Hello dear readers. Life's been pretty eventful--as always--but I feel like it's slowly winding down and returning to a sense of normalcy. Or at least as close to normal as possible.
I was off work this weekend because my boss had pink-eye (ew) and I'm not resuming work until she's better. I love getting paid, but not enough to risk my health. I felt a bit bad because I know she needs my help but oh well. I enjoyed sleeping in :lol: and Dad is much easier to take care of than a baby.
Speaking of my dad, he's doing better. Mom drove him to work this morning and I picked him up in the evening. He can do a desk job, even though I think he ought to work half days, but he can't drive yet. He's obviously still sore but he's been pushing through. He isn't the kind of person that can take it easy at home, he gets restless really easily.
My sister has a new boyfriend--Jon, which is hilarious--and John is going to be visiting me from 22 July til 31 July, which is exciting. We're hoping we can go to the coast and spend a few days there with my family. After that, in August, one of my best friends is having her wedding reception in my state so I'll be able to see her again and meet her man. So, a lot of really fun stuff is coming up.
For every good thing, there's a bad thing and my father's younger brother is getting a divorce. The short version is that they moved here from California and she has been depressed. It's the first time she's been away from her grown kids and her grandchildren (she's like 50) and I guess she just couldn't handle it. The thing is, though, that her children are adults, and they're completely disrespectful. She has a restraining order against her son, they've stolen thousands of dollars from her, she can't stand to be around her daughter for more than two weeks and yet she cries and whines all the time how much she misses them. So she's leaving her husband and new home here to go back to her dysfunctional family in a state she can't afford to live in anymore. I cannot understand her way of thinking.
Blah, family drama, on to theological discussion topics: I've got some questions for Christians that will hopefully lead to healthy debate about their theology.
First off, entry into heaven. The bible states that Jesus is the only gate with which to enter heaven (I'm paraphrasing here). So, my question is, what happens to those who don't even know of the existance of this man Jesus, or of Christianity? Say, people living in northern Asia or southern Africa, or even the native people of the Americas pre-1700s? Are they sent to hell eternally for not believe in a man they know nothing of? Or is there some other place for people in this situation? What about people who lived before Jesus was even born? Where did they go?
In a similar vein, what is a sinner? Let's take a look back to those who know nothing of Christianity, in my limited experience, sin is going against the known will of God. So, if one does not know the will of God (aboriginals in Americas, Australia, etc), could they be considered a sinner? If not, once again, where do these people go? Surely someone who is sinless does deserve to enter heaven, even if they don't know of the man Jesus or his father.
What about those who are aware of Christianity and it's tenents, but reject them? Even if they are some of the best people in the world (ex: Ghandi), if they reject the Christian God, is that enough of a sin that they are also cast into the fires of hell? How is this a fair and just God?
And finally, how is it that evolution cannot fit into the worldview of Christianity? It seems to me that an intelligent designer would design so that his creation would become greater over time. I know Genesis does say that all was created at once, and supposedly, since it is the Bible, it is the truth, as the Bible is the word of God, but remember, the infallible word was dictated to fallible humans, so it is not to say mistakes were not made. As well, God may have handed it to these writers in a manner which they could more easily understand. Saying "All life was made at once" is much easier than explaining the entire process of all animals descending from one or several early organisms through branching change, especially to early man. From a technical standpoint, all life WAS made at once if you see it from an evolutionary standpoint, it just changed from there. An early Jew (not Christians at that point) who was writing this would have assumed God meant all the diverse life was made at once.
Who's to say what kind of world existed outside the Garden of Eden? Is it not possible that the world was changing and species were evolving outside the Garden--as we have no sense of how time passed within it. It says in a passage of the Bible that a day to God is like a thousand years to us so we do not know if the world was created in 7 days to man or to God (and how long those 7 days were to God anyway).
Just some things I've been contemplating. I figured it'd be a nice change of pace from the usual "lessons".
lol jon and john
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