Thinking about God, Jesus and The Big Questions

This is the long-promised post on the issue of those who reject the Bible because it isn't "complete" (by their standards).  The Bible isn't meant to be a science textbook The Bible is sufficient to generate faith.  The Bible is not meant to contain all the answers to scientific questions, nor is it meant to be a manual on how the universe works.  It is a guide to God and Jesus.  Just as a music textbook needn't include for instance a section on English literature, neither does a book on God and Jesus have to include sections on music, engineering, science, etc.  However, it is surprising how many atheists expect that the Bible should do all these things!  What would happen if the Bible DID contain 'everything'? Let's consider for a moment what would happen if the bible was very "complete" (by atheist standards).  This would result in a huge and lengthy tome which no-one would ever read! Even with the life expectancy of today, even a B...

We live in a post-Fall existence.  We therefore cannot truly imagine what the Garden of Eden must have looked like before the Fall.  However, it must have been a beautiful, comfortable, and low-maintenance place to live.  There were no weeds or thistles, no poisonous plants.  Tending to the plants and obtaining nutrition from these plants was a straightforward business. Adam and Eve had never seen a weed or an unwanted, undesirable plant in their lives. All the plants there were beautiful and/or useful: The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2: 9 Unlike Adam and Eve at that point, we on the other hand, are all too familiar with  weeds.  They spring up much faster than the plants we are trying to cultivate, and will choke their growth and spread their seed quickly. ...