these are honest-to-gosh questions i have about christianity. if you have the answers, i would appreciate them. please either post them in the comments section, or deliver them via angel, shrubbery, vision in the night, etc.
1. do all of the creatures of the earth throughout its 4.5 billion year existence get to go to heaven (or hell if they're bad)? pterodactyls, neanderthals, budgies, baboons, hummingbirds, puppy dogs, and porpoises...are they entitled to an afterlife? or are they s.o.l.?
2. pre-monotheistic folk. where did they go when they died?
3. monotheism. before monotheism, why did the monotheistic god not make himself known? and did heaven exist at this point in time? if so, was it empty? and if animals do go to heaven, were they always monotheistic?
4. what caused the cessation of major miracles, prophecies, and god literally speaking to humans? the viral nature and popularity of youtube seems well-suited for getting out some new material.
5. according to isaiah 45:18, god created the heavens and the earth 'not in vain...to be inhabited', so we can infer that humans are a great part of the purpose of god. humans have not existed for 99.9999% of the existence of the cosmos. isn't that terribly inefficient for an all powerful dude who made woman out of a adam's rib with the speed of a clown fashioning a dachshund from a couple of balloons?
6. the number of species believed to be in existence today ranges from 2 to 100 million, according to scientists. how did noah fit all of them on a boat, much less locate them? even if, say, half of them, could swim or survive in water, that's still a lot of animals.
7. if the bible is the inerrant word of god, why is it so rife with historical, cosmological, geographical, physiological, biological, and chronological errors and contradictions? if the bible is the inspired word of god, and perhaps some of it is allegorical, how are we supposed to differentiate?
8. why is religious dogma immune to change? nearly every institution, from medicine to science to government, invites and encourages change, enhancement, and progress. the writings of the bible were written at a time when drilling holes in people's skulls was considered to be a wise treatment for epilepsy, migranes, mental illness, and a variety of other disorders. the earth was believed to be flat. people had a very limited knowledge of the nature of the universe. as a result of innovation, change, and progress, amendment, etc., these other institutions better serve society, people live longer, and have a much better quality of life. why must religion remain tied to ancient texts that are immune to progress? perhaps a wiki would work.
9. approximately 33% of the world population are christians. if individuals must accept christ to avoid eternal damnation, why would a supreme being allow 2/3 of the people modeled in his image to fail in this regard? only in baseball would .333 be considered a stellar average.
10. it is safe to say that there are 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the universe. with approximately 10,000,000,000 planets in the universe capable of producing life. these are of course wild estimates, but as accurate as we can be. regardless, it is safe to say that there are other beings in the universe capable of communicating, thinking, feeling - everything we are capable of, if not more. it is also safe to say that life has evolved more than once on any given planet. that being said, do they all have the same god? is there a christ on each planet? are there similar, or identical, biblical writings on each planet? are only 1/3 of those beings aligned with a form of christianity? or is christianity only a product of our planet? how can one arrive at the conclusion that christianity, or any religion, is correct and the others are wrong?
