Small Group Study

A few of us from my church are reading Lee Strobel's A Case for Faith. I have to admit we've been taking our time. We pretty much meet once a month after reading one chapter.

In his book, Lee Strobel discusses 8 Objections people have towards faith (in God). They would be #1: Since Evil and Suffering Exist, a Loving God Cannot; #2: Since Miracles Contradict Science, They Cannot be True; #3: Evolution Explains Life, So God isn't Needed; #4: God Isn't Worth of Worship if He Kills Innocent Children; #5: It's Offensive to Claim Jesus is the Only Way to God; #6: A Loving God would never Torture People in Hell; #7: Church History is Littered with Oppression and Violence; and #8: I Still Have Doubts, So I Can't Be a Christian.

Personally none of those things really bothered me except for, perhaps, #1. In fact I could defend some of those objections, particularly objection #7. There are a number of people of from different faiths and religions that use the name of that particular religion to further their own personal causes. Or to justify some terrible act they have committed. I don't consider them to be true follower of their particular religions. They're just charlatans who are trying to defend their unjust behavior and nothing more.

I'm a bit torn between Evolution and Creationism. Evolution states that we all started as a single celled organism and evolved into so many distinct life forms. And that life started from an inanimate objects/chemicals. That sounds a bit far fetched. As well, I would expect to see more life forms that show progression from earlier stages of evolution to what we have now. There's too big a jump from an ape to a human for example. Why don't we see many other creatures in between? Though the alternative does seem a bit improbable too. That a higher being just put everyone and every living creature here. Of course it's not impossible. I suppose I'd have to give this topic more consideration.

I don't necessarily believe that prayer works. Lee Strobel gave a personal example in how prayer worked for him in his book. At one point his daughter's life was in jeopardy from a mysterious illness that doctors couldn't diagnose. Well, Mr. Strobel prayed to God about it and she miraculously recovered. Lee, at that time, was an atheist and said that he tried to explain the miracle away by saying it was just a coincidence that she got better when he really knew it was God that intervened.

Well, something like that happened at our church. A young boy was gravely ill. They whole church prayed for him. But, unlike the case with Mr. Strobel's daughter this young boy died. It happens all the time. People pray fervently for something and it falls on deaf ears. What happened then? Is God punishing us? Or does he even exist as an entity that Christians believe him to be?

Another objection I have that Lee Strobel failed to include in his book is something I consider pretty major. The fact that dinosaurs were totally omitted in the story of creation. We know they existed. There's no doubt about that. But, nowhere do they fit into the story of how God created the earth and all life on it.

I did a bit of research on the internet about it. Most accounts of how they fit into the story of creation are ridiculous. Some people suggest that dinosaurs did live in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and that they were plant eaters like all other animals. Some say that dinosaurs are, at most, 6,000-years-old and that humans lived along side them. A few of them even question the scientists who say dinosaurs lived between 65 and 250 million years ago. They said things like, "How do the scientists know that dinosaurs lived that long ago? Were they there then?" That sounds like something a five-year-old child would say in a playground argument. All their theories are utterly absurd. Do they expect any reasonably intelligent person to buy into them? It's a vain attempt to explain a large inconsistency in the bible as far as I'm concerned.

Anyone who knows me well knows I'm a skeptic. I don't believe in anything supernatural. I don't believe in ghosts or spirits or that UFOs have visited our planet. Especially without us knowing about it. And I mean all of us, not just a few crazy farmers or whatever in some small town in the middle of nowhere that no one's ever heard of. To make me believe any of that stuff I'd have to see it before my very eyes. Then and only then will I take that step towards believing in it.

Morality and God

I'm currently reading a book for our church's small group study by Lee Strobel called The Case for Faith. In the second chapter interviewee, William Craig, argues that God must exist because we have objective moral values - basically the ability to tell right from wrong.

"If God does not exist, then objective moral values do not exist." he says.

I tend to take on the view of an example he gives from philosopher, Michael Ruse, to refute this statement. "Morality is a biological adaptation no less than are hands and feet and teeth." It is "just an aid to survival and reproduction... any deeper meaning is illusory."

I believe it's in our best interest as a species to live in relative harmony if we want to not only survive, but thrive. If we go around attacking, raping or killing one another this will never be achieved. And if someone tried to do this to us or someone we cared about we'd obviously be upset about it. It's basic biological behavior by humans and even less advanced species.

Like humans there are a lot of animals that have to live together in groups. To survive they must learn not only to get along well together, but work together as a unit. Take meerkats for instance. For those of you who don't know, meerkats are small mammals. They are burrowing members of the mongoose family who live in South Africa. They live in large family units in arid areas. To survive they work together to gather food for their young. They post sentries to look out for predators. If they see a hawk they will sound the alarm and everyone will dash for cover. If there is a poisonous snake that's threatening the group they attack it together. And if a member of the meerkat family doesn't follow the rules of the clan they will be banished from the group. Unfortunately that's pretty much a death sentence for the lone meerkat. For it can't survive on it's own trying to gather food safely while avoiding predators.

So, I'd argue it's basic animal instinct for survival that drives them to live in harmony. And I believe we achieved our objective moral values in much the same way. It's a basic survival instinct. Nothing more, nothing less.

Are you there God? It's me, Jeff.

I don't know if you've read the book Are you there God? It's me, Margaret. It's a coming of age novel by Judy Blume, about a young girl, Margaret, and her struggles with pre-teen issues, religion and her faith. Well, for the longest time, I've been in that very same boat (minus all the pre-teen, girl problems of course).

I've been attending church since the mid-80's. My friend, Vince, reintroduced me to TCPC (Toronto Chinese Presbyterian Church) in our last year of high school. It was a fun place to go. The fellowship life down there was quite active. We met every Friday night to sing, do bible studies... church stuff, you know. Most times we'd go out for a bite or meet at someone's house afterwards. It was like a theistic social club if you may.

The question of God's existence presented itself not long after. Being a church, TCPC's mandate was to promote God and the salvation only Jesus could provide. My friends there often asked me what my thoughts on that were. I had to be honest and say that I didn't know if God existed or not. They had their reasons for believing, but I was a born skeptic and needed more proof for myself. Sometimes they suggested books to read. Most of them started with the basic assumption that you believed God existed already and would take it from there. While that might be true for the general population, I had never reached that point. So they didn't offer much insight to me.

One thing I struggled with was that, if God is Love, then why is there so much suffering in the world today? I've accepted our pastor Tom's explanation about that. He says that God doesn't make bad things happen. He lets things play out and doesn't interfere. What we perceive as bad isn't necessarily so. Sometimes we endure trials to build our character or teach us something new. Though, sort of along the same lines... I really haven't seen anything that makes me believe God is out there either. Things just seem to happen in this world, both good and bad. How does that prove God's existence? I'm not sure it does. Of course, it doesn't disprove His existence either. And, that's where I've spent the majority of my life up until this point... not knowing.

Recent events have got me thinking again. This year, 2009, has been pretty tumultuous for me to say the least. I'm a person who doesn't like change, and, so far, this year has been full of it for me. First of all, I was laid off from my job after nearly 21 years there. I had grown so comfortable there I thought that's where I would spend the rest of my working days. It was disappointing at first. The work was relatively stress-free and I had made a lot of great friends there. Of course we would still keep in touch, but it wouldn't be the same. I wondered to myself if this was God's way of giving me a kick in the pants and saying, try something new, try something different... upgrade your skills, upgrade yourself.

The second thing that happened that made me wonder if God was looking out for me happened on my trip to Asia after I had been let go. The main reason I had gone to Beijing back in July was to meet a girl, Ling, I had met on-line. To make a long story short, things didn't quite work out. I was left kind of in a lurch after we parted ways, not having a place to stay or a planned agenda of things to do. That's where I wonder if God first interceded on my behalf by providing me with Yanfen, a friend I first met in 2003 (the same way, through the internet). I subsequently contacted her and she, not only took me in, but was able to show me around the city in a much more intimate and enjoyable way - by bicycle. I had a great time hanging out with her and her friends. Much more so than with Ling, the girl I had originally gone to meet.

As well, on the same trip to Asia, I planned on visiting Cambodia. Well, perhaps, that's an overstatement. There was next to no planning done on my part I have to say. That could have lead to dire consequences to say the least. All I had done to prepare was change money to $300 in US funds and book the airline ticket from Beijing to Phnom Penh. Nothing else. I hadn't even booked any accommodations for my first night or anything. I didn't even have a map of the city. And my flight was arriving into Phnom Penh late at night. Once again, perhaps, God intervened by sending Joanna my way. I met her at the airport in Beijing. She was also going to Cambodia to travel for a week. Her friend, Teresa, was already there and had made plans for their accommodations and to pick her up at the airport. Kindly, Joanna offered to text her friend to see if she could help me out. Teresa agreed and the three of us crammed into a tuk tuk with all our luggage for the ride into town after we arrived. Their guest house was fully booked that evening, but the tuk tuk driver offered to drive me around to find another place to stay. In the end I ended up traveling with Teresa and Joanna for the week. Their itinerary would have been pretty much the same as mine had I actually planned one. We were in Phnom Penh for a day or so, then took the bus to Siem Reap where we saw the temple ruins of Angkor the next four days. Teresa pretty much organized it all. I owe a deep, deep debt of gratitude to her. Same goes for Joanna. If I hadn't met her, who knows where I would have ended up?

Now, does any of this prove that God exists? I'm not sure. But, I'll tell you one thing... it's made me think much more about the possibility that someone's looking out for me than I had in the past. And that's a huge step considering where I was not long before.