So it is OK to preach philosophy for a theological question but not to answer the question theologically?

This is one of the many quagmires that certain faiths have put forth. I once asked the classic question "can god create a stone so heavy that he can not lift it?" in order to disprove that an omnipotent god can exist. the response from my catholic friend was that my question is logically impossible, and that it has no bearing on the existence of an omnipotent god. i replied with "an omnipotent god is logically impossible, also" he got mad, and changed the subject...

It's called FREE WILL In Christian theology, God is described as not only omniscient but omnipotent; a notion which some people, Christians and non-Christians alike, believe implies that not only has God always known what choices individuals will make tomorrow, but has actually determined those choices. That is, they believe, by virtue of his foreknowledge he knows what will influence individual choices, and by virtue of his omnipotence he controls those factors. This becomes especially important for the doctrines relating to salvation and predestination. Other branches, such as Methodists, believe that while God is omnipotent and knows the choices that individuals will make, he still gives individuals the power to ultimately choose (or reject) everything, regardless of any internal or external conditions relating to the choice. For example, when Jesus was nailed on the cross, the two criminals, one on each side, were about to die. Only one asked Jesus for forgiveness while the other, even at the end of his life with nothing else to lose, mocked Jesus. In the view of Methodists and others who believe in free will, this was a free choice of everlasting death over everlasting life.

Merely ask yourself: who stands to benefit from you accepting without question what the guy with the funny hat standing at the front of the church has to say? If you said, "The guy passing around the collection plate and threatening you with eternal hellfire if you don't pony up", go to the head of the class...

Logic and reason versus faith..mutually exclusive concepts..faith means you accept without thinking or expecting proof..logic and reason means that you question everything and accept nothing unless you have "proof"..so it is either one or the other..you cannot embrace both simultaneously, unless you are one of those people who have "logic-tight" compartments and can hold mutually exclusive ideas at the same time! :)

I know what you mean Rosie. Seems so silly doesn't it?

I am a fan of apologetics. We DO know Jesus (I get the door THAT opens, but for the sake of argument-We know that he lived from non theological , historical texts. We know how he lived, died, and what he stood for. I might not believe in a black hole out in space because it's math computations (sometimes wrong)that assume there's some gravity and light sucking hole out there in space. Where does it go? I don't know, (& no-one really knows), and no one's ever seen one except with "enhanced" techniques." We know what can be done to photos now. Yet we accept that they exist by its surroundings. We have only recently discovered that even flowers follow the most complex fractal math patterns. It is used almost exclusively in nature, & sort of figured out by the Ancient Africans. I believe God has "limits" on how events occur that have to follow the "laws" set forth for this earth and solar system. I believe he's trying to show us by first seeing the unbelievable (a solar eclipse), and then later, find it follows the laws he set forth for this "experiment." I doubt that we're the only game in his town, but these are the rules, and I intend to follow them as best I can.

Your question has a lot of presumptions and blind acceptances. God, his existence, his words, all these are just beliefs based on somebody's words and not on personal experience. The big unsolved query for me is "Who am I"? What is the purpose of my birth, existence and death? Why this inequality in creation? Where from the thoughts originate? Questions are unending. Philosophy as a subject tries to find answers for the unanswered questions.

When someone asks you to have faith in them, they do it for a reason, at this moment in time god is in a fight for your souls with evil and all he can use is love to fight for your soul and only love, he can't fight evil with evil, to do that would only let evil win and that is his reason for asking us to have faith. He forgive everyone there sins for the real fight ahead, for he knows that sin is not down to man when tempted by evil.

He wouldn't. Why would he have us use logic and reason to determine guilt for criminals or basically govern ourselves in practice, but then require us to do it differently for him? It's the product of human "genius" that came up with those unbelievable stories and the ignorance of the masses that allows it to continue. +3

Hi Penal I don't subscribe to the bible but i do know through films of Christ that the real message he came with for us humans came in parables and stories, for he couldn't tell us the real truth just now and that is why he asks us to have faith, we are left with our logic, god given to work it all out, every story down the ages before Christ came, tell you more of why Christ came, even when Christ came He could not tell us stright out that he was the son of god for this reason, turning up as a man and not a god, tells me that for some reason he had to.