Posted on 03/18/2013 8:14:29 AM PDT by EaglesNestHome
I need your help, answering questions for my philosophy class. How would you answer the three great philosophical questions of life: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going?
Also, may I share with you the basic message of the Bible, as I have experienced it?
As a homeschool family, we’ve had to consider carefully what is most important in educating our children. Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic are important skills, but they will pass away someday. Ultimately, what really matters is what lasts forever.
Why would such a powerful, just God care enough about you and I to take the form of a man—Jesus, called Christ–come to earth and die on a cross to pay for our sins?
I asked this question, before I knew God. I have heard physicians say that dying on a cross is the most painful death imaginable. Even after many years as a Christian, I still can’t totally grasp God’s love, except to say that He has proved His love to me. Jesus is the only one who ever died to save me. He proved His love for each person–me, you, and everybody.
That’s my basic understanding of what God says in the Bible. Of course, there is much more, and I don’t know everything. Don’t worry if you don’t understand it all yet—we may not know everything about how a television works, but we can still watch it. So you don’t need to understand everything about God all at once, either, to know Him.
Here’s my own personal experience, that I share in the hope that it will help you. Although I believed in Christ at the age of sixteen, I also struggled with doubts and questions. Yet, when I believed in Him, I also asked Him to open my eyes (spiritually), and let me know Him. Decades later, I am still learning to know Him more intimately. After all, He is infinite.
In the late 1970s, my husband and I visited Cherokee Village, in North Carolina. We were visiting to learn more about Cherokee ancestors. While there, we had the privilege of listening to a native Cherokee lecturer. He related a story that you are not likely to hear anywhere else. When the European missionaries first told the Cherokee people about Jesus, they were met with several surprises. For one, the missionaries were greeted with open arms, and the Cherokee people immediately converted to Christianity, almost every one of them. The startled missionaries had to know why the tribe experienced such sudden conversions. The reason? The Cherokee had a story about a visitor, who when described, sounded remarkably like Christ. Proof of this story, to me, is the native Cherokee word which is almost identical to the Hebrew word for God. So God can do what He wants, but He proved His love on the cross. You can’t do any more for anyone than die for them.
Over the years of getting to know God, through His son Jesus Christ, I am learning that the Bible is a spiritual book, which God directed His people to write. God did not physically write it, but it is His Word, as if His people were taking dictation.
I wondered, if we are like ants to God, how can we possibly understand Him? We can’t by ourselves. That’s why people say all the time, “I can’t understand the Bible.” But we can understand some of it–the most important parts, and what we need to know now–if we ask Him to help us, through His Spirit. I am also learning that the Bible is a spiritual book–the Holy Spirit is how God talks to people.
I want you to know that God is calling you, just like He called me, and just like He visited (according to ancient Cherokee legend) the Cherokee. He loves you so much, that He was willing to die for you. You may not believe this yet—God understands. However, if you want to know God, you need to be willing to listen to Him. Would you pray a prayer every day? Just talk to God, in Jesus name, the way you would talk to a person. Every day, just ask God “God, help me to know Jesus.” Will you do that, because Jesus loves you? Do this, and be WILLING to believe (I didn’t say you have to have blind faith–I said you need to be willing to listen), when God helps you to understand. Simple, I know. Please let me know that you will do this, and write me when you can.
In Christ’s Love, Melissa Morgan, http://homeschoolblogger.com/eaglesnest/781930/ “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:36)
You can answer those questions ONE way if you have a religion and you can answer those questions some other way if you don't.
NO ONE in the realm of Philosophy has answered any of those questions to the satisfaction of anyone ELSE in all the centuries that humans have been asking them.
Well it was a link from Drudge and this place is very addictive and then BTTT
No one in this world has the factual answers to those questions.
There are theories and beliefs, but we find out when we die.
The Big Bang.
The Big Bang.
There.
Thank you for your response. The questions have been answered fully to my satisfaction—I know the Creator, and I am not alone in this.
So, what say you, personally, about the questions? It sounds like you may think that these questions have not been answered to your satisfaction. I am interested in your answers. Thanks so much.
Is that a fact?
“I have heard physicians say that dying on a cross is the most painful death imaginable.”
That’s true, in fact the pain was so intense they came up with a word for it - “Excruciating!”
As far as your questions go, who’s to say? It’s a matter of faith. If you believe, no explanation is necessary, if not no explanation will suffice. I was raised a Catholic and have gone thru 16 years of Catholic school. Stopped going to church went back and have stopped again. I still pray but have many doubts.
1. What can we know? (Epistemology)
2. What is there? (Ontology)
3. What should we do? (Ethics)
There is also a fourth question you can add: What is beauty? (Aesthetics) so that the three basic philosophical concepts of truth, goodness, and beauty are covered.
There are lots of good answers here:
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
This is a great research site that is friendly to both non-Christian and Christian philosophers and philosophies.
I wonder, could you give a bit more detail on this. This is my problem with this answer to life’s most important question—Were you there at The Big Bang? Or is this faith in “The Big Bang” based on blind faith in authority? Can something come from nothing, with no outside force or intelligence?
Thank you so much for your reply.
Solomon gave it a good shot. :-)
God gave us a philosophical inclination, and I see no harm in using it to examine life outside the realm of revelation. Ecclesiastes is an account of such an examination, and demonstrates the emptiness and futility of a life - even a philosophical one - without that revelation.
42
Couldn’t resist:
Where did we come from? No one knows; its a limitless universe through which the earth is traveling thus there are no reference points to a point of origin.
Where are we going? its a limitless universe through which the earth is traveling thus there are no reference points to a point of destination.
Why are we here? We aren’t. Its an illusion.
Yes, those are great questions—when it comes right down to it, these are key to happiness and fulfillment in life. What say you, personally?
There are lots of Cherokee churches in Oklahoma. One Cherokee preacher helped a local woman (white, but believed she was infused with Cherokee witchcraft curse) overcome her “curse”. She had a terrifying thing happen to her that made national news about 13-14 years ago.
The Baltimore Catechism:Part Two: The Commandments, The Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Commandments of God
The Baltimore Catechism: Part Two: The Commandments, The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Commandments of God
The Baltimore Catechism: Part Two: The Commandments, The Second and Third Commandments of God
The Baltimore Catechism: Part Two: The Commandments, Honoring the Saints, Relics, and Images
The Baltimore Catechism: Part Two: The Commandments, The First Commandment of God
The Baltimore Catechism: Part Two: The Commandments, The Two Great Commandments
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Resurrection and Life Everlasting
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Communion of Saints and the Forgiveness of Sins
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Marks and Attributes of the Church
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Catholic Church
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Virtues and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost
The Baltimore Catehcism: Part One: The Creed, The Holy Ghost and Grace
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Redemption
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Incarnation
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, Actual Sin
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Creation and the Fall of Man
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, Creation and the Angels
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Unity and Trinity of God
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, God and His Perfections
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Purpose of Man's Existence
Thanks for your answers.
You aren’t an illusion. You can doubt, so you can think.
“I think, therefore I am.”
If you care to find out the answers, you can find them. They are not hidden.
You came from GOD. You are here because this is the place prepared for you during your mortality. Satan was cast here to prove we as human will choose GOD. The War continues on as GOD shows humanity shall persevere vs Satan believing selfishness will persevere.
That leaves ONE answer for all the questions. I am a Christian so that is the ONE answer for me.
Some questions have no answer [at least not on this side of the ‘great mystery’], but are ‘over thunk’ by ‘experts’ and academics.
I am reminded of the ole college philosophical question: Why?
To which the appropriate response is: Why not?
One can spend a lifetime searching for the answer to a question that has no answer, or one can simply live one’s life. Therein is the choice.
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