The big questions, answered honestly.
Plain-English answers to life's biggest questions about God, meaning and suffering, from a thoughtful Christian perspective. Every answer includes the strongest objections.
Is there a God?
Many thoughtful people, past and present, have concluded that the best explanation of reality is a personal God. Several independent lines of evidence…
Suffering & EvilWhy does God allow suffering?
This is the most painful question on the list, and it deserves honesty before argument. Christianity does not deny suffering or call it unreal. The Bible…
Meaning & PurposeWhat is the meaning of life?
Asking about the meaning of life usually means asking three things. Does my life matter? Is there a purpose I was made for? Is there a story bigger than…
Suffering & EvilWhat is evil?
We all recognize evil: genocide, child abuse, betrayal. Defining it is harder. The classic Christian answer, developed by Augustine and Aquinas, is that…
Suffering & EvilThe problem of evil
The problem of evil is the most serious objection to belief in God. It comes in two forms. The logical problem claims that God's existence and the…
Arguments for GodThe Kalam cosmological argument
The Kalam cosmological argument was developed by medieval Islamic philosophers and has been popularized by William Lane Craig. It is simple: 1. Whatever…
Arguments for GodThe moral argument for God
Nearly everyone believes that some things are really right or wrong, whatever any person or culture thinks. Torturing children for fun is wrong. Kindness…
Meaning & PurposeDoes life have a purpose?
A purpose is what something is for. Hammers, hearts and eyes all have functions. The question is whether human lives have a purpose built in, or whether…
ChristianityIs Christianity true?
Christianity is unusual among religions because it stakes everything on a historical event. The apostle Paul wrote that if Christ has not been raised,…
ChristianityWhat happens after death?
Every culture has asked what lies beyond death. Materialism says nothing: consciousness ends when the brain stops. But there are reasons to doubt that…
Science & FaithCan science and faith coexist?
Many people assume science and religion are at war. Historians of science largely reject that "conflict thesis." Modern science grew up mostly in a…
Meaning & PurposeWhy are we here?
"Why are we here?" can mean two things. How did we get here, which is a question for physics and biology? Or what are we here for? The second is the…
Objections
Science has found no evidence for God, so belief in God is unscientific
Science studies the natural world through measurement. Whether anything exists beyond nature is a philosophical question, though scientific…
Objection · Is there a God?If everything needs a cause, who created God?
The argument applies to things that begin to exist. God, by definition, is eternal and uncaused, so asking who made him is like asking who…
Objection · Is there a God?Belief in God is just wishful thinking, a comforting crutch
How a belief arose doesn't make it false; that is the genetic fallacy. The same charge could be turned around: atheism might be wishful…
Objection · Is there a God?There are so many religions; they can't all be right, so why trust any of them?
True, and that is a reason to examine the evidence for each rather than to dismiss them all. Disagreement doesn't mean there is no answer.
Objection · Why does God allow suffering?Natural disasters can't be blamed on free will, so why does God allow them?
A world with reliable natural laws is needed for meaningful action, and those same laws cause some harm. Christianity also teaches that…
Objection · Why does God allow suffering?Philosophical explanations of suffering feel cold and useless when you're actually hurting
They do. Philosophy is not comfort. The Christian response in grief is presence, lament and hope, not a lecture.
Objection · Why does God allow suffering?Some suffering seems completely pointless, which suggests there is no good God
It seems pointless from where we stand. 'I can't see a reason' is a much weaker claim than 'there is no reason.'
Objection · What is the meaning of life?We can create our own meaning without God
We can create personal purposes. But self-made meaning can't tell us whether one life ultimately matters more than another, or matters at…
Objection · What is the meaning of life?Plenty of atheists live meaningful, happy lives, so God isn't needed for meaning
Agreed. The point is not that atheists can't find life meaningful. It is that atheism has trouble explaining why life objectively is…
Objection · What is evil?"Evil" is just a label for things we dislike; there is no objective evil
Then the Holocaust was only disliked, not actually wrong. Hardly anyone can live consistently with that view.
Objection · What is evil?If evil is just a "lack" of good, then evil isn't real and the problem is dodged
Privations are real. Blindness is truly real. The claim is about what kind of thing evil is, not that it is imaginary.
Objection · What is evil?Evolution explains our moral sense, so we don't need God to explain morality
Evolution might explain why we have moral feelings. It can't tell us whether those feelings track real moral truths.
Objection · The problem of evilAn all-powerful God could have created free beings who always choose good
If they are truly free, whether they choose good is up to them, not God. God can't make free creatures freely do anything.
Objection · The problem of evilEven if some evil is justified, the sheer amount of evil in the world is far too much
How much is 'too much'? We don't have a vantage point from which to judge what amount an infinite and good purpose might allow.
Objection · The problem of evilAnimals suffered for millions of years before humans existed, so suffering can't be the result of human sin
This is a real puzzle. Responses include the value of a stable natural order, a fall that affects creation, and hope for the renewal of all…
Objection · The problem of evilSaying "God has reasons we can't see" makes God unknowable and excuses anything
Not knowing God's specific reasons for a particular evil is different from knowing nothing about God's character, which Christians believe…
Objection · The Kalam cosmological argumentQuantum events happen without causes, so the universe could too
Quantum events take place inside a quantum vacuum governed by physical laws. That is not 'nothing.' Many interpretations of quantum…
Objection · The Kalam cosmological argumentMaybe the universe is eternal, through a multiverse or endless cycles, and never began
Most proposed models still need a beginning, according to the BGV theorem and the thermodynamics of cyclic models.
Objection · The Kalam cosmological argumentEven if the universe had a cause, why think it is a personal God?
A timeless, unchanging set of conditions would produce an eternal effect. A temporal effect from a timeless cause fits best with a free…
Objection · The moral argument for GodYou don't need to believe in God to be a good person
True, and the argument doesn't claim you do. The question is not whether atheists can be moral but what grounds morality.
Objection · The moral argument for GodThe Euthyphro dilemma: is something good because God commands it, or does God command it because it's good?
There is a third option. God commands things because he is good. His nature is the standard, so it is neither arbitrary nor outside him.
Objection · The moral argument for GodMoral values could just exist as brute facts, with no need for God
That is possible but odd. Abstract 'values' floating free, with no mind behind them, can't explain why we owe anything to anyone.
Objection · Does life have a purpose?If God gives us our purpose, we're just puppets with no real freedom
A calling isn't coercion. Christianity says God's purpose is for us to flourish freely in relationship with him, and we remain free to…
Objection · Does life have a purpose?Evolution explains why we're here, and our only purpose is to survive and reproduce
That is a description of biology, not a purpose anyone can live by. Few people think their life's meaning comes down to passing on genes.
Objection · Does life have a purpose?Lots of religious people feel purposeless too, so faith doesn't really provide purpose
Feelings come and go for everyone. The claim is about whether purpose objectively exists, not whether we always feel it.
Objection · Is Christianity true?Miracles are impossible because they break the laws of nature
They are impossible only if God doesn't exist. If God exists, a resurrection is a live possibility to be judged on the evidence.
Objection · Is Christianity true?The Gospels were written decades later by people who weren't there, so they're unreliable
They were written within roughly 30 to 65 years of Jesus, while eyewitnesses were still alive, and earlier creeds such as 1 Corinthians 15…
Objection · Is Christianity true?The disciples didn't see a risen Jesus; they had grief-driven hallucinations
Hallucinations are private experiences. They don't occur to groups at once, don't empty tombs, and don't convert hostile skeptics.
Objection · Is Christianity true?Christianity copied its story from pagan dying-and-rising gods
Most scholars today reject this. The supposed parallels are vague or later than Christianity, and Jewish monotheists were the least likely…
Objection · What happens after death?Consciousness is just brain activity, so nothing of us survives death
Brain activity is correlated with consciousness, but correlation isn't identity. The 'hard problem' of consciousness is still unsolved on…
Objection · What happens after death?Heaven sounds boring: an eternity of harps and hymns would be unbearable
The biblical picture is not endless harp-playing. It is renewed physical life, creativity, relationships and unhindered joy in God.
Objection · What happens after death?A loving God would never send anyone to hell
A loving God is also just and respects human choices. C.S. Lewis put it this way: the doors of hell are locked on the inside.
Objection · What happens after death?Near-death experiences prove nothing; they're just the dying brain
They aren't proof. But some carefully documented cases are worth considering. The main Christian basis, though, is the resurrection of…
Objection · Can science and faith coexist?Evolution explains the complexity of life, so God is no longer needed
Evolution describes how life developed. It doesn't explain why there is a universe with laws that allow life, and many Christians accept…
Objection · Can science and faith coexist?Faith means believing things without evidence, which is irrational
That is not the biblical meaning. Faith is trust based on good reasons, the way you trust a reliable friend.
Objection · Can science and faith coexist?The Church persecuted Galileo, which proves religion is hostile to science
The Galileo affair was real but complicated: politics, personalities and the science of the day all played a part. It is the exception, not…
Objection · Why are we here?The universe is too vast for human beings to matter
Size isn't significance. A child matters more than a mountain. Vastness may say more about the Creator's greatness than about our worth.
Objection · Why are we here?If God is perfect and needs nothing, why would he create anything at all?
For the same reason a joyful artist creates or a loving couple has children: as an overflow of love, not out of lack.
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