[For the cynics]

Ever wondered why are some people cynical/skeptical (they both seem like the same thing to me, forgive me for my poor command of English) towards people and God? I believe it boils down to two words.

Past experiences.

With this in hand, skeptics infer the rest of the facts regarding the rest of the world. Due to the fact a certain number of people have hurt and broken their trust, they assume the rest are out to do the same. I think the method is logically sound, but reasonably unsound.

It is logically sound because just like in statistics, one can predict the percentage of bad eggs in a carton if one takes a certain number of random samples in random cartons to open and test. If 30 out of 100 eggs are spoilt, we can make a statement that 30% of the eggs are spoilt, even though if those are the only 30 bad eggs in the entire shipment of the 1000 eggs.

However, although this method may be logical, it may not be reasonable when we are dealing with people instead of products. If 30 out of a 100 people were to hurt you, we cannot assume that 30% of the population is hurtful because every individual is unique and different. Although it may appears to be justifiable* to treat a person that has broken your trust with skepticism, how do we reason away the same treatment to person that has done you no harm? Due to past hurts, we tend to impose our skeptical treatment on everyone whom we met. This is totally unfair as it is equivalent to hanging everyone in America because 3 Americans were caught murdering. We cannot employ a one-size-fit-all way of handling people. Why must I be that the receiving end of your skepticism when it was the other person that hurt you?

However, that is not the worst possible thing that can happen. As a result of past hurts with people, some individuals may even impose this skepticism on God - Even when God didn't even hurt them in the first place. Let's not end up treating God like how we would treat a human. We must give him a fair chance to prove Himself trustworthy, instead of jumping to conclusions by inferring his character from His tainted creations.

Could you imagine how if He was to judge us the same way we do to others? We will be judged upon others mistakes. If supposedly because the majority of the human race is going hell, chances are we would go hell to, so He dumps you there not because of you taking responsibility of your individual actions but because of random probability. Now, that would truly be hell indeed.






*Although it may seem justifiable in the world's view, the bible does not indicate so - We are told to forgive.