Before we begin, I would like to say outright that I do not by any means take all of the Bible, and especially early Genesis, literally. I believe, for instance, that the Earth is billions of years old. I have no opinion about the origin of human beings; indeed, although paleontology is not my area of expertise, it is sufficiently obvious that this problem is shrouded in mystery. I doubt, in particular, that there was an actual Garden of Eden. I do not imagine the Flood described in Gen 6-9 to have any connection to actual history, or, if there was a flood in the Middle East thousands of years ago, it to be of any relevance to life or faith or anything else. Finally, I consider the doctrine of the Original Sin and its theological implications to stand in need of greater justification than is normally given in their favor.

Yet it would be a gross error to dismiss Genesis as one strange creation story among many others. There are in it literal truths, as well as allegorical truths. Some of these are as follows: (1) God is the sole creation of the world, including of matter – so He is not simply bringing order to chaos; He creates everything. This insight has been incorporated into the articles of faith: "We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen." (2) Human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. (Aquinas would say that men are like God but the contrary is false: God is not like men. His analogy is that we can say that a statue is like a man but not normally that a man is like a statue.) (3) Human beings are prone to sin. (4) There is a devil. (5) God as creator of the world, prior to the election of Israel and the Incarnation, owned everything in it, including human beings. (This will be our starting point for understanding the salvation history upon which I expound in another essay.) (6) God is shown to be merciful even in the beginning, when He says that "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done." (7) Wisdom comes at a price, viz. expulsion from the Garden into the world so that man, though heroic virtue, can merit with the help of grace salvation and eternal beatitude for himself.

There may also be questions about the precise contents of the Christian faith. The first thing to understand is that faith is not natural theology, for God's existence can be known by reason. Faith is simply the articles of faith as stated in the Nicene Creed and all of their implications. To have faith is to believe the articles of faith to be true and to grasp what they entail.

Given these, I must simply dismiss all questions among the 89 that are premised on the literal interpretation of early Genesis. I'll also skip the questions that strike me as uninteresting.

1. If Jesus fulfilled all the OT prophecies so well, why didn't the Jews recognize him as the messiah?

Some did, and some didn't. Jesus' disciples, after all, were all Jews. So were most of the people he healed or performed miracles for. E.g., "Jesus said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace.'" (Lk 7:50) The reason why the authorities did not recognize them was that many of them were apparently corrupt hypocrites (an occupational hazard of politicians) and were afraid of getting into trouble with the Roman empire. It is better that one man dies, they reasoned, than that the entire province be put to the sword. The ancient world was no different from the modern one in this way: there were believers in it and unbelievers, just as there are today. In fact, I might pose the same question to our atheist: If Jesus fulfilled all the OT prophecies so well, why don't you recognize him as the messiah?

4. When the believer gets to Heaven, how can Heaven be utter bliss when people they love and care about are burning in Hell? [Note: Some say God erases your memories of them, but if God erases your memory, you as Mr. Joe /Jane Smoe ceases to exist.]

It is certainly not true that "God erases your memories of them" (I'm ignoring the obvious fact that losing some of your memories need not erase your identity). Heaven is a place where the fullness of truth is revealed to us; at the same time there we are protected from all evils, including sorrow for the loved ones in hell. This question admits three answers. First, that the blessed in heaven realize that the wicked in hell are no longer the people they knew and loved in this world. In the eternal fire your personality is erased; you are nothing more than burned-up ashes. There is no identity; there is nothing left to love.

Second, that salvation may, in fact, be universal. Hell exists, but it is possible that it is reserved solely for the devil and his angels. "Someone asked him, 'Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?' He said to them, 'Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.'" (Lk 13:23-24) So God explicitly refused to provide any statistics as to who will be saved and who will be damned. Although the meaning of this and other passages (e.g., "The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Mt 13:41-42)) would seem to suggest that some will be damned, nonetheless, it is a legitimate interpretation that Jesus is trying to scare us (or, at least those who need a good scare) into righteousness. Would this be a good thing to do, to trick us like that? I say, whatever works. Another possibility is that those who "will try to enter and will not be able to" and those "who do evil" may end up in purgatory rather than hell.

Third, that the damned may be so perverse that they simply prefer hell and choose it voluntarily. In that case their misery need not elicit any pity.

5. How can a God have emotions, i.e. jealousy, anger, sadness, love, etc., if he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent? Emotional states are reactionary for the most part. How can God react to us if he is all-knowing and has a divine plan?

God in Christian theology has no passions. God can be jealous only in the metaphorical sense of wanting His faithful to remain with Him. The union of the masculine God and the feminine human soul is supposed to strengthen as a person grows spiritually. Any attempt to break up the communion is a sin and God can punish you and withdraw from you as a result. This is His "jealousy." On the other hand, it is written that God will draw closer to you if you draw closer to Him. God cannot be angry or sad, which are, again, passions. God's love is not a passion at all. There is love in God, because He has will, and, indeed, God's will is sovereign, his decrees absolute, and His autonomy complete. He wills good to creatures because of His love, and this love is active not passive.

We humans stand in various relationships to God. Yet God does not stand in any relationship to us. As an analogy, consider a cloud, such that different parts of the cloud represent God's attitudes toward you. If you do good, you move over to the part of the cloud called "approval." If you pray to God, you address the section of the cloud that responds to prayer. If you have sinned, you move under the "God's contempt" part of the cloud. We see that you are related to God insofar as you are affected by one or more of His attitudes to your choices in life. But God is not related to you in any way. The cloud is just out there and is immutable, eternal, complete, and not dependent on us for anything.

In other words, passions are elicited by another; actions come from oneself alone. God's love creates; it builds us: "For in him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28) It is not dependent on us but we on it.

6. Why would God create a place such as hell to torture sinners forever when he foreknew who would disappoint him?

It is possible that due to the interconnectedness of the world the sinners are necessary for the salvation of the elect. Just as the devil is a tool of God to try human beings (from which trials strength and glory result), so can the condemned, too, be used by God in order to ensure the success of His elect. This argument is based on the idea that God's power is limited in such a way that He is unable to save everyone. I am not going to argue here whether this is true or false. But as long as this is possible, this question can be answered.

We can further suggest that this is the best possible world, given God's purposes in creating it. We can say that it contains the greatest possible ratio of the saved to the damned, or that it has the greatest absolute number of the saved. Perhaps a world in which everyone is saved would for some reason be unacceptable to God. Perhaps God is a utilitarian, and He maximizes the total happiness in the afterlife, and, in order to attain that goal, some people have to be sacrificed for the greater good. Again, we can certainly raise objections to this line of argument, but it nonetheless serves to explain why hell may be inevitable.

7. "God is all merciful," we hear quite often. Wouldn't it be more merciful of God to simply snap sinners out of existence rather than send them to hell? Or better yet, since he's all-knowing, not allow them to be born at all?

It may be impossible to snap sinners out of existence if human souls are naturally imperishable or incorruptible. (Only God is absolutely necessary, while matter, souls, and angels derive their necessity from God.) The idea is that unlike animal souls, human souls are "complete" in such a way as to be able to persist after bodily death. Unlike lower animals, humans love themselves enough to persevere. It may be objected that God sustains everything in being and could will that a soul disappear. This leads us to second answer, viz. that the dignity of men precludes their disappearing. If you have chosen evil, then you will be punished accordingly. (This raises the problem of whether eternal suffering can justly be meted out for temporal sins. But this subject would require a separate treatment.) The final answer is that even hell may be better than non-existence.

Again, if we consider the sinners as a necessary evil that is permitted in order to achieve some greater good, the last question evaporates. But there are two other difficulties with that query. First, how can God not allow them to be born? God has given all animals, including humans, the power to bring forth offspring. God is not responsible for births; humans are. If it is asked why God could not kill those whom He foreknows to be condemned in the womb or even prevent their being conceived, then the answer lies in the fact that the world is governed by laws. God is not stingy with grace (which builds on nature), but He is stingy with miracles (which go against nature). Miracles are essentially wondrous signs which demonstrate God's power and His glory and goodness. But apart from such extraordinary events, the laws of nature act normally. God does not and cannot if laws are to be preserved interfere with human affairs via miracles. Second, all people are born innocent; they become good or evil during the course of their lives. So not allowing them to be born would do violence to their freedom to choose their own destiny.

9. Why haven't we seen God reattach severed heads, restore someone who was burned alive or regrow amputated limbs? Surely these would be miracles difficult to deny.

See #7. The law-like nature of the world and the necessity for us to learn these laws and master our environment with our reason are what make frequent miracles unsuitable for God's purposes. Besides, committed atheists might disbelieve even if faced with a miracle. Yes, some might be converted, but the costs of nullifying God's own laws would outweigh the benefits of conversion.

10. Why does God entrust the spreading of 'His' word to sinners? Why doesn't he do it himself?

Why does God entrust growing food to sinners? Making music? Running corporations? Doing works of mercy? Because if He were to do everything, what would be left for us to do? We would never in that case have developed our capacities and talents; we would never even have attained reason. Preaching the Gospel is a vocation like any other. This man is a priest, that one is a computer programmer, that one is a book publisher, etc. These occupations are the same in dignity.

It might be objected that preaching the Gospel is essential to the salvation of others, whereas making music, etc., is not. But I would be cautious in taking such a position. To say that there are two classes of people in this world, those who save souls and those who do not, though the latter may be righteous themselves, seems a little crude. Yes, Aquinas writes that teaching and preaching is specially rewarded in heaven with a "doctor" "aureole." I think, however, that this division is arbitrary. For all we know, a person may be inspired to come to believe through study of mathematics or through a work of art. Being preached to is neither necessary nor sufficient to be saved.

Moreover, in one sense God is closest to us, because He sustains us in being, because He knows us intimately, and because He loves us more than any human being does. Further, God the Son assumed our humanity as Jesus. Yet in another sense we are closer to each other than God is to any one of us, because we share a common nature, whereas God is transcendent and totally other. God is our Father, but we are brothers of one another. And because of that, we should take care of our own. That's why we pray to the saints; that's why we pray for each other. And that's why we help each other towards salvation.

11. In II Kings 2:23-24 we read about God sending 2 she-bears to attack children for calling the prophet Elisa bald, which he was, the bears killed 42 of the children. Was this a good thing to do?

Remember that Elisha was a holy man, a prophet, a chosen one, specially protected by the Holy Spirit. This is a parable of what happens to those who despise those who are higher in rank than they. By showing contempt to Elisha, they despised God's rightful hierarchy, as well. And the punishment for that is death, which seems quite reasonable. That's what happens to evildoers.

Was this a good thing to do? No, Elisha did not take the youths' jeering patiently. He was not a Christian saint, but he was not supposed to be one. The punishment further does not seem to fit the crime. But the Old Testament is not a treatise on ethics. (See also an explanation of the violence in the OT.) Yet there is a lesson to be learned even in this case: respect your superiors or be slapped down hard.

15. Many Christians believe that God is a thinking being, that he solves problems and makes a way for them when troubles come. Does God Think? If God is thinking, did he know his thoughts before he thought them?

God does not engage in discursive reasoning like we do, from A to B to C to D. Rather, His knowledge is intuitive, all at once. Further, because God is omniscient, He does not learn; He possesses the fullness of truth; he contemplates. Since God is atemporal and has "simultaneously-whole and perfect possession of interminable life," it is meaningless to say that He knows his thoughts "before" He thought them. (In fact, God the Son is the totality of the Father's self-knowledge; see also "Understanding the Blessed Trinity.") Now in designing the world I am sure there were numerous engineering problems to be solved, but God's omniscience and omnipotence allowed Him to come up with the best possible solutions relative to His ends. Yet even here His deliberations were eternally fixed.

On God's atemporality: Premise 2) is false. Just because we cannot imagine purely spiritual and atemporal existence and atemporal causes does not mean that it is impossible for God to create space and time. The author would have to prove that, but I think that it would be a losing project.

...a timeless being would be without the proposition of past, and future. But to be omniscient, God must know the past and future. Hence a God that is atemporal and omniscient cannot logically exist.

Once again, to have one's life spread over past, present, and future is imperfect existence. What is imperfect may not be able to understand the ways of the perfect, but not vice versa. So, that which is perfect can know what is "below" it in being, goodness, etc. Since God is outside of time, the entire creation is for Him a single event. He looks at the timeline of the universe perhaps similarly to how a 3-dimentional being would look upon a 2-dimentional one crawling along the surface of a plane.

16. I have often heard that faith is all that is necessary to believe in God and accept the Bible as true. If this is true aren't all supernatural beliefs true since they also require "faith"?

I think what is being suggested here is that a certain supernaturally-caused predisposition is necessary in order to receive faith. But how can you have that predisposition before you even believe the articles of faith? The answer is that the Holy Spirit's grace is given even to those without faith in order to turn them towards God. The classification is "prevenient operating sanctifying" grace.

Alternatively, we could take this question as claiming that with faith any proposition about the supernatural would have to be believed, no matter how absurd. But what is the basis of this argument? The articles of faith state certain very specific things. An elaboration of these things must cohere, as well. Hence not every metaphysical speculation will in the end turn out to be correct.

Finally, perhaps by faith the question means "a predisposition to believe propositions about the supernatural." That is not faith, however, but the result of an infusion of grace. And God's grace is smart enough to help you believe the right things.

18. If a spirit is non-physical but the human body is physical, how does a spirit stay in our bodies?

Yes, let's take the hardest problem in all of philosophy and science and claim that it somehow constitutes evidence against the existence of God or personal immortality. But here are some thoughts on the what life is.

19. Does God know his own future decisions? If God is all-knowing he actually shouldn't have any decisions to make at all. Nor can he choose anything over something else. For that would mean that he is neither omniscient nor omnipotent.

God does not choose, because He is perfectly happy. Nor is there such a thing as God's "future decisions," because God is not in time. Now in creating the world God had to choose to actualize our world among the infinity of possible worlds. But that choice by no means implies dissatisfaction in God. God created the world because of his overflowing love for His creatures. He needs nothing Himself.

Similarly, premises 3 and 4 in the argument that follows are meaningless. There is no such thing as a moment "prior to creation" and "a later time, after the creation"; even less does God want one thing yesterday and another thing today. It must be stressed again that God is not related to human beings, though human beings are related to God. As far as the question of what God was doing "before" he made heaven and earth is concerned, absurd though it is, St. Augustine famously wrote in reply that "He was preparing hell for people who pry into such mysteries."

22. In the watchmaker analogy, a watch is used to show us intelligent design and compares that to the Universe as evidence of design. We know watches are designed because we have past experience with watches, as well as with other man made objects. My question is: What Universe is the Intelligent Design proponent using to compare this Universe with to draw such an analogy?

See Chapter 32 of Bill Dembski's The Design Revolution, as well as pp. 216-219 in Michael Behe's Darwin's Black Box.

24. If the garden of Eden was a perfect paradise as xians claim, then why did Eve even want to eat the fruit? Wouldn't a perfect place provide everything a person would want or desire and thus she would want nothing?

Here are some ideas on theodicy and the second creation story.

25. Why would an all-powerful god become flesh in order to sacrifice himself to himself so that his creation might escape the wrath of himself. Couldn't god, in his infinite wisdom, come up with something a little more efficient?

This question pertains to the purpose and necessity of the Incarnation. One part of the answer is here, under "The Death of Christ," 3. Another is here.

26. After 9/11 a lot of people have been tossing around "god bless america." Why do they keep saying this? From the looks of it god hasn't blessed anything. If god had blessed america, the 9/11 event would've never happened.

Well, the reason for saying "God bless America" could be precisely that God has as yet not blessed America. It is a supplication or petition, a prayer for a blessing. However, what this phrase frequently really means is "God blesses America" for whatever it does. This, of course, is abject nonsense, and it does not work.

Theists seem to give the answer of "everything is part of god's big plan." If everything is part of god's big plan, why are we after Bin Laden? Weren't he and other terrorists just carrying out god's desired plan? So it seems that Bin Laden/terrorism isn't our enemy, but god.

One way to think about it is that God's plan provides remedies for evil done, but that His plan would nevertheless be far more effective if humans did not sin. God is not the author of evil; as I write elsewhere, He neither wills evil to happen nor wills it not to happen but permits it so that we humans could defeat it ourselves.

38. Every time I go to a funeral the preacher and guests always say that "God" has called that person to Heaven or they say, "God said it was time to come home," or some such variation. If God is calling these people "home," why are we putting the murderers of these victims in prison? How can we punish a man or woman for doing God's will?

"God has called him home" may simply be a way of affirming the immortality of the soul, of comforting the friends and family of the deceased that their beloved is still alive "up there." Another reason for using the word "home" is the safety that it implies: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Rev 21:4) Besides that, I agree that this statement is problematic, because it seems to entail that God had arranged the murder in order to get the victim into heaven.

39. Does God have a gender? In most churches, God is predominately referred to as a "he"? [Note: The Bible says God is male, but what does this mean? Does God have a penis? Does he have hormones that dictate his gender?]

God is not male; he is masculine. The first Person, because as Father He rewards and punishes those He loves, an activity which properly belongs to the father not the mother (or, at least, to the masculine part of every human being).

The second Person, because (1) as Redeemer it belongs to the man to sacrifice himself for his bride not to the woman for her bridegroom, and (2) Jesus was male (of course, this only shows the type of His human nature not His divine nature, but it would be odd indeed if a divine Daughter was incarnated as a male).

The third Person, because as Sanctifier He "impregnates" the soul from outside with grace, which then "bears fruit" of good deeds.

There are two additional reasons for thinking of God as masculine. First, He as Creator or agent or pure act created matter and imbued it with form, and that which acts is masculine, while that which is acted upon is feminine. Second, look at Gen 3:16: "To the woman he said, '... Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.'" That, of course, is how it works in families, normally. God is ruled by no one but rules everything. Hence it would not be consistent with human experience to imagine God to be feminine.

Now it can be argued that these establish God "sexual identity" in reference to the world; would not God be masculine even if He has never created? Isn't there something in God that makes Him masculine even outside of His activity with creation? Probably, but since we do not know the divine essence, we can only judge God according to His effects.

In addition, God is Father not because we anthropomorphically project our experience of fatherhood onto God. On the contrary, human fathers are such because God defines the very idea of fatherhood.

40. Why can't we wait until we get to Heaven to worship God? Why would it be too late?

The quick answer is that because knowing God and having the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity are essential to a happy life here. Why would you want to miss out on the most sublime experiences possible in this life? More to the point: First, are you going to get to heaven, stand before God the Son and ask "Who the heck are you, dude?"? That does not seem like the best way to start a relationship. Second, heavenly happiness, too, depends crucially on your charity, and charity is primarily love of God for His own sake. It is in this life that we increase in love, and once we are dead, this process stops short, and we are rewarded according to our merits. Merit and progress belong to this present condition of life only. Third, without charity your works count for nothing, so waiting until heaven to know and love God may indeed be too late.

41. What is the purpose of prayer? What can a finite being on Earth possibly tell an omnipotent, omniscient deity that he doesn't know already?

See here under "The Pointlessness of Prayer," 1.

42. Some say Jesus was the all-knowing God. Jesus would have known then that when he died he'd be in heaven in less than 3 days to rule. If Jesus is alive and ruling today, what did he sacrifice?

See here under "The Death of Christ," 5.

46. If God has such a tremendous problem with uncircumcised penises, why did he make man with foreskin in the first place? [Note: Some say, "So God can recognize his chosen people." Recognize? Is God so stupid that he has to physically look at men's penises?]

Circumcision was a mark of being chosen. It was a mark of belonging to a particular group. People mark themselves all the time for such purposes. Tattoos, piercings, special clothing, hand signs, all serve to identify group members to each other. A circumcision is somewhat different, because it is normally invisible to others. It is therefore a sign to the person himself that he is a servant to God, a part of a chosen nation. Further, it is arguable that circumcision had some intrinsic symbolic significance which made it superior to any other sign, as it is written: "Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer." (Deut 10:15-16).

48. Why does the omnipotent, omnipresent God need help from man or angels to spread his word or do acts?

See here under "The Pointlessness of Prayer," 1.

49. How did Jesus ascend to Heaven in the Flesh when Paul says that flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of Heaven?

1 Cor 15:50 says actually: "I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." But Jesus's body after His resurrection was already glorified, immortal, and incorruptible. That body could ascend into heaven. As Aquinas writes, "By ascending into heaven Christ acquired no addition to His essential glory either in body or in soul: nevertheless He did acquire something as to the fittingness of place, which pertains to the well-being of glory: not that His body acquired anything from a heavenly body by way of perfection or preservation; but merely out of a certain fittingness. Now this in a measure belonged to His glory; and He had a certain kind of joy from such fittingness, not indeed that He then began to derive joy from it when He ascended into heaven, but that He rejoiced thereat in a new way, as at a thing completed." (emphasis added)

53. How can a psychologist condone belief in something not proven to exist, when people are put into mental institutions on a daily basis for the same thing? i.e. aliens, fairies, imaginary people.

God's existence is not faith but can be proven. See, for example, Peter Kreeft's Handbook of Christian Apologetics for twenty arguments for the existence of God.

54. If Christians say they know God exists and that he will work miracles, what do they need faith for? Faith is not knowing.

No, actually, faith is knowing. Faith are the true propositions to which a believer assents but which cannot be known by reason and must therefore have been divinely revealed. Perhaps what the question means to allege is that the articles of faith cannot be proven. But that is only to say that the deliverances of faith are not the deliverances of science. The epistemic legitimacy of faith cannot be impugned by saying that it is justified in part differently from scientific claims.

56. If God really wants us to know him, why doesn't he place the knowledge of him in our minds at birth?

The reason for divine hiddenness, it seems to me, is to make the spiritual battlefield of this world as "realistic," the combat as deadly, and the consequences of both victory and defeat as momentous as possible. But just because God is out of sight does not mean that we are alone. God's grace and forgiveness are given all the time.

58. What image of God was man made from? Couldn't have been a moral one or physical one.

See, again, "Understanding the Blessed Trinity" for an explanation of how we are images of God, being "composed" of essence (the Father), self-knowledge (the Son), and self-love (the Holy Spirit).

In addition, God, though a simple unity, both is and has "within" Himself (1) existence, (2) life, (3) power, (4) justice, (5) counsel, (6) knowledge, (7) understanding, and (8) wisdom. (Compare these with the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit and with the 4 moral and 3 intellectual virtues.) Man was made in the image of God insofar as he, too, possesses these qualities.

59. Why can't God appear before everyone at the same time? Everyone in the world would then "know" he exists and not have solely "believe."

You want God to fight your battles for you. (Yes, I am aware that the person who posed this question does not believe in God. Hence my argument has the following form: Suppose that God exists. Then the demands that that person places on Him are unreasonable. There are good reasons why God is hidden, some of which I outline above. "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." (Acts 17:27) I suggest that you use your head and be convinced of His existence.)

60. In what sense does the New Law fulfill the Old?

Summa Theologica, II-I, 107, 2 explains what you need to understand of this problem.

61. If there is freewill in Heaven yet everyone has chosen good and is happy, isn't that proof that God could have made us with freewill, choosing good (God) and still being happy on Earth?

See here within the discussion of the problem of evil.

In other words, evil didn't have to exist after all. Hey wait, even in Heaven apparently, evil can exist. At least for a short while. Satan became evil and was in heaven. Apparently he even had enough time to form an Army against God.

Again, angels were not created already beatified; they were created in grace but still had to merit salvation by turning to God. Satan was not in heaven when he sinned; he, too, was a wayfarer.

62. Why does God have a plan? Man is limited in power so we make plans because we are not all-knowing nor all-powerful. If God has a plan, isn't he reduced to a mere finite being?

God has a plan with respect to this world which is finite. Here particular things happen at particular points in time. God's spacio-temporal actions with respect to the world form, we assume, a meaningful whole or, in other words, a plan.

64. On the salvation of people before Christ.

Remember that the articles of faith state that Christ descended into hell. Aquinas writes that "Christ descended into each of the hells, but in different manner. For going down into the hell of the lost He wrought this effect, that by descending thither He put them to shame for their unbelief and wickedness: but to them who were detained in Purgatory He gave hope of attaining to glory: while upon the holy Fathers detained in hell solely on account of original sin, He shed the light of glory everlasting."

So before Christ, while heaven was closed to men, nonetheless souls still went into purgatory and from there, once fully cleansed, into the limbo of the Fathers awaiting the Incarnation.

70. Ten to twenty percent of all women who discover they are pregnant suffer a miscarriage. Also, it is estimated that anywhere from 14 to 50 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. Seeing this is all part of God's plan, does this make God the world's number one abortion provider?

I assume that this questions the wrongness of abortion. All human beings die; does that mean that murder is not immoral? Or is the idea that God, by allowing miscarriages, permits this sort of natural abortion? I'll make two replies to that. First, abortion is a very complex subject in ethics. Whether or not and what exactly is wrong is controversial. Second, this collapses into the larger problem of evil, e.g., why does God permit children to die? The problem of evil has never been solved completely, but many worthy solutions have been offered.

77. Liberal Christians say some parts of the Bible are literally true, but much else is to be interpreted figuratively as allegory. How do you know which is which? What distinguishing criteria are used? How can you be certain "God" is a literal and not a figurative concept?

Not taking all of the Bible literally is not limited to "liberal Christians," whatever that term means. How do we know which parts are literal and which are not? Use your wisdom. As Aquinas writes, "The very hiding of truth in figures is useful for the exercise of thoughtful minds."

80. If God is omnipotent and he has a plan, then why did he not create the universe as it will be one second after the plan has succeeded? Who or what prevented him from doing that?

Suppose that God's plan is for a sufficient number of people to get to heaven. Once the plan succeeds, our universe will no longer serve any purpose and can be taken out of existence. But the process through which heaven is merited requires that the universe exist and stick around for a few billion years. And this clearly prevents God from directly creating a state of affairs which will exist "after" the universe is destroyed. In other words, the process of attaining glory by men and angels is not dispensable. Our actions and achievements must come from ourselves; God can surely not deceive us by creating us already in heaven with false memories of our victories in life.

81. The large majority of people who have ever existed could not have learned of the Bible or Jesus Christ. And many people afterwards have found other religions or no religion at all to be more convincing, sometimes while being very virtuous. Do all these people really deserve eternal torment because of that?

No.

83. Is it reasonable for the Creator and Ruler of such a vast Universe to be preoccupied with the sexuality of a species living on a tiny little planet?

Yes, if the members of this species are made in the image and likeness of God, if they can be uplifted into godhood and fellowship with God by grace, and if their sexual hang-ups prevent them from attaining happiness either here or in the hereafter. In other words, it is a concern if through lust or "unnatural" urges you descend into beastliness.

87. Why did this alleged god create humans as an animal form of life that gets sick and dies and experiences pain and has a limited mind, when 'it' could have created humans as a form of pure energy or of some indestructible material or whatever, and was totally sinless and had pure thoughts? If a god was omnipotent, 'it' could have easily have done this.

God did create such beings; they are called angels. Why humans in addition to angels? It was God's good pleasure and, hopefully, yours.

September 27, 2006