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Permalink Reply by Erica Sutton on July 17, 2011 at 10:35am

Not sure exactly what type of questions you are looking for or if you want them specifically related to a belief in God.  However, something came to my mind while I was reading your discussion question.  When I was about the age of twelve or thirteen, I would ask my father questions challenging the existence of God.  They were always impossible questions to answer that no one would know but he never replied with, "I don't know", and always had some other ridiculous answer that made no sense.  One popular question I would ask frequently was, "Everything comes from something, right?  Like, babies come from a mother and a father, a plant grows from a seed, rain forms in the clouds due to evaporation, etc (I think you get the point)."  My father would always reply,"yes that's true."  Then I would ask, "So where did God come from, what created him?"  This dumb founded look would come over his face like he didn't know what to say, and he would always tell me that God has always existed and would never reply I don't know.  Well I'm sure you know I just rolled my eyes and never believed his answers.  You could ask questions like that in your survey if that's the type you are looking for.  As far as how to distribute it, 'I don't know'!

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Permalink Reply by southmc on July 17, 2011 at 11:48am

What came before the big bang? To questions like this, people are punished by Christians for saying "I don't know". I don't think that should be the case. Perhaps your focus should not be people saying I don't know, but rather why they don't know or don't care. In science, its perfectly acceptable to say I don't know. People should feel free to express their ignorance. It's only when we criticize people for not knowing that they make up ridiculous explanations. I for one would rather hear more people say "I don't know".

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Permalink Reply by T A A on July 18, 2011 at 5:20am

we don't know YET, but eventually enough evidence will have accumulated to explain it.

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Permalink Reply by Kenneth Montville D.D. on July 18, 2011 at 8:41am

You could say that of any answer that appears initially as "I don't know."

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Permalink Reply by Michael Noel Jones on July 17, 2011 at 2:31pm

"What games do the fairies at the bottom of your garden(*) play? (*) If you don't have one, imagine that you did."  That should get a suitable number of made-up responses! But it also is unlikely to elicit any "I don't know" answers }:)

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Permalink Reply by Nathan Hevenstone on July 17, 2011 at 2:35pm

Well, the obvious one: does God exist? Hopefully, you'd get mostly "I don't know" (in a perfect world, that's all you'd get for this question, but we don't live in a perfect world).

 

I like the "what came before the Big Bang", as well.

 

You should ask some more mundane questions, however. Stuff as simple as "what is the mechanism of evolution" and so on. They would give you interesting (I think) data points.

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Permalink Reply by Akshay Bist on July 17, 2011 at 2:48pm

I would ask -

Do you believe in god?

Why or why not?

Are you religious?

Why or why not?

If religious, then what makes your religion the correct religion?

Do you think the people who don't share your faith will goto hell?

How do you think the universe came to be?

How do you think life started?

What is the basis of your answers to the scientific questions - religion or scientific understanding?

Science has debunked many of the explanations given by religions of the world for natural phenomena. Do you think it will continue to do so till all the answers given by religion are falsified?

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Permalink Reply by 3equ3cp1fsw0n on July 17, 2011 at 3:19pm

Ask this one:  Why would an omnipotent, omnipresent, all-knowing, loving creator, create a world containing such an abundance and capacity for intensely exquisite misery?

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Permalink Reply by John Jenkins on July 17, 2011 at 6:00pm

They will answer because that omnipotent creator gave us the gift of free will.  The misery that we see around us every day is what we make.  If we didn't have free will we really wouldn't be able to choose anything or make any decisions.  Some people decide to cause pain.  Some people decide to bring healing.

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Permalink Reply by Steve on July 17, 2011 at 6:11pm

Free will conflicts with omniscience though. Full omniscience means that god instantaneously knows everything that will ever happen. So no decision anyone makes really matters, because god knew the consequences beforehand.

 

Of course I have seen wannabe clever Christ-eaters will say that god doesn't know all future decisions, but only all current ones. But that's really philosophical hairsplitting to explain a concept that's completely absurd to begin with.

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Permalink Reply by Steve on July 17, 2011 at 6:07pm

Leave out the "loving" and you have your answer: a psychopathic, capricious bully that enjoys messing around.

 

But if god existed, I can't really blame him either in a way. Ever played world simulation games like Populus or Black & White in which you literally play a god? After a while you get a bit bored and it can really be fun to mess around and torment your people. At least for a short time

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Permalink Reply by T A A on July 18, 2011 at 5:22am

Love and happiness can only be defined as subjective opposites to hate and misery. They are but extreme ends on chart, without one end, you have nothing.

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