First off, thank you for all who responded. If you have more to add, please feel free to do so in the blog below. Very exciting to see new readers and ideas.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the video posted in my previous blog.

And now, my thoughts.

1. Why won’t God heal amputees?

Perhaps these questions are not directed at Christians like me, because I would most likely be part of the 25 percent of doctors who don’t attribute medical healings as the result of prayers.

I believe the miracle is that doctors can have mounds of science and research and proven theories as to how to cure this or that, and yet we have bodies that can heal in ways that leave doctors whispering the word “miracle.”

I believe God gives us everything we need from the start—minds to learn and resources to utilize—and bodies that can sometimes mend themselves without the help of fancy tools and education. Whether you believe in God or not, it is proven that bodies have healed themselves without the help of doctors and scientific healing tools, which means our bodies are pretty amazing creations. That I attribute to God.

Besides, what makes people think prayers are a personal request box? I see prayer drastically different than some Christians, who treat God like a Magic 8 Ball, waiting for “yes,” “no,” “maybe” or “ask again later” to pop up on the little liquid filled screen. I believe prayer is the moments of the day when you acknowledge that God is always listening to your thoughts.

I believe God’s will trumps any of our requests, so what’s the point of using prayer as a time to dump your personal wish list? If what I want is not God’s will, then why on earth would I want my request to be fulfilled? Do I think I know how to run the world better than God? Did we learn nothing from Bruce Almighty?

Prayer to me is a meditative state with God, opening your mind to His wisdom and finding peace in accepting His will, whether it is what we thought was best or not. And strength to push us to do what we need to do to stop wrongs as god calls us to do. Clearing our mind of the world’s clutter to get a better picture of what it is He wants, not just constantly focusing on what I want.

I like what Christian writer Max Lucado says about prayer:
“Do this. Change your definition of prayer. Think of prayer less as an activity for God and more as an awareness of God. Seek to live in uninterrupted awareness. Acknowledge His presence everywhere you go. As you stand in line to register your car, think, Thank you, Lord, for being here. In the grocery as you shop, Your presence, my King, I welcome. As you wash the dishes, worship your Maker.”

2. Why are there so many starving people in our world?

Because I have failed to do what God told me to do. God has given us plenty of resources on this earth for everyone.

People are starving because we have stripped them of God’s gifts and are more concerned with keeping them for ourselves. They’re prayers have been answered with a bounty of food in this world—and their prayers were blocked by those not answering the calling Jesus gave us:

Thanks for this questions as a reminder of what I’m called to do. I have much to think about in how I am living my life. This question actually affirms my faith because I do know and have very much felt the rewards in giving up what I have to help those more needy than I. If the world is godless, wouldn’t it stand to reason that we would take no joy in giving—that a survival of the fittest mindset would dominate and we would feel grief if we sold our belongings and gave to the poor?

3. Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?

Who’s innocent? I’m not? Are you? Have you lived a perfect life, one free of anything against the will of God? In fact no one has. Every person in existance has snubbed God every day of their lives, making everyone in history worthy of the punishment of death.

All the passages cited in this video are Old Testament. While there is still much that can be learned from the Old Testament, it is important to note that without Jesus, our sins were left unatoned. Because God is perfect, both His love and His judgment are perfect. He cannot dwell with imperfection, so the fact that He didn’t kill us all (though he came close) is testament to His love more than His wrath.

This is of course assuming you are taking these stories literally and not just as prophecies and lessons of our need for Jesus.

Faith in Jesus makes us perfect in God’s eyes again, because a sacrifice has already been made for the wrongs we have done or will do.

4. Why does the Bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense?

This blog should sum up my answer.

5. Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery in the Bible?

Yes it’s true there are many verses citing the need of slaves to be obedient to their masters:

But it’s important to read on…

There are notes for the masters as well, not to be cruel but to remember we are all servants of a higher power and that His commands must be obeyed first and foremost.

And we speak of slavery as if we are not committing it right now. We may not own them directly, but migrant workers and sweatshop workers are being treated just as poorly as slaves. They are obeying God by honoring those in authority over them—how are we obeying God by forcing them into cruel servitude?

6. Why do bad things happen to good people?

There’s no such thing as good and bad people. See No. 3.

Also, who judges what is bad? Is death considered bad? For those with eternal hope, no. Of course it’s scary, but if one believes in the promises after death, then it is not bad. Or perhaps I’ll get cancer and research from my illness will save hundreds. Who knows?

Plus because all of us have rejected the perfection God has offered us, bad things happen to everyone because we choose bad over good.

If everyone lived as Jesus lived, the world truly would be better. Talk about bad things happening to good people??? We killed the best person to ever live! God allowed bad to happen to Himself for our own good! Even in that dark act, good came out of it in our salvation.

7. Why didn’t any of Jesus’ miracles in the Bible leave behind any evidence?

I’ll have to mirror some of the other answers here. What are you looking for? A 2,000-year-old bottle of wine that when analyzed is really H2O?

And I think the point of the stories of the miracles is to show that even when Jesus pulls out all the stops to prove who He is, people still doubt. That it wouldn’t matter if we saw miracles daily in modern times…these stories prove people still will reject what they witness first-hand.

8. How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you?

Physically? Did He ever say He would? What would make me expect such a thing to happen?

9. Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood?

Again, I believe it’s symbolic. At the Last Supper, He didn’t rip off a chunk of His arm and plop it on the disciples’ plates.

10. Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians?

Again with the prayer argument. In Christian marriage, three people make a vow—the couple and God. If the couple chooses to disobey God and do something that breaks up the marriage, God is not going to take away our free will regardless of what was said at the ceremony.

God is always faithful to the couple, but you correctly point out that too many Christian couples reject that faithfulness and fall into the same traps as the rest of the world.