At 1st I was avoiding the discussion because those that instigated it were being very critical of the bible and there didn't seem to be much point entering at that point. The discussion progressed and moved away from the bible and a dominant negative attitude and moved towards some basics, such as heaven & hell and the very existence of God. It was at this point I decided to become an active participant in the conversation.
I know the chaps know I'm religious and they confirmed that they were waiting for me to join in and were obviously interested in what I had to say.
I did suggest that everything is here for no reason whatsoever and that there is no god. And I suggested that alternatively all of this is here for a reason and that there is something else going on. Both ideas are equally as ridiculous and hard to comprehend as the other. Both schools of thought have many unanswered questions. Of all the people that ever lived on the earth, and do live on the earth, a significant portion of them believe in something, and that can not be ignored. I pointed out that I think every person should dedicate some time to considering what it is they believe.
I was asked the common question regarding infant deaths and why God allows such things to happen, which I tried to answer in two parts. The 1st being that you cannot be held responsible for your grown children's auctions. This lead to further discussion about responsibility and unfortunately I didn't get to my second part of the answer which hopefully would have offered some kind of peace, which is that you can't be repentant or be condemned until you are old enought to comprehend the decisions you are making. Thus young children are innocent and automatically go to heaven.
The conversation then went quite deep with one guy reverting back to science a lot which I struggled to follow.
As per usual though. It wasn't until after the conversation as I pondered the points I heard that I came up with my best responses to his questions. This was good for me as they reaffirmed my own testimony. It's just a shame I couldn't share these better responses with my work colleagues.
Having considered these issues though and formulated answers, I know I will be slightly better prepared for the next conversation.
One idea that I pondered was the idea of knowledge and opinion of God. One guy had a hard time with the bible because he perceived the God of the bible to be a harsh God. For example why would he insist Abraham sacrifice his son? Basically he had a hard time understanding God.
The same chap, however, was willing to accept that there is a lot we don't know about life and the universe. What we know is nothing compared to what we know we don't know. And I suspect he subscribes to the idea that what we know we don't know is nothing compared to what we don't know we don't know.
So I find it odd to hear him say he struggles to comprehend an omniscient (all knowing) and omnipotent (all powerful) God when he himself admits that he knows relatively nothing.
To illustrate my point I might ask him to recall a time when his wife has asked him to do something that he does not understalnd, maybe something relating to raising the children. To him what his wife is asking him to do seems crazy, but he trusts her and so he does what she says. Sure enough, she was right. Or another example would be to ask him to recall the thrill of one of his expeditions, hiking though the countryside. I have very fond memories of training with my wife for our 100km challenge. When we tell people about it, we are regularly told we are crazy. But we loved it. And when he tells people about his experiences some people would also tell him he is crazy, they would much rather just stay at home.
Is this not similar to his idea about God and what he asks us to do sometimes. How on earth can we think we know better than him. How can we think that he is barbaric when he asks us to do something when at the same time we know that what we know by comparison to him is absolutely nothing.
I wish I had thought of this point during the conversation. Unfortunately I didn't. But I was given the opportunity to come to this conclusion myself and as a result, my resolve to believe in God was strengthened.
Another conclusion I come to it that it is interesting that we all have the same evidence before us. We all have the world and this life to study and make our decision. Yet, despite the same evidence before us, we come to varying conclusions.
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