Friday, April 18, 2014

Is God Real? Did he even exist?

Every time I bring up going to church my children throw a fit, more specifically Jacob tosses a hundred different questions my way, that I can't answer. You see Jacob is 14, he is very intelligent, and his way of thinking is unique. His questions make me question the things I know and believe. So I would love to have some feedback from you and to hear your thoughts and opinions regarding his thoughts. These are in no particular order. 

1. White Tigers and Noah's Ark: If two of every animal were brought onto Noah's Ark, how do we still have orange tigers? Once a brother/sister, father/daughter combo reproduce you get a white tiger. So even if Noah took two orange tigers on the ark that were not related, they would have to mate and those tigers would be related, so there shouldn't be any orange tigers left in the world. Can you please explain to me mom, how we still have orange tigers?

2. Incest and Noah's Ark. We are taught incest is wrong, yet Noah only took his family. So in order to repopulate they would have to have reproduced with one another which is incest. Same thing goes for the animals too. If this is true then we are all related some how right?  

3. If God created Adam and Eve, and they were Caucasian, then how do we have Asians, Latinos, African Americans, etc? Or if Adam and Eve were African American, how do we have Caucasians, Asians, Latinos, etc? You get the point. We've been told the climate, etc effects the pigment/melanin in the skin, but that doesn't account for the physical features of their bodies, such as height, facial features, etc). If African Americans move to the US their skin color doesn't become that of a Caucasian person, and if a Caucasian person moves to Africa their skin color doesn't become that of an African American? So if people are using the theory their skin tone adjusts to their climate and surrounding, wouldn't it still do that today?? 

4. How do we know that the Bible isn't just some story that someone wrote and a group of people just decided to believe? There are other books out there that people read and believe. So the Bible could just be another theory or a different set of beliefs that some random person wrote. 

5. If God created Adam and Eve to be Christians and they taught Christianity to everyone else, how and where did Judaism, Buddhism, Muslim etc come into play? Who taught these other religions to people? Shouldn't everyone be a Christian? So basically, someone had a different belief or theory and told some people about it and those people  decided they wanted to follow that person and form a new religion...right? Ok then, how do we know that wasn't done with the Bible? These are the questions I am asked. 

6. How do people know what heaven looks like or that it exists? I showed him the clip for "Heaven Is For Real" and explained people have had near-death experiences. He's not buying that they "see" Heaven. We will be heading to the movies next Friday night to "Heaven Is For Real".

These are just of few of the questions I am faced with when I mention I want us to go to church. We have tried several different churches of different denominations and I always hear the same thing when we leave, how do they know what was said or how Jesus lived? All they are doing is reading from a book that anyone could have wrote, that people choose to believe. So I ask him what do you believe?? He tells me he doesn't know, that he has too many questions. I say perfect! Then we can go to church and you can question the pastor or youth pastor and he says no. 

I encourage you to share your thoughts and beliefs with me, because it is difficult for me to answer these questions. 

Please keep in mind Jacob is still a child and he entitled to ask questions and have his own opinions. So I ask if you can't be mature and nice in your response, that you refrain from replying, because he will see these. If you want to bash me and my parenting skills feel free to email me at brandysue0921@gmail.com 


1 comment:

  1. Hi Brandy! This is an old post and I dont know if it what im going to share is even relevant anymore but your son is very thoughtful and seems very intellegent. There's an online resource called Answers in Genesis, that is a christian resource for some of those hard questions,I dont know that they'll have an answer to the tiger question but it can be helpful! Your son doesnt have to turn off his brain to love Christ. That was helpful for me to know when I was 17! Thanks for sharing. - Espy

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