Saturday, February 28, 2009

Tom Price: Questions Christians are scared of

Tom Price posts seven questions Christians say they're scared of...:
  • How do you know that this faith (Jesus) is true?
  • Why did God take his people into battle so much in the Old Testament? Why is it so violent?
  • If you believe that the world is only a few 1,000 years old, what about dinosaurs, where do they fit into that timescale?
  • What proof do you have that there is a real living God?
  • To say "Jesus is the only way" is incredibly arrogant. Surely, even if we agree with the theology of a single God those religions E.G. Islam that agree with you are recognising that same God. Are there not many ways to a single God?
  • Why should I believe when so many Christians mess up and there is so much false teaching and bad things in church?
  • If Jesus is truth, then why do so few find this truth and so many doomed to hell?
I'm going to attempt to sketch some answers to these in the near future. What I wanted to begin by saying is that these aren't comfortable questions, but that there is freedom to ask them. Christianity stands open to examination, the Bible is readable and available in ordinary language. Assuming that we're prepared to listen to the answers we're more than welcome to ask our questions. We might not get the answers we want, but unless we're prepared to listen there's not a lot of point asking.

See also: The Necessity of Atheism
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6 comments:

  1. Of course, if we're the kind of naturally curious people, genuinely interested in other people, we'll have matching questions about their beliefs (like "How do you know that this faith (eg. Atheism, Buddhism) is true?").

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  3. I can go along with most of those as fairly scary questions but do most Christians really believe that the world is only a few 1000's year old?

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  4. I doubt most do (though some might think we have to read things that way), but it's perceived that we do - and that creates the question I guess.

    I guess if you brush the question off saying "i don't accept the premise" then you still land up in a study of how to reconcile biblical history with the history we all learn in school... which I guess can feel a bit overwhelming.

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  5. These were questions written down by some church planters I met recently.

    I asked the question, 'What questions would you be most afraid of having to answer.'

    You see the unedited results. And while we spent a lot of time talking about suffering, it wasn't on the list.

    We must be ready to help people (Christians and not) to answer the questions that they are actually asking.

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  6. Indeed - and they're good questions to engage with.

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