I have been in contact with a skeptic over the past few months and he has posed a series of questions; most philosophical in nature. With his permission I am posting his questions and looking for answers. What ever your background; Catholic, Orthodox, Fundamentalist, Evangelical, Reformed, Christ follower, Theist, Dualist, Agnostic, Atheist, or what have you I ask that you read the series of questions and post your answer(s) below.
1. Where is evidence of the Judaic Christian God? Why is Christianity any truer than the thousands of others?
a. Do you know the Ontological Argument?
b. Religion, to me, is tool used by humans invented for explaining the unknown. It was also used as a means to control populations, enforce law and order, and group different families together. That is common in most religion you find.
2. Can Christianity be used ethically when it has caused so much death?
a. I don’t deny history or reject the idea the people are driven by god, I also don’t think humans aren’t selfish and do things to benefit themselves.
b. Catholicism has been used as a source of authority by monarchs to persecute others.
c. The Holy Roman Empire didn’t inspire me that God was in control.
d. Original sin was morally wrong.
e. Soul and faith are just emotion
f. Free will is trash philosophy to me.
g. Communion is basic death cult practice used by the ancients. Becoming closer to god by ritual wasn’t invented by Christianity; neither was three day resurrection or the flood,
h. Protestantism is just religion adapting to the times, they are the ones who thought bad of Catholicism, that doesn’t make older religion truer.
i. De-Evolution of beliefs is expected when humans want to think for themselves.
I would like to take on a few of these objections if I may.
ReplyDeleteChristianity is a historic religion. Christ was a real man in history. (Does the B.C. and A.D. dating mean anything to you?)
Flavius Josephus, Pliny, Tacitus, and Suetonius were all non-Christian historians who lived in ancient times. Check out their stuff on Jesus.
Christianity has caused death
....I hate this assertion. People obviously cannot distinguish what is done in the name of a religion/philosophy from what the religion/philosophy actually teaches.
Athiesm has caused death too.
Anybody ever heard of Castro, Stalin, or Pol Pot?
free-will is the decision to move closer to God of further away. If someone does not believe in God, then it is only natural for free-will to become a 'trash philosophy'
As far as Protestantism adapting to the times....you can say that again. Don't get me started with the Lambeth Conference of 1930.
It was Chesterton who said "The Catholic Church is the only thing that frees a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age."
The truth is unchanging, and Catholics stick with it.
That's all for today, good luck with the skeptics!