Questions on Christianity

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13 Spider Bloody Chain

Grandmaster Knight
So I'm staying with my (older) brother and his wife for a few weeks. Since we rarely get to spend time (and since I have some...personal issues that they want to help me with), they decided to devote an hour or two every day or so to "family talk time", where we sit down and discuss whatever comes to mind.

The thing is, they're devout, albeit fairly educated, well-read, and highly intelligent Christians (whereas I'm, uh, not). They've read and studied the Bible a countless number of times, and they're not particularly ignorant, either. This provides me an excellent opportunity to talk about Christianity, and perhaps religion and faith in general with them.

Thus, I'm wondering if you guys could help me come up with questions for me to ask them on the matter. Do not post anything crude, insulting, or rude, as I won't bother asking them. Instead, for the non-religious folk among you (aka 99% of the posters in the Anachronists' Guild  :lol:), or even the religious folk, throw out some questions that have always bugged you. Maybe issues on theology, or how Christianity conflicts with modern scientific knowledge, etc. Or maybe you'd rather test their faith, how they can believe in a loving God who inflicts/allows cruelty on the world. 

Again, nothing rude or insulting. Please try to take this seriously, and think of it as an opportunity to further your knowledge.

Edit: If I can remember their responses, I'll try to post as much as I can remember here.
 
Err, I'm sure you can just introduce them to the forum and see what happens. :razz: I'd like to ask a question about deathbed conversions though. Quite simply: "Why?"
 
One thing you could bring up is, depending on how deeply devout they are, is their reliance on the bible. It could possibly be that whilst they take it metaphorically (as I will assume, with their intelligence), much of this metaphorical meaning, such as that of morality, most likely comes not from divine inspiration, but from a biological or societal imperative.

Just throwing that out there.
 
Raz said:
Why is God sending me to Hell if he loves me so much? :cry:

The typical response to that, AFAIK, is that he isn't "sending" you to Hell, you've simply chosen (unconsciously, mostly) to do so.

...which in turn raises the question, "Then why the hell (har har) did God set up such a system in the first place?"

Lyze said:
One thing you could bring up is, depending on how deeply devout they are, is their reliance on the bible.

I do need to question them more on this, but actually, they seem to take certain parts of the Bible fairly literally. I'm not entirely sure to what extent, but my brother did scoff at the current archaeological model on how civilization started in various parts of the world.

Which isn't to say that they're stupid. People call me intelligent ( :lol:), but I would consider my brother and my sister in law to be smarter, or at least wiser, than I am.
 
Do you believe this conversation will be constructive? I think it's unlikely, since side will at best try to convince the other to keep an open mind.
 
Why is Christianity so radically different than Judaism? Why did God suddenly decide to change everything for absolutely no reason at all? Why would an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent (and frankly, genderless) deity need to father a child, when anything that a child could do, God could have just done on his own?
 
Zaro said:
Do you believe this conversation will be constructive?

In that I think I'll learn something? Oh yes. I don't really expect to end up having radically changed beliefs by the end of this, if that's what you're saying, but that's not why I agreed to talk with them.

Mage246 said:
Why is Christianity so radically different than Judaism? Why did God suddenly decide to change everything for absolutely no reason at all?

They've mentioned this before, but I'll ask them again. IIRC, they believe that God did have a reason (He believed that the Jews were, in essence, "doing it wrong").

Why would an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent (and frankly, genderless) deity need to father a child, when anything that a child could do, God could have just done on his own?

Dunno, I'll ask.

Ruthven said:
"When will you return to your home planet?"

13 Spider Bloody Chain said:
Do not post anything crude, insulting, or rude, as I won't bother asking them.
 
Mage246 said:
Why is Christianity so radically different than Judaism? Why did God suddenly decide to change everything for absolutely no reason at all? Why would an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent (and frankly, genderless) deity need to father a child, when anything that a child could do, God could have just done on his own?
Why would it even bother with humanity in the first place?
 
13 Spider Bloody Chain said:
Mage246 said:
Why is Christianity so radically different than Judaism? Why did God suddenly decide to change everything for absolutely no reason at all?

They've mentioned this before, but I'll ask them again. IIRC, they believe that God did have a reason (He believed that the Jews were, in essence, "doing it wrong").

Doing it wrong implies that they were given one set of instructions but implemented it incorrectly. Which would imply that there was no need to introduce a completely different set of new instructions, which basically have almost nothing in common with the old ones. If someone is doing something wrong, you tell them how to do it right, you don't start over with something else.
 
Is there anything that you intend to ask them that you couldn't find out via personal research without the risk of alienating yourself from your family?
That aside: Personally, I've always been struck by how poorly translated bibles are from the original texts. What's their opinions on the differences (and are they even aware of them)?

Raz said:
Why would it even bother with humanity in the first place?
Why play the Sims? To watch them die, of course.
 
Ask them why their not muslims.

No, really. Ask them on what ground they made the decision that Christianity was the true faith, and not the newer and more updated religion Islam. If they are good responsible people they should atleast have read the Quaran.

If you had this friend, which you loved and looked up to more than anything. He was your father, brother, girlfriend, street hooker and dope pusher at the same time, but you never got to spend time with him and the last time anyone heard from him was 2000 years ago. If some dude in the middle east then suddenly claims that he got a new version of this "friend" of yours book, and millions of people starts reading it. Would you then just turn a blind eye and pretend it doesn't exsist, or would you read it just to check if it's really new word from you super-best-friend?

And if they did, on what ground did they find the bibel more thrustworthy? What cold striking evidence does the bibel have, that the Quaran don't? Is the stories better written? Is it a question of litterature? Does the bibel provide detailed explanations backed by science, that the Quaran doesn't? Simply ask them why they are not muslims, and don't accept any vague answers.

I know that if I was a religious person I would be on my knees worshipping God 3.0 and not God 2.0 Gotta stay tuned with time you know!
 
This whole thing doesn't seem like a good idea...




Sumaria and Babylon both have flood stories that pre-date the bible, how did this come about before the Christian story?
 
Tarrantmw said:
This whole thing doesn't seem like a good idea...




Sumaria and Babylon both have flood stories that pre-date the bible, how did this come about before the Christian story?
Because if I recall it correctly, there was a major flood in that area around that time period.
 
Raz said:
Tarrantmw said:
This whole thing doesn't seem like a good idea...




Sumaria and Babylon both have flood stories that pre-date the bible, how did this come about before the Christian story?
Because if I recall it correctly, there was a major flood in that area around that time period.

Yep a flood covering the southern part of mesopotamia was recorded by the cultures of the area IIRC. The bible takes tons of stories from previous non-jew cultures and adapts them.

And as Mage mentioned, it's always funny just how different the old god is from the new god. Vengeful and destructive vs give the other cheek and love is all around. Sounds like Mr. God could use some pills.
 
D'Sparil said:
Raz said:
Tarrantmw said:
This whole thing doesn't seem like a good idea...




Sumaria and Babylon both have flood stories that pre-date the bible, how did this come about before the Christian story?
Because if I recall it correctly, there was a major flood in that area around that time period.

Yep a flood covering the southern part of mesopotamia was recorded by the cultures of the area IIRC. The bible takes tons of stories from previous non-jew cultures and adapts them.

And as Mage mentioned, it's always funny just how different the old god is from the new god. Vengeful and destructive vs give the other cheek and love is all around. Sounds like Mr. God could use some pills.

But we all know that the devil planted false archeological evidence to lead people astray...




Is the bible suppose to be interpreted literally? If its not, how do you pick and choose which interpretation to use? Wouldn't god want his instructions to be clear?


Why are homosexuals condemned in the bible? Why do men have a G spot if god made "adam and eve" not "adam and steve".
 
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