Orientation Guide

This site is designed to help you deepen and share your faith. People in the twentieth-first century often raise the same objections to Christianity. These objections are often based on confusions, misunderstandings, unwarranted assumptions, and faulty conclusions. Christian faith, however, makes at least as much sense as anything else on the market, and in our view makes more sense.

What happens in the world can prove discouraging, and if bad news hits close to home, we can end up feeling devastated, which is understandable. To some, our planet and perhaps human beings seem like they’re on the fast track to self-destruction. But God has a different plan, an overarching purpose for the world. Some very good news lies at the center of Christianity, and it is this news that is well worth sharing. It can go a long way toward overcoming despair.

Below, you will find six commonly expressed obstacles to faith, along with bullet points suggesting, if you are not yet a Christian, what you might want to think about. And, if you are a Christian, perhaps how you might respond when seekers and skeptics raise them in conversation. They are quick-hit summaries of what is contained in the book, Christianity for Thinkers by Clinton W. McLemore.

Beneath the six obstacles and suggested responses to them, you will find a growing list of questions that are often of interest to (1) people who already believe in Christ but want a deeper understanding of Christianity, or (2) those who are searching for faith but who, for one reason or another, remain skeptical. Next to each one, you will find additional IDEAS TO PONDER. Clicking on the button will take you to thoughts and reflections that you or others may find helpful.

To some of these questions, it is easy to provide good answers. An example would be to explain the origin of the word “religion” is. Another would be to outline the nature of the Bible and the sorts of documents it contains.

For other questions, there may be no straightforward or obvious answer, and different groups of Christians have proposed different ways to respond to them. An example, here, would be whether God gives faith to everyone or just to some.

Finally, there are questions to which perhaps no one has developed a fully satisfying answer. An example this time would be why God who is supposed to be all-powerful allows some people to suffer horribly or die tragically early. Two thinkers have come up with intriguing suggestions that may help make sense of what philosophers call the “problem of evil.”

We make no attempt to nudge anyone toward a particular Christian tradition, whether Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, or Roman Catholic. There are many Christians within all three. Our aim is to present well-reasoned ideas and arguments that leaders of these traditions would endorse. All of the questions and suggested responses are intended to reflect ideas shared by all Christians rather than ones on which they disagree. We have therefore tried to avoid statements that are of secondary importance.

We are striving to represent only what all mainline Christian traditions would consider orthodox, a term that can prove confusing. It is important not to confuse this term with Eastern Orthodoxy. The word itself comes from combining two Greek roots, ortho, meaning straight or correct, and doxa meaning belief or opinion. We use orthodox to mean foundational affirmations accepted by leaders of all three main branches of Christianity mentioned above. Although orthodox may bring to mind someone who is narrow-minded, rigid, and reflective, that is not at all what it means here.

New ideas are often superior to old ones. Concepts, principles, and procedural knowledge that today are second nature to a well-trained surgeon are vastly superior to those of a surgeon during the Civil War. But in more abstract areas, the difference between old and new are not always clear-cut. Questions having to do with what gives life meaning or guides right human conduct continue to prove challenging and are as relevant today as they were in Greece three-thousand years ago.

INVITATION: We invite you to send us suggestions for questions we have yet to address but perhaps should. If we don't have good answers, we'll try to find people who do. We welcome your suggestions.

RESPONSES TO OBSTACLES

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION

Aren't all religions pretty much the same?

What was Christianity's dangerous idea"?

What's contained in the Bible, how did it come about, and can we trust its claims?

What is the meaning of redemptive history?

Has anyone come up with proof of God's existence—is there evidence that God exists?

What's the difference between a valid and a sound argument?

What is the nature of the Old (First) Testament—what kinds of documents does it contain and what are some of their themes?

What is the nature of the New Testament—what kinds of documents does it contain and what are some of their themes?

What is the Apocrypha and how is it regarded by the three main branches of Christianity?

Why would anyone believe in God's existence? Are there significant hints that God exists?

What does it matter what you believe—do specific beliefs matter?

How does faith relate to knowledge? What would it do to faith if we knew everything or knew nothing?

Where does philosophy fit into all this—does it have any value? Isn’t philosophy either nitpicking or one person’s opinion?

What exactly is theology and what does it have to do with faith? Can you have faith without theology?

Might there be a deep structure to the universe that has to do with God?

To what extent is religious knowledge personal? Can you have faith in someone you don’t really know?

Where can I find concise statements of basic Christian beliefs? Do churches have such things, and if so, are they understandable?

Can a person lead a happy and meaningful life without religion?

What are some of life’s key or ultimate questions? How does asking these questions relate to circumstances?

What problem accompanies believing in only God? Why might many people find it easier to believe in two or more gods?

What makes up the Bible and when was it written?

How do the various writings in the Bible compare with other ancient literature?

How much can we trust what the New Testament says about Jesus?

Did Jesus really exist and what do we know about the controversies he generated?

Was Jesus more than a gifted ethical teacher?

Are science and religion at war and what do they have to do with each other?

Is there such a thing as religious certainty?

Is evil an outdated concept so that its use suggests primitive and benighted thinking?

How have philosophers tried to explain evil and in some cases offered what they believed to be the remedy for it?

Might there be life after death?

What might happen when we die—what are some of the possibilities?

What in Christianity seems to make many people uncomfortable, and why?

Is Christianity an outmoded religion, a carryover from medieval times ?

What does it mean to be a Christian?

How does someone become a Christian--are there specific steps required?

What is the nature of prayer, and what is the point of praying?

In what way might God act in and through history, and in and through individuals?

How can Christians say there is one God, when they also speak of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Why might life, time, and eternity be among God's greatest gifts?

What does it mean to be transformed in Christ?

What does it mean to enjoy holy intimacy and how might we add this to our lives?

In what way might we become the only face in which someone else sees the face of Christ?

Is it true that Christianity has watered down the meaning of love?

What, if any, is the significance of the cross, and why is it  a powerful symbol for Christians?

What do Christians mean by the Eucharist or Holy Communion?

Where does church come in--can someone be a Christian and not attend?

How do Christianity and politics intersect?

In what ways do truth and beauty relate to God, and were there ancient hints of this?

How has the church handled sexuality, and how might this change for the better?

What might it mean to be predestined?

If God has worked in human history, how and when has this occurred?

What does the word religion mean, and why do many people shy away from using it?

To what extent is Christianity a Jewish religion, and why should this matter?

What was the Great Schism and what does this mean for contemporary Christianity?

What seems to be at least one major implication of the Big Bang?

What do the words theism, deism, and pantheism mean?

What about Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche? How do their ideas relate to faith?

How does the New Testament stack up when compared with other ancient writings?

Are other religions completely wrong?

In our advanced scientific and technological age, does it make any sense to believe in miracles?

What did Jesus look like?

What exactly is holiness, and what does it mean to be holy?

What does it mean when surveys report the percentage of people who believe in God?

What is empiricism, materialism, and determinism, and how do these relate to Christianity and the 21st century?

What might life be like entirely without God?

Why is knowledge, and how it's acquired, the basis of pretty much everything else in philosophy and religion?

Might God have a reason for suspending us between two eternities and two infinities?

What seem to be some major hints of the existence of God?

Is it possible that God has intentionally built moral ambiguity into our world, and if so why?

What is creationism and is it possible for a Christian to accept some version of evolution?

Why do Christians belief that, after the crucifixion of Jesus, God brought him back to like?