Gandelf wrote:OK, as a measure of my personal faith in what I believe to be true:-
"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." -- John 14:6 (NKJV) "
If I am to be true to my faith, I have to accept the implications of the above verse. There are Christians and there is the rest of the world. Any other system of belief must therefore be misguided, with the possible exception of Judaism, which proclaims a belief in the same God of Christianity, but relies on observance of the Law to ensure fulfilment of God's promise, rather than faith in Jesus Christ.
I know that the above may sound very arrogant and many people will dispute what I've said, therefore I apologise in advance for any offence. But, consider this...
Please note that I've wrapped that last bit in a quote, because it's a hypothetical statement and should not be mistaken as something that I have actually said. So please don't start quoting it as something I've said.
I believe what I believe in. I accept that I could be wrong, but I personally don't think so. There may indeed be other ways in which people can reach God.
There are so many statements like this in the bible. Like the one you quoted, or you should have the faith of a child, or like one of a mostard(?) seed (you could move mountains), etc, etc. It all comes down to one thing. If you don't truely belief in your god/faith, you neglet it and therefor cannot truely belief in it.
Hence also for someone that does belief in his religion, there is no posible way to go into discussion about it. You cannot doubt your god, cause the moment you do, you loose faith.
Also one could not be as ignorent to belief in a god, that says to mankind; "You heared of me, yet you don't belief in me. Therefor you shell goto hell." If God whas really that great, why wouldnt He grand all people a pass to heaven. Is he really that bad, or do we have ourselfs to blame? What about people that grew up with a different religion? etc, etc.
If Jezus did die for our sins, then why do we have to be punished for it yet again? Anyways, there are so many contradictions in the bible. Also christianity holds but a minority still in the world. Not to mention christianity itself is splitup in more ways i can think off. And if you go even further, one could say that every man beliefs in their own god, no matter if you belong to the same church. Cause your god can never be the same as from anyone else. Infact your whole reality differes from anyone else.
Anyways you could continue this in a different way aswell.
Gandelf, do you want to live forever (heaven)? What would it look like? There's a book about it called "The world in 10 and 1/2 chapters" or something. In the last chapter a guy goes to heaven. All is good, but things start to get boring after he hits every hole a hole in 1 with golf (hey, you got enough time practise) and he's done just about anything you can imagine. In the end the guys just wants some peace and quiet, aka just plain and simply die.
Could turn it a different way again. The universe. It has no end. No matter how you twist it. There always something behind it. Where does God fit into this. Did he just became? Why did he? By what or who? What whas before him? Etc, etc.
Does He know what lay's behind it and what lays behind that again.
Then theres the always fun contradiction.
If God can do everything. He could make a stone so heavy He couldnt lift it. But if He cant lift it, He cant do everything.
All i can say is, have an open mind. Don't let anyone or anything tell you something. In your world, you are the center piece. Doesnt say you have to be a selfish, egocentric person. The world is what you make if it. If you give, you'll recive from others aswell. Good comes from the people itself, not from the bible.
P.s. prolly shitloads of typo's, but cba to get all of them.
