Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!njin!paul.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: lindborg@cs.washington.edu (Jeff Lindborg) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Bible: What is the Truth? Message-ID: Date: 3 Jun 91 06:58:03 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Washington Computer Science Lines: 74 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article 6600wood@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Joseph Wood) writes: >For many years I have been a person who has wanted to find God >but has been unable to reconcile the differences and difficulties >in the various Christian denominations. >... >I have always been of a sort of logical bent. I am one of those >people that goes to movies and immediately notices what is wrong >or foolish in them. This unfortunately is my problem. You sound strikingly like me some years ago. Shortly after I left high school I started dealing with deep doubts I had about Christianity and the Bible. I struggled with them for years, convinced that something was wrong with me or that I could work them out with a little more prayer or maybe some help from my pastor. After a long struggle I finally came to the conclusion that the problem did not lie with me, but with the fictional religious system I was trying to rationalize. Ask yourself why God would create such a conflicting, ambiguous, murky Bible if your very salvation depended upon it. Answer: God did not create it, it was the work of humans just like all of the other thousands of religious texts that have claimed adherents over the centuries. When you notice flaws in the movies you watch, is it really a problem with you, or a problem with the production you are watching? I think you know the answer. >Everyone interprets the >bible differently. I would appreciate someone telling me why >there are so many sects, so many bibles, and so many people thinking >that they are right and everyone else is wrong. That would depend on who you talk to. Christians are inherently dogmatic. While most will immediately protest that, the fact of the matter is their religion (in its 'orthodox' form anyway... we see a lot of back-peddling and rationalization going on these days) depends on its adherents to believe that Christianity is the One true Way and that all others will "lead to destruction". Islam will feed you the same line as will many other dogmatic religions. If you talk to some Buddhists they might tell you there are many paths which lead to the same destination. Besides, in the Buddhists scheme of things you aren't damned to hell for all eternity if you screw up in your one allotted life time... you just have to go around again. Hinduism and many other eastern sects will tell you much the same thing. I encourage you to take a deep and honest look at Christianity... Don't hide from what you see... don't resist questioning. If the religion is really the "one true way" it should stand up to the most intense scrutiny you can give it. I, along with many others, found it did not. You might find it does, you might find it doesn't. Whatever you decide, you must be honest to YOURSELF first. You are the final judge of what is good and what is true and what works for you. I'll tell you, I never felt as good as the day I finally let go of my belief in the Christian god. It wasn't easy (its comforting to know that there is a nicely packaged way to obtain personal immortality, among other things...) but it can be done. I gained a new compassion and understanding of the people around me. I could accept them for who they were in a way I couldn't as a practicing Christian. Consider the possibility that there is no God or that if there is He/She/It/They defy human understanding and transcend the need or desire for human worship and adoration and feel no urge to send any of us to hell for eternity. Really open your mind and let yourself go. Jeff Lindborg "He who thinks but does not learn is in trouble. He who learns but does not think is lost." Confucius