Å·²©ÍøÖ·This is the weekly Q & A blog post by our Research Professor in Philosophy, Dr. William Lane Craig.
Question
Hello Dr. Craig,
It’s an honor and privilege to write you, you are one of my favorite scholars, debater, and lecturer. I am an agnostic, but to clarify I believe in an all knowing and all powerful god, but I am not sure what religion has the best description of this god’s character. Nevertheless I chose to explore the concept of god first in the christian faith. While there are aspects of the Christian depiction of god that makes sense there are some things that makes it hard for me to make the decision to become a Christian.
First there is the belief that only those who accept Jesus can get to heaven. I find this belief to be one of the most harshest mandates of the Christian religion. How can an all loving and all powerful god not see how the complexities of the human existence may not allow for one to know Jesus let alone accept Jesus. There are humans who have never left their village and know nothing of the Christian faith, and to no fault of their own, because they do not control where they are born, nor do they control the culture that they are born in. Even if one have heard of Jesus how can an all knowing god not see that if someone is born in a culture with a religion that their society has been practicing for generations, expect that person or persons to drop that religion and simply adopt a new religion? Surely an all knowing and intelligent god could see how difficult that can be for the average human being. Also god knows that he made humans imperfect and not all knowing. I say that to say that god knows humans will make mistakes. Why couldn’t that be for religion as well? How can an all loving god not be empathetic to a human being who explored Jesus story but made the mistake of not believing it or made the mistake of choosing another religion? How can a perfect god intentionally make imperfect humans, intentionally put them in different environments, intentionally in different cultures. And expect them to make the perfect decision of accepting Jesus for salvation? It just doesn’t add up to me.
Thanks,
Andrew
