Ph: Faith: So Many Questions! Comments

Hi Dave, I guess my main concern about your comment is....... 'The thing about it, is to not over analyze the who, why, what and wherefore of it all. ' Lets start with my proposition that 'Science' in fact is as reflective of the nature of God as the Bible itself and that to ignore the lessons of Science is in fact an affront to God, because it means that we are using our own prejudices to create our own personal god and ignoring the God of creation. I guess what I am saying is that I believe it is impossible for God's creation not to reflect His Nature and that it is the height of folly to ignore this reality. The very fact that Science exists is proof in and of itself that God wants us to analyze the 'who, why, what and wherefore of it all.' I'm not talking about ridiculous arguments like how many angels can stand on the head of a pin here either. It is my experience that Science almost never gets in the way. Science that is science can be tested in many different ways, can be verified, is subject to the intelligent scrutiny of every person on the planet. Religious beliefs on the other hand have changed remarkably through time, have shown themselves to frequently have been inspired by Satan himself (not God) , have led to immense suffering of millions of truly innocent people, and as I say in my poem 'So where in the Bible does it claim to be true That each man's take on it is Gospel? The foolishness of this thought clearly would make the Deity of mere men possible.' So sorry Dave, in my opinion, Science almost never gets in the way of truth. The egotistical ravings of people who claim special understanding of scripture (on the basis of their emotional attachments to who they think God should is, or should be) are responsible for a large part of the actual misery of the world. A lack of humility when it comes to Biblical truth, is a sure sign one is a servant of the Devil and not God. As Christians we surely must be always open to the testimony of our brothers in Christ (and Science) that our most deeply held personal beliefs are in fact simply wrong! And believe me, I do not exclude myself from the group of those who need to be open to correction from brothers and sisters whose understanding differs from mine. Please tell me if I am wrong, but I would stipulate that for any Christian to say that it is fruitless for Christians to discuss the meaning of the Bible, to debate its most sacred cows, is to in fact to prove to the world that your personal theology is empty of any real faith in the God you believe that you worship.

Dear Marvin... Just a small bone to pick. I think that a better definition of faith is 'believing in that which cannot be seen' and not 'an unquestioning belief in something.' For example I have faith that God is the creator of the universe even though I was not around to witness this personally. The fact that science (also God's creation) tells us that it took 5 billion years for the earth to even be formed (and that from the explosion of dead exploded stars) leads me to question the literal truth of the Biblical story that the universe was created in 6 days. This alone forces me to the conclusion that while I still can have faith that the Bible is true and/or contains valuable truth, it certainly is not literally true and God wants us to see this. The implications for an understanding of what kind of faith He is leading us to are profound. To me, at least it is clear, that to believe that having faith means that you are to ask no questions, is not an idea from God, it does not respect or honor God in the slightest, and in fact might even mean you are under attack by Satan himself.

Your words are a challenge to give one pause and consider. The thing about it, is to not over analyze the who, why, what and wherefore of it all. Faith is the hope of things unseen, Conversion is of the heart, the mind, and the soul. Good questions Brian, but unfortunately, not all can be answered to any one person's satisfaction. Sometimes science gets in the way.

Faith is believing without question.... but man is created in His likeness so with intellect enters philosophy...nothing is wrong in questioning as long as it doesn't wrong others!

Very interestin. so many questions are squalled through this poem. but the main question is who made the creator?