Ask a Christian

[NuclearWinter]

I am aware that there is a lot of hate towards Christians here so don't turn this into a flame thread. I'm not here to attempt to change your religion (if you have one), this thread exists for people to ask me questions about Christianity or the like.

Here are some commonly asked questions I've pre-done:

How could God permit all the pain and suffering in this world?

A loving parent would not permit his child to suffer. Or would they? A parent who would not permit his child to suffer would never deprive his offspring of any want, nor would he discipline the child. What then, do we mean by 'suffer'? If we limit the definition of suffering to physical pain, then we have to acknowledge that loving parents permit their children to suffer pain, at least to some degree, when they allow them to have immunization shots, or undergo chemotherapy or teach them how to ride a bike, knowing that the chances of them falling and getting hurt are probable. Therefore, a loving parent does permit his child to suffer physically, if he considers the suffering to be insignificant and for a greater good.

But would a loving parent permit their child to suffer significant pain for a greater good? As humans, we have a corporeal concern; no matter how strong our faith in God, this material and physical world is the only world of which we are aware. Therefore, we consider any significantly painful infliction as harmful to our bodies and our existence.

The difference between man and God is that God is fully aware of man's spiritual reality in addition to his physical reality. God knows that physical suffering cannot harm our eternal souls. God knows that our physical destruction is not an end to our existence. Of what significance is an hour of physical suffering compared to eternity? Of what significance is a lifetime of suffering compared to eternity? We can conclude that from God's perspective, our physical suffering is relatively insignificant. This is not to say that He is unsympathetic or oblivious to our pain; loving parents feel empathy when their child receives a shot, knowing full well that the pain is inconsequential.

But what greater good can be derived from our suffering? Is there a greater good involved? What would justify God sending us to live in a physical world with physical dangers? Why didn't God let us stay in the Garden of Eden?

According to the Bible, man was removed from the Garden of Eden in order to be born again so that one day, he could eat of the Tree of Life and be forever in God's company as a holy people. If men were made to live forever in their natural, sinful state, they would be eternally hellish creatures. God sees the greater good being accomplished in the transformation that will allow us to live eternally in heaven, a transformation that can only take place in the physical world. Spiritual lessons can’t take place in the garden; they have to take place in a desert.

It isn't that God wills us to experience misfortune, but that these misfortunes are merely the consequence of living in a physical world within our physical bodies. Every day, loving people make the decision to bring children into this world, knowing that it is a world filled with risk and injury. God is no less loving for having created the world in which we all live. But one may ask, "Why doesn't God do what He can to prevent these injuries, as any good parent would?

Does God inflict or arrange the pain that is coming? Did he give me cancer?, etc

Does evil exist? There are people being killed and raped everyday, every hour, every second. I'm going to ask a few questions and answer them before your read the answer.

* Does cold exist?

Cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.

* Does darkness exist?

Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.

* Does evil exist?

Evil does not exist, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.

Do Christians believe the world is only 6,000 years old?

In a word, no.

This subject is very interesting because some Christian I talk to say "I don't believe in dinosaurs because they weren't mentioned in the Bible". These Christians infuriates me because these type of Christians make the rest of us look like idiots.

In the Bible it mentions that the Earth used to be satins kingdom and he used to rule over it. For the dinosaur argument, dinosaurs could have very well existed in the "satins kingdom" era. It doesn't specify how long Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden for and dinosaurs might have existed outside of the garden, as well. So just like scientists say, the Earth is hundreds of millions (billions?) years old.


Ok, well that covers it for the common questions. If you have questions you would like cleared or you need clarity in something I have said, just ask me. Comments of what I have wrote as well are welcome as I would like to know what you think.


If I don't reply for a while don't assume that I cannot answer a question. I live in Australia (Timezone AEDST) so I could be either asleep or at work so please give me some time.