In 399 B.C., Socrates, now dubbed “one of the most powerful thinkers in history”, was put to death for his philosophies questioning religion and its’ moral character. Today, his philosophies are widely accepted by almost everyone and by all the major religions. God provides answers to all the questions that, at the time, cannot be answered scientifically. But, as shown throughout history, once a question is answered by science, another is risen as a result. This seemingly preludes a never ending series of questions; in which many of those, with today’s technologies, could never be given a scientific or comprehensive answer. But, every discovery made in science seems to get more complex. From cells to molecules to atoms, it is no doubt, that science gets harder to comprehend with every passing moment. This can make it very hard to believe that the answer to such a bewildering question as the universe could be something so simple as, God. It seems that, in many aspects, God is the impeccable answer to many of those who fear the unknown and the questions that, otherwise, could not be answered.
Christians find many of their “answers” directly from God through his writings, the Bible. There has been a lot of controversy over the Bible, many speculate that the Bible contradicts everything from science to logic. But, though the Bible in no doubt has many contradictions in science, those who say that the Bible contradicts itself are making an ignorant statement and are showing that they do not have a clear understanding of what the Bible preaches. The Bible does not contradict itself and in saying so, one would be mixing ancient anthropologic scripture with strict western logic. The Bible was not meant for one to compare verses, but instead, it is meant for one to look at the individual verse and to derive its moral teaching. As an example here are two seemingly contradictory verses found in the Bible:
Malachi 3:6 "For I am the Lord; I change not."
Vs.
Genesis 6:6,7 "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth . . . And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth . . . for it repenteth me that I have made him."
Though these verses from the Bible seemingly contradict each other, when you concentrate on them individually you can obtain a specific moral from each verse. In the verse from the Malachi, 3:6, it teaches the reader that God, simply does not change, not His mind or anything else. It could also be presumed that God does not change because he does not have to, he is perfect and knows all. On the other hand, in the verse from the Genesis, 6:6,7, it clearly states that God has, indeed, changed his mind. But, in observing the verse individually, you see that what the verse is trying to preach is that God is the all mighty power. It is reminding the reader that God has both the power to create us and destroy us.
One relationship between God and the Bible, other then that he wrote it, is that God gives us our morals, while the Bible explains to us why they are good and why we should have them. But, this causes some of us to question whether those who follow the Bible really believe in their morals. Often, one will follow the Bible out of fear. I say this in that how often does one hear, after committing some type of sin, someone distressing that one will go to Hell? Surely sometime in ones life one has heard this solicit exclamation. Though, more often then not this exclamation is coming from a youth. This brings up an interesting observation on the role of youths in religion. One could say that youths are being taught morals in a sense of that they are rules, instead of being shown that the morals are ethically correct. Youths are taught to follow their morals by threats. The problem with this is that subconsciously the youth intertwines their morals with rules and laws. This can cause a major problem for when the youth reaches his or her teenage years. And, as we all know, teenagers often enter a phase of delinquency and begin to have a more rebellious attitude. During this phase, teenagers often lose respect for rules and laws, and it often becomes much easier to break them. So, if the teenager’s morals have been intertwined with rules are laws, and are breaking those, what is to keep the teenager from breaking his or her morals as well? It’s a problem that, though it can be seen in teenagers everywhere, most have failed to recognize.
One solution for this problem may be not to derive our morals directly from a book or “higher being”, instead, get our ideas from these sources but obtain our morals through experience and observations.
If you have any comments, complaints, complements or death threats you can contact me by phone, 470-2952, by email, 8ballplayer@email.com or send me an instant message, TheApoth. My name's Ben Grantham and im smarter than you.
