Answers to Questions Christians Cannot Answer

"The 50 Questions Christians Can't Answer" (from http://www.bukisa.com/articles/107211_top-50-questions-christians-cant-answer) as with most declarative statements/questions is steeped in an abundance of assumptions.  One does well to ask, what are the assumptions necessary in order for the particular question to have legitimacy. 

The first assumption is that some Christian some place on this earth or who lived in some time period could not legitimately answer these questions.  Such is quite an assumption.  Maybe these questions cannot be answered to the satisfaction of the questioner but that in no way validates the assumption underlying the questions presented.

Consider the first question, "If God is omnipotent (all-powerful), why did he take six days to create everything? Why not speak everything into existence all at once?"  Assume for the sake of discussion that the questioner is not taking "pot shots" at the Bible and really does want to know the answers. 

Of interest and importance to the discussion are several matters to include the existence of God and as well the veracity of the Scriptural text.  Further the questioner seems to assume that the text is to be taken literally.  If such was not so the very asking of the question would be negated. 

Another point is that the question must be understood within the time and culture of the activity to which it refers.  Thus there is a necessary adjustment to the question.

The Scripture points out that God's creative week was not six days but seven.  What difference does that make?  A modicum of study reveals that in that day and culture numbers were significant.  In the case of seven, it is found throughout the Hebrew and for that matter the Christian Bible.  It is the number of completion or perfection. 

Another assumption necessary to the question is found in "If God is omnipotent (all-powerful),..."  Here one arrives at something of a problem.  How does the finite comprehend the all-powerful infinite?  One can in degree conceptually grasp the notion of "omnipotent" but to get one's "mental arms" around the notion is a tall order beyond the capacity of most people.

Consider the following.  How Much Power Does the Sun Produce?

The Sun's output is 3.8 x 10³³ ergs/second, or about 5 x 10²³ horsepower. How much is that? It is enough energy to melt a bridge of ice 2 miles wide, 1 mile thick, and extending the entire way from the Earth to the Sun, in one second.

Dr. Louis Barbier (available at http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_sun.html)

Imagine then that the sun according to some estimates is 4.5 billions of years in age (this assumption is purely for the purposes of argument).  That means that in those years the energy from the sun alone would melt 1.4 X 10¹⁷ (141,261,570 with 9 more zeros) ice bridges.  Consider then that each ice bridge is 185,912,100 cubic miles in volume. Imagine the immense power necessary for such a bridge to be melted.  Most would agree that the numbers involved are beyond comprehension. 

Now move a step further and consider that the created is never greater than the Creator and thus considering just the energy spawned by the sun one can in some degree begin to see something of omnipotent.  Factor in that some astronomers estimate that there are a million such suns in the universe.  However, that does nothing to answer the question except for there to be one other factor included.

A God that vast could be impersonal and thus outside of man's consciousness and capacity to comprehend.  Again consider Hebrew culture and the names for God.  The creation account over and over uses the name Eloheim--the majestically powerful God.  After man is created another name appears in the text--Yahweh, the relational name for God*.  Bear in mind that the infinite God reduce the view of Himself so as to be available to finite man.  To be sure such a view is at best a very limited view no matter the capacities of the man involved.  Too it must be noted that it is a view that is never exhausted.  As long as man lives, there will always be more to learn of the infinite majestic God.

The final assumptive point to be made is this.  How does one know that God did or did not take the full 24 hours as referenced in the creation narrative.  If God is as omnipotent as the question suggests, is He not powerful enough to create as He pleases, 24 nanoseconds, 24 seconds, 24 minutes, 24 hours, 24 days...etc.? 

Hopefully these few thoughts germinate other thoughts which then might further flesh out the discussion on this and other questions.   

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*The names are rough transliterations of the original names.