Religulous

Top 10 Religulous Questions:

This ‘mockumentary’ video by Bill Maher is often vile, irreverent and blasphemous. It is often ill-informed (Maher states that no one who ever wrote about Jesus had ever met him… Matthew and John anybody?) and clearly biased (he makes his yardage by getting often embarrassing answers from average Christians, while not showing any well-spoken knowledgeable Christian apologists).

However, this video is instructive. It is most frustrating that the ‘average’ Christians did such a poor job of defending their faith; this is why many see Christians as dogmatic, simple and ignorant. These poor answers play into Maher’s statement that “Faith means making a virtue of not thinking”, and this should challenge us to THINK!

As a follow-up to our Video BLOG on this topic, here are some major questions that were asked directly or by inference. These questions are not listed to say anything negative about Maher; they are tough, provocative and worthwhile questions. Can you answer them; at least with some semblance of support and logic?

Note: Click Here to download a file of all 33 questions.

1. What evidence is there for the existence of Christ (given that no one who wrote about him even met him)?


2. How can we believe in a talking snake, people living to 900 yrs of age and the virgin birth?


3. Why did Lot offer his daughters to be raped in order to protect the angels; and he was the good guy?


4. Are miracles not just mundane coincidences?


5. Did Jonah really live inside a big fish for 3 days (how)?


6. Are the Ten Commandments really the ten most important laws? Only two of them are real laws; don’t steal and don’t kill. Why not include torture, child abuse and rape?


7. Do you think that, if when you were a kid, they transposed the Bible stories with fairy tales, that you would know the difference as an adult?


8. God is super-powerful, he can do anything, why doesn’t he just obliterate the devil and therefore get rid of evil in the world? What is he waiting for?


9. Your God is jealous, that seems so un-godlike, I know people who have gotten over jealousy. (Can you justify his jealousy?)


10. Does it ever bother you that the story of Jesus was floating around the Mediterranean area for at least 1000 years before him? Implied question – is the story of Jesus not just a compilation of other stories?


1. Krishna (India >1000 years BC) was a carpenter, born of a virgin and baptized in a river.


2. Mithra (Persian god ~600 BC) was born on Dec. 25, performed miracles, resurrected on the third day and was known as the: lamb, way, truth, light, savior and messiah.


3. In 1280 BC, the Egyptian Book of the Dead describes a god, Horus, who was born to a virgin, baptized in a river by Anup the baptizer, who was later beheaded. He was tempted while alone in the desert, healed the sick, the blind and walked on water, raised Asar from the dead (translates into Lazarus), had 12 disciples. He was crucified first, after 3 days, two women announced that he had been resurrected.

These questions should give you pause for thought. This might stimulate some personal study or maybe even some sermon topics. Thanks Bill.

Converge addresses Self Injury in youth

They converged on us!

Hey! Did we have a great weekend at Converge 2009. Students from as far away as Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba converged on our college for a time of worship, ministry and fellowship. We packed out the Residence and the campus was full of excitement.

Our guest speaker, James Schwab (class of ’98) touched our hearts as he spoke about timely issues for teens today. He spoke on:

PAIN – He encouraged us to leave our pain with God.
This message hit a resonant chord for many of us. James opened up the whole can of worms relating to youth and self injury (SI). He talked about cutting and suicide, eating disorders and other harmful activities. If you want to hear this message you can download an audio podcast from http://www.horizon.edu/site/media/podcasts.shtml or watch the video on youtube.

I encourage you to also download podcasts of his other two messages:

LIFESTYLE– He asked “does our life point to God?”

FORGIVENESS – Yes, that’s a tough one! He shared the importance of forgiving our enemies.