I have some questions for Christians. I am atheist, or maybe agnostic. I’m asking this because I think it is important to understand people’s believes, even if I don’t agree with them.
I’m sure this is over-asked, but where did Cain’s wife come from?
Hypothetically, if Hitler was on his deathbed and confessed to a priest, would he go to Heaven? I’ve heard that many Christians believe confession is only valid if you truly feel sorry, so let’s assume he did. Let’s also assume he was baptized.
I think this one is just Catholic, but correct me if I’m wrong. I was told by a Catholic that Mary was perfect and without sin because she had to bear Jesus, who had to be perfect. So, if in order to bear a perfect child, the mother has to be perfect, then shouldn’t Mary’s parents have been perfect? And their parents, etc? That should go back to Adam and Eve, meaning Eve would have to be perfect. If Eve was perfect, wouldn’t she have followed God and not eaten the apple?
It is my understanding that Christians believe god created humans and only humans with free will. If Satan is a fallen angel, then he must have had free will. However, he isn’t human, right?
This is also probably over asked, but if God loves everyone, why is there suffering and pain?
I often hear the argument that there is sin because we have free will and can choose to sin. I’m curious: We have free will and can’t run 200 miles an hour. Why can’t we have free will and be unable to sin?
Please understand that I respect your beliefs and am just curious. I also know that I’ve probably asked some questions that are specific to certain types of Christianity. I apologize if I have. I believe most of what I know comes from Catholics, so keep that in mind.
Any one of your questions (especially #5) could be (and has been) the subject of whole long threads, and whole long books.
I sometimes wonder why questions like these, about the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible are “questions for Christians” rather than “questions for Jews.”
I don’t think there is an official answer (Christian or Jewish) to this question. Some Christians and Jews would say that you’re taking the Cain story too literally and that he was not intended to be understood as an actual historical figure.
But even non-religious people might wonder, if there was a first human offspring, whom did that person mate with?
Maybe, to have the ability to make choices that really matter necessarily implies the ability to make bad choices?
I said Christians because some of my other questions are Christian specific. Apologies if my title was misleading.
Is that another thing that varies from Christian to Christian? I know some Christians believe Genesis and older books are purely symbolic, and others believe they are completely accurate (and anywhere in between).
I think that there was no first human offspring. I think that whatever we evolved from had some mutation or quirk, and mated with another primate. After a long time, this process had repeated enough that there was a good amount of non-related humans.
I never thought of it like that, interesting idea.
I looked up Cain’s wife on Wikipedia. It says her name was Azan which apparently meant ‘potent’, ‘iniquity’ or ‘vice’. It said she was also one of Cain’s sisters. My modern personality’s about to wretch in a trash can after reading all that.
They said Wikipedia. I suspect it is this page. I don’t really intend to did and find out where they got that information, but if you decide to, let me know.
It varies tremendously. Many more conservative Christians (“Fundamentalists”) believe that the Bible is the literal, accurate word of God, and that everything in it – including Genesis, and the creation story – are literally true as written.
I am not a Fundamentalist, I have no idea. I do know that there is no mention of her origin (or even her name) in the Christian Bible, and so, any belief or speculation about it isn’t directly Biblically sourced, but may come from writings (“apocrypha”) that aren’t generally believed by Christians to be canonically part of the Bible.
I believe a common Christian belief is that you must accept Jesus as your savior in order to get into Heaven.
How does this apply to the following categories of people?
People who lived before Jesus appeared on Earth.
People who lived in remote countries far away from Christian lands and who never heard of Christianity.
Babies who die at an early age.
Do people in these groups get a “free pass” or are they eternally damned due to circumstances they had no control over?
At my Catholic School, I asked something like that. I was told that, if you desire to be baptized, it counts. If you didn’t know about God but you still tried to do what you thought is right, you are good to go. They said God is merciful about babies.
If not knowing about God is a path into Heaven, then isn’t missionary work wrong? By spreading the Christian religion, you’re making it possible for people to be damned due to being aware of Christianity but not accepting it. They were better off not knowing.
I think some would argue that it’s part of your duty as a Christian to spread the word. But isn’t that an immoral argument? You’re improving your chance of Heaven by reducing the chances of many other people.
Many Catholics believe that babies who die before being baptized go to Limbo (specifically, the Limbo of Infants), which isn’t Hell, and is pleasant, but isn’t in the direct presence of God; however, in recent decades, the Catholic Church has attempted to move away from the concept of Limbo. As I understand it, the Roman Catholic Church has never formally affirmed the existence (nor absence) of Limbo, but they recognize that it’s been dogmatic for many Catholics for centuries.
However, most, if not all, Protestant denominations don’t believe in Limbo.
BTW, there was a long thread here a few months ago about Limbo and other Catholic dogma.
I’m sorry for the delay but was still grossed out about the misogyny of ancient texts like that. As was alluded upthread, it stemmed in this case from the ‘apocrypha.’
Of course, I realize misogyny’s everywhere and I hope what I quoted doesn’t set anything badly in this thread.
I’m Jewish, but I’ll take the one about Cain’s wife. There are two reasonable answers, depending on how literally you take that part of the Bible:
the non-literalist: that part of the Bible myth, not history. It tells us about how God relates to humans, and how humans relate to God and to reach other. Those are the parts that are important, so that’s what was written.
the literalist: the Bible tells the truth, and nothing but the truth, but of course it doesn’t the the whole truth, there’s you much there. So only the important parts are recorded. Cain’s wife was one of Adam and Eve’s daughters, who aren’t mentioned but who existed.
You’ll notice that those answers aren’t really all that different.
