Search This Blog

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

For the Non-Believer



Questionaire for the Non-Believer


1. How do you explain the high degree of design and order in the universe?


2. How do you account for the vast archaeological documentation of Biblical stories, places, and people?


3. Since absolutely no Bible prophecy has ever failed (and there are hundreds), how can one realistically remain unconvinced that the Bible is of Divine origin?


4. Explain David's graphic portrayal of Jesus' death by crucifixion (Psalm 22) 1000 years previous to crucifixion being established as a form of capital punishment?


5. How could any mere human pinpoint the birth town of the Messiah seven full centuries before the fact, as did the prophet Micah?


6. Account for the odds (1 in 10 to the 157th power) that even just 48 (of 300) Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in one person, Jesus.


7. How was it possible for the Old Testament prophet Isaiah to have predicted the virgin birth of Jesus (Isaiah 7:14) 700 years before it occurred?


8. How can anyone doubt the reliability of Scripture considering the number and proximity to originals of its many copied manuscripts?


9. Are you able to live consistently with your present worldview?


10. Wouldn't it make better sense, even pragmatically, to live as though the God of the Bible does exist than as though He doesn't?


11. In what sense was Jesus a 'Good Man' if He was lying in His claim to be God?


12. Do you think that Jesus was misguided in affirming the truthfulness of Scripture, John 10:35, Matthew 24, Luke 24:44?


13. If the Bible is not true, why is it so universally regarded as the 'Good Book'?


14. Are you aware that the Old Testament alone claims to be God's inspired word at least 2600 times?


15. Did you know that the Bible has been the number one best-seller every year since the 1436 invention of  the Gutenberg printing press?


16. From whence comes humanity's universal moral sense?


17. If man is nothing but the random arrangement of molecules, what motivates you to care and to live honorably in the world?


18. Explain how personality could have ever evolved from the impersonal, or how order could have ever resulted from chaos.


19. If Jesus' resurrection was faked, why would twelve intelligent men (Jesus' disciples) have died for what they knew to be a lie?


20. How do you explain the fact that a single, relatively uneducated and virtually untraveled man, dead at age 33, radically changed lives and society to this day?


21. Why have so many of history's greatest thinkers been believers? Have you ever wondered why thousands of intelligent scientists, living and dead, have been men and women of great faith?


22. Isn't it somewhat arrogant to suggest that countless churches and people (including men like Abraham Lincoln) are all radically in error in their view of the Bible?


23. How do you account for the origin of life considering the irreducible complexity of its essential components?


24. How can the Second Law of Thermodynamics (the ability to distinguish the past, present and future)  be reconciled with progressive, naturalistic evolutionary theory?


25. How do you reconcile the existence of human intelligence with naturalism and the Law of Entropy (that the world is inherently active) ?


26. Why does the Bible alone, of all of the world's 'holy' books, contain such detailed prophecies of future events?


27. On what basis can the Bible (interpreted as per historic Christian orthodoxy) be challenged as a sole, final truth-standard (Galatians 1:8)?


28. Is it absolutely true that "truth is not absolute" or only relatively true that "all things are relative?"


29. Is it possible that your unbelief in God is actually an unwillingness to submit to Him?


30. Does your present worldview provide you with an adequate sense of meaning and purpose?


31. How do you explain the radically changed lives of so many Christian believers down through history?


32. Are you aware that every alleged Bible contradiction has been answered in an intelligible and credible manner?


33. What do you say about the hundreds of scholarly books that carefully document the veracity and reliability of the Bible?


34. Why and how has the Bible survived and even flourished in spite of centuries of worldwide attempts to destroy and ban its message?


35. Why isn't it absurd to try to speak or even conceive of a non-existent 'God' when an existing God would, by definition, be greater?


36. Have you ever considered the fact that Christianity is the only religion whose leader is said to have risen from the dead?


37. How do you explain the empty tomb of Jesus in light of all the evidence that has now proven essentially irrefutable for twenty centuries?


38. If Jesus did not actually die and rise from the dead, how could He (in His condition) have circumvented all of the security measures in place at
His tomb?



39. If the authorities stole Jesus' body, why? Why would they have perpetrated the very scenario that they most wanted to prevent?


40. If Jesus merely resuscitated in the tomb, how did He deal with the Roman guard posted just outside its entrance?


41. How can one realistically discount the testimony of over 500 witnesses to a living Jesus following His crucifixion (see 1 Corinthians 15:6)?


42. If all of Jesus' claims to be God were the result of His own self-delusion, why didn't He evidence lunacy in any other areas of His life?


43. If God is unchanging, wouldn't it be true that one who changes by suddenly "realizing" that he/she is 'God' therefore isn't God?


44. Is your unbelief in a perfect God possibly the result of a bad experience with an imperfect Church or a misunderstanding of the facts, and therefore an unfair rejection of God Himself?


45. How did 35-40 men, spanning 1500 years and living on three separate continents, ever manage to author one unified message, the Bible?


46. Would you charge the Declaration of Independence with error in affirming that "all men are endowed by their Creator..."?


47. Because life origins are not observable, verifiable, or falsifiable, how does historical 'science' amount to anything more than just another
faith system?



48. What do you make of all the anthropological studies indicating that even the most remote tribes show some sort of theological awareness?


49. Why subscribe to the incredible odds that the tilt and position of our planet relative to the sun are merely coincidental?


50. If every effect has a cause, and if God Himself is the universe what or who then caused the universe?


Lastly ...


What would be required to persuade you to become a Believer?