How does religion explain birth defects. Well first of all, how does science explain them? Several people have mentioned that science has an explanation, but no one has said what that is. From a religious point of view, the ultimate cause is sin. What happens to something when it is left alone for a long time? It deteriorates. It goes from order, to disorder. That is the second law of thermodynamics if I remember correctly. Before Adam and Eve sinned, there bodies were perfect, made to last forever. However, after they sinned, things started to deteriorate. That is why people no longer live as long as they did back then, our bodies and genes are deteriorating. So it can be seen that the most basic cause is likely the same as what I am assuming the scientific explanation you guys talk about says: that our genes are deteriorating and causing problems. But that doesn't mean that a person's defect is necessarily due to their sin, or their parents sin. In John 9, the Disciples asked Jesus about who's sin had caused a man to be born blind, if it was his, or his parent. Jesus told them that it wasn't because of sin, but so that God's work could be show in his life. Sometime a person's defect may be caused by his or her parents' sin, like a child with a defect from the mother being drunk all the time while she was pregnant, but it isn't always caused by sin in that sense.
A bunch of people have asked how a loving God could allow things like defects and such. Do any of you have children? If you a child, and he or she has a choice to either do the right thing, or do the wrong thing which has consequences, and you let him or her decide, and he or she chooses to do the wrong thing, what do you do? The child knew the consequences for his or her choose, yet he or she choose it. So a good parent would go through with the punishment, so that the child would learn that there really is consequences when he or she is disobedient. It is the same way with God. He has given us free will, the ability for each of us to choose. If we choose to sin, we face the punishment of that sin. Adam and Eve knew they weren't supposed to eat the fruit, yet they did. So they faced the punishment. God disciplines us because he loves us, just like a parent disciplines a child the he or she loves. We don't always know why a child was born with a disfigurement, but that is because we are not God. We can't always understand His ways, because He is greater than us. He made each an every one of us special, and loves us all.
This may be a little off topic, but it fits with what some of you have been talking about. Have you ever though about what if you are wrong? What if there really is a God? If there is really a God, then one day you will stand before Him as He judges you. Do you like to be tortured? Do you like being in pain? Do you like agony? If God is real, and the Bible is correct, that is what you will face, and even worse things in Hell. It isn't something to joke about, it is eterarnal punishment apart from God. And yes, I have thought about what if God isn't real. If He doesn't exist, then I'm not really out anything, because then the point would be to live so that you are the happiest you can be, and the way I am living right now is the happiest I can be, so even if He isn't real I still haven't lost anything.
Sorry if I rambled on a bit, I sometimes start typing and the next thing I know I'm wondering how I got all those pages.
A bunch of people have asked how a loving God could allow things like defects and such. Do any of you have children? If you a child, and he or she has a choice to either do the right thing, or do the wrong thing which has consequences, and you let him or her decide, and he or she chooses to do the wrong thing, what do you do? The child knew the consequences for his or her choose, yet he or she choose it. So a good parent would go through with the punishment, so that the child would learn that there really is consequences when he or she is disobedient. It is the same way with God. He has given us free will, the ability for each of us to choose. If we choose to sin, we face the punishment of that sin. Adam and Eve knew they weren't supposed to eat the fruit, yet they did. So they faced the punishment. God disciplines us because he loves us, just like a parent disciplines a child the he or she loves. We don't always know why a child was born with a disfigurement, but that is because we are not God. We can't always understand His ways, because He is greater than us. He made each an every one of us special, and loves us all.
This may be a little off topic, but it fits with what some of you have been talking about. Have you ever though about what if you are wrong? What if there really is a God? If there is really a God, then one day you will stand before Him as He judges you. Do you like to be tortured? Do you like being in pain? Do you like agony? If God is real, and the Bible is correct, that is what you will face, and even worse things in Hell. It isn't something to joke about, it is eterarnal punishment apart from God. And yes, I have thought about what if God isn't real. If He doesn't exist, then I'm not really out anything, because then the point would be to live so that you are the happiest you can be, and the way I am living right now is the happiest I can be, so even if He isn't real I still haven't lost anything.
Sorry if I rambled on a bit, I sometimes start typing and the next thing I know I'm wondering how I got all those pages.
