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Some who know me know that I’ve recently alluded to some “tiger” questions regarding my affiliation with and identification as a Christian. I won’t go into details here – yet – but I want to toss something out there. If, for some reason, someone picks up and sees my blog, maybe someone will respond.
- Going back to Abraham, the Jewish race has claimed to be the “chosen people.” Christianity came out of that tradition. Why should we accept that the Jewish people are/were any more “chosen” than anyone else? Because the Bible says so? So a set of books written by Jews and for Jews, giving the history of the Jewish people, say that Jews are the chosen people of God and therefore can assert ownership of land and privilege? That seems oddly self-serving and not a very good argument, really.
- The New Testament says that Jesus is the only way to the Father. Does it really make sense that one person on the planet for 30-ish years is the only way we can be redeemed? The instruction is to “spread the gospel to all the world” yet until 1492 everyone thought the world was flat! “All the world” consisted of the Roman Empire. So, what of all the people in all the areas outside the Roman Empire who a. never experienced Jesus and b. would not be reached by Jesus followers for some 1,500 years? Are they just out of luck?
- Estimates are that the population of the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus was about 56 million. The total world population at the time is estimated to be about 170 million with one source estimating as high as 300 million. Would the God who created all of that really choose to redeem all of that creation by only exposing 33% – at best – of his creation to His son and saying “it’s up to you to tell everyone else?”
- Following on the population point…estimates of land area of the Roman Empire are about 2.2 million square miles. The area of land on the planet is estimated to be about 57.3 million square miles. So, even if those directly exposed to Jesus reached the entire Roman Empire, the salvation of the world is dependent on proselytizing the inhabitants of less than 4% of the land God created?
- Don’t even get me started on the rest of the solar system, universe, additional universes, etc. If it’s “all about us,” what’s the point of those other things? Ok, I can see how the sun, for example, is necessary to sustain life on earth. Is Jupiter? Are all the stars needed? Why do we believe we are the center of God’s creation universe?
I’m not claiming any of these questions are new or original. I’m not the first to ask them, and I’m too lazy to look up sources for things on my blog. But, these are things that are really, really bothering me, especially at a time when people on the planet are so polarized based on religion. It just doesn’t make sense.
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