Having looked through all the threads in this section of the forum, I am staggered by the amount of meaningless banter which appears. Hence this thread is for anyone who has any REAL questions regarding Christianity, and I will do my best to answer them here. I would politely ask that if you only wish to post here to attempt to ridicule others' beliefs without any prior thought, or wish simply to post things with no backup argument whatsoever, such as "all religious people are dunces", that you post somewhere else. Also, if someone answers a question in a satisfactory manner, please refrain form your childish instincts and steer away from insults about the poster or their mother, as this only proves you have no better argument.

Poker is a logical exercise, lets make this the same, please.

How much personal sacrifice do you believe is necessary in order to do Jesus's/God's work? e.g. Do you think it's necessary to do a job which is beneficial to people/society in order to be a positive influence i.e. being a charity worker/doctor compared to a banker/hot shot lawyer?

Just checked your profile, I'm at Bristol doing a medical science. You finals?

Who/what created God?

Could you give us some background on yourself and how you got into Christianity?

Do you think the bible is good enough on its own to prove God’s existence?

Do you believe that humans evolved from more primitive life forms?
Is that belief compatible with Christianity?

this might be easier and more beneficial if we had a starting point with regards to your beliefs...if there is one thing most of us have learned its that all christians beleive different things...

can you give us your take on...
1. who gets into heaven/hell
2. free will
3. the extent of gods omniscience/omnipotence
4. your opinion of the use/validity of the OT in current christianity

those should give us a starting point to ask questions...thanks...

Hi man, I'm in Bath doing NatSci, but on a years placement with MOD at the moment, so finals next year... fun!

Firstly, if you believe in God, you understand that God wants what's best for you, so following his plan for your life will make it as fulfilling as it possibly can be.
That "plan" could be absolutely anything. Some people are called to be ministers, some to be soldiers, some to be tax collectors, some accountants etc. etc - absolutely anything. God could call you to go to Nepal or to live in the middle of nowhere in China. I do believe God gives you skills and aspirations as a gift - often what you feel you want to do is what God actually wants you to do! Just because someone is a Christian doesn't mean they have to become something which helps more people or saves more lives.
Your question is interesting though - considering my first point about God having the best plan for your life, is there such a thing as having to make a sacrifice for Him? Personal sacrifices will come from deciding to not do things you might otherwise find fulfilling from the world, such as sleeping around or buying loads of posessions, and listening to what God wants instead. But in the long run these might not make you happy anyway!
I guess my overall answer would be that I don't believe I make sacrifices for God - I am privelidged to do his work. In the end, I believe he died for me, and if feeding the homeless in London instead of taking my dream job as a scientist is what he wants, then he deserves my agreement.

I hope that makes sense.... would love to hear your views on it!!

Nobody / Nothing created God. He simply "is". I know thats a fairly difficult idea to understand as someone who lives within the realms of space and time. We think causality must apply - the chicken and the egg - something must have come first. But God created time, created the chicken and the egg, and created causality. Therefore we can't fully understand how he can be "not created" because we know nothing of what you might call that "extra dimension" to time and space that he exists in.

Sorry thats a kinda ragged answer, if you want me to clarify it further give me a shout... hope it makes sense. You do know how to ask the awkward ones!!

Hi there - wow someone wants to hear my story - awesome!

My parents were Christians and I was brought up in a Christian household with those sorts of values. Some people say that its sooo much easier for me to believe because of this, but that isnt true. I struggled a lot with my faith at points, and it wasn't until i was 12 or 13 (cant remember which!) when I went to a sort-of happy-clappy Christian conference called New Wine run in Somerset, UK that I really knew what I believed. There I was challenged about what I believed, they asked awkward and challenging questions, and it made me realise how much I didnt know. I spent the next week learning everything I should have learned ages ago, and in doing so I realised how amazing God is. People prayed for me and I gave my life to Jesus. Its kinda been all uphill from there! :-)

This leads me nicely onto your second question. I was taught in RE/RS wahtever you want to call it at school that there are 2 types of ways in which God reveals himself - general and special revelations. General revelations are things like the complexity of nature, and the Bible - things people everywhere can see and engage with. Special revelation are prophesies, healings, miracles of all sorts. Being a scientific man I would find it hard to believe in God just thought the Bible - I need some more personal proof. I have had plenty in my time!! People never believe me when I say this stuff, but I've seen people get up out of wheelchairs and walk, I've watched a guy throw away his crutches and run around screaming, Ive had people say things that God has told them to say to me, which relate to things they could not possibly know about. All this stuff is special revelation. That is the stuff that convinces me that God is there - because I can feel something every time I pray or sing, I find comfort in somehting I cant see but that I know is there.

So after rabbiting on a bit lol, in answer to your question - for me I dont think that the Bible itself is proof that God exists, anyone can write a book! But the fact that everything within it is backed up by my own experiences proves to me that God exists, but everyone is different and will see this question in a different way.

Sorry to be so wishy-washy, I hope that answers at least some part of your question!! Feel free to ask more or keep prodding me about this!

God bless

thanks for doing this magicman and welcome to the forum...

given your opinion of the bible
do you believe that the bible is the word of god? divine at all? worth reading? of any use at all? good source of morals etc?

Now firstly I'd like to point out that the following is my view on creation, and many Christians would disagree.

I believe that humans were placed in their current form, by God on the Earth. I don't believe that we evolved from monkeys or apes or anything like that. Of course as a scientist I have to acknowledge that biologically there is bound to be some sort of changes will have occurred over time. Without trying to be too scientific, evolution is the change of one species to another. Species are defined as different by whether or not they can mate to produce fertile offspring. I do not believe humans have changed enough since the beginning of the Earth that they are different species.

That view, however is certainly acceptable by Christianity in some forms. Some would consider to you to be wrong, but as Genesis appears to be written in a form of poetry, rather than prose factual form as with most of the rest of the Bible, it is wide open to interpretation. When it comes to Creation, I have to look at it from Gods point of view. Genesis was written by someone, who was a bit of a scientific ludite to be fair, told how humans came about by God. If I was God, trying to explain how humans came about, I wouldnt try to explain evolution (if indeed that was how it happened) because he wouldnt be able to comprehend it. Instead I would tell it in the way Genesis is written, stating the order in which things happened, in a way that this man will understand in all his wonderful ignorance!


Hope that answers your questions - get back to me if it doesn't or if you have more!!

God bless

you keep referring to yourself as a scientist...in what way are you a scientist?

evolution doesn't have to make such big jumps...smaller things such as growing longer tails are evolution, but have nothign to do with new species...

For me, the Bible is like a guide-book. It gives me all the information I could ever need. But if I don't trust the AUTHOR of a book - why would I accept anything it says? Reading the bible will give you an understanding of who God is, and if this is enough to make you believe then great! But I personally needed more (see other posts for my story!), but when i knew that God existed, then the Bible became a wealth of knowledge and help, not just the book it was originally.

So one at a time!

I do believe the Bible is the word of God, given to people on Earth to write down so that his message could be told and read and understood by absolutely anyone.

Hence I do believe it is divine!

The Bible is used by atheists and believers in different ways. Believers study it to find out more about God and how they should try to live - they look for guidance and support. Atheists may look at it for signs of truth, something they can relate to maybe. The Bible's uses are fairly widespread!

The worth reading thing brings me onto an intersting point, for which you might entertain me a few posts to get to a point I'd like to make... if you will!!

I'd like you to score the following situations between 10 and -10. If you want, PM me if you'd rather keep these to yourself. I'd encourage everyone to have a go at this and see what happens!!

1. God exists and you believe (eternity in heaven)
2. God exists and you dont believe (eternity in hell)
3. God doesnt exist and you believe (you lived life maybe not as full as you might have, you were a fool and are to be pitied)
4. God doesnt exist and you dont believe (you lived an unconstrained life, did what you wanted without religion taking up your time or energy).

As a transcript it is a good source of morals, its teachings give guidance on peace, reducing conflict and respecting the world around us.

Please respond if you have time - should be fun to get some interaction as to what people think!

God bless

p.s. thanks for the warm welcome to the forum man - appreciated!!

I am studying for a degree in Natural Sciences... thats what I mean by it! More to the point I think I just evaluate things in a more scientific way that the average person, so my analysis might be more in that context.

And I will apologise for my biological blunders, I was considering the evolution of man from other species, stating I believed that humans today would not be reproductivally separated from the first humans. I.e. i dont think we evolved form apes. Hope that makes sense now...

Hi there!! Sorry I've already responded to like 8 posts tonight so I might make this one a little shorter, as some of the points have also been discussed a little in other threads.

I believe : -

1. Those who accept Jesus is God and died for their sins go to heaven, as they are fogiven. Everyone else is not, and so goes to hell (sorry for the bluntness but I do believe it is that clear cut!)
2. God created humans to think, reason, and decide for themselves. If he wanted to create robots to worship him, he could have. But he wants to be willingly worshipped by people who choose to do so. Free will ensures that people can choose for themselves. Hope this is what you meant by free will!
3. God's omniscience/omnipotence is all-encompassing, with one exception. God is a being with characteristics. He cannot do things against his nature. He cannot forgive sin without people asking for forgiveness. He cannot be evil in any way. And most importantly, he cannot stop loving you no matter what!!
4. The OT is a bit a grey area of knowledge for me, and definitely something I'm trying to get my head around a bit more! I believe the OT is definitely relevant to today - it gives us an idea of the nature of God, and helps us to see how his work centuries before Jesus birth relates tot he NT when Jesus is alive, with prophesies coming true etc.

Hope that gives us a starting point.... sorry if those answers weren't as clear cut as you hoped - maybe more specific questions within those categories might get you the answers you were looking for more accurately.

God bless

hopefully i understand this correctly...it might be weird because weird because there is a difference between believing and being certain of...as such i didn't use numbers, if you clarify i would have no problem going back through with numerical answers...

so personally i don't believe in god, but im not certain there is no god...

like i said above i don't believe in god and as such i don't believe in an eternal heaven

same as above

not sure i understand this one...i don't believe and its possible that my life isn't as full as possible, but i don't believe i am fool or that i should be pitied...

kind of confused about this one as well...i don't believe in god, but my life is not a completely unconstrained free-for-all and i think i am a good person without religion. taking up my time and energy...

hopefully this dialogue doesn't prevent you from getting to the ealier questions...i dont mean to be monopolizing the thread as i know other people would like their questions answered...

Hi mate, sorry I think you misunderstood what i was getting at - looking back I really didnt explain it very well! The numbers are not rating how much this reflects your personal position at the moment. They are rating how good/bad you think i would be to find yourself in that particular situation. For exaple, I think 1 = +10 (great to go to heaven!!) and 2.=-10 (bad to go to hell!), 3=-4 (peeved i didnt live as i might have done) and 4.=+4 (did all i wanted to in life without God getting in the way) for me.... hope that makes more sense now!

if this is the case why was it only written in 3languages initially, and why did it take hundreds of years to reach areas like China

and if its able to be understood by absolutely everyone, why are there so many disputes about various aspects of it?

I would have to say not through lack of trying!! It takes years to translate the Bible word for word - often going back to the original manuscripts for more precise translations. It takes years and years and languages are constantly developing and changing too. As for China, read a book called "The Heavenly Man". The long and short of it is that people were killed for owning Bibles or taking about Christianity, let alone importing them or distributing them, so only the really devoted people even owned Bibles until recently (and still, according to Amnesty International). Political and Social influences play a huge part in how the Bible can be spread.

Some parts are never debated - only the bits that do not explain things fully, have cultural contexts we dont understand, or disagree with modern thinking seem to develop debates. I know many Christians who have different views on Creation. But all believe Jesus was the Son of God - and thats the really central bit.

woah, i was way off...
1. heaven = the best possible = +10
2. hell = very ****ty = -10
3. God doesnt exist and you believe = not bad = -5 (depends on the person though)
4. God doesnt exist and you dont believe = could be good = +7 (depends on the person)

i don't see how anyone could have different answers for 1 and 2 and the numbers assigned to 3 and 4 are completely arbitrary and almost unfair because +/- 10 is infinite bliss/torment that even a 9 isn't comparable...

oh, and i imagine you are going towards a pascals wager argument here, and if thats the case you might want to move in a different direction as the wager is entirely unconvincing and has been discussed in numerous threads on these boards and other places...

also, you probably already know this if you've read any rgt/smp threads previously, but once your ideas are in the open they will be criticized and questioned so hopefully you don't necessarily take it personally and this thread can stay civil...

Awesome so we needent have done all that , all I needed to say was Pascales wager lol.

But my point is different to that of Pascale. He says that you should believe in God because you have nothing to lose by doing so. Your scores gave -3 for non-believing and +5 for believing. My argument is not that you should believe - definitely not. My argument is simply that it is something you need to seriously consider. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who dismiss religion without considering it. I have no more respect for someone than if they consider everything, but decide they simply dont buy it. What you are doing here by posting and asking questions is showing you have the sense to at least consider it - great respect!!

Hope that makes sense - Imm off to bed as its 2.17am here - fun debating has kept me up but i think its time i hit the hay for work at 8!!

I dont know where to go from here - we can discuss this further if you want or you can fire another one at me for tomorrow morning??

well I'm sure you have dismissed hundreds of religions without considering them, I imagine most atheists have considered at least 1 religion at one point in time

This should be fun!

+10

-10

+0.05 or so.

+0.1 or so.

Keep in mind I had to judge the God doesn't exist ones based on the scale provided, and eternity in heaven or hell is obviously way way way better or worse than the no existence one.

OP, I'm curious to see where you're going with this. I'm hoping it's not going to turn into a fancy Pascal's wager. I am an atheist FWIW.

i'll get some more questions and comments in based on your answers when i get home from work cuz i already see a bunch of contradictions i would like you to address...