century morality?
I have many other questions. Have your friend chew on these for a while.
1. Why did Jesus have to die for anyone's sins? If God is sovereign, he could just say, "OK, no one goes to hell for your sins." Instead, he has to take human form and get himself killed in order to take away sins. Why the human sacrifice? Besides, you can still go to hell for your sins. So Jesus' sacrifice accomplished nothing.
2. Since the Gospels are anonymous, why should we believe their implausible and contradictory stories? What authority can they have if their authorship is unknown and their stories are unsubstantiated by any outside sources?
3. Why is God's interaction with the world indistinguishable from chance occurrence? Study after study shows that intercessory prayer has no effect. God does not lift a finger to stop evil people, such as Hitler. The Bible shows God interacting with human beings all the time, even stepping in to make sure someone who collects sticks on the Sabbath gets stoned to death. These days, the fingerprint of God is nowhere to be found with certainty. People have to take things on faith. The more science finds answers, the less God is available as an answer. Doesn't this suggest that using God as an explanation is getting more and more difficult in a communication age and scientific age, and that perhaps using God as an explanation for things (lightning, mortality, etc.) was never the correct answer in the first place?
4. Since the Bible advocates against rebelling against kings (so that the United States should never have been founded), endorses slavery, and shows divine commands that require followers to commit genocide, patricide, infanticide, the oppression of women, etc. etc., shouldn't our society openly condemn the Bible as a book unfit to inform 21st century morality?
I have many other questions. Have your friend chew on these for a while.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Savonarola
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Re: Questions about God
Here are the first ten that came to my mind.kwlyon wrote:I have been asked to help a friend who is doing some project for his seminary degree. He has requested that I provide him with a list of questions "about god" from a non-believers prospective. This seems...like the epitome of ill-posed questions. None the less...any suggestions. I think he may actually be hoping for specific objections to the existence of a deity. I am not sure...I kinda suspect he is hoping for a "letters to a skeptic" sort of exchange....that won't end well...let's hope it's legit.
- If only fools are non-believers*, why would God allow a serious seminary project to be based on the input of non-believers?
- Why did God make belief so unreasonable?
- If God is all-powerful, all-loving, and all-knowing, why does He rely upon a vague, contradictory, absurdity-laden ancient book translated countless times to send His message?
- Why doesn't God heal amputees?
- God knows what it would take to convince me to believe in Him, has the ability to convince me to believe in Him, and wants me to believe in Him, yet He hasn't convinced me. Why not?
- God knew before he created me that I wouldn't believe in Him and has done nothing to change this. Why did God create me only to punish me with eternal hellfire?
- What kind of sick bastard approves infinite punishment for a finite “crime”?
- If I deny the existence of the Holy Spirit right now, can I really not ever be saved*, even if I later believe with all my heart?
- Why is there a negative correlation between education level and religious belief?
- What happened to sinners who tried to repent before Jesus died? If they went to heaven, then why did Jesus have to die? If they did not go to heaven, then why did God wait so long to allow people to to go heaven?
Why do I suspect that this guy -- if he uses any of these questions -- will ignore all the ones he can't come up with answers for? And why do I suspect that any questions he does "answer" will be sidestepped instead of answered?
Re: Questions about God
Much appreciated. It seems we were all on pretty much the same page regarding general objections. I passed those along. If it starts an interesting discussion I will post it.