Answers To Questions Asked By a Reader

This post was originally supposed to be a response to a comment left on the post entitled, "Why I am a Christian."  But, seeing as how I do not know how to shut up (or, quit typing in this case), I decided to make it a full post.

If you have anything at all to say to this, please feel free to leave a comment here or on the original post.

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Randall,

Thanks for the comment.  I appreciate that you have stated your beliefs in an informed manner, but without the condescending tone that usually accompanies this type of comment.  I frequent a number of different atheistic and agnostic websites, and have seen many times the vitriolic hatred that some people have for anything that resembles Christianity.

Here is my response to your comment:


1.) How do you now that there is only one God?  Or, for that matter,  any gods?

I consider myself to be as much of a Deist as you can be and still consider yourself a Christian.  I believe that a Higher Intelligence exists, regardless of whether or not it is the Christian god.  I do understand that there may be numerous gods, and I understand that there may be no gods.  I also DO believe in Evolution.  I will never believe in Creationism, as there is no proof for it.  The Creation story was written as it was because the people of the time did not understand science, and needed some way to explain the world around them.  The idea of a 6,000 year old Earth became famous during the late 17th and early 18th Centuries, when Sir Isaac Newton set out to determine the age of the Earth using the genealogies listed in the Old Testament ( this was also done by many others before and after Newton).


2.) How do you know which religion to choose?  What about how to choose the specific sect of that religion?

I do not think that God, if he exists, cares if you are Catholic, Baptist, Jewish, Islamic, or you have ever even heard of God.  He made us the way that we are, and so understands that we are inherently afraid of that which is different than we are (hence racism, sexism, gay bashing, and many other problems that plague the human race).  This protected our ancestors from being eaten by lions or killed by a different tribe.  As long as you live a good life, full of the things that are considered right in any culture (helping those in need, respect for your fellow man, taking care of your family, etc), you will be rewarded.  Even the Catholic Church admits that God will probably not send the indigenous tribesmen of the Amazon to Hell, seeing that many of them have no idea what civilization is, let alone have been exposed to Christianity.  So, this means that it does not matter what religion you follow, as long as you do what is right.

3.) If God is all knowing, won't he be upset that you choose to believe in him for selfish reasons?

Why else would you believe in God (or gods) if not to get into Heaven?  The whole idea is to benefit yourself in the long run, and God set it up like that on purpose.  Why would he punish us for doing what it is in our nature to do (as stated earlier)?  Everything that anyone does, regardless of what they say and what you think, is done for selfish reasons.  Why do people donate to charities?  Selfishness; it makes them feel good about themselves.

4.) Your argument assumes that people can choose to believe in something, regardless of what the evidence or lack of evidence shows.   Mark Twain said, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so." That quote is funny because reasonable people can't do that.

as far as evidence is concerned, I do not believe in most of the aspects of "Christianity" that the fundamentalists and evangelicals do.  They have no proof for the fact that the Earth is 6,000 years old, and we have tons of evidence for an age of 4.6 billion years.  My father is a geologist, so I grew up to have a great love of geology, geological history, and paleontology.  I will argue along side any atheist, any day of the week, against the fire and brimstone Christians on this and numerous other topics.

But, there is no proof that God does not exist, just that he doesn't exist in the manner described by the backwoods, ignorant preachers.  As soon as certain questions are answered, I will stop believing in God.  Among these answers that I seek is this: What started the Big Bang?  Besides geology, I also love astrophysics and astronomy (even if I only have an elementary understanding of each!).  I understand, and am starting to believe in, the Multiverse Theory, so know that the matter that comprises our solar system may have come through a worm hole or black hole from another universe.  But there had to be something, somehow, that got everything started.  Before the Big Bang (whatever Universe the original was in), there was nothing, not even space itself.  So, if there was nothing, how did something just magically appear?  Nothing can appear in a vacuum without something else putting it there in the first place, and nothing can appear out of nothing.

there is strong evidence that life sprang into existence (I use that term loosely) at the thermal vents at mid oceanic ridges.  There is also evidence that life DOES NOT need water to survive, or even to come into existence.  But how?  A group of proteins just all of a sudden decided to become a living organism that can replicate on its own?  the Australian cyanobacteria and stromatolites are the oldest known creatures, and are thought to be the original life on Earth.  How did they begin?  You mean to tell me that amino acids just magically decided to start eating and having sex?  well, the first lifeforms were asexual, but I think you get the point.

If you can show me evidence to the contrary for any of the above, I will stop using them as a reason to say that a higher intelligence exists.  But until that time, I will  do what all good scientists must do, and continue to believe that it is possible until all doubt has been removed.


*  I would love to provide links for everything in this article, but some topics came out of books that I have lying around the house (textbooks, books bought at Borders, etc).  If you would like to know what information came from what book, please leave a comment, and I will get that information to you as soon as possible.