Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

One thing which has become abundantly clear as I become open about my religion, is that some (but not all) atheists assume Christians use religion as a crutch (i.e. believers believe solely because of 'benefits' such as hope, a sense of comfort in times of crisis, etc.)  All I can say is, touche- ! - this is something I tended to believe of the atheists (that they were using religion as a crutch!) I suspect that while in both camps religion may be used as a crutch, I don't believe this is going on to the high extent that people tend to think it is.  Speaking for myself, I am seeking the underlying truth to things rather than believing purely because it is comforting.  How funny though that the judgment I tended to pass on atheists has travelled back to me.  It really brings it home that it's not my place to judge, it's God's.  I think it is a common mistake for Christians to think that atheists use their atheism as a crutch (e.g. atheists feel they have ...

Reading the Bible has made it clear that none of us 'deserve' to be saved.  This is because our sins are too great for any amount of work on our part to pay back that debt.  Fortunately, Jesus came down from Heaven and died then rose again so that all of mankind's sins could be forgiven.  We are forgiven only out of love, not out of any idea that we are 'good people' that 'deserve to be saved'.  Before reading the Bible, that idea doesn't seem particularly amazing.  But after reading the Bible, it is absolutely astounding.  The Bible gives us a glimpse of God and Jesus.  They are sinless and to them sin is abhorrent and repulsive.  Therefore, for Jesus to die on the cross displays unbelievable humility, during which he took on all of our sins, causing his Father God to turn away unable to bear the sight.   This would be a bit like if you were healthy (and disliked illness in any form) and came to help a leper colony, all of w...

Since this blog is mostly about very serious theological questions, I felt it would be good to have something funny to read every now and again.  I firmly believe God has a sense of humor. He made us, after all.  I mean, of all the things he could make.... humans ?  Anyhow, since I can't write a humorous entry myself, I'll link here to an article by another author on a different site.  Here is " The 7 Habits of Highly Obnoxious Christians " by David Price.  (The link will take you away from this blog but you can hit the back button to return) If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog: Why it's Not a Good Idea to Get Mad at Adam and Eve The Myth of the Mayan Calendar Predicting the End of the World in 2012

I was fortunate enough to take part in a conversation with two other biochemists once. We all came from different religious backgrounds (one Hindu, one Jew and one Christian). We posed the question "Can science explain everything? [about the universe]". This was quite an interesting question, especially as we didn't already know the others' viewpoints (we were only working together briefly). The discussion didn't last long because we all had exactly the same viewpoint, which was that "Science can explain a lot… but only up to a certain point. Beyond that there is something more." In my scientific career, I've noticed a few scientists having the poor logic of "Everything can be explained by atoms, therefore God doesn't exist". Even if you could explain all of the physical laws by atoms and quantum mechanics (which in itself is a matter up for debate!), this is not necessarily proof that there is no God. It's simply a discovery of t...

I'll preface this post by saying that this is not something I discovered during my Bible reading, rather it is an idea that I first saw put forward by C.S. Lewis.  In his book 'Miracles', C.S. Lewis says that one problem we can run into when reading the Bible is the preconceived notion that because we can't physically grasp or touch spirituality, that all things spiritual can seem ghost-like to us .  This is a grave error for us to make, because there is nothing in the Bible that would indicate God is ghost-like.  It is hard for us to remember that it is in fact our physical bodies which are tenuous, shadowy and ghost-like .  We are here for such a short time relative to the timeframe of the universe.  Our physical bodies of today are made of ashes and dust (atoms) and will return to the ground (atoms again) when we die.  Of course, those who know Christ will get to have union with God after we die - but it's made clear in the Bible that this won't...