Amazed by Creation

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wmilo

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No doubt as a result of being stationary much of the time and observing the outdoors, I find myself becoming more and more amazed by God's creation.
Complexity which no one can comprehend and beauty which everyone can experience. The incredible scope from our size down to quarks and electrons and up to groups of stars billions of light years away. And the gift that the creation speaks to us, so that we can see its beauty and appreciate the power and divinity of God.
The fact that when we see flowers and trees and find them beautiful is amazing. And that flowers smell good to us! It didn't have to be that way, but God made it that way for our benefit.
When I look out my back porch, I see the edges of the porch roof and a maple tree with some yard behind it, and in the background some garages and houses behind. Typical for this area. But when I notice how the porch frames the view, with the very complex and multi-hued tree in the foreground and the squarish shapes of the buildings in the background, then I think that if an artist could capture it, it would be admired. And light itself. How amazing is that?

Is anyone else noticing these things?
You don't have to believe in God to find the universe awesome. He made it so that it would speak to all of us of him. And for those who see his handiwork in it, the gratitude we feel toward him increases our pleasure.
 
As some live in beautiful states like Florida, Colorado, Arizona
in manicured subdivisions, manicured condo communities with
pools and club houses, beautiful landscaping or single homes
surrounded with pleasing sights…

Let’s pray and beg God to help those who live in countries like
the Northern Triangle of South America, ravaged with drought,
hurricanes, drug cartels, ramped murder, starvation and human
trafficking.

The countries in Africa where thousands of children die from
starvation, rebels, disease, drought, soaring temperatures
everyday.

And the horrible war in Yemen, once again the toll on children
is heart wrenching.

All innocents. Many Christians. Remember them… pray for them

So, as you watch a beautiful sunset, the further the sun travels...
it sets over places that are hell on earth.

We’re blessed, you’re blessed, I’m blessed. You believe, I believe.
But, there are a billion or more people across God’s earth that are
not blessed... by any measure.

God’s greatest gift to us as humans is our brains.

Sorry, mine questions, mine asks… why?

Faith should never be a blindfold or ear plugs.
 
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Al, I agree. And faith can't mean just acknowledging others' problems. It must mean being agents of change to make the world a better place. Some of us have little power left to make change. Others can and should.
 
Kim, as you wrote…

“And faith can't mean just acknowledging others' problems.”

The word ‘problems” falls short… for millions it’s catastrophic,
genocidal, overwhelming indescribable desperation, hopelessness.
And… they pray. A mother with a dying child in her lap holding
prayer beads. One story of millions.

South America, Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia… will plowing
money into them solve the problem of drought, wild fires,
typhoons, monsoons, hurricanes, crop failure, earthquakes, tsunami?

Happenings that no amount of money could stop. (Some insurance
companies have “Act of God” clauses) Hmmm…

But… global starvation, shelter, disease, war, genocide and crime
could be addressed with money. Trillions+ and trillions+ of world cash.
Not one industrialized country in the world would raise taxes or spend
budget money dedicated to pay for just that. Contribute to it.

Could you even imagine getting a bill through our Congress today
if our world contribution was just one trillion dollars with a tax
increase or more program cuts to cover it. It was political war just to
get $1.9 trillion passed here just for our country.

(Don’t forget, China now holds a majority of our national debt… that’s
scary. They just reminded President Biden of that in so many words
last week.) They bought more government bonds and treasury notes
during Trumps regime than any other previous administration.)

There is so much that is out of man/woman/human control no matter
how many dreamy ideas and nice thoughts. (Maybe time for some help
from above?)

It goes back to my question… why?
 
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Hi, Al. I think you may have misinterpreted my post. I had in mind the creation of the universe, and specifically, that the planet we live on is amazing.

You obviously have a tender heart toward those who are suffering. That is a wonderful trait.

You ended both posts asking the question "Why?".

Reading your post, it seems you could be asking:

"Why do we continue to make each other suffer when we have it within our ability to eliminate most if not all of it, if we only would have the will to do so?"
or
"Why do humans suffer on Earth? Why are we ravaged by disease, drought, famine, earthquakes, volcanoes, and storms? Why do crops fail? Why do floods wash away people and towns?"

Those are important questions, and they should be discussed. Based on my understanding and my faith, I think they can both be answered. Not everyone will find them satisfactory or persuasive answers, but they do answer the question "Why"?.

We continue to make each other suffer because we choose to. We desire wealth and power more than we care about the welfare of others. We view some people as less human than we are and therefore less important. We may feel justified in trying to eliminate those people. This is all people, although Americans are well-represented. In fact, "no one" has done all they should to care for others. We just don't. We "could" do those things if we wanted to, but we don't. Paul puts it well in Romans 7, "I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway." It's called sin.

[I have to say here that God has given us forgiveness for sin. God lived on Earth in human form in the person of Jesus, and lived perfectly. Sinful humanity rejected him and his message, and killed him. Through the death of sinless Jesus, the penalty was paid for our sin and if we put our faith and trust in Jesus, God will forgive us of our sins.]​

We struggle during life on Earth because the Earth was cursed as part of the punishment for human disobedience to God. I am not a "7-day creationist" and I read the Genesis 1 account as having profound truth without being a literal narrative. But I also believe that God created everything that is, and that he made humans different ("in his image"). Symbolic or literal, we ate the apple and disobeyed God's commands. And part of the punishment for that is having to struggle to live.

We are not powerless to help others. Many people contribute time and money and labor and their skills to help others in need. Those kinds of gifts and outreach can make an enormous difference in the lives of those they touch. Will they fix the whole problem? No. But that is not a reason to not help. It makes a big difference for some.

As for China, they are a problem for the United States. But God is still in control and can use the leaders of this country and any other country to achieve his purposes.

Best,
 
Your faith and belief is overwhelming and has your thoughts locked in. I take your faith and belief and your devotion to it. I have my beliefs... now. I was raised in a Christian religious family.

Your basic answer was how we should treat each other…

“We continue to make each other suffer because we choose to. We desire wealth and power more than we care about the welfare of others. We view some people as less human than we are and therefore less important.”

In our civil debate I wrote…

“South America, Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia… will plowing money into them solve the problem of drought, wild fires, typhoons, monsoons, hurricanes, crop failure, earthquakes, tsunami?”

Those have nothing to do with how we treat each other.
When a virus kills millions of people that has nothing to do how we treat each other.

“We struggle during life on Earth because the Earth was cursed as part of the punishment for human disobedience to God.”

“Through the death of sinless Jesus, the penalty was paid for our sin and if we put our faith and trust in Jesus, God will forgive us of our sins.”

Dying infants, 2, 3, 5 and 6 year old children are sinless. What were they forgiven for?

Many Christians believe that millions, and the millions before Jesus, will not enter heaven if they do not believe in Jesus. Jesus walked this earth 2000 years ago. There were God fearing religions thousands of years before Jesus. The Old Testament. Jesus was born a Jew, lived his life as a Jew and died as a Jew… over his cross “King of the Jews”.

We made Jesus (Christ) a Christian 300 years later when Constantine compiled the Bible from just four gospels that were written years after Jesus died to unify his new empire. The gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John were… testimonies of recall. Many other written gospels of Jesus were dismissed, the gospel of Thomas, Paul and others.

Constantine played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire then to convert and then his Bible.
Constantine convoked the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which produced the statement of Christian belief known as the Nicene Creed along with the Bible. The Apostles did not take notes as they traveled with Jesus. We have discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls but so far we have not found a single parchment written by any of the Apostles… or Jesus. Do I believe that Jesus lived? Yes.

Do I believe that those who don’t believe Jesus is their savior (the many other religions – a billion+ of good people) are going to hell or will never see heaven?… No ! People who were raised in other religions from birth, who lived good lives, will not see heaven?

I respect your devoted faith. I believe there is a God and Jesus walked this earth and preached to hundreds of people of that area. The Word spread but… not to all living on the rest of the world at that time and still not today.

It’s said we were created in God’s image.

I believe in Science, Anthropology, Archeology and Evolution. More proof has been discovered that Neanderthals buried their dead with flowers and rituals. Scientists have found we have a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA.
There were bipedal like humanoids before the Neanderthals… evolution.

Dinosaur bones millions of years old are real. God created earth millions of years ago. Science says earth is 4.5 billion years old. Whatever. I have my doubts it was done in six days and He/She rested on the seventh day.

Hold onto your faith and belief that brings you comfort and peace. Peace to you.
 
Hi, Al. I hope you did not feel that I was being uncivil. That was not my intent.

You did mention natural disasters, but you also mentioned human cruelties and I was responding to both, first human and then natural. I was not claiming that our bad treatment of each other is responsible for natural disasters, and you are correct to state that, "Those have nothing to do with how we treat each other." I tried to make clear that I saw those as two separate things, but I guess not well enough.

I also believe the findings of science, anthropology, archaeology, and evolution, so I have no argument with you about dinosaur bones or Neanderthal burial practices. I have no trouble harmonizing Christian belief and science. Our growing understanding of how the universe works is in no way incompatible with Christian faith. Someone may disagree with attributing divine involvement, but that belief doesn't affect the physical reality we experience one way or the other.

I agree that we have no original manuscripts of New Testament writings, although we have thousands of copies and fragments, and can be confident that what we have is an accurate representation of what was recorded. And the historical details can be corroborated as being accurate about the place and time. If they got the historical and geographic information right, why assume they were wrong about the extraordinary events? But that's a discussion for another thread.

Jesus was a Jew. He was the Messiah - annointed one - foretold in the Hebrew sacred writings (our Old Testament). The Greek word for Messiah is christos. The Greek for Yeshua (Jesus' name) was iesous (with a capital i). So Iesous Christos was transliterated to English as Jesus [the] Christ. We did not make him a Christian, we made ourselves Christians by referring to ourselves by his title - Christ. We are Christians - little Christs.
By the way, there are many Messianic Jews who recognize Yeshua as the Messiah, and they came to that belief without the involvement of the Council of Nicaea. They see how he fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. They refer to him as Yeshua Meshiach (Jesus the Messiah).

I would not condemn anyone who had not heard about Jesus. Others have said they are condemned. None of us knows for sure, and it really makes no difference what we think. God has his plans and what we think about them won't change them. In faith, I believe that there will be no unjust outcomes but we will only know when the time comes.

You ask what sin a dying child can be forgiven for. I don't know that. You said they are sinless. Innocent of sin. So why are they dying if not because of sin? I don't know that, either. Sometimes because of abuse by other people. Sometimes natural disasters. Why does a young child become ill and die? I do not know beyond those two possibilities. The truth of innocent suffering has turned many from God. It makes sense to us that someone would suffer for doing wrong, but why an innocent child?

You told me to "hold onto your faith and belief that brings you comfort and peace." They do not give me peace regarding innocent suffering. But they have convinced me that we will continue on as "ourselves" after we die. We don't cease to exist when our life on Earth ends. And our lives here are not the most important part of our existence. You may disagree. We'll see.

I couldn't help but feel that the "dreamy ideas and nice thoughts" you mentioned referred to my original post. I think we could agree that the Earth and the rest of the cosmos have great beauty, whether or not because God made it that way? And anyway, dreamy ideas and nice thoughts are ok to have sometimes.

You said, "I have my beliefs... now. I was raised in a Christian religious family." It appears that both our worldviews have changed over time.

You also said, "Your faith and belief is overwhelming and has your thoughts locked in." I'm going to push back and challenge you on that. My thoughts are not "locked in". I may have a different view of the world than you, but it is no more locked in than anyone else, even though you may not agree with my view. They may even be less locked in than your own. Who can say?

I hope you are also able to find something to hold onto to find comfort and peace. Peace to you also.
 
Wmilo,

"I hope you are also able to find something to hold onto to find comfort and peace".

I have...

"I believe in Science, Anthropology, Archeology and Evolution."

God played a part in all... maybe not in a way we've been led to believe.

Peace to you... again.
 
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WMILO – Thank you for reminding us to look beyond ourselves to the beauty of the world which surrounds us. So often we get caught up in our daily lives and forget there is a world beneath our feet and stars above our head. We forget that we are part this great universe, and that our lives depend upon its sustenance.

Although I am in bed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I am grateful to have a double window in my room. Seeing the world without, brings peace to my soul and gives me hope. May Blessings abound 😊. B .
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