Thanks for the exhibition of the "holier than thou" tendency of most Christians. It's disgusting, really. I thought that one of the primary values of Christianity was
humility. And you wonder why so many turn away from God... between the aforementioned attitude, the Biblical textbook-esque quoting, intolerance and hypocracy, more atheists are made by these than by science.
An atheist can make it into heaven. From your indoctrinated, undoubted viewpoint, you might think otherwise. Those of you who are so eager to play God and exclude people of different paradigms, guess what? There are other people out there, with different beliefs, expecting you to experience eternal damnation. Not cool. What if they are right? You don't know, and I don't expect you to change your mind, but unless you compare your own beliefs against every belief system out there down to every minute detail, you won't really know what's best for you, not to mention what's really right. There's no way you could possibly do that. Nobody else can either.
You see, that's the problem with thinking that there is only one path, one ticket. There's no way that everyone has a chance to get this ticket, there just isn't. Even in our modern world, not everyone has been exposed to the Truth, and many who you think have, have not. When a "Christian" goes around cramming a Bible in someone's face, threatening them with damnation, and treating them with no respect, they aren't doing the work of God. When your regular church goer sees nothing but hypocracy and indifference, he might have reason for turning away. I believe that God simply won't turn everyone away who is not a true follower of {insert religious affiliation here}. It doesn't seem right. There has to be more to the equation than that. It's not our place to judge the fate of others, thankfully.
Something tells me that being religious, taking Jesus into your heart, good deeds, and prayer
simply to earn a place in heaven, is plain wrong, and it concerns me that it seems to be the motivation of so many of you. The atheists and others might have the advantage here, as our goal should be altruism for the sake of altruism, rather than goodness for the promise of a eternal reward.
Moving on:
Quote:
Originally posted by ninjaface:
I'm just gonna go ahead and say that you might as well believe in god. If he doesn't exist, no loss. If he does, then you made a good decision.
|
Ninjaface, you're hinting (probably inadvertantly) at something known as Pascal's Wager. It's a rather intriguing case for believing in the existance of God. I'd be happy to go into it in a little depth if any of you would like it explained better.
Alright.... I had to say something... but I kept it brief and only slightly incoherent. Let the discussion continue.
[ July 12, 2003, 11:59 PM: Message edited by: victim ]