In response to your critic of my e-mail, you
operate under the assumption that there is no God, then no matter what I say, it
going to be non-sense to you. It seems to me that your mind is totally closed to
this idea. Like I said in my e-mail, Jesus can be experienced in a personal way
and I have experience him. He is not some historical relic, prophet,
revolutionary, or mad man. I believe he is the Son of God. God can't be found by
just logic and reason alone.
I felt that I made some valid points that you
choose to ignore. Since you operate under the premise there is no God then
you won't even give any consideration to my points even though they
are logical. I feel that no matter how many well thought
out apologetics I use they will be ignored because it challenges your
believe system. It seems to me that you are
ignoring them because it protects your faith .
I was taught in university that you have
to think both sides of the coin before you can make a logical conclusion.
All things being equal.
When I made the comment about, "If there is no God
or devil, then why is the world in such a mess"? What I meant was if there is
only man, and man is running the show, why then don't we live in a
Utopia? If there are only humans and no God or devil then
everything is relative. We should have no war, pain, suffering, death,
inequality or unhappiness because everything is relative and situational. There
is no real right or wrong. No ethics. All is situational depending
upon how I see it. I end up constructing my own reality. Therefore we
should all be living in bliss. Imfortunely this is not how it is. So why
isn't it like that? How do you account for this?
It says in the Bible that God created the world and
it was good. I believe that humans were meant to have a personal relationship
with God and this was broken when Adam and Eve sinned. Then Jesus was sent to
earth to reconcile humanity to himself and be offered as a perfect sacrifice for
sin.
I believe when God made all things they were good.
The devil choose to rebel again God. A free choice on his part, not God's. He
wanted worship and adoration. He wanted to be like the most height God. He
choose the path of rebellion. Since Satan had the power of free choice he choose
to sin. Just like humanity who choose to sin.
God would have known that Satan would turn bad. God
would have known that humanity would turn bad. So why didn't he just not create
them or destroy them before hand?
Then people could point there finger at God and say
he is a tyrant or unjust. A celestial taskmaster who is waiting to jump on use
as soon as we make mistakes. God would have just created human attomitomes
for his pleasure, much like a pet.
Since we live in a moral universe with
freedom to choose, God permits it. If not he would have to destroy us. I
would call into question a God who was free to choose but couldn't or
wouldn't give freedom of choose to his creation.
This would make him a tyrant or not all powerful
since he could handle creation below him.
Since Satan is not all powerful, the best way to
get back at God was to attack his creation. I
believe we are seeing the result of this today. We have never lived in a time of
such upheaval and unhappiness.
Human nature is flawed.
In my belief system Jesus is Lord. I have walked
with God since 89 and have seen his marvelous work in my life. I have had my
doubts and struggles but I can't deny his reality. My life is a testament to his
really because of all the things he had done for me.
Forgive me if I make an assumption, but I guess you
think I'm crazy. If so, then that's ok.
If you don't think I'm crazy but just been
hood-winked then that's ok to. I know that I searched for truth for many years.
I was once very hostile to the gospel and God. There was a time in my life when
I was an atheist and actually almost nihilistic in my beliefs.
Thank you for answering my a-mail and giving your
time to respond. I enjoy being able to debate the faith. Believe me, I respect
your right and freedom of choice to believe there is no God. In return I want to
feel respected for my right to believe there is a God.
Sincerely;
CDC
---- Original Message -----
To: CDC
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 10:50
PM
Subject: Re: God Bless You
Darwin!!!!!
Dear CDC,
I can assure you that you have no worries
upon death. Your eternal destiny is non-existence. It could be
said that when you die you are at eternal peace because there is no life after
death. So relax, there is no possibility of unrest after you die. If
you believe that the Bible is the word of God then, yes, you have checked your
brains at the door. Because there is no God then everything said in the
context of God being real is mere nonsense. You have written an remarkable
example of such nonsense. I especially had to laugh when you said "If there is no God or devil then why is the world in such a
mess?". I can only conclude, since you belive in the Bible and that God
made the devil, that you are saying that the world being such a mess is God's
doing -- and if there was no God then the world would not be in a mess. It
just goes to prove that if you need Jesus as bad as you do then any amount of
spin will go unnoticed in order to protect your belief
system.
Darwin Bedford
www.atheists.net
At 03:33 PM 7/25/02 -0700,
you wrote:
I was quite
impressed that you would set up a web site to prorogate your believes and share
them with the world. Now I would like to take a moment and share my believes
with you.
I share in the faith of
Christianity. I believe that Christianity in not religion, but a deep
relationship(via faith) to Jesus.
The bible teaches that when we accept him as our savior(I.e. asking
forgiveness of our sins) and trusting him to save us from God's Wrath due to our
sinfulness he will dwell in our hearts by his spirit and transform our lives as
we submit to him. This is called the second birth and happens when we make that
genuine commitment.
If this commitment is not
heart felt then we are Christian in name only.
Christianity is not a rain coat, that a person just put
on when there life heads into a storm.
People are under a misconception if they think Christ is just for a rainy
day or a fire insurance policy against hell!!! No, Christ wants a personal,
heart felt commitment, nothing less will be accepted by him.
Christianity is not a church, no
one denomination is God's exclusive church.
Unfortunely, over many generations the mainstream church has become
corrupted by heresy, worldliness, humanistic philosophy, politics, and the
sinful nature. God's inspired word has been twisted and used to justify some of
the most debastful, hateful, murderous, and genocidal acts in human
history.
God looks at your heart not your
denomination. Denomination is an invention of men that causes
division.
Christianity is not a
philosophy, but a powerful act act of God's grace.
While the Bible teaches an abundance of ideas, it clearly
stated that a relationship with God is what required not just
ideas.
Christianity is not the
pope, but Jesus Christ glorified.
The church is run by a leadership. If this leadership is not in right
relationship with God, it makes mistakes. We can see the result of these
mistakes all through history.
As Albert
Einstein said, "Keep the main thing, the main
thing".
Unfortunately, we
live in a society that is post-Christian and hates God. When I say God, I am
referring to the most high God of the Old and New Testament. Not, a god of other
religions of some pragmatic, self-constructed concept to justify our ends or a
celestial Santa Claus. The world hates God because he is a threat to their way
of life. People do not want to be told they are doing wrong or admit it. The
Bible holds a mirror to each of us and asks us to look at ourselves and we do
not like what is reflected back. They want a God who will tolerate all their
sins and will not mess with their lifestyle. It is unacceptable that God should
tell them what to do or they should submit to his teaching. Then people whine to
God about the result of their decisions and blame him. God will honor your power
to make a choice. If not we would be robots.
If there is no God or devil then why is the world in such a
mess? I believe we have a conscious which makes us free moral agents. We choose
right or wrong. The world is littered with the result of peoples decision
making. The powers of light and darkness payouts in peoples lives every day and
clash with one another resulting in both good and bad in the
world.
If there is no God and this
is fiction then why are people so resistant and afraid of it? If this is a grand
fairy tale and Christian are self-deluded then what's the problem? Why does it
bother you so much. Why do you feel you have the right way and need to come and
correct use?
I myself
have a university education in the liberal arts. One of the most skeptical and
resistant to God. I have been trained in the way of logical/critical thought. I
am not a Christian who checks his brains in at the door. I have given many hours
of thought to my faith. In the end I realized that something's can not be
explained but have to be taken in faith. Science can not prove the existence of
God but nor can it disprove it either.
Atheism
is also a religion because it is built on a belief system that there is not God.
This is something that can not be proven using scientific standards, therefore a
faith as much as mine.
On a personal leave Jesus is my rock. The world is hostile and
unsure. Jesus gives my hope, purpose and meaning in my life other then the
trivialness of each day. When people turn to money, sex, drugs, porn,
capitalism, and the like, I turn to Jesus. He is the only one that will give
true meaning and fulfillment to life.
If I am wrong and upon my death, I rot in the ground then it can be said
I tried to live a righteous life. I tried to follow the Bible and make my
influence in the world positive. Who can argue with that?
If I am right then my eternal destiny is secure and I have no
worries upon death.
Sincerely;
CDC