I have a post on Little Tin Soldier (my new political Blog) about Holy Matrimony, gay marriage and the 1999 Australian Repubican Referendum called ‘Defending the City of Light’

The mysterious God is not infinite loneliness, he is an event of love. If by gazing at creation we think we can glimpse the Creator Spirit, God himself, rather like creative mathematics, like a force that shapes the laws of the world and their order, but then, even, also like beauty - now we come to realize: the Creator Spirit has a heart. He is Love.

Pope Benedict XVI on Vigil of Pentecost, quoted from Catholic Analysis

(Part of a discussion that took place here)

God is Life. All life is from God and of God. God is Love, all love and joy is from God and of God. What a gift is life! What a fabulous and unearned blessing!

You say it isn’t fair that there is suffering. You don’t want to live in a world where there is a God that allows it, but despite your protests you still suffer. And God feels your suffering. Jesus wept, he lived our pain, and He suffered for us. The Lord asks you to cast your burden on Him, truly that’s better than fair - that’s gracious and merciful.

You say the Bible doesn’t make sense. Of course it doesn’t! The Bible contains the truth of things that can’t be comprehended by the human mind - they lie far beyond the realm of human experience. But they can be understood by the heart, in the heart.

It’s another fabulous gift from the abundant heart of God - the very secrets of the Universe! And God is so gracious he doesn’t present them such that only great intellectuals can begin to comprehend them. Anyone with a pure heart can understand - even small children! Truly God is merciful and good.

You say it isn’t fair that God would seek to deprive you of eternal life, and that it is an injustice you might be damned to oblivion.

But, having complained about the existence of suffering, you then cause suffering for enjoyment, because it makes you feel intelligent and powerful. And yet you think God is unjust? How are you not worthy of oblivion?

But even then God offers you eternal life. He stands patiently at the door of your heart, year after bitter year, with a love for you that never fades no matter what you do.

Truly, God’s mercy and grace is more abundant than the Universe itself.

You speak like a lawyer. There were plenty of people in the Bible who took a heartless lawyerly approach to things of the spirit, they were called Pharisees. Their arrogance led them to great wickedness.

The Hell of eternal torture you describe is a pagan concept. The Book of Revelation (whence comes the lake of fire) also refers to the second death. However, it is as it says, a revelation - a vision, and a mysterious one. The afterlife is presented a little mysteriously in Christianity, which is logical.

The Bible doesn’t say that all non-Christians wil be tortured, it says that the saving grace of Christ will save us from judgement. Only God can judge the hearts of the world, he doesn’t invite us to do it on his behalf.

A great many things in the Bible are left as mysteries. Some things in the physical realm are mysterious too. Can you tell me what happens in the centre of a black hole? How a photon can be both a wave and a particle? From whence does consciousness derive? If you can’t understand such petty things of the physical world, why do you presume the infinite world should bow down to your mighty intellect?

Put away your childish things and be a man. Spoilt children scream and cry that things are not as they think they ought to be. Adults accept they are as they are, seek to understand them better, and try and use that knowledge to do good. Hence the wonderful society we have, underpinned by its profound Judeo-Chritian values.

If you love logic, be logical. By all means, take things on the evidence. Societies built on Judeo-Christian values have thrived, to a state of what to the ancient world would think was paradise on earth. Societies in modern times who have abandoned God have rapidly become like hell on earth. That the promise of God has come true in such a simple material way is just one of innumerable proofs of the truth of the Bible.

If you love science and respect evidence, be scientific! Conduct this experiment: pray to Christ to come into your life and see what happens!