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Hey Angela, I can’t thank you enough for meeting with me and talking with me about your beliefs. It was very insightful for me and I hope you feel the same way. In fact, I agree with you in perhaps more areas than you might have thought. I totally respect your concern for the human race and your giving heart. I too feel that we should help others who cannot help themselves. It shows selflessness and I like that about you. Your efforts not to judge others for their beliefs encourages me as well as others I’m sure. You say that lying, stealing, cheating, and killing are wrong actions and I would agree. I also agree that that the universe had a beginning and is expanding. I understand how Christianity must be so foreign to you being that many Christians make such bold claims to their religion yet live a totally opposite life. Had I not been raised in a Christian home, I might feel the same way. If you don’t mind, I’d like to address a few of the comments you made about Christianity. My intentions are not to all of a sudden convert you or change your belief system. I’d just like to take a few minutes and explain some of the reasoning behind my beliefs. In the next two paragraphs I will defend my religion against your claims. You said that because your grandfather, who was an amazing, innocent man, got brain cancer and died a painful death, there cannot be a god. Perhaps if there was, you would argue that he is not a loving God. My God is like a cosmic chef, in the words of C. S. Lewis, who is concerned more about my eternal health than my temporal gratification. There’s a shallow meaning of happiness that creates problems, and there is a deeper meaning that solves them. The shallow side of happiness is all feeling based while true happiness is permanently in the spirit and does not waver with feelings. My God allows, but is not the cause of, physical and emotional storms in our lives in order to strengthen our anchor. He doesn’t allow such pain and strife because he wants to see us suffer. He permits suffering because he knows its enriching power and because he loves us. Pain and suffering provide opportunities for us to show compassion. God uses what is bad in this world for our ultimate good. Even if you don’t believe in this, know that the God of my life is loving and cares about you just as much as anybody else in this world. While we are still here, God suffers with us. When we hurt, so does he… perhaps even more than we do. It’s hard to understand, but we suffer in this world only for a short time compared to the eternity that God offers to us; and we suffer here only because we don’t belong here.
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