₦airaland Forum

Source: http://churchandstate.org.uk/2017/04/hard-questions-about-god-i-wish-someone-had-asked-me-earlier/

Competing Faiths

If Christianity is the only message with absolute truth, why do we see an overwhelming pattern of children who believe what they are raised in, regardless of the religion involved? Children of Muslims become Muslims, children of Mormons become Mormons, Hindus raise up new Hindus, etc. If your specific religious faith is primarily a factor of the country you were raised up in, how does that show that it’s truth? Why do we find a long history of mankind having invented various gods? Sun gods, moon gods, war gods, love gods, demigods and immortals. There are gods with names that start with every letter of the alphabet except “W”. Why do we so easily discount and disregard the hundreds of man-made gods that have come before, but Christians know for certain that Yahweh and Jesus are real, even though his promise to return during the lifetime of his early followers failed to happen? How many centuries have passed since his promise of “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place ”?

Prayer

If your daughter suddenly became gravely ill, would it be more important to take her to the doctor, or to pray for her? If you feel that both are important, which is more effective? If you found out that you had breast cancer, would medical treatment be more effective? Or prayer? If your brother or sister suffered a horrific accident that led to the loss of an arm or leg, would prayer ever restore that missing limb? If no, why not? If Jesus promised that prayer could move a mountain, why has an amputee never had their limb restored by prayer

? Why have faith healers never cured anyone with a clear physical disability? Is it possible that prayers have no effect and just merely make the believer feel better?

Why do the millions of prayers by mothers in Africa go unanswered as they watch their children die of disease and starvation? Why do over 7 million children die every year from hunger, disease and illness if prayer is effective?

And why does God hate the children of Africa?

Or is it more likely that the god of the Bible is the man-made concoction of earlier tribes in their attempt to explain the world and to also give themselves the license to kill other tribes and take their land?

Source: http://churchandstate.org.uk/2017/04/hard-questions-about-god-i-wish-someone-had-asked-me-earlier/

Source: http://churchandstate.org.uk/2017/04/hard-questions-about-god-i-wish-someone-had-asked-me-earlier/

And why does Genesis say that the earth was made before the sun and stars, which clearly contradicts the evidence of the age of the universe (13.7 billion) vs. the age of the earth (4.5 billion)? The issues with the creation account are so numerous, it begs the question as to how one could conclude the Bible is “the word of God” instead of the early imaginations of men?

Hell and the Lake of Fire

Why is there an utter lack of harmony on the doctrine of eternal torment in the Old Testament vs. the New Testament? If our eternal destiny is so important, why does the Old Testament — the most voluminous section of the Bible — have so little to say about life after death? For the 31 occurrences of Sheol (grave) in the OT, why weren’t readers warned of a future eternal torment if there was one? When hell is brought up in the New Testament, why is it Jesus (meek and mild), who gives us the doctrine of eternal suffering which includes such descriptive words like wailing and gnashing of teeth ? Why would a loving God choose the most horrific type of pain that the human body can experience (burning flesh) as the picture for eternal torment? Why make it last forever? And why would a loving God use a threat (hell) to inspire a relationship with that same God?

I am a flawed human being but I’m also the parent of 5 beautiful kids. I will always love them no matter what they might do in the future. They could curse me, reject me, spit on me and deny me but I would still love them. If man was created in God’s image and if He is the author of love and the greatest thought magnified, how could a compassionate, nurturing father send his offspring into eternal torment? Why is merely “not believing” such a profound crime? Why are petty crimes worthy of hell? And finally, why would a loving God who is omniscient (all-knowing) create human beings that He knows will reject Him, and let them suffer in a lake of fire, forever and ever?

Or is it more likely, that these are man-made contrivances to convince people through extreme fear to follow the commands of those who want to be in control?

The Bible *

If God’s extensive moral code from the Old Testament is good and if His law is perfect, why does so much of it no longer apply today? Why create a set of rules and commands that change? If the New Testament is the newer revelation that should be followed instead, why are so many parts of it now ignored? Why is it that when we discover contradictory verses or verses that are found to be immoral, disturbing, or scientifically inaccurate, the church then decides that they must be a metaphor for something? Why were the first 3 gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) not even written by actual apostles of Jesus, and even worse, why were all four gospels written anonymously ? Why was there much dispute by the early church regarding which books were inspired or not inspired by God? Why, for example, was the gospel of Peter and the gospel of Thomas considered abhorrent and uninspired but the other gospels (which often disagree in detail) were considered inspired and inerrant? Why did it take several hundred years (long after the apostles had died) to have all of the books currently found in the New Testament be
recognized and accepted? Why would divinely inspired books require intense
debate regarding inerrancy by the early church? And why does the Catholic church still disagree with protestants and include 9 additional books (the Apocrypha) which Protestant churches reject as being uninspired and filled with error?

If Jesus was bringing the most important message to humanity it would ever receive, why didn’t he write that message down himself? Why allow it to be passed around in an oral tradition for decades (and we know how reliable that is), before it’s finally written down? Why do we only have late copies of copies of copies of copies that have discrepancies, and which aren’t even written in the language that Jesus and his disciples spoke? And if the words of those books and letters are so important, why didn’t God make sure the original manuscripts survived? Why send us this supposedly vital message in a book that’s so hard to understand and interpret that we have 40,000+ different christian sects, each interpreting the book in a different way?

“Then I began to see that not just the scribal text but the original text itself was a very human book. This stood very much at odds with how I had regarded the text in my late teens as a newly minted “born-again” Christian, convinced that the Bible was the inerrant Word of God and that the biblical words themselves had come to us by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

As I realized already in graduate school, even if God had inspired the original words, we don’t have the original words. So the doctrine of inspiration was in a sense irrelevant to the Bible as we have it, since the words God reputedly inspired had been changed and, in some cases, lost.

Moreover, I came to think that my earlier views of inspiration were not only irrelevant, they were probably wrong. For the only reason (I came to think) for God to inspire the Bible would be so that his people would have his actual words; but if he really wanted people to have his actual words, surely he would have miraculously preserved those words, just as he had miraculously inspired them in the first place.

Given the circumstance that he didn’t preserve the words, the conclusion seemed inescapable to me that he hadn’t gone to the trouble of inspiring them.”

— Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman, American New Testament scholar, current James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

In summary, if the message of the Bible is so important, why couldn’t an omnipotent God have provided it timely, without error, clearly written and without dispute on authorship and free of contradiction? Or is it possible that significant portions (or even a majority) of the Bible is actually myth, legend, or grossly exaggerated accounts from antiquity?

Effectiveness of the Gospel

Why does the Christian gospel sound more like a cycle of abuse rather than truly good news? The Bible declares the doctrine of original sin with eternal damnation as the punishment for man’s evil deeds. Why is it “good news” that humans are put into severe psychological distress by creating the ultimate double bind? The Bible declares man as guilty and responsible, with eternal punishment at stake. Yet you have no real ability to do anything about it. Why is it a good thing that one must conform to a mental test of “believing” in an external, unseen source for salvation, and then maintain that state of belief until death? Since a person cannot ever stop “sinning” altogether and therefore must continue to confess and be forgiven by an invisible being, how is it not a cycle of abuse when all a person can do is hope that they have met the criteria despite complete lack of feedback about whether they will actually make it to heaven? Salvation is supposed to be a gift of love, but for the sincere believer, the result is an unending cycle of shame and pleas to an invisible being who never actually answers. And this is a good thing?
If the gospel of Christ is incredibly powerful and if it’s absolute truth, why do churches make it a point of targeting children with a philosophy of get ’em while they’re young ? Could it be that children are just easily indoctrinated with the odd teachings of the Bible because children have already been conditioned to believe whatever adults tell them? Would Christianity be as prominent today if children were “off limits” to religious teaching? If only adults were exposed to the gospel message, would there be a change in the number of people in churches? And if that’s the case, what does that say about the actual power of the gospel message?

If the gospel message of Jesus is truly transformational, why are divorce rates among Christians and unbelievers the same? Or even higher among protestants? And for those who consider pornography a grave sin, why do we see no difference between the secular population vs. the Christian population? In fact, why do we find that protestants are even more likely to view porn even though they cite guilt as an inhibitor? Why do we often find that some of the most judgmental, hateful and intolerant people are those of the Christian faith? If Christianity is transforming and if disbelief in god is evil, why do we find that the prison population of the U.S. is largely absent of those who are atheist or agnostic

? In fact, why do those in prison who identify as Catholic and Protestant constitute nearly 75% of the incarcerated while less than 1% are atheists or agnostics?

Source: http://churchandstate.org.uk/2017/04/hard-questions-about-god-i-wish-someone-had-asked-me-earlier/

Source: http://churchandstate.org.uk/2017/04/hard-questions-about-god-i-wish-someone-had-asked-me-earlier/

For most of my life, I intentionally avoided hard questions about the Christian faith. I rationalized and compartmentalized. I routinely threw my hands up figuring “there were answers” to the difficult questions about Christianity but there were none.

What follows are a few of those difficult questions.

The Flood of Noah (If you believe the story is true)

Why would a supreme being create a world, and then a few thousand years later decide to kill everyone except for one man and his family? Apparently, God’s own creation turns out to be corrupt and evil (He didn’t know that would happen??). Why does a deity make the situation even worse by choking out the innocent life of children? If you’re God, why go through the elongated method to kill? If a supreme being regretted creating humanity (as Genesis 6:6 states), why doesn’t he just snap his fingers and start over? Why cause all the incredible anguish? And why kill all of the innocent animals in the process?

If the story is true, why is there no scientific evidence of a world-wide flood on the earth? Instead we find overwhelming evidence that the earth is incredibly old with fossil records that stretch back for millions of years. If God created the earth less than 10,000 years ago, why do we find fossilized species in the strata (rock layers) which shows a slow progression of evolutionary life over very long periods of time? If human life began at the same time as all other life, why is it that we can find countless examples of fossilized remains for most life forms, except for humans? If, as some would say, “any contradictory evidence against the Bible is there to test our faith”, then why do that? If you’re God, why perpetrate a ruse?

The Flood Story (continued)

Why is it that after Noah disembarks from the ark, he is compelled to kill and burn some of the animals to please God? Why is a supreme being pleased with the aroma of burning flesh? Genesis 8:21 says “The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma….” If Noah was chosen as the only righteous man alive, why does God’s “only righteous man” grow a vineyard, get drunk and naked, and then curse one of his sons for merely seeing him naked? (Gen. 9:20-22). And even if something else happened beyond mere unclothedness, why does this righteous man curse his son Ham and all his descendants to lives of slavery? (Noah says of Ham and his descendants, “the lowest of slaves will [they] be to his brothers!”). How is that righteous or moral? Or is it more likely that this fictional story merely served as justification for one tribe to exert righteous authority over another tribe and enslave them?

Slavery

Speaking of slavery, why does a book that purports to give moral code endorse slavery at all? Aside from murder, enslaving another human being is one of the most immoral things a human can do against another human. So why does a holy book endorse it? (Lev. 25:44-46). Some say that the Bible merely allowed the practice, but if that were true, why give rules on the treatment of slaves including how hard you may beat them with a rod? (Exodus 21:2-6, 21-21). And why allow a father to sell his daughter as a sex slave to another man? (Exodus 21:7-11). Also, if slavery was just a horrible thing from the Old Testament days which God allowed, why did Jesus or the apostles not condemn it? Instead they commanded slaves to “obey their earthly masters” (Ephesians 6:5). Why give commands about a thousand other trivial things but not give commands to abolish this immoral treatment of other human beings?

Blood sacrifices

Why have all of the barbarism and blood sacrifice of animals? If God is benevolent and loving, why create animals with extremely complex nervous systems that can feel pain and who will suffer immensely when offered up as a sacrifice? Why is gutting and burning animal flesh described as “pleasing to God”? Or is it more likely that these ancient tribal people just believed that the pleasing aroma of cooked meat was also pleasing to the supreme being that they assumed caused all of the thunder, lightning and natural disasters that randomly befell them? Or were these burnt offerings just a variation on earlier pagan rituals of sacrifice to help call on the gods for rain during droughts, and/or to appease the gods for the natural disasters that occurred on the planet?

Abraham and Issac

The Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio, circa 1601-02.

Abraham is a very prominent character in the Old Testament, but why would God ask Abraham to “take your son, your only son, whom you love — Isaac — and sacrifice him [on the mountain] as a burnt offering ”? If you are an omniscient God and you know us to the degree that the Bible purports (i.e., you know even our unspoken thoughts), why ask a father to murder his child to test his faith? Why ask him to do something grossly immoral as a test? And if the request was meant to be the hardest thing imaginable for a father to do (kill his beloved son), how would others in the future correctly discern if/when they are asked by an imaginary voice to do the same horrendous thing? We have had cases of parents who believed exactly this — that God commanded them to kill their children as a test of faith — and unfortunately their children are now dead! So how is the example of Abraham’s test of faith not an example for other parents to follow? And does this request by God not just come across as petty and egotistical? (i.e., “if you truly love me, you’ll kill for me if I ask you to!”).

Killing Others

When is it ever morally justifiable to kill all the innocent women, children, and animals in a military conquest? (Deuteronomy 13:13-19). Why does the Old Testament give the commandment of “thou shalt not murder”, but then gives

many commands to kill: those who don’t listen to priests (Deut. 17:12); kill those believed to be a witch or sorceress (Ex. 22:17); kill a man who lies down with another man (homosexual) (Lev. 20:13); kill fortunetellers (Lev. 20:27); kill children who strike their father or mother (Ex. 21:15) or who curse their parent (Lev. 20:9); kill those who commit adultery or fornication (Lev. 20:10, 21:9); and kill those who were non-believers or followers of other gods (2 Chron. 15:12-13, Ex. 22:19). And if God is a God of mercy, why command that a new bride be stoned to death by the town if it’s discovered that she’s not a virgin? (Deut. 22:20-21). If God is so displeased with this sort of conduct, why doesn’t God strike down those sinners with a big bolt of lightning? Doing so would certainly have had a very compelling effect on those who witnessed such a frightening display of power. Why stain the hands of innocent people with the horrible action of killing others for their deeds? Or is it more likely that these rules were man-made and gave control to the rulers of the time?

Sex, rape and body parts

Why is God so concerned with the flap of skin at the tip of a man’s penis? Why is God so concerned with whether a girl’s flap of skin (hymen) is still intact on her wedding night? Why is the Bible so hateful and misogynist toward girls such that virgin girls are viewed as “spoils of war” for the men of Israel to enjoy? (Numbers 31:7-18). Similarly, why are virgins spared during a military conquest (Judges 21:10-24) while women and young boys are to be slaughtered without mercy? Why is it okay for a man to rape a girl with the only penalty for the offense being that the rapist need just pay the father some shekels of silver and then marry his victim? (Deut. 22:28-29). How is that moral or just? And if the Old Testament is to be viewed as “ oh, that was just how things were in the past” then why did Jesus say that he “did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them .”? (Matt. 5:17-19).

Creation

Why is a holy book that is supposedly authored by God so horribly inaccurate and contradictory about the creation account? Why is the written account for the order of things created not even consistent between Genesis 1 and 2? Why is the order of creation not even logically or scientifically accurate? For example, how can there be light and darkness (day and night) on the first day of creation when the sun and stars aren’t created until the 4th day? Wouldn’t it be redundant to create the sun on the 4th day if there’s already light on the first day? And why are plants made on the 3rd day before the sun is in place to drive their photosynthetic process? Why does it say that God made two great lights (1:16) — the sun and the moon — when we know that the moon doesn’t create light — it merely reflects the sun’s light? And why after creating those two great lights does the Bible say (like an afterthought) that “ he made the stars also ” which we now know are so great in number (300 sextillion) that they outnumber the grands of sand on the earth?

Source: http://churchandstate.org.uk/2017/04/hard-questions-about-god-i-wish-someone-had-asked-me-earlier/

It's glaring that you didn't read the whole article. You just read the headlines and rushed to the comments section.

Kate Henshaw

Michelle Obama

Every human being has the right to freedom,to behave however he/she pleases so long as said behaviour does not negatively affect the rest of society. This right incorporates everything from the ability to choose where to live,who to marry,what profession to engage in,and as is pertinent to the issue being discussed,how to dress.

I believe the fundamental human right to freedom of Firdaus Amusa,the lawyer who wore a hijab to her call-to-bar ceremony,was violated. Her wearing a hijab didn't cause anyone in the room to fall sick. It didn't cause anyone in the room to lose a loved one. Heck,it didn't cause anyone in the room to become less of a lawyer and upholder of the law. This should always be kept in mind:everyone has the right to behave (and dress) however they deem fit,so long as their behaviour (or mode of dressing) does not cause any other member of society any demonstrable physical or psychological harm.

So to christians in the South,stop complaining about how muslim women and girls wearing hijabs or niqabs to schools,offices and other such public places,is a violation of Nigeria's secularity. Their mode of dressing doesn't affect your lives in any demonstrable way. Anyone who wants to dress like a masquerade should be left alone to do as they wish. It is their right.

To muslims in the North,stop complaining about how christian women and girls who wear cleavage-baring tops,tight leggings trousers and extreme items of female clothing you don't approve of,to schools,offices and other such public places,are violating the sanctity of your (supposedly) moral towns and cities. Their mode of dressing does not affect your lives in any demonstrable way. Anyone who wants to dress like a LovePeddler or madwoman should be left alone to do as they wish. It is their right.

To those saying the legal profession has a list of guidelines for how lawyers should dress and that hijab-wearing is prohibited;I say to you "what punishment did the legal profession dish out to female judges wearing the hijab on duty,in a brazen violation of the laid-down rules?" By choosing to ignore those judges,it set a precedent for future lawyers.

As an aside,I wonder why muslims cherish the hijab so much. They claim a woman who doesn't wear one in public is immorally dressed. The hijab only covers a woman's hair,the sides of her face and the back of her neck. Are muslims really saying,by their fierce support for hijab-wearing,that those body parts of a woman-her hair,back of her neck and sides of her face-arouse the same thoughts in men that her breasts,thighs and honey pot arouse? So by that logic,the women below are immorally dressed?

Seun:
There is no shame in not having an explanation for every phenomenon that is purported to be supernatural. It’s ok to say “I am not sure about what caused that to happen, but I don’t believe it's anything supernatural”. Then you can list the possibilities without necessarily claiming that a particular one is definitely true. For example, part of the video could have been played in reverse to make it look as if the tree was “fighting back”, or the tree probably just happened to have very strong and elastic roots, which bounced back after being bent. Have you noticed how palm trees bend when there's a very strong wind trying to push them over, and bounce back once the wind stops blowing?

Update: Here’s a YouTube comment explaining it: “Oak trees are among the deep-rooted deciduous trees . They develop strong taproots that penetrate so deep into the earth , that they can reach the ground water. There is no way somebody can uproot a oak tree like that - its not possible at all not even the strongest storm”

The youtube comment settles it then. I shouldn't have claimed the video was edited.

hopefulLandlord:
it would've still made sense to ask him those questions regardless of him being an eye witness or not as such questions can sow seed of doubts, these questions can turn the "evidence" on its head and make him unsure of it even if he doesn't admit it in your presence out of ego, he might go home pondering these questions and this can make him start questioning in the same way "other" evidences of supernatural he's been very sure of before then

You're right. I really should have asked this questions.

hopefulLandlord:
I thought the tree news was later proven to be a hoax?

Really?

Akdegreat:
Questions to ask:

Where did the event occur?
What was the event?
What season was it?
Which kind of tree is that?
What's the species of the tree?
How strong and firm are the roots?
Does it have very strong tap root system?
Have there been documented cases of difficulty experienced in uprooting such tree?
Wouldn't a chain saw fall the tree?

My theist friend wasn't there when the event took place,so asking him all these questions would have made no sense.
You have a point though. These questions are relevant in determining whether or not the events in the video were paranormal. I,for one,knew there was nothing supernatural about that tree 'refusing' to be uprooted,but I couldn't place a finger on why the tree behaved that way as I am not trained in agriculture.

hopefulLandlord:
I thought the tree news was later proven to be a hoax?

Was it?

felixomor:
That is the nature of a man who has made up his mind.

"Proof" is nothing but an illusion.
Its a mere excuse.

No type of proof can convince you. None
Even if it does, within 24 hours u will be back to your previous state of mind.

I'm not like these men. I want God to be real. I desire to live forever in a place of eternal bliss and happiness. I desire compensation in the form of unimaginable,eternal flexing,for all the suffering I have been subjected to in this world. But thinking about the universe rationally and critically has me convinced that none that is going to happen.

I am an atheist and skeptic;so I don't believe in anything paranormal or supernatural. I always reply anyone who comes to me with tales of supernatural occurrences with "show me a video or I won't believe it." Some months ago,a friend of mine who is a theist,showed me a video of an apparently paranormal event that happened in Asaba. In the video,a bulldozer uproots a tree but the tree inexplicably rises back to its original position! The bulldozer uproots the tree for a second time but the defiant tree rises again and assumes its original position amidst shouts of astonishment from people in the background. According to the text in the video,the tree is used by "witches" as their meeting place.
I don't know if it's an old video and if a lot of people have seen it. It may have been debunked or it may have been explained away using science.
I was stumped when my friend showed it to me. I thought hard about it but I couldn't come up with a logical explanation for why the events in the video weren't supernatural. Eventually,I concluded that the video was doctored and my friend and I argued back and forth. When I got home,I was troubled. I would ask for proof whenever I'm told about supernatural events. Here was "proof" but I still wouldn't accept it. I actually dismissed it and claimed it was doctored without any proof!
To my fellow atheists,what do you think of the video and my attitude towards it?
hopefulLandlord,Obinna58,johnydon22,hahn,jonbellion,et al.
OAM4J

This question is for those who studied computer science at a Nigerian public institution and later travelled abroad for further studies or greener pastures: was your Nigerian training adequate? Did you discover that they were so many important things you didn't know because you weren't taught?

Finestboi,Olawalebabs and Richiez,please move this to the frontpage. Many computer science students are asking this questions.

As summed up by Homer Simpson, the most important philosopher of the 20th century: Beer is the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems. The amber liquid deserves a fair share of the credit for a lot of major changes and advances throughout humanity’s history.
10 Refrigeration
Fridges keep our food fresh and safe for our consumption. They are absolutely critical to our survival and the way we have flourished in the modern world. We also use them to keep our beers nice and cold, which is actually what they were created for.
Brewing traditionally only took place during the cooler months, as it is an exothermic process. It generates heat, and too much heat can kill the yeast and ruin the beer. For hundreds of years, blocks of ice were harvested and stored in cellars to keep the beer cool. Then came the breakthrough of mechanical refrigeration by Carl Von Linde, who was employed by the Spaten Brewery in Munich.
By the 1880s, refrigeration was common in breweries. It was expensive, but it let them brew all year round. It further let breweries grow and pop up in locations far from ice sources. This also led to the dominance of cooler lager beers . . . as well as, eventually, the presence of refrigerators in everyone’s home.

Is Ipob really and truly a terrorist group?