A Christian Response to 50 Misunderstood Questions

I happened to encounter an article written by a fellow Triond user named REPuckett called “Top 50 Questions Christians Can’t Answer” (Article Link). The article has generated numerous feedbacks and a written response by my friend and fellow Triond writer Karen Gross titled “A Christian’s Response to Repuckett’s 50 Question Challenge” (Links: Part 1, Part 2).

As part of the challenge posed by REPuckett, I decided to answer the questions based upon what I understand of God and what I have learned of certain theological principles. Of course some of my responses are meant to be symbolic and serious while others are sarcastic or thought provoking. The evidence Mr. Puckett demands to see are the very evidence he denies to give credence to – so if you are not willing to listen to the answers, then why did you write the questions? Nevertheless, here are my answers to the 50 questions that was asked even though many of the 50 questions are the same questions, just reworded.

1. Read more in Christianity

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   If God is omnipotent (all-powerful), why did he take six days to create everything? Why not speak everything into existence all at once?

   He was setting an example to mankind that he should work and take a rest from his labors. Of course you can also argue that God is like an artist, perfection requires careful planning and time. At the end of each day, God only rested once he saw that what he did was “good” and perfect.

2. Why won’t God heal amputees?

   Depends on numerous variables. Why are they amputees in the first place? Is it through the damage inflicted on their bodies through the actions of another human being? You are thinking of God as if he is a Santa Claus or a fairly who hands out gifts, grants wishes and rides around in this heavenly sledge just to fix the world’s problems. God is much more complex than that and God electively stays out of man’s business for a reason – God gave man freewill and if he wants God to work in his life, then man should ask God. But it does not stop at just asking God to do this or that; you need to establish a personal relationship with God to feel differences in your life and healings to take place. God is not your personal slave to run around and fix all the mess you create. And in this world, due to man’s own actions and his sins, the world has become a cruel, intolerance, violent and damaging place to be. And in this broken world, loosing your body part is the least of your worries. What about your soul? If you died today, where will you spend eternity? Like I said, this question is a very bad question in the sense that it goes much deeper than simply healing an amputee. There are multiple facets and numerous variables that needs to be considered and how God works in a person’s life depends also on each individual own decisions and choices. On the flip sides, I have seen people bedridden be healed and people with tumors and cancers healed. I have seen people get up and walk for the time first and people with disabilities restored.

3. If God is so perfect, then why did he create something so imperfect allowing pain, suffering and daily atrocities?

   God did not create anything imperfect. God made all things perfect. He made the stars, the heavens, the universe, the planet and all manner of living things – and he saw that “it was good.” This is represented in the Garden of Eden when man lived with animals in peaceful coexistence and all of creation was perfect – until man fell from grace. Because of man’s original sin, pain and suffering as well as “daily atrocities” became the result of the sin. The “evil” that was introduced into this world is in large part a direct consequence of man’s action. However, God was a just God and he still endowed man with free will and planned for his redemption through Jesus Christ.

4. Why did the little old lady that God healed one Sunday need her walker to get around again next Sunday? Was she only temporarily worthy of a healing?

   The little old lady is a human being. I am not sure what she was healed of. But if you have not noticed, elderly people need assistance many times in their lives. This is due to our mortal bodies that age and looses its vigor and strength. In the old lady’s case, her bone density is being lost (as it is commonly found in elderly) so she needs the help of the walker to sustain her mortal body. The healing she received can be any sort of healing – spiritual, emotional, mental, or a physical condition unrelated to her walker. You can always try sitting down and talking to the old lady to find out more about her healing.

5. How did Noah fit the millions and millions of species on this planet into his ark?

   Well if you claim evolution is correct, then there won’t be millions of millions of species. They would only be the ancestral species, which can be narrowed down to a few hundred species – the necessary number to fit into the ark. Now to cut question down, Noah housed a pair (male and female) of all the animals God send to his ark – how many exactly that is, I do not know. You will need to ask Noah that question.

6. If Noah did fit all of these species on the ark for forty days and forty nights, how did the penguins make it from Mt. Ararat to the Antarctic? How did the koala bears make it to Australia with no eucalyptus to eat along the way?

   Penguins can swim, you should take a look at discovery channel or perhaps the national geographic channel where they will show you penguins DO NOT fly, they SWIM. To answer your question on Koala bears, simply read the book by Jared Diamond named “Guns, Germs and Steel.” It tells you awfully a lot about the Polynesian migration, so it is easy to see why animals are able to reach a habitat and adapt to that niche. And remember, these animals adapted to their niches – thousands of years ago, they may well have had different niches and living patterns.

7. Why do innocent children have to suffer with terminal diseases such as cancer? What part of ‘God’s plan’ is this exactly?

   People always ask questions like this, these questions are not really thought out. I always get a question like “Why does God allow innocent children suffer from AIDS?” Well you have to remember that the last time I checked, people had a lot to do with AIDS. In the same way, the recent outburst of terminal diseases like cancer was unknown to man before the industrialization of man. The rapid growth rate of cancer and terminal diseases are a very recent phenomenon – a side effect of man’s folly. Yes we have developed a lot within the past 100-200 years but that development has also given rise of diseases the world never heard of thanks to more interlinked societies, exposure to harmful pesticides like DDT, the thousands of chemicals we encounter of a daily basis and particulate matter (pm10 and lower) that really damage our bodies and induce cancerous growth and cell aptosis.

8. How is it that the bible explains the earth to be 6,000 to 8,000 years old when we know that dinosaur bones are at least 65 million years old? The ‘missing link’ fossil ‘Ida’ found recently is estimated to be at least 47 million years old.

   Your question is wrong here. Bible never explained that the earth is 6000 to 8000 years old. That theory is the most widely belief based upon the studies and opinions of major theological and scholarly figures. And we also do not “know” that the dinosaur bones are 65 million years old. Many in scientific community have doubts to the accuracy of Carbon dating considering its many inherent flaws. But to do the lack of a better technique, we still hold onto the carbon dating system. Now here is the problem, carbon dating is only accurate a few thousand years. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory tested dinosaur bones with carbon and the result came back as a few thousand years – and the result was thrown out because “it could not be possible.” So they tried with various other isotopes and each different element they used came back with different ages for the dinosaur bones. Goes to show that this “carbon dating” technique we have is no exact science. Scientists also are making many assumptions when carbon dating samples. They are assuming that they rate of decay has been constant throughout time, that they were no outside contamination of the sample, and the original ratio of carbon-radioactive carbon is unknown. Of course I can go on and on about the various popular flaws found in many articles but that would be a waste of time. Basically, we won’t be able to date things precisely until we can get better technology and much more credible technique.

9. Why can’t the all-powerful God not forgive someone of their sins after they die? Example: A Christian man that is seemingly on God’s good list makes a stupid decision and decides to drink a little too much at the fish fry. On his way home he crashes into a mini-van killing a mother and her two children and himself. This man led a very faithful life and made one stupid, yet grave mistake. If this man did not ask for forgiveness of his sins before the electrical activity in his brain ceased, then God will judge him and send him to hell to burn for eternity.

   Once again, in asking this question you are setting a scenario with many assumptions and making a trick question out of it. What the man did is wrong, he should not be drinking nor should he be driving under the influence. He also killed innocent people in an accident that is directly related to his action. However, what his just punishment is for his actions is only answerable to God. We do not know whether he is going to hell or heaven. We also do not know how his life was really like. And God does not operate on the level you think is right. What is “right” or “wrong” in your mind is not how God sees things. God is also a merciful God. And he will make a righteous judgment based on the life of that individual. However, to answer your question in a different perspective, that man’s sins are already forgiven when Jesus died on the cross for him. So when he accepted Jesus as his personal savior, he was forgiven. Of course that does not mean he gets a free pass, what he did is still wrong and he still has to face consequences for that.

10. God wants everyone to worship and follow him and if they don’t, they burn in hell for all eternity. What does this type of attitude say about his character? By definition, he would be described as a tyrant.

    No, God does not need your worship and he does not burn anyone in hell for eternity. God gave mankind freewill to do as they please. The choice is yours. Now whatever you are doing, your life, character and actions, will decide how you spend your eternity. God does not force anyone to do anything bad or good, it’s up to you and your lifestyle choices. If you choose to go out and murder ten people then that’s up to you, but your actions still has consequences. Sin makes your feel dirty and you feel as though you are stained by something you can’t remove. God however is holy and in his presence no uncleanness or unholliness can be present. Sin has no place with God. So a Sinner will be unable to stand in the presence of God. For a sinner, entering the presence of God is torture in itself – so his sole comfort is to be away from the presence of God so thus he jumps into the eternal abyss of unquenchable flames. The sole solution to this dilemma is to wash away your sins and be cleansed through the blood of Jesus Christ.

11. If Jesus died on the cross and spent three days in hell to pay for the sins of the world, then why would we have to go to hell ourselves and pay for them again? God is then, in essence, being paid for our sins twice. With that said, was Jesus’ sacrifice not worthy enough? If that is the case, why should we care that he died for our sins if his sacrifice means nothing at all?

    This question is a question based on misunderstanding of the Bible and the Christian faith. Jesus died for the sins of the world and his sacrifice is worthy. Why? Because this world was contained by sin and nothing in this world could atone for the sins of this world. Thus to save the sinners, God had to sent someone who was sinless, who was innocent and someone who can break the curse of the original sin. The wages of sin is death. However Jesus was sent and he died an innocent sinless being. However death could not hold him because he was without sin thus on the third day Jesus rose again for he triumphed over death. This was a gift from God to mankind to save them from eternal damnation. This gift God gave for free for man to willingly accept or deny it. For whichever man willingly accepted the gift that God gave him through Jesus Christ will be saved from eternal damnation. However, by rejecting the gift of God, you are choosing to bear the consequences (wages) of sin, which is a spiritual death and the eternal damnation in the fiery abyss of hell. Those that accept the gift accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and through this; they are saved from their sin’s consequence.

12. If God wants us all to follow and worship him, why didn’t he create us as such?

    He created us as beings capable of making our own decisions and taking our own actions. And I stated before, God does not need our worship or even want us to worship him. You are thinking of God as a mastermind behind the scenes pulling all the strings and demanding people revere him. No, God is not like that at all. What he desires is for us to have a personal relationship with him – he wants us to see him as a friend, someone we can trust and work together with.

13. What good is it for us to have free will if the intention is for us to not use it? Sure, we can use our free will, but we will burn in hell for eternity if we do. Russian roulette, anybody? It sounds like a set-up to me.

    Man uses his free will all the time. If you are doing something that is clearly wrong, hurtful to another person or something that is sinful and if you are not hearing a voice from heaven commanding you to stop or not seeing fire from heaven coming down to you as you are about to sin, then you just exercised your free will. BINGO! If you really did not have free will, then you would not be able to do anything sinful, hurtful to others or evil. But all those actions are available for us to do, so you have free will. However, having free will does not mean you get to do whatever and just walk away. Every action has its own consequences. Even in human law, having freedom does not mean you can walk up to someone and kill them. No, even in human law, that action will have a consequence even though you have the freedom to do it. In the same way, God gave us the right to choose and to choose freely. But depending on how you choose, you either condemn yourself to its consequences or you make wiser choices in life. Also I answered this question above so scroll up and read more.

14. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, why would God kill Lot’s wife, Sarah, by turning her into a pillar of salt for simply looking in the wrong direction? *Warning of impending sarcasm.* God is a merciful God, right.

    In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, God did not kill Lot’s wife. And Lot’s wife was not called Sarah. Your misunderstanding of the Bible is ridiculous. Before you ask a question, please get your facts straight. Now when Sodom was being destroyed, God told Lot and his family to not look back or they will be “swept away” in the destruction of the cities. However, Lot’s wife disobeyed God’s commandment despite knowing full well what God said and what said would happen if they looked back. So as they were fleeing, She turned around the looked back with longing at Sodom and Gomorrah and due to her disobedient hesitation, she was turned into a pillar of salt. In many ways, this was a merciful action because God said if they look back (hesitate), then they destruction of the city will overtake them but Lot’s wife was not charred to smithereens, rather she quickly died a merciful death – a consequence of her own action and disobedience. And yes, God is a merciful God – just look at how he tolerates you (or mankind in general). All the evils we do are just unimaginable horrors yet God acts with restraint and is still willing to forgive if people are willing to accept the gift of Jesus Christ and lead a godly life.

15. What purpose does hell serve? If it is punishment for sinful actions, shouldn’t it be used for correctional purposes? Seeing as though you burn forever, you will never get out of hell to show that you have learned your lesson. Would it make since to live a faithful Christian life glorifying the Lord and to accidentally sin by saying a curse word the instant you smash your car into the back of a tractor-trailer, thereby being condemned to burn in hell forever?

    This question is not even worth answering. Because it is utter stupidity. You do not understand any theological concepts, or God or anything about God. You think of forgiveness or getting to heaven as some kind of formula you follow – like some kind of recipe or a instruction guideline. Salvation is not like that at all. We are human beings so yes we make mistakes and we are bound to sin. But if you truly have a personal relationship with God and accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, then you are 100% saved and fine. So in case the above scenario happened, you would still be going to heaven.

16. We know that we feel physical feelings through electrical impulses that send information to our brains through our nervous system. Once we die, we no longer feel pain due to the lack of a physical nervous system and, oh yeah, a brain. How could we ‘feel’ the excruciating flames of hell for eternity? Does God make you feel this torment for all eternity out of pure malice because you wouldn’t worship him?

    That is assuming too many things. You are assuming that we do not have bodies of any kind – then what do you propose we exist as? If you as say something like “beings” then you are saying we have a part of ourselves that lives independent of our mortal bodies – what we call a soul. But we do not know the capabilities of our inner self and to this day, we do not know the complexities of the human mind. Your question also oversimplifies the human mind to mere electrical impulses, which even the scientific community will disagree with you on. Human mind is just simply much more complex than that. During the past 1000 years, we have been studying the human mind and to this day, we do not have a definite answer to anything.

17. If God is omnipotent, why does he not just show himself to all of us, all at once, thereby ending this game of free will and temptation?

    God does show himself to us but you are not willing to neither accept him nor believe it when you see it. He showed himself to all the people when he came to earth as Jesus Christ and he did amazing miracles yet people could not comprehend him and did not accept him. And in the Old Testament, God did show himself that way but it does not work either. So what makes you think it will change if he decides to show himself that way again? If he was to do it again, we would simply be unwilling to accept him and will try to quantify, justify and analyze him to instead of having a personal relationship with him. So God chooses to reveal himself in more subtle ways, through his creations. The birth of a child, the universe he has created for us to marvel about and the simple smile of another person. He is revealing himself to us through what we can understand, comprehend, approach without fear and establish a personal relationship with.

18. If God is perfect and his creations perfect, why did he fail several times? He had to impose suffering upon the human race because Adam and Eve defied him by eating of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Failed! He had to flood the planet 1,600 years later wiping out all but eight humans. Failure! He had to confuse human language after Nimrod and the Tower of Babel incident so that they could not effectively communicate with each other. Failure! How is this a track record of a perfect being?

    God is indeed perfect and he once created all this creations to be perfect. However this was broken when Adam and Eve disobeyed him due to the free will he gave them. God did not make man to be mindless worshipping slaves. No, God wanted man to love him out of his own choice. So by disobedience man left God’s divine plan behind and introduced sin, lawlessness and all kinds of evil into this world. The earth was so filled with evil that God saved the only righteous people that were left (Noah and his family). He then hit the reset button and gave humanity another chance to choose what is right. Yet it is humanity which failed again, choosing to continue to lead a rebellious hate filled violent life in disobedience to God. The Tower of Babel is the epitome of human rebellion and disobedience so God decided to foil their plan. At Babel rebellious mankind undertook a united and godless effort to establish for himself by a titanic human enterprise a world renown by which he would dominate God’s creations (NIV). So in all of this, it is not God who failed, it is man and his futile attempts.

19. If, in the beginning, there was only God and he created everything, why would he create angels that had the propensity to defy him? This very fallacy led to Lucifer challenging his authority because he desired to share the same power as God. This led to the rise, or fall depending on how you look at it, of Satan, the most notorious enemy of God and his followers. Failed, again!

    God created the angelic beings to be his servants but Lucifer was one of the highest ranking beings and who worshipped God fell because of his pride. Prophet Isaiah speaks of Lucifer as saying “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. (NIV)” So his pride got better of him and made him rebel against God and that rebellion was quickly put down and he was cast down. He and those that followed him became the fallen ones. However, Satan does not contain any powers and he is not that notorious. He is just famous because people make him out to be. He is the father of lies and the way he works is by spreading misinformation, lies, deceit and introduction temptations and whatever methods he can to break people away from God. He does not directly do anything or get involved. He just works to make people turn away from God by presenting circumstances and other temptations. Ultimately it is up to man to choose what he wants to do and to choose God or to follow his own desires.

20. Why would you trust ‘God’s plan’ given his track record of many failures?

    Last time I checked, God did not fail. And for a person who does not know anything about God, what do you know about God’s plan. In fact, please explain what you think is “God’s plan.”

21. A disciple of Christ, Thomas, was a skeptic. He walked with Jesus during his time on earth and physically witnessed with his own eyes certain miracles performed by him such as raising Lazarus from the dead and so forth. However, after the crucifixion, Jesus supposedly rose three days later. Thomas did not believe it was truly him despite being told, prior to the incident by Jesus, that he would rise again in three days. Thomas required physical proof. Jesus allowed him to touch him and feel the wounds in his body to offer proof. Why doesn’t god extend the same proof to humans alive today? Those that doubt his existence are no different than Thomas, requiring physical proof and he was a disciple of Jesus himself. If Thomas had been born one generation later, or even living today, he would have burned in hell for all eternity because he would not believe for the lack of physical proof. Paul was born after the death and ascension of Christ. Throughout his life, he did not believe that Jesus was the son of God and even went out of his way to persecute Christians thinking that their religion was a dangerous belief system to practice. Lo and behold a flash of light came out of the sky and Jesus Christ himself appeared to Paul explaining to him that he is actually the one true god. Jesus told him that he was persecuting the followers of the only true faith. From that point on, Paul was a converted Christian. Again, if God was willing to go out of his way to physically prove to Paul that he actually exists, why is this not done today? Why isn’t God willing to show those that doubt today the same degree of physical proof? Why should we be any different than Thomas and Paul?

    Thomas was not requiring proof the way you think, he could not comprehend if the disciples were seeing a ghost or the actual Jesus risen again (long complicated Jewish beliefs about after life). So he wanted to make sure it really was Jesus and not a ghost. Paul believed in God already but he was doing a lot of horrible things to people (persecuting innocents) because he thought he was doing the right thing for God. So Jesus was simply helping him see that what he was doing is not in service of God but rather against him. Paul quickly realizing this mistake, started to follow God whole heartily and make amends for the damage he did. Also this question is the same question from a few questions above. Please stop repeating the same questions. Just look above for my earlier response.

22. Christians argue evolution by asking why there aren’t any half-ape half-men walking around today, right? Why don’t we see giants, fiery talking serpents, talking donkeys and many other mythical creatures that are described in the Bible?

    There were mythical creatures mentioned in the bible? I must have missed that in my reading. Some of the things mentioned in the Bible are not literal while others are future prophesies with meaning behind the illustration the author is trying to convey to the reader. It is a literary technique most commonly employed even by modern authors. I am still amazed you managed to bridge evolution with mythical creatures. Let me tell you what I believe. There is NO WAY for all the things in this universe and all the delicate genetic codes and wonders of this galaxy to be made by a accident. There was a intelligent design to this all – and that is God.

23. If we are to only have sex for the purpose of pro-creation, and to do so outside of the scope of pro-creation is sinful, then why would God create us with an over abundance of nerve endings in our reproductive organs making sex extremely pleasurable? It sounds like yet another set-up.

    Sex for the purpose of pro-creation was a theory pushed by the Catholic Church and by the medieval European society. It is not stated in the Bible. However, God made man and woman to be together with each other and to complete one another so they won’t be lonely. Sex is yet another intimate way for a married couple to be with each other. However, lusting after the pleasures of sex is sinful. But enjoying what God has given you with the person God has given you to be with is a blessing in many ways.

24. Why do Christians share the same statistical rate of divorce as everyone else? “What God hath made, let no man put asunder.” How could Christian marriages fail if they are sanctified by God? Hmmmm…. interesting.

    We are all human beings and we all make mistakes. Just because you put a ring on your finger does not mean you are done. Marriage is not a magic formula. Marriage is a process, a lifetime of commitment to each other, to your vows and to your relationship. If people are unwilling to work on their marriage then you will no doubt be disappointed and your marriage will fail. Yes God blessed your marriage and had put you together with your partner and now it is up to both of you to hold true to your commitments and to work on your relationship with each other while staying close to God. Failing in those elements will inevitably lead to heartbreak and in the worst case scenario, a divorce.

25. In the book of Luke chapter 19 verse 27, Jesus says, “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” This seems pretty clear that Jesus would have Christians kill all non-believers. How do you explain this?

    You did not quote Jesus correctly, you are taking things out of context and you are reassigned the meaning to suite your purposes. That quote is from the parable of the Ten Minas and Jesus is telling the people the parable. Verse 27 of Chapter 19 of Luke is what the master (a man of noble birth) commands one of his servants to do because his enemies opposed him when he tried to become their king. This practice was common in many kingdoms where when a new king arises, he would kill any major political opponents or any rebellions that occurred against his succession as king. That quote is what Jesus is saying the king said to his servant. However, through your limited knowledge and also because you did not read the parable, you misquoted and assigned something else entirely different. Please take the time to read what you are about to write before making a fool out of yourself.

26. If God created everything, why did he create AIDS, influenza, ebola, ecoli and so on and so on? These, as viruses, are living things. You definitely can not use the free will card for this one. Is this another part of ‘God’s plan’?

    Last time I checked, AIDS was not God’s plan or design – I remember it had to do a lot of with the consequences of some individual’s actions. Now on a more scientific note, viruses are known to educe certain genetic changes (like the phage viruses in bacteria) that help them adapt more to their habitat or make their more lethal. And of course we can also draw out a lesson from Darwin’s book – the Survival of the Fittest card but that would be wrong in a sense too. Even science is not entirely sure as to the purpose and long term effect of viruses; they are a mystery – one of many in this universe. And some of these also had to do a lot with sanitary conditions and human living standards, a direct consequence of our action. For example, if fecal matter is not disposed of correctly, it may enter food source and contaminate it with viral or bacterial presence which may then harm whoever eats it.

27. How can God answer a prayer giving a working-class man in the United States a raise at his place of employment so that he can move his family into a larger house, but he does not answer the prayers to stop the starvation and disease of millions upon millions of children around the world? This must be another infinitely wise part of ‘God’s plan’.

    Why are there starving children in the first place? Maybe because we human beings are so greedy and so unwilling to make a difference. God is not to blame here. He gives the man his promotion by making the right circumstances for him to get promoted. In the same way, God provides for those starving and sick children. He makes millions of pounds of corn and other food products grow in numerous western nations. ONE Campaign and Bread for the World estimates that if we use the millions of pounds of food we throw out in wasteful overindulging eating and if we cut down on all this unnecessary waste, we can provide millions with plenty of food to eat. The tons of grain used to feed and drive our cattle industry can feed the entire world four times over. God provides plenty of food and grain growth however we are unwilling to care for our fellow man. Instead we would rather feed the cattle so you can eat your steak sandwich while millions are starving. God cannot be blamed for human greed and selfishness. Even right now, if we simply make GM foods cheaper and redirect some of our resources from cattle industry and have less wasteful spending, we can feed every human being on this planet. This is clearly not God’s fault. It is out inability to care, our greed and our cruelty towards other human beings. All the result of sin.

28. If God’s word is supposed to be the accurate word of God himself, how are we supposed to trust it enough to model our lives after it 100% when hundreds of books were excluded from the original text throughout so many translations and revisions in history?

    Please do elaborate on the “hundreds of books” that were excluded or what original “text” you are referring to. Any credible theologian will tell you there is no single source document with these “hundreds of books” that were excluded. Now were there some books that were excluded, yes, there were. Why? Because their authors could not be confirmed or they failed to meet some of the standards that differentiates folk stories from the Bible. The members that compiled the books of the bible as they are now were highly educated theologians, philosophers, thinkers and professionals from all sorts of backgrounds who were divinely inspired to choose the books as they are now. And why trust the Bible? Because every book has a meaning in people’s lives, it makes a difference and it offers so much valuable Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (BIBLE).

29. Why is there no evidence of any of the miracles performed by God? None whatsoever.

    Time erases a lot of things, so does ignorance.

30. If God and Jesus are the same, having the same mind, knowledge and power, then why would Jesus beg himself in the garden of Gethsemane, to spare himself from having to be crucified? Furthermore, why would Jesus ask himself why he has forsaken himself by allowing himself to be crucified?

    The Trinity is very hard to understand for some so I will not get into that. But Jesus is the form send by God into earth with human characteristics and weaknesses while retaining his divinity. So just as a any human being would, he prayed, he worried, he cried, he empathized – in short, he had human emotions. He was 100% human being at the same time he was 100% divine. And if you notice something, throughout the entire dialogue between Jesus and God, Jesus always called God “Father” and when he was crucified, that relationship was signified when he called God as “God.” The only time Jesus called God as God instead of Father. And this is tied into the Trinity, so please look into that if you want to learn more on this topic.

31. If you believe that your eternal life is more important than your physical life and you believe that all children are innocent in the eyes of God, why not kill your children so they are guaranteed to go to heaven? You can’t tell me that it is because killing is a sin. First of all, you could repent thereafter and be forgiven. Secondly, if you would sacrifice your life for your child who is about to be hit by a train, and you believe your eternal life is more important than this life, then it would stand to reason that you should kill your children to ensure their entrance into heaven before they are old enough to be held accountable for being a creature of sin, right?

    Your statement is morally, religiously, and ethically wrong. And what you say is also wrong because Jesus commanded us to obey him but also commanded us “Do not murder” (and listed many other vices we should not do in Galatians). Jesus also commanded us to obey our earthly authorities and their laws. Murder is also sinful in the eyes of God and society. Both will forbid such things. And personally, your question is just stupid. What kind of sick individual are you? You can only think of such vile things because you are not a God’s child. If you truly are a Christian, then you would exhibit the characteristics of God, not commit murder. Also your understanding of salvation is skewed as I mentioned numerous times in the questions above so please refer to that.

32. If you do believe that children are innocent in the eyes of God, wouldn’t it be reasonable to suggest that abortion doctors are winning more souls for Christ than Christian missionaries? Why not bomb a pre-school? That would surely win a lot of souls for Christ.

    We do not bomb any schools because we are not terrorists and we are not psychopaths. Murder, killing, hurting other human beings and any other actions is not the way for winning any souls. I am not even sure where you get that idea. The Gospel is a message of love and God says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the Children of God.” If you truly are a child of God, then you would be a peacemaker, not kill children and bomb places or terrorize individuals.

33. If you do not believe that children are innocent in the eyes of God, wouldn’t it be fair to suggest that God is a monster? Do you see the conundrum here?

    Huh? Children are innocent until they loose that innocence at a certain point. However, they are guilty of original sin and the only way for them to be free of that is through Jesus Christ.

34. It is a common belief among Christians that the only unforgivable sin is consciously rejecting Christ as Lord and savior. With that said, it is also believed by Christians that those who have never heard of Jesus and the Christian faith, i.e. individuals within an isolated tribe, babies and so forth, have no concept of Christ and can not, therefore, be in the position to consciously reject him. This would allow them entrance into heaven by default. With that said, why would you tell anyone about Christ? Why would you spread the word if that would put them in the position to consciously reject him? If they are already going to heaven due to their ignorance of the word of God, why not just let that be? You would, in effect, be losing more souls to Satan by spreading the word. You might want to rethink that whole “fishers of men” thing.

    Even if you truly do not know Jesus Christ (like the isolated tribe), you would be judged based upon the truth you knew and how well you adhered to it. If you knew the difference between right and wrong just still chose to do what is wrong, your actions still has consequences. Even if you do not know law, if you break it, there will be consequences. So if someone knew the law then they should tell you about the law so you do not break it and do not suffer the consequences. In the same manner, if you know about Jesus Christ, you would want to tell everyone you can about him because you know that even if they do not know him, they are going to suffer the consequences of their actions. So it is best if you know him, then you can be sanctified through him.

35. Imagine that I had the power and ability to feed millions and end all suffering. Now, imagine that I simply chose not to do so because these millions of people that are suffering did not like me. You would probably like me even less then, right? Then why does God get a ‘get out of jail free card’? Wait a minute, ‘God’s plan,’ right?

    Answered this question before, stop repeating the same questions over and over again.

36. Why are more atrocities committed in the name of God than anything else?

    There will always be individuals who become disillusioned, misled, filled with hate, disbelief, greedy, power hungry and corrupt – these individuals take advantage of whatever they can to achieve their goals. In truth, they do not know God or know anything about his message. Such individuals will be punished for their crimes and should not be given any heed in society. Now if you are referring to the Jihad and Islamic terrorism, you should ask “Why are more atrocities committed in the name of Allah than anything else?”

37. The bible states that it is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. If it is fairly impossible for the rich to go to heaven then why are there wealthy Christians? Why wouldn’t these rich Christians give up all of their wealth to make it easier for them to enter the kingdom of heaven?

    Again, you do not understand the context and you take things to twist it to say whatever you want. If you read it carefully, Jesus is clearly saying that wealth should not be what you desire after. It should not be more important to you than God or life in general. This meaning is evident when the rich man asks Jesus what he can do to achieve eternal salvation. Jesus tells him to follow God’s commandments and trust in God with all his heart – the rich man then replies that he has done that already. Then Jesus seeing that his wealth was more important to him than God, he said then give up your wealth and follow God but the rich man could not do it. Moral of the story, do not make anything more important in your life than God. You can have whatever you want in life – heck you can even be #1 in the Forbes list of wealthiest people in the world but do not let it consume your life but remember to keep God your focus.

38. Building upon the previous question, if it is almost impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, then why would God create heaven as having pearly gates, streets of gold and many mansions? It sounds like he wants us to be poor in life so that we will want to be rich in the afterlife, maybe? Does this make any real sense?

    This question now does not make any sense and thus is void considering your previous question was made with wrong assumptions and misinterpretation. Refer to the answer above.

39. If God is perfect then his creations should be perfect, right? Then that would mean that the earth is a perfect creation. Then why would God have to create another perfect place, heaven, and use it to entice us to believe in him? What kind of assurance do we have that heaven would be any better than his other ‘perfect’ creation, earth?

    Please refer to answers above to see why the earth is no longer perfect and why this existence is a sinful filled with all manner of evils due to man’s disobedience due to this free will.

40. God allowed Jesus to be tempted as a human by Satan in the wilderness of the desert. Again, if God and Jesus are the same entity, then what kind of sense does it make for God to allow himself to be tempted by Satan in the wilderness to see if he would give in to the temptation? In addition to that, if he were all-knowing, he would have already known the outcome and, therefore, could have avoided the whole thing all together.

    As suggested earlier, please study the Trinity. And also refer to the answers above to see what I said about Jesus’s 100% humanity and 100% divinity. Another good reading material is called “God: The Oldest Question”

41. If heaven is to be a place free of sadness, pain and suffering, then how can you be happy in heaven knowing that the vast majority of humankind is painfully burning for eternity, especially when some of them may be your loved ones?

    You won’t be able to comprehend this without studying or understanding salvation. So I suggest that you refer to the gospels and the Paul’s writing as this question is clearly answered there. Not even going to waste my time answering something that was already answered.

42. Seeing as though everything we, including Christians, enjoy in the modern world is a product of science, why do Christians so fervently deny factual scientific evidence that disproves so many aspects of the bible and their religion as a whole?

    Please do name things that science actually disproves. In fact is science if the unmistakable factual evidence that you claim it to be, then why are so many things “theories” instead of “laws” and why do scientists themselves disagree as to which “theory” is correct. And even more curious is why has the science failed to comprehend the human body, the human mind and our surrounding environment even after intense study for all these years. Despite having capable technology, we have not explored more than 3% of our world’s ocean yet we claim to know all there is to know about it, why? And is the science is the factual evidence we been looking for, then why does science change it’s finding every time something unexpected or new is observed. The point is, science is not as factual as you think – we know little to nothing about our world or our universe, let alone our bodies. So why pretend to know more than we really do? I mean, the best theory we got for the creation of the entire known universe and planets is “an explosion” known as the big bang – but how can we even make such a claim when we have not even been about to step out into the universe we claim to know so much about by looking through some machine’s optical camera at light that is arriving to us billions of years old.

43. If Christianity is the only true religion, then why do practitioners of all other religions feel fulfilled in their faith and achieve the same desired results as Christians?

    They do? I always felt the practitioners of other religions were looking for answers, looking for the truth and that quest had led them to that religion. But their truth and that answer does not lie there, so they look elsewhere. They truth lies in the true God. And on a personal note, I think this question is silly – it is a question of opinion.

44. If God created everything, then why did he create the tree of knowledge of good and evil and put it right in the middle of the garden of Eden for Eve to eat of it’s fruit if he didn’t want her to? Furthermore, why did God create the serpent that tempted Eve? Uh-oh, it sounds like another possible set-up.

    Because God have man the choice to do as he pleased. The serpent is representative of Satan’s attempt (though success) at trying to mislead man away from God’s purpose for him. And God created serpents just as he created the other animals because he saw and it was good in the perfect world before the fall of man.

45. In the beginning God created Adam and Eve, right? Then Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel. What happens next? How did the species propagate itself? Incest is genetically detrimental to offspring. It is also seen as being terribly immoral among the majority of people alive today, including Christians. There was either some incest going on or God created more people from scratch and we weren’t told about it. The same scenario applies to the flood incident. Sure, Noah’s three sons had wives, but that would still mean that, out of the eight remaining individuals on the planet, there is only a 50% variation of genetic code. Mathematically, inbreeding was sure to be necessary to replenish the earth.

    This is a topic many people do not understand. But there are many cryptic names that many scholars are debating about in this passage. One of them is “the sons of God took daughters of men.” But who are the sons of God, angels? The bible also makes references to nephilim and there is an entire Wikipedia article discussing this. Please take a look at it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim . Now incest was not banned by God until much later. So there are many who believe in this theory, considering that all human beings on this earth have vast genome that is very similar. Please also refer to these articles: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/If_Adam_and_Eve_had_two_sons_but_no_daughters_how_did_the_world_get_populated and http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/descendants.htm

46. Why does God allow things to happen among his followers that he has already deemed to be sinful, i.e. incest example above, “thou shalt not kill” and so forth, and it is alright as long as it is done in his name? Remember, more deaths have occurred in history in God’s name.

    God is not a control freak or an annoying daddy figure. He gave man free will to do as he pleases and have him guidelines as it became necessary for him. Thus incent became forbidden and the Ten Commandments along with other laws were given to man to help him make the right choices.

47. How did Adam live to 930, Seth 912 and Methuselah 969 years old when anthropological evidence show that we have progressively increased our longevity throughout history? If they did live that long back then, this concept would be reversed and our longevity should have been decreasing throughout history, right? That would mean that people 500 years ago should have lived to at least 200 years old. Why do we not find evidence of this throughout written historical birth and death records as well as archaeological and anthropological evidence?

    Written history began quite recently and before that, it was only oral history. It is one of the basic lessons you learn in a history class, that’s why there are no historical birth or death records for Adam or Methuselah. Now soon after man’s fall, his lifespan began to drop drastically and as man became more “ingenious” his lifespan took a sharperdive. He learned violence, hate, and led to wars. His ‘advances” created more problems as sanitation, resource allocation and other limiting factors came into play. Thus lifespan became considerably short until modern medicine began to develop and antibacterial and antivirals became available and the standard of life improved. Yet even then, these advances have created more problems such as new forms of diseases like cancer. We also have things like antibiotic resistant bacteria, antiviral resistant viruses, new dangerous strains that are resistant to “modern” medicine. We also have more mutagens like more chemicals entering our system; our standard of living has led to the development of diabetes and other lifestyle related diseases. We also have pollution like particulate matter which causes numerous respiratory diseases and cancers. So the lifespan dropped a lot from the time of creation but we are barely holding at our current lifespan due to our medical and living standard improvements.

48. God has killed more people than Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Sadam Hussein, Milosavic and Jim Jones combined. Why would you not follow them instead of God? Based on this standard, these monsters are compassionate compared to God.

    Your question does not make any sense because you are assuming that God killed someone. But I can assure you that God did not kill people just because he can or because he hates someone. Those people you mentioned as psychopaths driven by hate and inhumane lust for power. God does not lust for power because he is already omnipotent and he does not hate because he is not driven down to the level of human emotion. God is merciful and loving and he is a compassionate God. And most of the deaths blamed on God is not God’s fault at all, just the fault of mankind’s greed and his sins.

49. Why is it that when a Christian is faced with questions that have huge negative implications towards the logic of their faith, they conveniently say that it is in God’s plan? Judging by the above mentioned failures, God’s plan does not seem to be a very good one.

    Not sure which Christian you are referring to but you can look at all the questions I answered and you can see that I did not say its God’s plan and left it at it. I tried to help you understand the failure of your logic and your miserable attempt to frame God as the source of your misfortunes. I also exposed numerous instances of your failed pathetic attempt at trying to twist context of things to suite your needs and your failure to fully understand what you speak of. Next time, before you criticize, please get your facts straight.

    Last, but not least……..

50. Why would God give us the capability of logic and reason and expect us not to use it when it comes to belief in him and his word?

    You must really be stupid and sad – either that or you could not come up with a better question. I think I answered this question like 5 times through this entire passage. Why do you keep repeating the same question in different wording over and over again – then claim that it is “top 50 questions Christians can’t answer?” Maybe the repetition of the same questions over and over again is another feeble attempt of yours at trying to make yourself believe the utter foolishness you are uttering. Nevertheless, the answer to this question is throughout this entire questionnaire and in all the other questions you asked about freewill and logic and reason.