Blog@GraceJunction

Dear Troy,

We got your mail yesterday evening and it was such a relief to know that you are settling in to the new surroundings of your engineering college. We missed you so much as this is the first time you have gone away from home for such a long time. Nice to know that you have been allotted a room in the college hostel and that you have a new friend who is also your room mate.

Mom is glad to know that you have been reading the Bible daily and praying. But it seems you have been having difficulty explaining to your friend why the Bible is a reliable piece of literary work. In your mail you raised three concerns which were also bothering your friend. It reminded me when I was a college student and I would raise the same questions to my friends. But I have had the privilege of spending a lifetime as a historian committed to the task of researching the authenticity of many literary works, not just the Bible. So allow your dad to put on his historians cap for a while as I try to address your concerns on the Bible.

(more…)

Hi Abhishek,

I got your response to my last mail but I was unable to respond on time as I was travelling for some seminars. But now I am back home and things are back to normal after some hectic weeks of travelling. However I am glad that my last letter helped you to dig deeper in to this issue of evil and the existence of God. You came up with some important points in your last mail. You asked me that, wouldn’t it have been good for God to curtail some of our freedom to make this world a better place.

Well let me tell you that all my students who were copied on your mail were really confused by your argument because it all sounded so reasonable. If God had proposed a curtailing of free will to keep the evil in check wouldn’t we all have gladly agreed to it? We would all give up some of our freedom in order to protect the spreading of AIDS, killing of innocent foetuses and the killing of innocent people in the name of wars and Holy wars. (more…)

Hi Abhishek,

I don’t know how to respond appropriately to your pain of loosing your eight year old son. I heard that he was suffering from Progeria due to which he was ageing much beyond his age. You told me that he had the body of an eighty year old when he died, a premature death, something that raises a lot of questions in our mind. I can understand your anger against God for allowing such evil but I cannot agree with your conclusion that therefore there is no God.

I still remember the days when I was the professor of philosophy at the University and you were one of the best students that I had. You were always a good thinker and used reason to good effect. In your last mail to me you told me to explain how an Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omni benevolent God can allow evil. According to you both are not logically compatible. And since evil is the most proven fact in this world you deduced that there is no God. (more…)

Hi Phil,

Here are some pictures that I took on my trip to some of the islands in the Indian Ocean. We started off our journey some six months before we reached our destination. It was basically an adventure trip where we were going to explore some of the scarcely populated islands in the world. Hardly has any man set foot on these islands because of the tough conditions of the ocean, lack of edible food and water and also the dangerous tribes that lived there for many years.

As we closed in on these islands we just wanted to have a look at the underwater creatures and vegetation that existed. While scuba diving, I came across a human skeleton with a nicely sealed bag made out of animal skin tied around his wrist. This was a fascinating sight as I was sure that these were the remains of some tribesman. I went closer to have a look. The bag was heavy and I was getting restless to have a look. I took the bag along with me back to the deck where I opened it in the company of other mariners. (more…)

Hey Big Bro,

All these years i have believed that there is no God and there is no immortality. And my ethical system was formed in this framework which made me believe that since there is no moral accountability every persons values become expressions of personal taste or the by-products of his socio-biological evolution and conditioning. One humanist philosopher said ‘The moral principles that govern our behaviour are rooted in habit and custom, feeling and fashion’. In plain words i did what i liked and i was not answerable for my actions to any supreme authority like God.

(more…)

Hi Vikas,

I saw your blog about the ‘racist attacks’ on Indians in Australia. And the situation i believe continues to remain grim with the government issuing a travel warning for people planning to visit Australia. Hope your course there is in the final stages and you will be back soon. It is nice that you are taking up the issue in the interests of the new students who have spent lakhs of rupees to get their admissions. The situation certainly is gloomy for those who have gone there with many dreams. (more…)

Respected Teacher,

Yesterday’s science class still echoes in my mind because it has shaken up the foundations of my life. My parents always told me that God created the universe and that we are built for immortality or an eternal life if we fall in line with God’s plan for our life. But yesterday you said that the universe came in to existence through a big bang which took place some 15 billion years ago and that it expands every day, the galaxies go further and further from each other, till one day when all the energy will be used up, the stars will burn out and all the matter will eventually fall into a black hole bringing down the curtains to the existence of the universe. Which means that there is no God and hence no immortality that I dreamt about? (more…)