“If you hang out with chickens, you’re going to cluck and if you hang out with eagles, you’re going to fly.”
― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
If you hang out with Chickens…
Tag: quotes
Doubt
Sometimes when I listen to people who say they have lost their faith, I am far less surprised than they expect. If their view of God is what they say, then it is only surprising that they did not reject it much earlier. Other people have a concept of God so fundamentally false that it would be better for them to doubt than to remain devout. The more devout they are, the uglier their faith will become since it is based on a lie. Doubt in such a case is not only highly understandable, it is even a mark of spiritual and intellectual sensitivity to error, for their picture is not of God but an idol. ― Os Guinness
“If Christians …
“If Christians could be trained to to provide solid evidence for what they believe and good answers to unbelievers’ questions and objections, then the perception of Christians would slowly change. Christians would be seen as thoughtful people to be taken seriously rather than as emotional fanatics or buffoons. The gospel would be a real alternative for people to embrace.”
– William Lane Craig
Does evil disprove God?
“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?”
— C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
In order for evil to be more then just a bad flavor, that someone else may like there has to be an absolute standard. If we let people choose what is good and what is evil what are we to say to people like Jeffrey Dahmer who did unspeakable things to little boys? He did not think he was doing evil. If individuals can do terrible evil, and think they are doing something good can be so terribly wrong can we really be justified in saying that individuals get to decide what is good and what is evil? If it is up to the individual to decide such things what can we say to the people who think they are good little serial killers?
How about societies, do they get to decide what is good and evil? Most of the world at one point believed that slavery was OK, but now they don’t. Since society at one point thought slavery was good, does that mean it was good? No slavery as it is typically thought of was never good. No matter what society used to say.
If both society, and individuals can be terribly wrong about morality where does it come from?
I will talk about this more in part 2
To learn more I suggest reading
Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air
Yes, you do have the right to believe anything you want.
We have a right to believe whatever we want, but not everything we believe is right. ― Ravi Zacharias
People tend to have a hard time accepting that they could be wrong about something. I admit I am wrong all the time and I often have to swallow hard before I do it. Quite frequently I bump up against people who run out of answers for my questions and accuse me of trying to take their right to believe what they want away from them. I am not trying to take away anyone’s rights. You have a right to believe that green is red, and red is green if you want to, but I would not suggest you try to drive a car. It doesn’t matter how strongly you believe the light in the middle of the road is green, if it is really red. Eventually your wrong belief is going to hurt. But if on the other hand you believe that green is in fact green and red is in fact red your life will be enriched by the truth you will more safely be able to drive a car and many other things will come into proper focus with your true belief.
When I witness to people I am not trying to take away anyone’s rights, I am telling people what I think is true, and it has served me well.
And I am hoping that you will see my truth as true, and that your life will be enriched by that truth as well.
You can believe what ever you want. If you want to believe that everything in the universe is comes from nothing and the order in the universe sprang from random chance you are free to do that. If you want to believe we are all a dream of some deity and nothing is real you can believe that too. But be prepared to realize that one of us is wrong.
Smart Christian.net 
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