Post edited 7:29 pm – March 9, 2009 by SekihMentis

Here are some “short” answers from what we've come up last Sunday during Sunday School.  If it doesn't make sense to you, please respond so we can address your question.  Know that these answers came from the book we've studied “Letters from a Skeptic” and could be quite vague if you haven't read it.  However, we are working on making them more understandable for people who have never read the book.  Hope it helps.

Why has Christianity done so much harm?

• Don’t hold God accountable for what people have done. Why? Because they have their own free will, God is love (freedom), Matthew 7:21 (not everyone who calls God Lord is a Christian)

Why is the world so full of suffering?

• Evil is not of God
• God gives freedom because of His love.  He allows all possibilities (good or bad).  If not freedom, we’d be robots.  He can’t take it back (free will) or it won’t be freedom.

Is the risk of freedom worth all the suffering?

• Love is to Suffering (You have to suffer to love someone)
• God has to take risks.  However, the risks are too small compared to God’s love. 
• Love is worth it.
• Eternal perspective.  Our life now is only the beginning.

Does God know the future? (God’s Omniscience)

• Yes, He does.  God already seen everything happened.  To Him, our present is already history.

Why does God create earthquakes and famines? (Natural Disasters)

• Pain and suffering are results of evil people.  Natural disasters could be minimized or eliminated.  Evil hearts = pain and suffering.
• Creation has its limitations.  What’s good for one is unfortunate for others.
• There are evil forces (demons), spiritual force, principalities, powers

Why did God create Satan?

• - He was originally created good.  Pride snowballed and he became the evil Satan eventually.

Is your God all-powerful? (God’s Omnipotence)

• Yes, He possesses all power.  Yet, He delegated some “power” to us to His creation (Ie. He gave us the “power” to have dominion over creation, etc.)
• God cannot lose the cosmic battle

Why believe in God in the first place?

• Human beings are personal beings.  God is personal; He can fill the void of our personal longings and emptiness.

Couldn’t it all by chance?

• Chance can’t produce mathematical formulas. Our mind is more than a network of chemical reactions.

Why would an all-powerful God need prayer?

• Prayer is to commune with our Creator.  Petitionary prayer is human-to-divine-influence.  Our understanding of God answering or not-answering our prayer is myopic.  We don’t actually “get” why God doesn’t or does because He’s got to make sure everything “balances” out with other parts of creation that will get affected by His move (as we pray for it!)

Why would God care about us little humans?

• Small doesn’t mean unimportant.   God’s personal characteristics are displayed all the more in our smallness.  (imperfect beings are outraged by injustices – how much more God?)

 Good job yo!

For me short and sweet is the way to go!

You can learn alot more. Like when teaching kids.

Short, sweet ans simple.