Bilal Philips – Is Belief Enough 3 4

			Definition of God is one without a beginning.
		

			So any question
		

			which involves making god no longer God, then these are what we call ludicrous questions. They are
illogical and unreasonable, because you've already defined who God is. for God to have a son. Think
about it.
		

			We have sons.
		

			What is the son?
		

			A little version of ourselves? A little man.
		

			cows have calves? What are calves? Little cows?
		

			cats and kittens, or kittens, little cats. So what do gods have? When God has a son? And what does
he have no, little God, we got the big garden, we got a little
		

			problem, you no longer have one god anymore.
		

			This is one of the basic characteristics of God that He is one and unique, none like him.
		

			So to ask any other son is nonsense.
		

			Third, some question. If God is all powerful, can he create a stone too heavy for him to lift falls
in the same category?
		

			Because you're asking, Can God make something greater than himself?
		

			If he is the greatest already, he's greater than all things. That's his characteristic. So then can
you make something greater than himself? this nonsense contradicts itself.
		

			The fourth question sub question, if God is all good, and Able to do all things, then where did evil
come from? This is a common
		

			question, which actually addresses a phenomenon which happens amongst people where they end up going
in falling into atheism, because of their inability to understand evil,
		

			the role of evil in life.
		

			So what happens to them? Oftentimes, when you ask a person who claims to be an atheist, his parents
were Christians or Muslims, but he now is an atheist. Why? He says, Well, you know, I had this
Auntie, my auntie was a really wonderful and good person.
		

			Better than anybody else I knew.
		

			And one day, when I was out with her, and she was helping me across the road, a big truck came and
ran over her, killed her.
		

			Why?
		

			She was a good person. Someone the other people I know are so evil, and they're living their lives
out comfortably. They seem to be Okay, no problem. So where's the Justice and the fairness in all of
this? There's a good God, then why in God's word, did this person get killed? They have no answer.
No explanation. Nobody can explain it to them. So what's left? There couldn't be a god. For this to
take place, there could not be a god.
		

			Well, reality is that if we just stop for a minute, and we look into our lives, we can see many
occasions where what appears to be evil is in fact good.
		

			something evil happens. And we feel bad and sad, etc. But later on, we see that from that evil
thing, some great good appeared. And we say, Wow,
		

			that was good. It happens to all of us.
		

			The simple example is that of a child.
		

			We have to take him or her to the dentist the first time.
		

			Now before we take the child to the dentist, we usually prime them up. The dentist is a good man.
		

			He likes little kids.
		

			He's gonna give you a lollipop.
		

			Then you take him in her in there happy to see the nice dentists with a long white robe and
		

			they put you in the chair, maybe you suck on the lollipop before
		

			then the dentist begins his or her work.
		

			The drill is in the teeth.
		

			The kid starts screaming
		

			No matter how much you know
		

			novocaine or whatever they put in the gums and still painting.
		

			And after they leave tears in their eyes and say you said he was a good man.
		

			Look what he did to me.
		

			It hurt. And when you have to take him back or her back to the dentist, the next time you think
they'll accept that this dentist is a good man, no way,
		

			you will have to fight to get that kid back into the dentist's chair again.
		

			Because for them, the dentist is an evil man,
		

			he did an evil thing to them a bad thing, a hurtful thing. That's all they can see. Now, of course,
we as adults, we can say that little harm is to prevent a bigger harm. Right? When you get the holes
in the teeth and you know, goes bad, you have to have a root canal, your teeth is falling out
painting all these guys, it's a big harm. So that little harm is to prevent a bigger harm. But can
that kids see that? No matter how much you explain to them, the little harm to prevent the big harm,
they can't see it. All they can see is that drill.
		

			And all they can think about is the pain that they felt. So you can't convince them.
		

			And that's how life is isn't it? So many times in so many occasions, we do that we take an
injection. Normally, if somebody comes with this big long needle and says, Can I stick this in your
arm, please?
		

			You're gonna say no, I'm not a masochist. I don't love pain. No. But when the time comes for you to
get your inoculation, you go to the doctor and say, Please stick that thing in my arm.
		

			That painful things, stick it in your head.
		

			Why? Because you know that that small hurt is to prevent a bigger hurt. And that's how life is
reality is that God does not permit any evil to take place. without there being some good coming
from it. Now you may not be able to see that good.
		

			As they say every cloud has a silver lining is the idea. That's reality. Of course people will say,
what about the tsunami?
		

			Where was the good in the tsunami? How many people lost their lives? Muslim Muslims? As a matter of
fact, where was the good in the tsunami? And of course, what are you gonna say?
		

			Because I'm not able to show you where the good was? Does that mean there's no good.
		

			All it says is I don't know where the good is. But it doesn't mean there's no good.
		

			And just says in so many other cases, we have seen evil and harm, etc, producing good, why not?
		

			So our lack of knowledge, or our inability to identify the good which may come from any evil act
doesn't deny the existence of good. All it indicates is then limits on our knowledge, that's all.
		

			So
		

			evil, whatever it takes place in this world is ultimately from God, God has permitted it to take
place. But on one hand,
		

			some people say,
		

			Well, whatever evil I'm doing, is God's decision.
		

			It's not my fault. God decided
		

			that this was gonna happen. So
		

			well.
		

			If this were the case,
		

			that we are just puppets on a string,
		

			then what is the point of the judgement?
		

			Why would we then be asked why we did what we did.
		

			The judgment would be meaningless. It would be a joke, it would be unfair, because how could God
punish you for doing wrong when it wasn't your choice?
		

			So that argument doesn't hold water. We know that whatever evil we do, we choose to do it.
		

			And we are held accountable based on our choices as the prophet SAW Solomon said,
		

			in our man beneath all of the deeds that we do, will be judged in accordance with the
		

			intention we have behind them. The decision that we made with regarding
		

			that's how it is ultimately judged. So one may see something as good but in behind it is an evil
intent. And God will judge that evil intent and not the good, which we saw.
		

			The last point
		

			the common point, held by
		

			those who have accepted God and said okay,
		

			everything seems to integrate
		

			that there must be a god.
		

			Scientists, astronomers, physicists, etc. Many of them believe