Friday, January 28, 2011

Science and Jesus (6): The Infantile Brainwashed Christians

Have you ever heard the comment ‘Westernised people follow Christianity; Middle Eastern people follow Islam or Judaism and Easternised people follow Buddhism or Hinduism’? Ex-Oxford Professor Richard Dawkins attributes a belief in god to upbringing and culture, and after a careful examination of the scientific evidence, any rational person will ‘leave the infantile and primitive beliefs of a creator god’. What do you think about this claim?

Brainwashed or something more amazing?

Oxford Ph.D, Dr. Olivera Petrovich is a researcher in Psychology, who recently completed a study on children and the relation of Psychology and a belief in god. Dr. Petrovich travelled to Japan, which is a culture that frowns upon the belief in a creator god, to engage in this study. Remarkably, she found that children who were not taught about a creator god actually held the view that the world had been created by god, which is in absolute opposition to the spiritual beliefs of the culture.




Science in partnership with the Bible?

The Apostle Paul states in his letter to the Romans (a book in the Bible) that every human has a conceptual belief in God, which is evidenced through the creation i.e. the Universe (Romans 1:19-20), which is totally consistent with Dr Petrovich’s research findings. Hold on a minute, then, why do we have atheists and even more profoundly, why do we have people who believe in different gods? Why don’t we all believe in the same god?

In Romans, the Apostle Paul adds that even though we have this inherent notion of God built into us, we have a sin condition (we are born not knowing or understanding the one true God because of our rebellion) and therefore either suppress the truth about God and / or follow false gods or simply hold a view that a god does not exist (Romans 1:21-23; Romans 3:11-12). Yes, but how can the Christians claim that they have it all right then? What about Islam or Buddhism?

God revealed himself

The bible claims that God came to earth 2000 years ago as the man Jesus of Nazareth. He lived a normal human life like you and I, except for sin, but at the same time was completely God and his mission was simply to pay for the sins of the world. Therefore those who trust in Jesus will have eternal life.

Jesus came on a mission to rescue lost rebels, not because he was bored in heaven but rather because unless God revealed himself to us, we would never find God (John 1:1-3, 14; Philippians 2:5-6; Colossians 1:15, 19-20; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:3; 2 Peter 1:1). So, to conclude, are you searching for life’s great answers? Do you want to know God? Look no further, for today I want to offer you an invitation to meet him in Jesus. Why not pick up God’s manifesto – the bible and get to know him for yourself. A great place to start is the Gospel of Luke.

If this has impacted you and you would like to reach me to ask a question, email vintagejc@hotmail.com  

1 comment:

birving said...

That's incredible. It's so comforting to have so research backing up the claim that God's existence is evident from what he has made.