Sorry if you missed it – we had a great time!

Thanks for all the questions that were raised. We tried to answer a few of them in the limited time we had, but there were a few we didn’t get around to – her’s my best shot in a sentence or two:

Doesn’t the Bible teach us that we should be satisfied that God created everything? Without science would we still not be in the dark ages?
No! The Bible is pro-science. Right back in Genesis chapter 1, God’s first command to Adam is to “subdue the earth”. You get the idea that the earth at that time was rugged, untouched, unexplored, but full of potential. Adam’s task was to start to understand the world he was put in charge of – to do exploration and discovery – to subdue the wildness of it all. In short, to do science. Every Christian ought to be interested in science because it’s part of what it means to be human, according to the Bible.

A world which is so highly ordered cannot easily (at all?) be explained by random processes. A universe governed by chance ought to be chaotic. That is not the world we see around us. Our world is highly ordered, demonstrating design at every point. Rather that pointing toward chaotic random processes, our world points to a highly intelligent power.

For more, listen to our talk on this subject: The Beginning of Environmentalism

 

If God created the world, directly, and his word came second hand through people, why should we favour scripture over science, as science is meant to observe God’s creation directly?
Good question. We can understand something of God’s character through the world around us – it’s beauty, complexity, order etc. But the world gives us very mixed messages: what about tsanamis and earthquakes? The picture we get of God, viewed through the lens of creation, is pretty confusing. No-one can be a totally unbiased observer. To one person, a tsunami is a demonstration of God’s power; to another it points toward chaos and evil. In the end, whenever we look at the world around us and try to deduce things about God, we are doing a lot of speculation.

The Bible claims to be God’s authoritative message to humanity – his revelation of himself to us – showing that he is full of love and justice, power and beauty. If you want to know what God is like, his revelation is a better place to begin than our speculation.

For more, listen to our talk on this subject: Why is the Bible such a big deal to Christians?

 

Why did God make wasps?
Hmmm. I’ve often wondered about that one. The Bible says that the whole of creation is broken because of sin. It was never meant to be this way! (Genesis 3:17-19, Romans 8:19-22) Maybe the existence of wasps and mosquios and viruses is somehow the result of that. Or maybe we should see them as part of an incredibly complex and amazing ecosystem – I’m sure wasps function somewhere in there. If anyone has a better answer, let me know!

 

Why does the Bible teach that God needs to alter you and change your heart before you can believe?
The Bible says we are by nature, spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). That does not mean that we have no awareness of spiritual things – there are plenty of very “spiritual” people out there. Instead, it means that all our attempts to reach God, to please him, and to understand him, are doomed to failure unless he takes the initiative. We cannot please God by doing lots of good things – instead what we need is to be brought back to life spiritually – for God to put new life into us. The Bible sometimes calls that being “born again”. You can do that today – ask God to reveal himself to you in a way that you can’t deny. But even that desire, in the end, will be because God is already at work in your heart.

Is it not unethical for Mary, a virgin, to have given birth?
Certainly, the Bible condemns sexual activity outside of marriage (but wholeheartedly enthuses about sex within marriage!). I’m sure there were people at the time who thought that Mary must have been in a sexual relationship with Joseph. But the Bible is clear that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born – and Mary is certainly not condemned for having a baby outside of marriage.

For more, listen to our talk on this subject: Avoiding Sexual Sin