- Is it not likely that had you been born in Cairo you would
be a Muslim and, as 840 million people do, would believe that
there is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet?
- If you have been born in Calcutta, would you not in all
probability be a Hindu and, as 650 million do, accept the
Vedas and the Upanishads as sacred sciptures and hope
sometime in the future to dwell in Nirvana?
- Is it not probable that, had you been born in Jerusalem,
you would be a Jew and, as some 13 million people do,
believe that
Yahweh is God and that the Torah is God's Word?
- Is it not likely that had you been born in Bejing, China,
you would be one of the millions who accept the teachings
of the
Buddha or Confucius or Lao-Tse and strive to follow
their teachings and example?
- Is it not likely that you, the reader are a Christian
because your parents were before you?
- If there is a loving God, why does he permit - much less
create - earthquakes, droughts, floods, tornadoes, and
other natural disasters which kill thousands of innocent
men, women and children every year?
- How can a loving, omnipotent God permit - much less create
encephalitis, cerebral palsy, brain cancer, leprosy,
Alzheimer's, and other incurable illnesses to afflict
millions of men, women and children, most of whom are
decent people?
- How could a loving Heavenly Father create an endless Hell
and, over the centuries, consign millions of people to
it because they do not or cannot or will not accept
certain religious beliefs? And, having done so, how
could he torment them forever?
- Why are there literally hundreds of Christian denominations
and independent congregations, all of them basing their
beliefs on the Bible, and most of them convinced that all
the others are, in some ways wrong?
- If all Christians worship the same God, why can they not
put aside their theological differences and co-operate
actively with each other?
- If God is a loving Father, why does he so seldom answer
his needy children's prayers?
- How can one believe the biblical account of the creation
of the world in six days when every eminent physicist
agrees that all living species have evolved over millions
of years from primitive beginnings?
- Is it possible for an intelligent man or woman to believe
that God fashioned the first human male from a handful
of dust and the first woman from one of the man's ribs?
- Is it possible to believe that the Creator of the universe
would personally impregnate a Palestinian virgin in order
to facilitate getting his Son into the world as a man?
- The Bible says that
the Lord thy God is a jealous God. But if you are
the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, and the
creator of all that exists, of whom could you possibly be
jealous?
- Why in a world filled with suffering and starvation, do
Christians spend millions on cathedrals and sanctuaries and
relatively little on aid to the poor and the needy?
- Why does the omnipotent God, knowing that there are tens
of thousands of men, women and children starving to death
in a parched land, simply let them waste away and die
when all that is needed is rain?
- Why would the father of all mankind have a
chosen people and favor them over the other nations
of the earth?
- Why would a God who is no respector of persons
prohibit adultery and then bless, honour, and allow to
prosper a king who had seven hundred wives and three
hundred comcubines?
- Why is the largest Christian church controlled entirely
by men, with no woman - no matter how pious or
gifted - permitted to become a priest, a monsignor, an
archbishop, a cardinal, or pope?
- Jesus's last words to his followers were
Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
creature. And, lo, I am with you always.
But despite this and to this date - some two thousand
years later - billions of men, women and children have
never so much heard the Christisan Gospel? Why?
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