This email was sent to Jerry A. Coyne on 7/5/18
Hello sir. I read with interest your article entitled “Atheists
could learn a lot from religious people about how to win debates” from
2014. I was particularly interested in the part about religious gaps and
the following quote:
“...
religion, despite centuries of theologizing, hasn’t begun to provide credible answers to the goddy puzzles above.”
In my mind, having read your list of gaps, I’m thinking “Most of
these have been explained numerous times (credible answers) by my pastors, my father, in my
own mind, and in Christian apologetic writings.” I saw it as relatively
simple. So, I figured I’d write you and explain them to you. If you
will be so kind as to indulge me, here we go..
1. Why would God allow natural evils to torment and kill people? Examples given: tsunamis, and cancer.
We as humans exist in the natural world. We cannot be immune to
nature, illness, disease, calamity, and tragedy simply because God
exists. The natural order on Earth demands dichotomy. Good/bad,
hot/cold, up/down, light/dark, happy/sad, sick/healthy, etc. It is
simply the way it is. It is this way because of sin. Sin brought this
dichotomy to nature. Before sin entered the world all was good, and ONLY
good (Eden). Once sin entered the world there was now holy/evil. There
was also God/Satan. Into this bifurcated world we are born. Subject to
the choices we make as individuals, communities, Societies, and
cultures. Subject also to the dichotomies of nature. Some areas flood,
some don’t, for instance. God provides us inner peace to cope with the
bad things and be thankful for the good. God allows us to experience the
bad things so we can appreciate the blessings of the good things. Let’s
be honest, many bad things occur because of our choices. We are seldom
truly victimized. On those occasions where we suffer through no fault of
our own, or otherwise, we provide an opportunity to display our trust
in the sovereign goodness of God. We then become the good that
counter-balances whatever evil it is we faced.
2. If God wants us to know him why does he hide from humanity? Why did he wait so long to reveal himself?
Just as oxygen is essential to our life, faith is essential to
spirituality. God requires faith. It is his greatest requirement. A
suspension of disbelief, along with acceptance and adherence to His
teachings are paramount to salvation. Thus God has revealed enough of
himself to allow this. If he revealed too much of himself faith would no
longer be necessary. Besides he DID walk among us, taught us, did
miracles, and displayed His holiness (Jesus), and left us a guide-book
to study, yet many people STILL do not
believe. Only those with faith join God. Faith (in Christ) is the path
to Heaven. As for His timing, who are we to determine the “right time”?
It seems it was perfect timing as here we are in 2018 and the whole
Earth knows about Jesus of Nazareth.
3. Why would an omnibenevolent God consign sinners to an eternity
of horrible torment for crimes that don’t warrant such punishment?
First of all “omnibenevolent”, meaning all-good, God certainly
is. But He is also righteous, all-knowing, ever-present, loving, and
all-powerful. Like all beings, God has many facets to his personality.
Make no mistake. The ONLY way we bring damnation on ourselves is by
refusing to accept and follow the teachings of God through Christ. We
must
accept Jesus as Lord and savior and keep his commandments. Doing this,
by
God’s grace, through faith, gains us access to Heaven. Period.
Rejecting God
therefore, upon death, gets the unbeliever exactly what he asked for.
Separation from God. This time though, it is complete and permanent
separation. i.e Hell. In short God doesn’t send or “consign” anyone
anywhere. We choose where we go through our own free will. For instance
Christopher Hitchens, a man I greatly admired, spent the majority of his
adult life teaching people to reject religion in general and God
specifically. He knew the choices, he knew the stakes, and he made his
decision. No one MADE him reject God. Upon death, I believe, Mr.
Hitchens was provided with that which he so greatly desired in life.
Namely to be away from God. I believe he now is apart from God. In a
place of torment where he can no longer gain access to God and his
mercy. A place he worked so tirelessly to get to. A dimension where God
isn't. He made his choice and so be it. He was not forced. This will be
the fate of all who reject God.
4. Why is God in the Old Testament such a narcissistic bully,
toying with people for his amusement, ordering genocides in which
innocent women and children are killed en masse, and demanding the death
of those
who work on the Sabbath? How does that comport with the God that Christians and Jews worship today?
This is a loaded question! You imply in your question that God toys
with people for his own amusement. I utterly reject that notion. I think it
is clear that God did what he had to do in spite of it grieving him.
Much like a father disciplines his child, punishing and correcting him
in spite of how unpleasant it might be. The Old Testament is a record of
how God preserved his people (the Jews) and separated them out
from the world so as to bring into the world through them the Messiah.
Along the way he corrected, protected, punished, and preserved them. The
Old Testament is a record of these events.
The Old Testament is all about (among other things) the creation of the world and the
rise of the Jews as God's chosen people. It also contains much prophecy
about the coming Messiah that would later be fulfilled in the New
Testament. The Old Testament also contains wisdom about life in general.
We no longer live in the Old Testament era. That time is gone. That is
history. We live in the New Testament era. We live in the age of grace.
We live under what is called the new covenant. Jesus came to fulfill the
old covenant by becoming the new covenant. That is why there is a
seeming difference to the God of the Old Testament versus the God of the
New Testament. It is because The two Testaments or two covenants
portray God doing very different tasks. The first covenant portrays God
preserving and separating the Jews using what we might call "tough love". The New Testament is about salvation
and God’s plan for the salvation of the human race through his Son. So
in essence the Bible is a two act play that reveals God's masterplan to save humanity from
damnation and allow us to access, through grace,eternal paradise through his son.
5. Why didn’t Jesus return during his followers’ lifetime, as he said?
He never said he would return in their lifetime. Allow me to
contextualize what Jesus said. Your question is no-doubt based on the
following scripture Matthew 16:28...
“Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not
taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
One often mentioned explanation is his transfiguration when he was seen in his glorified body by Peter,
James, and John. This was all part of it. Later, the apostle John had a clear revelation
presented to him where he saw, in a vision, Jesus return “in his
kingdom”. I think this is part of it.
I think, more to the point though, the disciples and many others witnessed him personally usher in an
entire religion, based solely on himself. They saw him in all his
glory, divine, powerful, and Holy. They quite literally saw him "in his
kingdom" (i.e. the Kingdom of God).
Additionally, consider this point. We don’t know every single thing that was
revealed and shown to the disciples during Jesus time with them. It is possible he
showed them other things that simply were not recorded in the scriptures.
After all John 21:25 says: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the
world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” God
did not reveal everything to us. He revealed what He thought was
sufficient to lead us to Him.
In my mind,
the fact that many of the people he spoke this to did have an
opportunity to see the rise of Christianity on Earth where Jesus was
worshiped as God, makes this passage easy to understand. After all he
did NOT say that some will not taste death *until I return*. It is clear
he was talking about many of them seeing the rise of the Christian
religion in their lifetime (Christ essentially brought the Kingdom of
God down to Earth and made it accessible to us through Him).
6. How do any believers know for sure that their faith is the right
one, especially given the presumed penalty for guessing wrong?
The same question could be asked of the atheist. After all if the
atheist is right nothing happens after death. But if the believer
is right there will be Hell to pay (literally) for choosing wrong.
I am a Christian because:
- It is unique among all religions.
- The scriptures have a distinct ring of truth.
- There is bountiful historical evidence Jesus lived as the Bible says.
- The Bible has uniquely transforming powers.
- Devotion to Jesus provides joy, compassion, love, and hope.
- I wish to dwell in Heaven with God upon death, not in Hell.
I hope this answers your questions. I encourage you to open-mindedly seek to know God through Christ.
Thanks!
-Mike Walk
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