God is “Imaginary” – Part 5
The fifth “proof” that God is imaginary is probably one of the oldest, and weakest, arguments. It is attacking the Bible claiming that it is scientifically false, contradictory and written by simple man. In essence, this argument balances on contradictions found in the Bible. Of course, the Bible is the infallible word of God, so there can’t be any contradictions in it. When there are seemingly contradictory passages, there is always a harmonization capable between the two.
God is “Imaginary” – Part 4
The fourth proof for God’s lack of existence is a fairly ill conceived. The premise of this argument is that the secular-minded scientists can make advancements in the scientific world while religious-minded scientists can’t, presumably because they are too busy…praying? Regardless of how weak the argument is, it would do justice to go through and refute it. Follow this link to read the article itself.
I would first like to refer you to this wikipedia page. It lists most great Christian scientists. If read through the list, especially the 17th century, you will see the biggest players in the formation of the basis for many modern scientific and mathematical ideas: Newton, Galileo, Pascal and the list goes on. The modern scientific method wouldn’t exist had it not been for these Christian scientists. Yet, the author tries to tell you that only non-religious people can help advance our scientific knowledge? Sounds like the author is acting outRomans 1:25 — exchanging the truth for a lie.
God is “Imaginary” – Part 3
God Is “Imaginary” – Part 3
The third proof from this site is the classical argument, why is the Christian God real and not all the hundreds of thousands of other gods? Simply put, these other gods have no record of their existence, no claim that was made solely to prove their existence and no reason to be real. In fact, I would say these other gods are the derivatives of corrupted story telling through the ages of the Christian God — the one and true God.
Right away the author says:
The belief in “god” seems to be ubiquitous through the ages.
Why has belief in a god been ubiquitous? What makes a person believe in a god? We are all vastly unique people with many separate views on many things. If that is the case, why is the belief in god the one universal thing among all people? My answer: there is a god. It isn’t a social or cognitive construction, but the Christian God of the Bible. Romans 1:20 says that God has been visible to all through the ages via what they have around them. God was also with the first of mankind in creation (Genesis 1:26-27) and even preceded that (John 1:1-2). The most logical answer for everyone having the mutual belief in God is because there is a common descent of this belief. The ancestors of many people saw God and passed the story on. This point is proven through flood accounts around the world. Although they all differ slightly, they all tell the same general story: Humans were sinful. God became angry. He flooded the world to restart the human race, but saved a few righteous people. As the story was passed down, orally, it slowly changed from the original. But the core message and truth is the same because it had a common starting point in reality. (Read more about the Global Flood here and here).
The article then mentions that Christians took the pagan holidays. This, I will not deny. But there is no shame in this neither. Let me ask you this: When you think of Christmas, what comes to mind? Does Jesus’ birthday come to mind, or a pagan celebration come to mind? The point of adopting a pagan holiday as a Christian holiday was done so purposefully in order to reduce the pagan rituals and exemplify the Christian holidays. Christianity literally stole Christmas from the pagans. It also really doesn’t matter if the holidays are original or not. What matters is the truth spoken by God. He could have 365 holidays or none, it doesn’t matter, because the truth and key to eternal salvation will never change (John 14:6)! I have written on this subject before (right here) if you want to read more.
Finally, Ra, Zeus, Loki and every other mythological god have no proof to their name. Fortunately the author didn’t try to attack the credentials of Christianity via the historicity of Christ or authenticity of the Bible. No reasonable scholar holds to either of these views. Yeah, there have been a large volume of gods over the ages, but none have made claims that have the same weight as Christ (Matthew 7:13, John 3:16). Even in 1 Corinthians 15:6, when Paul is speaking about the resurrection of Christ, he tells the people of the 500 other people who saw Christ after he has risen. There are people contemporaries with the Corinthian church who saw Christ. In other words, Paul is giving a very clear and easy way for someone to disprove Christ actually claimed who He was. In fact, this is the single point, if wrong about Christianity, that would destroy any hope of it being real (1 Corinthians 15:17). So why would Paul make a claim like this? Because he was confident in who Christ was. This is something none of the other gods throughout history could do. This is what sets Christianity and God apart from the rest!
God Is Imaginary – Part 2 Refutation
The next “proof” listed on the God Is Imaginary website discusses prayer again. Instead of simply saying it doesn’t work, the author of the proof says that statistics demonstrates that prayer doesn’t work. I will admit, at first this sounds like a fool-proof method to prove prayer doesn’t work (and therefore God is imaginary because He says prayer should work). But, with a little philosophical thinking, it become very apparent that using statistics can’t prove prayer doesn’t work.
The author begins by saying that using scientific methods is how we ever figure anything out, which I don’t disagree with. The problem with this line of thinking (and why I said philosophical thinking is needed) is that the author is trying to use natural methods to disprove supernatural occurrences. The purpose of the scientific method is to prove a hypothesis. Of course this hypothesis is only be proven, rationally, through natural methods. Since prayer is a very supernatural thing, how do you suppose to prove prayer works through a mere scientific experiment?
God is “Imaginary” – Several Part Series
I recently ran across a website called “God Is Imaginary”. Naturally my interest is perked, so I decided to check it out. The website’s goal is to prove that God doesn’t exist, or is imaginary, using 50 “proofs”. The crux of their attack is finding discrepancies between the definition of God and the God they experience in reality. Of course, what definition are they using for God? A worldly definition will almost guarantee some discrepancy, but if this site used the definition of God from the Bible, then they couldn’t deny the existence of God (as God is always perfect, no matter what He does). Already there are serious problems in how they are approaching the question. After looking over the first “proof”, I decided I should go through and rebuke each “proof”. The theology is juvenile, the understanding of God is flimsy and their delivery is narrow-minded. With that, I want to start on proof 1 and (possibly) go through all 50. Although these are fairly weak arguments, I can see them easily causing Christians to stumble. Bear with me, these posts might be longer than ~500 words, but it will be totally worth it!
Pro-Choice – How Should a Christian Respond?
Pro-choice/abortion, like many things in the apologetics blog, is a hot-button issue, especially in light of the recent Kermit Gosnell hearings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_Gosnell). The pro-choice movement has had explosive growth lately as feminist ideals begin permeating the culture more and more. Pro-choice is essentially the prerogative of the woman to keep or abort the baby. The other side of the argument is pro-life, which says the child’s life should never be taken away. This post will shed light on the situation an examine the position a Christian should take on the issue.
Spiritual Milk – How it Relates to the Physical World
One of the coolest things about apologetics is when the Bible confirms what science hypothesizes about. It happens all the time in the Bible, especially if you are a diligent reader. Just recently I found another instance of this happening. In 1 Peter 2:2, it says “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation”. The suggested meaning of this is that like actual milk for newborn babies (i.e. not formula), spiritual milk is the best thing for a young Christian. This relation between something spiritual and something physical that Peter speaks about, made me think: “Hmm, he wouldn’t use an example like that unless it had meaning.” The purpose of this post is to show why Peter, 2000 years before science could prove it, knew breast milk is the best thing for newborn babies!
Happy Easter!
I know Easter was yesterday, but as I reflect on what Easter mean, I get this growing feeling that it isn’t talked about enough. There are so many little things about Easter that make it such a spectacular day and such an important piece of human history. This post is going to be shorter, but talk about some things on my mind about Easter that every Christian should remember.
One of those things is the historical importance of Easter itself. Aside from the creation of everything, Easter is the most important event within the entire history (past, present and future) of mankind. That may seem like a bold statement to make considering history isn’t “done” yet, but it isn’t made without reasons. Christ made it clear to use that He is the only way to Heaven (John 14:6). But how would He prove this? Through His sacrifice. Literally, His innocent blood was required for the sins of all mankind (Romans 5:10). His death was the greatest travesty to ever occur in human history, but His resurrection is the most joyous and beautiful event to ever happen.
God isn’t Intolerant — You Are!
So often I hear the remark, “If God is so benelovent then why does he send people to hell?” or “If God is so benelovent, why does he have such intolerance in my (non)christian beliefs and send me to hell for that?”
A very simple answer to this that is quite logical and fits well within God’s benelovence:
Why would God force you to spend an eternity with him when you have been denying him your whole life?
If anything you should be thanking him for his benelovence pouring out. He is doing you a service-finally granting your eternal seperation from your Creator to spend an eternity in hell.
Think about it.
Your Invisible Friend – A Conversation
Many times I have been in situations or observed situations that when God is brought up, someone makes the comment “Oh, you mean your invisible friend?”, typically occurring through internet interactions (comments on a youtube video, facebook etc.). These comments can be infuriating and aggravating because they have no substance, are an attack on the person and don’t contribute to any conversation other than making it obvious how that person feels about the Risen Savior. In this post I want to go through how to deal with this comment and comments that are similar.
First of all, stay calm. If anything, the person wants to just get a rise out of you. You know the comment has no substance and it only being said to provoke you. So stay calm and collect yourself before you answer. Matthew 5:39 famously tells us to turn the other cheek and James 3 tells us to listen first and respond in Godly wisdom. A quick prayer for clairvoyance doesn’t hurt neither!