Originally Posted by
Gofer Blue
It's taken quite a while to respond as my wife is poorly at the moment and I am finding it difficult to concentrate, hence a rather rambling, perhaps incoherent reply in places!
Q1: The book of Genesis is divisible into two parts, the primeval history (chapters 1–11) and the ancestral history (chapters 12–50). The creation story and Adam and Eve account are in chapters 1 to 4. To be absolutely honest I really don’t know if this early part of Genesis is literally true or not. I am pretty sure that it is not meant to be a scientific account of events although the description of the formation of planet earth and the creation of life, animals, plants and lastly humans do seem to follow in a logical progression. Obviously there could not have been any humans around when the earth was formed so anything written about that era would have to be via some later revelation rather than an eye witness account! Clearly this issue is a trap for unwary Christians – if I say I don’t believe it is literally true, then how can I say that the Bible as a whole is a trustworthy source and if I do say it is literally true, then I am open to ridicule from non-believers, not that the latter bothers me. I may be accused of dodging the issue but to me, as a Christian rather than an Old Testament Jew, the creation story along with the discussions we have about dinosaurs and aliens from outer space are irrelevant to my belief and trust in Jesus whose life, works and resurrection are recorded in the New Testament as early as 40 years after his death. The apostle John who lived along side Jesus being one of these, as well as eye witness accounts recorded by Luke.
I believe that there had to be a very first human being aka Adam who became aware of good and evil but it is difficult for us today to imagine a world where the concept of good and evil does not exist and what would put the notion into that human’s brain in the first place. If the God who is capable of creating an entire universe from nothing, then presumably a talking snake would be child’s play! If you can’t believe that, then is it possible that the notion of good and evil came to this human’s mind as he/she observed the snake? Have you ever been in the situation where a thought/idea comes into your head when you are simply doing nothing, just meditating? I have and it’s usually when I am taking in some breathtaking scenery (like when I first saw the Niagara Falls for example) and lost to the world as it were. Would I say that it was the Niagara Falls that spoke to me in that moment – probably not!
I think I have shared this experience before, that is when I was simply driving along on the dual carriageway between Cwmbran and Newport with nothing particular on my mind and suddenly my heart was literally warmed in my chest and a feeling of intense joy/peace came over me. There was no audible voice in that case but I just felt reassured that everything was ok and that I should feel at peace with myself and the world. I never had that experience before or since. I believe this was God at work.
Q.2: I agree that it’s fair to say that most people’s religious belief is that derived from their parents or local culture. That does not mean to say that all religions are true of course or that children grow up so indoctrinated that they don’t at some point question the validity of that faith.
Christianity stands out because it is the only religion that puts its faith in a person rather than a philosophy. As you have pointed out many times, there are apparently around 10,000 distinct religions in the world, but over three-quarters of the global population adheres to only one of these four – Christianity (31%), Islam (24%), Hinduism (15%), and Buddhism (7%). To me the acid test surely has to be whether or not people convert from their current belief/faith (or no faith) to another. I don’t have any data but subjectively I would say more people convert to Christianity from Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism than vice-versa. For Muslims especially, to convert to Christianity is a dangerous move hence I suspect there is very little data available!
Of course, for me, Christianity is the only true faith. Jesus said…”no-one comes to the Father (God) except by me”. Quite an arrogant claim some people would argue – a classic case of take it or leave it I’m afraid! The other religions have no concept of the grace of God but insist on good works (brownie points), belief in karma, reincarnation etc. Christians understand that no amount of good works will win favour with God, just a simple acceptance that Jesus has already paid the price for the sins of mankind as a whole and all we have to do is accept him as our saviour, confess we fall short, and ask him to take charge of our lives. It is then our responsibility to spread the good news of Jesus to all humanity so no-one has the excuse that they never heard it. I believe we have only one life here, so just the one shot at it.
Q3: Yes, I can understand that most modern humans require physical evidence before they will believe something, especially today with the advent of AI, fake news and general scepticism. Today the “truth” can be elusive and will become more and more so in the future. However just because the human race has made huge advances in science, technology, medicine etc can we really say that we have advanced in terms of the basic things in life that people need, such as is described in the American Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Can you all in honesty look at the state of the world today and say how all this greater scientific knowledge has fundamentally changed the hearts of mankind? The issues that Jesus was concerned about 2000 years ago are exactly the same ones today – fear, worry, greed, power, me-first, standing up for the poor and down-trodden, wars and rumours of wars. We have in the main rejected God’s plan for us and hence we reap what we sow.
