I work with youth, heck I pretty much am one, or used to be not to long ago, but I often wonder: What is the hardest question that youth have regarding life, Christianity, that sorta stuff. Ya see, what I might think is the hardest or was the hardest one from my youth may not be that anymore. So help me help others by hearing what questions I can try to answer with my group.
PLEASE NOTE! I don’t even pretend I can actually answer these questions. I just want to know what they are so I can go find the answer and share it with others. So if I can I will, but I am no Billy Graham or Joel Olsteen or Mark Matlock (Ha! shameless PW plug.)
Thanks!
Well, I’ve always wondered how we can really know God if we can’t see him. I’ve actually wondered a lot if anyone really knows God, or they’re just all pretending they do because that’s what’s expected. All the hypocricsy in church doesn’t help… I’ve never really gotten a straight answer though.
Another one kind of different from that, how did distant starlight reach earth if the universe is only 6,000 years old? I’m acttually looking into some interesting theories, but that’s always stumped me.
to true…
I was talking to a guy and when he found out I worked at a church he said “Buddy, you know whats wrong with the church?” I wanted to tell him “Yeah, there are people like me in it.”
I heard of some atheist talking about how he loved the church and Jesus and all, it was the people in the church and the followers of Jesus that kept him an atheist.
Man…those are awesome questions
An interesting side note (not to hijack the thread or anything): one of the best ways I help new Christians is to tell them that it is vitally important to be a part of a church family, but Christianity is NOT synonymous with “the church”. There are many churches out there that will lead you wrong, but Christ never will. I think one of the greatest causes of a new Christian failing or falling astray in their walk with Christ is the fact that they associate their bad experience with a particular Christian or church with God not being real.
Is it okay if I help answer this question?
Think about it this way, by asking your question to us on the Internet, you’re talking to people that you can’t see as if you know us. You also have faith that someone will answer you even though you don’t know when that someone will answer. You actually answered your question by posting it. However, God is actually one perfect being, instead of a hundred or so imperfect beings, such as the members of this forum. As for your second question, well, The best way to find out if a person really knows God is to watch how they act. Either a Christian will not commit a sin or they will feel guilty about their sins later. Also, Christians tend to show love towards their neighbors, in the form that Jesus defined. Your final question, you may have toask God himself. If I had to guess, these distant stars aren’t really as far away as scientists claim.
That makes a lot of sense, I really like that
The only thing is, I knew someone would answer because I’ve seen it happen before. There are tons of conversations going on in these forums, but I’ve never had God talk to me. And you answered my questions specifically, in words, targeted right at me. I mean, there’s the Bible, but that’s not really specific… people say it’s God’s words, which I do believe, but it’s like a letter sent out to a bunch of people- it’s not talking to a specific person and it’s not an ongoing conversation. And when I pray, I try not to make it just one-way, but it’s difficult when God doesn’t say anything back. If he really is there, why can’t he just talk to us in english, in words?
And that’s the thing, a lot of the people don’t act right. Especially hearing about my friends’ parents, whom I’ve known for a long time but only recently became friends with their kids, and it’s really bad how they act, and I never would have guessed it from how they act at church. Even most of our youth group, although it’s more obvious than the adults, who just come for the social part and are nothing like how they act at church. So if they say they’re Christians and know God and all, how can I believe others who may not even act badly who claim that?
Sorry, I just realized this isn’t really on the topic anymore, but I’ve been wondering this for a long time
As much as I know, God hasn’t spoken audibly to humans in general in around two thousand years. Shocking isn’t it, but when you think about it, “audibly” simply means that our physical ears can hear it. God maintains communication through the spirit, kinda like texting on a cell phone. only you recieve the message, assuming you don’t want to forward it. Also, think of it this way, the entire human race acts like either kindergarteners, teenagers, or younger adults, spiritually. Most born again Christians act like teenagers, having God as our father, of course. Some Christians are more like younger adults. Those that are like teenagers possibly aren’t to far along in their walk with Christ yet, but they are getting there. Here is where I get to the point, sometimes we ignore God when he talks to us, like I am sure most other teens my age would do to their parents or teachers. In God’s case, we tend to think that he is going to do the same things done in the Bible, and we forget that this all powerful being is capable of being subtle, like how I can sometimes forget that my parents can text. Also, God knew when you were born long before you were. The Bible may seem like it is an impersonal letter sent out to many people, but look at how many words there are in the Bible and the number of languages and times it has been translated into. That creates an infinite number of sentences, which allows for several of them to be directed at each individual. Not just that, but the Bible always has an answer for your questions, kinda like the Internet always has people who can answer your questions.
Sometime I feel on fire with the Lord like I just feel like I could heal the dead. [figure of speech] But When I start doubting the biggest question or hypothesis I have is that. You know how like the Hoindu and Buddist believe so strongly in their religion. Well it only took man to make up some stuff about it and for thousands of people to believe it. So i think long ago did someone make up this story or the bible just to start something so big or to see where it would go. Don’t tell me I just have to have faith. My youth leader Drew told me that they do have some evidence to support the bible. But the statement that the world came from a single cell organism can be proven. And that Earth’s land was once all together. I forgot what they called that… But honestly I see how easy it is for somebody so close to God can lose faith.
If faith were easy they’d call it a sin. You know what i mean?
One of the hardest things, i feel, about faith is that we have to let our own thinking NOT cloud what we are taught. That being that the Bible is the Word of God. That He inspired the writers who wrote it. Questioning that comes very easy. Answering it comes very hard.
i guess my answer is that I have to remember every stinking day that God is the wiser between he and i. That He truly does know everything and i only PRETEND to.
As for your thoughts about other religions. i often get myself in trouble (particularly at church) with my answer. Mind you this is just MY theory and i have no proof whatsoever but i do believe that God, in His infinite wisdom, figured out that since we are all so different that we (as in ALL His children) would need different ways to reach Him. It’s a scary thought, i know. i do believe that without a doubt that the only way to the Father is through the Son but since i meet, and work with so many Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, etc… who seem every bit as faithful in their beliefs as i do in mine, i just sometimes wonder.
So, the next time you’re just not feeling like you “could heal the dead”, start with something easier. )
Let me start by saying this: we aren’t going to prove Christianity in this one thread so if all your questions, or anyone else’s, aren’t answered in this one topic, it’s not proof of anything.
I actually went through a period of time (for the greater part of college when everyone seems to think they are “enlightened to the truth”) when I had the same reservations. Yes, there is a lot of science behind it, but when you get into those kinds of arguments you approach a figurative “tailspin” of data that just gets more convoluted the more you discuss it with someone who isn’t a Ph.D. in Physics or Chemistry or something to that matter. I always approach debate from a “divide and conquer” standpoint meaning that I like to divide the parts of an argument out that are complete non-sense, and then attack the rest.
Atheism vs. Theism -> Judeo vs. Non-Judeo -> Islam vs. Judeo-Christian ———————————————————————————————————————
In this case, you have atheism and theism in the broadest sense. Is an atheistic view of the world plausible? When dealing with a lot of things in the technical world (and I assume the scientific world), there are very few, of any, absolute truths. For example, they can spin electrons and observe completely different electrons on another body moving in sync. This questions the “absolute truth” of relativity. We end up having to settle for “this theory is plausible ENOUGH to believe”. Evolution is plausible. Creation of micro-life somewhere in the universe is plausible. Creation of a planet at a suitable distance from a star for life is plausible. The chances of all these happening in once almost statistically zero. Then, when you consider the mixture of ‘chance’ events that happened to Earth from celestial bodies and internally in the Earth, you basically come to the conclusion that it is scientifically implausible for an intelligent sapiens life to exist on a planet like Earth. Can you make up a theory for how it all happened? There are few things that we CAN’T come up with a possible theory. The problem comes when you think of it from where we are now, back. That seems really possible if you look at it in reverse chronological order. Look at that chain of events from the beginning forward and think of what was statistically likely to happen, and you don’t arrive at “spaceship Earth” today. Does that mean scientific explanations in their entirety are wrong? Of course not, but it does mean that the scientific theories are, at best, an end and not a means.
Atheism vs. Theism -> Judeo vs. Non-Judeo -> Islam vs. Judeo-Christian ———————————————————————————————————————
Basically, you have proved that creation of Earth through typical scientific explanation is no more plausible than the “Giant Flying Spaghetti Monster” that atheists love making fun of. So of all theistic religions, you can differentiate the ancient religions into Judeo-based and non-Judeo religions. Modern religions are excluded since the entire theory of a deity is that the god, or a god, existed before time and therefore would be known in some way or form. Non-Judeo religions, in a nutshell, all contain stories suspiciously similar to the Jewish tradition, but they were practiced, and even anecdotally taught, to their followers by virtue of lessons and stories less than historical record. The Judeo experience is painstakingly transcribed in the various Holy books. What you have “proven” is that the Judeo tradition is the most plausible of the theologies, when explaining the Earth’s origins. (I only say “proven” in quotes because this conversation is much more complex then what I just presented.)
Atheism vs. Theism -> Judeo vs. Non-Judeo -> Islam vs. Judeo-Christian ———————————————————————————————————————
Finally, you have to ask yourself which Judeo-based religion is the correct one. Islam is based on the unconfirmable testimony of one profit who was also known as a businessman that wanted to unite the Arab world. What better way to unite a people than under the sword of a religion? With regards to the origin of mankind, it is immaterial whether you are talking about Christianity or Judaism since they share common roots. You can get into the conversation about whether the prophecy (Jesus) was fulfilled, but that gets into another long thread.
Atheism vs. Theism -> Judeo vs. Non-Judeo -> Islam vs. Judeo-Christian ———————————————————————————————————————
This kind of shows you the progression I followed when I use to ask myself the same questions you are asking yourself now. To be honest, if you are really searching for inner-peace about the whole thing, science and data isn’t going to do it. Like I said, science is based on plausibility and not absolute truth, contrary to common belief. People say, “I can’t believe you’ve never questioned what you were raised to believe; how closed minded of you.” But, in reality, I have questioned what I believed and it just so happens that I judged it as having to be true. Likewise, I subjected the alternatives out there to a similar questioning and found them lacking. Simple as that.
Here is another way to put it. All theistic religions do have in common that they believe in a deity; however, the similarities end there. Judeo-Christianity is the only religion group (Since it consists of Christianity and Judaism alone) that offers hope of salvation. More importantly, it is the only religion group that holds absolute truth. If you listen to the song The Word is Alive by Casting Crowns you will hear the proof that the Bible was not just a fictional novel based on real characters and events. The Bible was written, physically, by multiple people born anywhere between ten years and three thousand years apart. They were born under a multitude of different governments with different political and social standards. Regardless of their apparant loyalty or resistance to these governments, their opinions would have been influenced somehow by their sovereigns. The amazing part is, they wrote the books of the Bible, with absolutely no contradictions and with situations, laws, and lessons that transcend time; furthermore, they wrote it as if they new it would do so. That could only happen by inspiration from an all powerful God who transcends time and space.
Now, I have also question Christianity as any person is bound to do. My serious and honest answer is that Christianity could not be anything other than truth. My other answer is that it is the only religion that Tells me that the God I worship will grant me the ability to defeat Satan, insead of demanding that I worship the monsters under my bed. From this, I ask you to draw your own conclusions.
Oh and Lizz:D…
The land mass was called Pangea [not sure how to spell it] The cool thing is, the fact that it is not a huge contient anymore proves the flood story. In Genesis 7:11 it says that all the fountains of the deep were opened up, and in Genesis 1:6-9 talk about how there was water above, in the middle, and below. Lots of water where the atmosphere is, water where the seas are, and water in chambers UNDER the seas. The land was gathered in one place, Pangea, the flood burst those chambers under the land, pushing them apart. Boom.
Now this is a very simplifyed way of showing it and DON’T take it as gospel. But if I make the slightest bit of sense, check out Answers in Genesis [google it] I took a Creation Science course and was really stoked that it was actually science based and shows how alk kinds of things actually make scientific sense. There is a God and he created us with minds to think and reason and see that he is real, not by proof in a lab, but in the knowing of our…well, knower!
I guess thats called Faith.
You mentioned it and I got my silly soapbox…my bad!
Yeah you spelled it right. P A N G E A. Where I rememeber first seeing any mention of the continents seperating was in the lineage from Noah to Abraham. He was named Peleg because in his time the Earth was divided. That does make since though what you said. The seismic activity from 40 days of nonstop eruption and rain would have at least created the plates. However, that may bring the Atlantis theory into question. Peleg would at most be 2,000 years older than Plato. Stories being carried down the generations by word of mouth have lasted longer than that amount of time. Moses wrote the Book of Genesis, which began around 3,000 years before his birth. That isn’t fair to Plato since Moses was aided by God. None the less, Atlantis may have been a body of land that connected Europe and North America. It may have had a series of large unstable caverns beneath it. Some how the caverns collapsed and well the story is complete, for Atlantis. Plato also mentioned an advanced civilization. Could it be possible that this was the Aztecs, Omec, and the Maya? They were claimed as having a more advanced civilization than the Romans by the conquistadors. Plus the groups that were closest to the proposed Atlantis, the Celts, could easily be amazed by cultures like the Aztec culture. They would have then told the Greeks. Completely off topic, but I felt like saying it.
The biggest attack on Christianity comes at the lay level. Mark Matlock writes,
“… an underdeveloped mind is a common issue many Christians face, especially (and ironically) those who have grown up in families focused on Christianity and the church… Unfortunately much of our spiritual growth tends to be in the areas of emotion and sheer tenacity… There is nothing wrong, of course, with having strong emotions toward God but without a healthy intellect, these areas fall out of balance.” (Loving Your God With All Your Mind, JP Moreland and Mark Matlock, p. 18)
I was very surprised after several years of reading philosophical works from theistic and atheistic philosophers. This issue isn’t seen at all there. In fact, it seems that Christian philosophers are ahead in the debate on origins. That statement is coming from a non-Christian, btw. The last good atheist book I read was J.L. Mackie’s “The Miracle of Theism” and even then he only attacked classic theistic philosophy.
I want to applaud you, Jokerman. If more Christians out there were like you, there wouldn’t be such a strong amount of anti-intellectualism flooding America.
I know what you mean… the thing is, the founders of Christianity were eyewitnesses to these crazy things claimed in the Bible. In fact, the New Testament books were written within the lifetimes of those eyewitnesses. If their story wasn’t true, the Pharisees, who were very much against Jesus, would have jumped at the chance to disprove their story. The guards at the tomb where Jesus was buried would have no trouble at all claiming what they said was false. This is not what happened, however, they had nothing to say to the apostles’ claims. In fact, 11 of the 12 apostles were killed for believing this. No one in their right minds would have died for a lie, and these people certainly would have know if it was a lie or not, since they were closest to Jesus. Christianity really is the most logical and historically correct.
I know what you mean about having faith though, it really annoys me when people just tell me that and blow off my questions. While faith is definitely required- some people see all the evidence and just plain don’t want to believe- it’s not all there is to it, Christianity is definitely intellectually satisfying.
Also, I really wouldn’t say that large scale evolution is proven. I’d encourage you to check out answersingenesis.com for more information, there’s absolutely tons that I could never post on here. First I’d like to say that everyone has preconceptions and biases. Evolutionists hold on to the theory despite its many flaws, simply because it’s the only thing they can find that explains the origins of the universe without needing God. They themselves acknowledge this. We certainly have biases too, but you will find that our theory fits the evidence much better than evolution. A couple of points: evolution contradicts the first law of thermodynamics- something can’t come from nothing, and the second- everything is in a constant state of decline. Also, there has never been an observed mutation which has added information to the genetic code. Never. And evolution calls for huge numbers of these. There’s also the problem of ‘irreducible complexity’- things such as the human eye, the blood clotting system, well, pretty much every system in the human body, come to think of it. These require several parts to function correctly. If any one of them were missing, the incomplete system would be absolutely worthless, even detrimental to the organism. Pretty much all of life, however, is irreducibly complex. The theory of evolution would actually get rid of anything appearing without a specific function though, as they would not be of any use, in fact, hindering the organism. Their theory cannot account for the prevalence of these irreducibly complex functions.
Just a tiny tiny bit of the many things against the theory. I’ve looked into it a lot (I’m such a science nerd ) and the more I do the more I find it supports creation.
And yes, there actually is a lot of evidence to support Pangaea, as jokerman said, but this is not evidence for evolution. This continent likely existed before the flood and broke up during the tumultuous events taking place during it. This actually makes more sense than it drifting apart over a long time. Again, I’m pretty sure Answers in Genesis has info on that.
As a final note, there’s no evidence for evolution or evidence for creation! There’s only evidence. It’s all in how you interpret it.
I’ve never really gotten a straight answer though.
) and the more I do the more I find it supports creation.
