# Miscellaneous tough questions for Christians **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 24, 2015, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713 "2015-05-24T11:07:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/21 "2015-05-24T16:18:05Z")
So has any Christians answered your questions, or is it only atheists answering on behalf of Christians? You’d probably find more luck posing a question to Christians to a forum where Christianity is not a bad word. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/22 "2015-05-24T16:20:56Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You find Me [God] through faith. How, exactly, could I [God] have phrase that to make you realize I was serious? > > It’s good that you ask questions, but ultimately you must rely on faith. You can find _anything_ through faith alone-it’s not much of a filter when it comes to deciding between what is real and what is not. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/23 "2015-05-24T16:39:49Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > You can find _anything_ through faith alone-it’s not much of a filter when it comes to deciding between what is real and what is not. Well, you’re obviously not differentiating between the true faith, which leads to God, and the false faith that doesn’t. I suggest more prayer. LOTS more prayer, my son. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/24 "2015-05-24T16:51:01Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > So has any Christians answered your questions, or is it only atheists answering on behalf of Christians? I’m a Jew, and so neither a polytheist nor an atheist. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/25 "2015-05-24T16:59:39Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > So has any Christians answered your questions, or is it only atheists answering on behalf of Christians? You’d probably find more luck posing a question to Christians to a forum where Christianity is not a bad word. But he’s not asking tough questions _of_ Christians-he’s asking for tough questions to _ask_ Christians. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/26 "2015-05-24T17:06:26Z")
Here’s my question: I’m an atheist (technically, probably an agnostic, but let’s not go there), but I’m a good person. I help people in need and lead a virtuous life. But I don’t believe in God or Jesus. So, what happens to me when I die. If you tell me I can still get into heaven, then what’s the big deal about being a Christian? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/27 "2015-05-24T17:06:51Z")
Why did the animals have to die in the flood? What is the purpose of creating an extremely large and intricate universe if we will never see, let alone visit, most of it before He supposedly wraps the whole thing up in the End Times? It’s like creating a banquet suitable for 100 million people, then delivering one meal from it and tossing the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/28 "2015-05-24T17:28:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Here’s my question: > > I’m an atheist (technically, probably an agnostic, but let’s not go there), but I’m a good person. I help people in need and lead a virtuous life. But I don’t believe in God or Jesus. So, what happens to me when I die. If you tell me I can still get into heaven, then what’s the big deal about being a Christian? And what if you are a good gay person. Aside from the radical feminist lesbianism, my sister is one of the best people I have every met. So is she going to hell for that minute detail of her life? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/29 "2015-05-24T17:31:06Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Why did the animals have to die in the flood? Lack of gills, I’d imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/30 "2015-05-24T17:56:14Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Lack of gills, I’d imagine. I thought it was Original Sin. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/31 "2015-05-24T18:07:25Z")
1. What is your answer to the Epicurean paradox? 2. What is your answer to the Euthyphro dilemma? 3. Does it bother you that many popular modern Christian beliefs derive from medieval extra-Biblical fan-fiction or pagan influence? Are you doing anything to dispel these beliefs in the Christian community? 4. Why did God manifest and sacrifice himself in such a grisly fashion? Why didn’t he just forgive humanity? Is scapegoating Jesus an example of divine justice? 5. Why did God punish all of humanity for the actions of two people (or, metaphorically, the first generation of humans)? Is it justice to punish the children for the crimes of the parents? 6. Does it bother you that Jesus fits such an ancient archetype of religious mythology that they have a [name for it?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Life-death-rebirth_gods) 7. Why does God desire worship? Why is he so vindictive on this point? 8. If we can not know the mind of God, then why do you think God loves us and wants us to be happy? How do we know anything about what God wants? 9. Why did God make himself so well known in the Bible, but not so much in modern times? Nowadays people who claim direct lines to God are seen as mentally unstable. Are they actually talking to God? Should we follow their commands? How do we decide which ones? Why doesn’t God talk to everyone so there’s no confusion? 10. If God told you to kill me, would you? 11. How can God have perfect moral authority? If you examine various moral systems they all have some sort of paradoxical thought experiment where the assumptions collide. Tangentially, is it not true that God’s moral reasoning must be comprehensible to humans? Otherwise it is the mere threat of punishment that compels us. 12. How can objective morality exist when morality is a set of opinions based on arbitrary axioms? What makes God’s preferences an objective fact? If God prefers chocolate ice cream, does chocolate ice cream become the objectively best ice cream? 13. Can you have a legitimate moral disagreement with God? 14. Why did God create the universe and humans? Was he bored? Does the action of creation imply he wasn’t complete somehow? 15. If God is perfect, why did he make imperfect beings? If he knew we were imperfect, why did he punish us for acting the way he created us? 16. Given that Jesus is God and did not die, what did he sacrifice? It was more like a bad weekend, no? 17. After the world ends and the living and dead are judged, is that it? Will everyone continue to exist in heaven and hell for the next trillion years? This relates to “why create the universe” again, but all of existence seems like a reality show or morality play in this light. 18. Does it bother you that your belief system resembles a celestial dictatorship (kudos to Hitchens for that phrase), including punishment for thought crimes? 19. Humans are lucky to reach 80 years old. Does it make sense to punish them for an eternity for actions taken in such a small amount of time? 20. How do you reconcile believing in one God who is actually three, in addition to a less powerful underworld deity in Satan (owing partly to question 3)? I understand you don’t call Satan a god, but he fits most definitions. The Greeks believed in lesser gods. 21. Why does God love beetles so much? 22. We both know Muslims, Buddhists, African tribal religions, etc. are wrong. They may have interesting stories, poetry, and art, but someone made them up. Likewise, they know you’re wrong. If you were born somewhere else you wouldn’t be a Christian. Unless you converted, by your belief, you just happened to be born into the correct religion. Is that likely? How do you reconcile this? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/32 "2015-05-24T18:08:40Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I thought it was Original Sin. I don’t think that the original sin was not having gills. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/33 "2015-05-24T18:13:12Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > And what if you are a good gay person. Aside from the radical feminist lesbianism, my sister is one of the best people I have every met. So is she going to hell for that minute detail of her life? Your question and mine are going to get different answers depending on the brand of Christianity that is answering. Hard-line Christian Churches will say you don’t get into heaven except thru JC. But others are more liberal, if you will. I think even the Catholics are now saying you can go to heaven as long as you’re righteous. So, if that is the case for liberal Christian denominations, then why bother? I guess they’d tell me that I get “grace” or something as a believer that helps me stay righteous, but I’m not personally seeing a need for grace. It’s not that hard to be a good person if you really want to be. ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/34 "2015-05-24T18:16:51Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > I’m an agnostic and for the next four weeks the church I sometimes go to will answer questions during the service. Mind if I ask what denomination allows that? Is it UU? > [@](#): > > I ask the two pastors tough questions a lot but I wanted to think up some extra tough questions for the services. Hope you can get this one question answered for me. Does God control the weather or not? If yes, does he not understand the concept of moderation? Our city has been on the national news for extreme drought conditions for the last six years, with lake levels dropping below 20%. But the month of May brought us record rainfall with water going over spillways and all lakes at 100% or near it now. As if on cue, at least early on, our conservative town had people on TV talking about how our prayers are answered, and they had always had faith it would come. However, it kept raining, and raining, and raining, so much in fact, we are now back on the national news for record breaking floods and people having to evacuate their homes. I think we are going to have to replace our “Pray for Rain” signs with “Enough Already!” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/35 "2015-05-24T18:49:21Z")
Why are you folks so concerned with this life? It’s 80-90 years max. The afterlife is forever. Concentrate on what you need to do to ensure you place with God in the afterlife. All this stuff in the here and now is transitory. Have faith in God, and don’t worry about the everyday stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/36 "2015-05-24T19:06:33Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I don’t think that the original sin was not having gills. That’s not what my goldfish says. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/37 "2015-05-24T19:24:41Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > And what if you are a good gay person. Aside from the radical feminist lesbianism, my sister is one of the best people I have every met. So is she going to hell for that minute detail of her life? No, she’s not. You’d be surprised at how many Christians (of various stripes) believe that one’s sexual orientation has nothing to do with salvation, or who even believe in universal salvation. My own branch of Christianity (Catholicism) allows for the possibility of universal salvation, even if it doesn’t actually endorse it. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/38 "2015-05-24T19:27:38Z")
Two questions that beg to be asked: 1. Where did Cain’s wife come from? 2. If the sun moved backwards in the sky for Joshua, why did none of the other civilizations on Earth notice it happening and comment about it? ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/39 "2015-05-24T20:16:04Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > A lot of people have misconceptions about the nature of God’s love. Yes, it’s true that God is perfect love – but God is ALSO perfect justice. The two cannot be understood separately. > > The angels are basically robots–they had one, and _only_ one, chance to choose whether they would serve God or Satan. But God wanted intelligent beings who had the ability to choose all the time. Consider–would you really want a spouse whose feelings for you could not change in any way? > > The Bible is not intended to be a science book; nevertheless, there is a fair bit of science in it. > Geology–“Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone. . . . As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.” (Job 28) > Meteorology–“To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.” (Job 28:25) > Gravity–“He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” (Job 26:7) > > “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things **not seen**.” (Hebrews 11:1) (emphasis added) > > “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) > > Regarding your first paragraph, why do you think that it was God’s followers who found the New World? > > The Bible is not a political science textbook, or a philosophy textbook, or anything like that. Jesus did not come to change the political or societal structures; He came to complete the plan of Redemption. > > Jesus did not teach an anti-wealth, anti-loan philosophy. He taught proper attitudes toward wealth. You might be thinking of the rich young ruler; his problem was not his wealth, but rather that there was something in his life that he was not willing to give up in order to follow Jesus. It could just as easily have been a relationship; it could have been power; it could have been any number of things. Jesus s is quoted as saying to the woman who asked Jesus to heal her child;" I came only for the lost sheep of Israel" Doesn’t sound like he came to save the whole world. ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713/40 "2015-05-24T20:26:11Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You find Me [God] through faith. How, exactly, could I [God] have phrase that to make you realize I was serious? > > It’s good that you ask questions, but ultimately you must rely on faith. To me it sounds like God is not a good father, a Good father knows his child should know him; why just by faith? a human only knows what another human taught them, and humans are often wrong about a lot of things. As I read the Bible I see humans who care more for their child then the God of the Bible. He knew ahead of time his children would disobey him but punished them for letting a monster he created(and allowed to exist) bring harm to his unknowing children and their linage. We would not say an all knowing supreme being is less of good father than a human one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miscellaneous-tough-questions-for-christians/720713.md?page=3)