QUESTIONS

Skwim said:

Are you aware that even though Ben Hur is a fictional story, it's a fact that chariots existed during the time the story took place? OR, that Misenum, which is mentioned as the place Ben Hur and his family lived, was an actual place? OR, that the Antonia Fortress where Judah's entire family is secretly imprisoned in the story, actually existed? The point being: SO WHAT?

Just because a book references a fact doesn't mean it can't be fiction, or at least filled with fiction. That there have been archeological discoveries that match the descriptions of some place, object or event in the Bible means bupkis. In fact, it would be expected that any rendering of a historical event would almost necessarily reference actual facts from that time.

If you're going to claim that there's archeological evidence that supports the Bible, it better be worthwhile evidence. Evidence that supports extraordinary events. As a well known standard of historical proof: Extraordinary events demand extraordinary evidence. Want to prove that Jesus was the Messiah who rose from the dead? Then you darn well better have better evidence than the walls of Jericho fell outward.

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The Antonia Fortress was a military barracks built around 19 BC ….

TagliatelliMonster said:

This falls under the "New York exists. Marvel mentions New York. But that doesn't mean Spiderman exists".

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Why hasn't the Spiderman Fan Club 'apologized' for the lack of evidence for their claims?!?
How is it acceptable that we teach children about Spiderman?!?
Lack of evidence claims are so .
Would you seriously stop being a Spiderman Fan because no one can prove Spiderman existed historically?

Some serious questions:

How do you justify continued faith in a religion where the leaders profit exorbitantly and are involved in scandals?
How do we know that the Christian faith is really helping us to be better people or saving our souls or whatever you think it supposedly does for us?

And for the Bible specifically, how do you justify the atrocities (mass murder)?
How do you justify the Biblical stance on homosexuality (abomination)?
How do you justify the 'original sin' doctrine?
How do you justify eternal Hell and Damnation?
How do we know the Bible won't eventually inspire another Inquisition or witch-hunt or some such?

1. "God is not a man." Numbers 23:19 Worshiping a man rather than God.
2. 2000 years of violence by the church, especially towards the Jewish people -- not exactly indicative of a people "filled by the holy spirit."
3. Changing an eternal covenant, and trying to replace God's people.
4. Inventing prophecies that don't exist, i.e. "Our of Egypt I have called my son."
5. Their so-called Messiah not fulfilling the prophesies that DO exist, i.e.:

• Bringing the Jews back to Eretz Yisrael
• Ruling from Jerusalem
• Ushering in World Peace

Ponder This said:

Why hasn't the Spiderman Fan Club 'apologized' for the lack of evidence for their claims?!?
How is it acceptable that we teach children about Spiderman?!?
Lack of evidence claims are so .
Would you seriously stop being a Spiderman Fan because no one can prove Spiderman existed historically?

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Not sure if serious or joking.
If not joking, then it seems the point flew straight over your head.

How do you justify continued faith in a religion where the leaders profit exorbitantly and are involved in scandals?
How do we know that the Christian faith is really helping us to be better people or saving our souls or whatever you think it supposedly does for us?

And for the Bible specifically, how do you justify the atrocities (mass murder)?
How do you justify the Biblical stance on homosexuality (abomination)?
How do you justify the 'original sin' doctrine?
How do you justify eternal Hell and Damnation?
How do we know the Bible won't eventually inspire another Inquisition or witch-hunt or some such?

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Why are you asking me these questions?

TagliatelliMonster said:

Not sure if serious or joking.
If not joking, then it seems the point flew straight over your head.

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If we agree, then it means we agree that unsubstantiated historical accuracy isn't a legitimate reason that people aren't 'Spiderman fans'. Feel free to laugh at my remarks. I was being seriously funny!

TagliatelliMonster said:

Why are you asking me these questions?

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I was giving examples of questions that could actually be relevant to a person rejecting the 'Christian Faith' rather than asking you to give the answers to those questions. Perhaps the OP can give answers to those questions. The OP issued an invitation for questions that prevent people from believing the Christian faith. If I mistook his concern, it is my mistake.

I am already a Christian so I will posit one from before I was.

Why should I give my life to Jesus when I feel I can run my own life?

Polymath257 said:

How about actually engaging with people instead of expecting them to answer your questions with no exchange?

I am not prevented from believing in Christianity by any 'questions'. Instead, I don't believe in Christianity because of a lack of *evidence* to support it.

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I believe there is plenty of evidence in the Bible so the truth is that you simply wish to ignore it for some reason. Not only that there is an abundance of testimonies of those who have received Jesus as Lord and Savior.

MISCBEAR said:

There is no explanation for why this occurred outside of the Scriptures.

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Well yeah, there is. The whole Jordan Valley region is seismically active. It's prone to earthquakes. In fact, the Jordan Valley itself, the Red Sea, and the East African Rift are all part of a complex system of geologic faults that are causing Africa and the Middle East to split. Nothing supernatural or divine about it. Great Rift Valley - Wikipedia

Tony Bristow-Stagg said:

My only approach would be more questions as to what is preventing the Christain Faith being more accepting of other Faiths.

1) Why is the doctrine of the Trinity now part of Scripture, given tye warning of adding to scripture.

2)Why is there a doctrine about original sin that also adds to the Bible?

3) Why was personal exploration of scriptural meaning suppressed?

Along that line. As many can accept God and Jesus the Christ, but not in the frame of man made Christain doctrine.

Regards Tony

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I believe other faiths do not provide eternal life.

1.) I believe the doctrine is derived from the Bible and therefore is true. It is not an addition.

2. I believe Paul interpreted it that way to help in his thesis. It does not add anything.

3. I believe after seeing how people get really foolish ideas about what the Bible says that it was meant to preserve doctrinal integrity. Ever since the Bible has been open to all doctrinal integrity has suffered.

I believe you are congratulating yourself on your own misinterpretations.

I believe that can happen but none of the man made ones define Christianity.

rocala said:

1/ Unreliability of the Bible.
2/ The idea that God requires a son.
3/ The virgin birth.
4/ The resurrection.
5/ The idea of Jesus dying for us.
6/ Original sin.

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1.) I believe that comes from a jaundiced perspective because the Bible is essentially reliable.

2.) I believe that is not Christian theology.

3. & 4.) I believe supernatural events are consistent with an all powerful God and with current Christianity.

5.) I believe I can't fathom why that would be a problem.

6. I believe it had to have come from somewhere since sin is here.

Vinayaka said:

My main question is "Why the exclusivity?" What gives you the right to believe that all non-Christians are wrong? If this planet is to ever have harmony amongst it's peoples, that attitude has to cease.

Secondly, I saw hypocrisy .. a lot. I went to a service at about age 17, heard many suggestions as to behaviour. But the problem was I knew those people. The pastor's daughter had just spread gonorrhea to what seemed like half our high school at the time, my MIL was a bill collector for a small natural gas supplier, and half those Christians had to be hassled every month to pay up. So the question is: Why do the ethics espoused not get transferred to reality? I could never be a member of a faith where so many adherents can't practice what they preach.

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I believe then that you have no issue with Christianity but do with the lack of it.

I believe it is due to the fact that you can't make a purse out of a sows ear.

I believe it is because God is always right. That means those who think differently are wrong.

rocala said:

1/ Unreliability of the Bible.
2/ The idea that God requires a son.
3/ The virgin birth.
4/ The resurrection.
5/ The idea of Jesus dying for us.
6/ Original sin.

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I'm going to use this as a basis for my own rejection of Christianity and the Bible. Though I was born, baptized and raised Roman Catholic and converted to Eastern Orthodox at age 23. I drifted away from Christianity about 10 years later.

I'll add that my own religion has some humdinger stories that can tax even the most imaginative fantasy author's talents, so I can't totally reject the Bible stories. I take neither my own religion's stories nor the Bible's literally. They are allegories and morality tales. It's the larger truths, having been written for largely illiterate and ignorant people of the Bronze and Iron Ages, whether it was in Palestine or India of the 1st millennium BCE that we have to look for and understand, though that may be a monumental challenge. They can't be taken at face value.

So if it's not stories like Moses parting the Red Sea, someone being beamed up into a flying saucer (Elijah going to Heaven in a whirlwind), trumpet blasts knocking down a city's walls, or talking snakes, what makes me reject it? It's the idea that a supposedly loving God would create a test for otherwise innocent and ignorant humans, knowing they would fail the test, having it planned all along that he would punish them, and further planning that he would send himself in another form, suffer in their place for their "sin", yet leave the world in the sorry state that he put it in because of the disobedience and failure of the humans. Not to mention condemning all those who don't worship him to everlasting punishment. Dah wha!? No, it's the whole theology, ontology and soteriology I find untenable and which made me reject it belt, buckle and all.

Muffled said:

I believe other faiths do not provide eternal life.

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So a self based reason is top of the list.

It could be thay all provided the chance of Salvation, a chance to be born again, in the age they were given. When Christ brings a New Heaven and a New Earth, salvation then is in the new Covenant.

Matthew 16:25-26 "25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Regards Tony

IndigoChild5559 said:

1. "God is not a man." Numbers 23:19 Worshiping a man rather than God.
2. 2000 years of violence by the church, especially towards the Jewish people -- not exactly indicative of a people "filled by the holy spirit."
3. Changing an eternal covenant, and trying to replace God's people.
4. Inventing prophecies that don't exist, i.e. "Our of Egypt I have called my son."
5. Their so-called Messiah not fulfilling the prophesies that DO exist, i.e.:

• Bringing the Jews back to Eretz Yisrael
• Ruling from Jerusalem
• Ushering in World Peace

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Hosea 11:1 1"When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

Jainarayan said:

Well yeah, there is. The whole Jordan Valley region is seismically active. It's prone to earthquakes. In fact, the Jordan Valley itself, the Red Sea, and the East African Rift are all part of a complex system of geologic faults that are causing Africa and the Middle East to split. Nothing supernatural or divine about it. Great Rift Valley - Wikipedia

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Muffled said:

I believe you are congratulating yourself on your own misinterpretations.

I believe that can happen but none of the man made ones define Christianity.

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That would include YOUR interpretations because they are man made since you are a man.

Muffled said:

6. I believe it had to have come from somewhere since sin is here.

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That is true, sin is here, but it is not here because Adam and Eve ate a piece of fruit... It is here because humans choose to act according to their physical nature instead of according to their spiritual nature...

Question.—In verse 22 of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians it is written: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” What is the meaning of these words?

Answer.—Know that there are two natures in man: the physical nature and the spiritual nature. The physical nature is inherited from Adam, and the spiritual nature is inherited from the Reality of the Word of God, which is the spirituality of Christ. The physical nature is born of Adam, but the spiritual nature is born from the bounty of the Holy Spirit. The first is the source of all imperfection; the second is the source of all perfection.

The Christ sacrificed Himself so that men might be freed from the imperfections of the physical nature and might become possessed of the virtues of the spiritual nature. This spiritual nature, which came into existence through the bounty of the Divine Reality, is the union of all perfections and appears through the breath of the Holy Spirit. It is the divine perfections; it is light, spirituality, guidance, exaltation, high aspiration, justice, love, grace, kindness to all, philanthropy, the essence of life. It is the reflection of the splendor of the Sun of Reality.
Some Answered Questions, p. 118

Trailblazer said:

That is true, sin is here, but it is not here because Adam and Eve ate a piece of fruit... It is here because humans choose to act according to their physical nature instead of according to their spiritual nature...

Question.—In verse 22 of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians it is written: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” What is the meaning of these words?

Answer.—Know that there are two natures in man: the physical nature and the spiritual nature. The physical nature is inherited from Adam, and the spiritual nature is inherited from the Reality of the Word of God, which is the spirituality of Christ. The physical nature is born of Adam, but the spiritual nature is born from the bounty of the Holy Spirit. The first is the source of all imperfection; the second is the source of all perfection.

The Christ sacrificed Himself so that men might be freed from the imperfections of the physical nature and might become possessed of the virtues of the spiritual nature. This spiritual nature, which came into existence through the bounty of the Divine Reality, is the union of all perfections and appears through the breath of the Holy Spirit. It is the divine perfections; it is light, spirituality, guidance, exaltation, high aspiration, justice, love, grace, kindness to all, philanthropy, the essence of life. It is the reflection of the splendor of the Sun of Reality.
Some Answered Questions, p. 118

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Nifty scam.

Looncall said:

Nifty scam.

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Original sin is the scam, the biggest scam of all time, foisted upon a unsuspecting gullible humanity.