Or watching
this epic debate
EDIT: am just finished a document with questions a priest will answer for me and I'll put it here for peer review.
I would like to begin with a simple question. What purely scientific data is there to support the existence of any god, including the Christian god? Surely a literate educated person cannot be expected to believe something with no evidence supporting the claim.
The problem is that the traditional conception of God implies that if God exists then he knows how to, wants to, and is able to prevent all suffering. If such a God existed, though, then we would expect him to prevent all suffering. Suffering, though, is a familiar part of the world around us; it has not been prevented. There is, therefore, the argument concludes, no such God. As Epicurus put it “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”
I find it hard to believe in today’s world we can argue that the church is a force for good in the world, there are too numerous things to list that the church has done that i will attempt to summarise. The Pope even apologised for these on March 12th 2000. Begged forgiveness for the crusades, the inquisition, the persecution of the Jewish people, injustice towards women, and the force conversion of indigenous, African slave trade, admission Galileo was right and silence in Hitler’s final solution, and **** of many young children across the world. These are very serious things and cannot simply be laughed off by references to the occasional work to catholic charities. I know this seems more of a statement but it leads to my next few questions about current church policies that perhaps in the future will also be in the predicament of asking forgiveness.
I think it might be one day admitted with shame to say that AIDS is bad as a disease but not quite as bad as condoms are bad. Preaching’s of this church are the cause of death and suffering for millions of Africans. Surely condoms are not greater evil then millions of deaths. In fact the currant pope went as far to state that condoms do not only not stop AIDS but they increase the chance of getting the HIV virus
For condemning homosexuals (some of which are very close to me) for their nature, for saying you can’t be a member of our church you’re born in sin, they’re not being condemned for what they do but for what they are. “You’re a child made in the image of god, oh no you’re not you’re a ****** and you can’t join our church and you can’t go to heaven” this is disgraceful and inhuman. We certainly don’t need the stigmatisation and victimisation that leads to the playground bullying when people say you’re a disordered morally evil individual. What do you have to say about this view? Surely it is in contrast with the church’s views on equality
Do you believe the Bible literally and that it is infallible? Are you aware of the historical inaccuracies in the bible? Even if it was all to be considered true surely they could be misconstrued through the numerous translations which almost always are influenced by personal bias during it or taken out of context due to language translation.
Should the Bible be taken literally? If so what about these verses?
Exodus 35:2 – God demands that we kill anyone who works on the Sabbath day.
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 – God demands that we kill disobedient teenagers.
Leviticus 20:13 – God demands the death of homosexuals.
Deuteronomy 22:13-21 – God demands that we kill girls who are not virgins when they marry.
If you’re answer is something along the lines of, that was the past times have changed, surely these teachings are god and therefore meant to be eternal? If not who is to say that today’s teachings will not also become outdated as they have in the past?
Do you believe in medical miracles by the work of God? E.g. curing cancer etc. If so why doesn’t god heal amputees? Why does he only heal someone when it isn’t obvious what the exact result could be?
What are your views on evolution in its relation to intelligent design?
I would like to thank you for taking the time to answer these questions and I appreciate you answering them, if I have come across as harsh or offensive it was not my intention but I feel that religion should not be free from scrutiny just because people find it sacred it should have as much criticism as any other scientific theory. I’m open to all answers and opinions but I hope I don’t get a plague of answers along the lines of “have faith” or “God works in mysterious ways” as I have received in the past albeit none would know the faith as well as you. Once again thankyou and feel free to rebut any of my points and I will give a scientifically supported explanation to the best of my ability.
You'll notice a whole paragraph or so is blatantly plagiarized from the debate, what can I say i was tired and lazy and it was too good not to use.
EDIT2
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ode tags are terrible!