Religious Help Wanted...

[jumpjunkie2004 0]

So...I think there may be smoke coming out of my ears. I was outside working in my yard today and my Born Again neighbor and I started a friendly conversation.

Don't ask me how, but it evolved into a conversation that ended with me going to hell. Eek!

Apparently, the people who commit heinous crimes and then ask for the Lord's forgiveness will be on the fast track to heaven. And all the people like me (I'd give you the shirt off my back, I've never committed a crime, etc. but I believe in reincarnation) are destined to end up in hell.

Who knew?

Apparently, believing in reincarnation invalidates a belief in God. I believe in something, but I think a soul has to mature before it is allowed to leave this realm.

So...I'm wondering...am I going to hell?

I admit that I'm ignorant when it comes to religion. I was raised as a Methodist. It's the only thing that I knew.

In order to make an intelligent choice about religion, I need to explore all the options. Maybe I'm really a Buddhist?

As a parent, I've made a point of introducing my son to an assortment of religions. We have books about all the religions of the world and we also have an assortment of bibles. He has elected to believe in Jesus and God.

My husband is an atheist and he is ambivalent about this.

Is it reasonable for parents to project their religious beliefs on their children or is it better to let them find their own beliefs?

Jump, Land, Pack, Repeat...

[JoeBobinNC 0]

I feel your pain. It is very hard for me to believe that you can be one vile son of a bitch for the first half of your adult life, then find Jesus, and all that shit is wiped from your record. Bullshit. On top of that, finding Jesus somehow qualifies you to judge me, fuck off.

As far as choosing a religon for your kids, you should probably pick the one most closely reflects your values, or encourages the kind of traits you'd like your kids to display.

It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.

[Skolls081102 0]

Ok, I was baptised Reform, and confirmed Methodist. Today- I'm 100% Atheist. And even I have been told by "Born Agains" that I will go to heavan. I lead a moral life, so I guess that's enough. Then again, I've been told by "Born Agains" that I am going to Hell for not believing in God. I seem to find that most religios fanatics can't make up their minds as to who goes to Heavan or Hell. It's all a matter of opinion.
As far as my wife, I think she's Methodist, but who knows. She was never confirmed, so i don't know where that puts her (probably going to Hell). But when it comes to our child, I believe that he should go to church, until we feel he is old enough to make an educated decision as to his religious beliefs. If at that time, he wants to remain in the church, fine. If he decided to change to another religion, fine. If he decided not to believe, that's fine too.
I don't think you can force your views on your child. As they grow older, they make their own choices. I know my mother still believes that I'm not an Atheist (I knew I was an Atheist when I was 14- I'm now 28).
In my humble opinion, give your child a start in whatever you believe to be the right choice for him/her. But once they are old enough to decide on their own, there's not much you can do but accept it.
Just my 2 cents- sorry it was so long.

The sole intention, is learning to fly.Condition grounded, but determined to try.Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies.Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit.

[jumpjunkie2004 0]

My son is 13 - he went to church regularly with a friend and developed his own path. I'm ok with that.

I don't want to invalidate the opinions that he has formed. Who knows...maybe he's right?

I think that we (people in general) are presented one idea and latch on to it like it's the gospel.

I didn't want that for my son. I didn't guide him, but it's funny that he has found Christian religion on his own. I fully support him and would happily drive him to whatever church he selects.

Jump, Land, Pack, Repeat...

[Skolls081102 0]

That's the way to do it. I wish more parents were like you. Rather than forcing religion down their childs throat, you let him choose his path. Like you said, maybe he's right. Maybe he's wrong. So long as he is happy, that's all that counts.

The sole intention, is learning to fly.Condition grounded, but determined to try.Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies.Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit.

[Muenkel 0]

Any person who tells another person that they are going to hell has their own soul to worry about.

Chris

_________________________________________
Chris

[SpeedRacer 1]

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So...I think there may be smoke coming out of my ears. I was outside working in my yard today and my Born Again neighbor and I started a friendly conversation.

Don't ask me how, but it evolved into a conversation that ended with me going to hell. Eek!

Apparently, the people who commit heinous crimes and then ask for the Lord's forgiveness will be on the fast track to heaven. And all the people like me (I'd give you the shirt off my back, I've never committed a crime, etc. but I believe in reincarnation) are destined to end up in hell.

yeah whatever. I think Muenkel had it right. You gotta be pretty damn presumptuos to know what's gonna happen after this life.



Anyway I am a Christian. When I read the Bible one thing I always notice is how Jesus sometimes made a POINT of deliberately flouting some of the religious rules.

His point was that there are some people out there that make a great show of being pious & following all the religious rules, but in their heart, they are cold-hearted, judgemental assholes.


Jesus went out of his way to confront that BS.

The point that Jesus makes is not that you're going to hell because you didn't follow a lot of religious rules. To get to heaven DOES NOT MEAN you have to be a sort of Christian Taliban, & do everything that religious dogma tells you.

You have to let God take over & get you into heaven. You can't do it yourself by being uptight, judgemental, etc. etc. Jesus said, unless you become like this little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

That does not mean you have to be as ignorant as a young child. it means that you have to recognize & face up to your dependence on God to get you into heaven, just as a child is dependent on his parents.

.

Speed Racer
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[gkc1436 3]

i just find it funny that a group of people that refuses to take responsability for priest's molesting little boys go out of their way to tell everyone else they are going to hell....

[Travman 6]

Don't most religions say if you don't believe their ways you are going to hell? So I guess we are all screwed...

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What if we've picked the wrong religion? Every week we're just making god madder and madder.

[rushmc 18]

"Are you going to hell?"

Not in my opinion
Understand first that I am Catholic. (converted0

But even befor then my model of God. Religion and salvation evolved into the following.

(Short version)
Good deeds are good deeds. Good hearts are good hearts. Good People are good people.
Could the God of the Christens (or any ones God) allow someone that is that good go to eternal damnation just because someone does not specificaly believe in Him/Her?
Sorry, I don't buy that.
Those that take the bibles text and interpt it in that way needs to so for a reason that is particular to the needs of that person, I belive.

So, everyone that reads this knows I am only 1. But, in my opinion, I will meet you in heavn some day. Keep living your life with a big heart my friend.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[FallRate 0]

If you were mowing in the yard you could dump your clippings in the neighbor's yard. Should your neighbor complain, you can point out that if you are indeed going to hell, being a good neighbor is somewhat pointless.

FallRate

[RoadRash 0]

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Any person who tells another person that they are going to hell has their own soul to worry about.

Chris

That's the best answer so far...and if it makes you feel any better...I have been told by some idiot yelling and waving banners at passersby on Purdue campus that I was going to hell because I told him he was giving me a headache......

So I informed him that I would see him when I get down there......

~R+R...Don't worry about what most people say...worry about more important things...I agree with Chris...

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Fly the friendly skies...^_^...})ii({...^_~...

[Nightingale 0]

Exploring religions is a good thing. Choosing one for your child to follow, especially when you seem so uncertain yourself, may not be.

My parents forced me to go to church as a child and teen. The second I could make my own choice, I stopped going.

Through high school, there was something about the religion that didn't sit right with me, but I wasn't permitted to step back and examine it because I was constantly being thrown into the middle of it. I resented that lack of a choice so much that I'm not sure if I stopped going because I wanted to stop going, or if I stopped going because of the negativity associated with being forced to attend.

Forcing a child to do something that should be done out of a desire to do it usually ends up with the opposite effect that the parents want. I have a brother and 13 cousins, who were all raised with forced church attendance like me. None of us attend church, and when we talk about it, we all associate the negative feelings of being forced in our childhood with our cutaway from religion. Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are quite upset at us.

Now, I've been able to distance myself from the negative feelings about religion that came about by forced church attendance, and I've really examined a lot of religions as deeply as I can, and have drawn my own conclusions and follow the path of my own choosing. My brother and cousins have not, though. They stick with the "I hate church" mantra and see no reason to look any deeper.

I think my reaction would have been different as a child if, when I said "I don't want to go to church." instead of forcing me to go, my parents and I had talked about why I didn't want to go, and perhaps tried to do something about my root issues rather than not addressing them at all. Perhaps attending a different church, a dialogue with a priest or minister, or just a simple explanation would have changed things. I don't know, and obviously, my parents didn't bother to find out.

[jumpjunkie2004 0]

I'm going to stay my course and let my children find their own religious path. I will continue to present them with interesting literature about the religions of the world, and encourage them to attend services as available.

I won't tell them if I think they are right or wrong, but I support their decisions to pursue a religion that's right for them.

Thanks to everyone that responded.

Jump, Land, Pack, Repeat...

[mr2mk1g 10]

By your neighbors logic I suppose we’re all off to hell. You’re off to hell because you don’t believe in his version of religion. He’s off to hell because he doesn’t believe in Abuh’s version of religion. Abuh’s off to hell because he doesn’t believe in Mohamed’s version of religion. Mohamed’s off to hell because he doesn’t believe in Wing Yip’s version of religion.

Who cares? Say thank you, but you’ve got the wrong religion and walk away. You live your life by whatever creed you wish, even if it’s your very own special creed created just for you.

Seeing as every religion in the world is in a minority and told by the rest that they’re going to hell for believing the “wrong” thing, you might as well go the whole hog and be in a minority of one.

Who knows, maybe you’re the only one that’s right and all 6 billion of us are off to your version of hell for not following your religion. After all, your take on it is just as likely to be right as any one else’s guess at it isn’t it?

[Balls 0]

I don't get those born-agains. I believe in God, but they also say I'm going to hell because I'm LDS (mormon, yes I know all the jokes, some of them are quite funny).
I can't understand how they believe God is just, but think that anyone and everyone who dosen't believe in him is going straight to hell. Even those who never had the chance because they lived in a non-christian country.
I know some really good people that have no particular religious beliefs. And I know some scum bags that go tho church. I admit I don't know what is in their hearts, but God does so he will have the final decision, not some wack job born again that has only read 5 verses out of the bible and thinks he knows it all.

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....so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

[rehmwa 2]

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i just find it funny that a group of people that refuses to take responsability for priest's molesting little boys go out of their way to tell everyone else they are going to hell....

I find it funny that you automatically assume the person talking to Sarah was from that specific religion. NO, wait, 'funny' isn't the word I'm thinking of.

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Guest]

(paraphrased) "No one shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven except by the Son".

mh

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"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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(paraphrased) "No one shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven except by the Son".

Says who? You? Your God? That fictious book all you born agains preach as the truth? Whatever ...

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[Zenister 0]

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(paraphrased) "No one shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven except by the Son".

pretty much yea... going by the dogma if you havent accepted their particular deity as the 'one true god' and don’t live your life according to their doctrine you are going to their hell... or at least are not going to their heaven...

which in my case is a good thing.. i cant imagine spending an eternity trapped with the majority of 'them' i mean have you heard the last 100 years of their music? I wonder if God even has the patience to sit through some of that drivel, and everyday! For eternity!! eghads….. based on the descriptions of their heaven, i'd be either very very bored, or transformed into a mind whipped drone with little relation to the individual who experienced this creation...

Generally I believe God gets a good laugh ANYTIME a human tries to tell another one about their relative fate…even through supposedly ‘sacred’ texts…there is little difference between your neighbor telling you about hell and his ancestor telling your ancestors how they were going to hell too… all because they didn’t believe in this book, don’t follow their dogma.. and most importantly.. didnt give your cash to their church…

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Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[billvon 2,470]

I think the large majority of people in any religion are pretty inclusive and tolerant. They believe that they have the best view of what god is like, and other people who believe in something else may well be good people or whatever, they just have a slightly different view of what god is like. And that's OK with most people.

There are other people who believe in excluding all who do not adhere to the "one true faith." Their religion has to "win", and they see any argument as a way to prove they are right. They put a lot of zeal into these arguments, because they believe if they say "yeah, that's another way to look at it" they are undermining their religion. They exclude anyone who doesn't believe as they do (i.e. jews, or hindus, or whatever) or any idea that threatens their beliefs (i.e. evolution, astrophysics, biology.) I think these people replace faith with argument; they exchange a solid belief for a good offense. I can't help but think that these people are in reality the people most unsure of the validity of their religion, and must constantly 'prove' (both to themselves and others) that everyone else is wrong - leaving them right by default.

[jeiber 0]

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Don't most religions say if you don't believe their ways you are going to hell? So I guess we are all screwed...

You're exactly right - I had some Baptists come to my house, and since I've been looking for a church to start attending, I invited them in. The first question out of their mouth was, 'If you were to die today, do you know you would go to heaven?' I responded with yes, and explained why - and the gentleman looked me in the eye and point blank told me I was going to hell, because I hadn't 'been saved'.

I guess being baptized Protestant (non denominational) isn't good enough to get you into Heaven, since we don't have the concept of 'being saved' in our religion.

The poor Mormon's have it even worse though - only 200 (I think?) of them will get into Heaven, if I understand that correctly. Sheesh, can you imagine how bad it would suck being with the same 199 people for eternity? Sounds more like hell to me! I wonder if all their wives count towards that number?!

J

Shhh... you hear that sound? That's the sound of nobody caring!

[Skyrad 0]

I was brought up in a Muslim family but my parents taught me about Islam and Christianity and told me i should make my own mind up when I got older, at school I learnt about Judaism. I found it left me questioning all religions and I found merit and commonality in them all. I eventualy came to my own conclusions and am glad that I have a good knowledge of all the main religions.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[jumpjunkie2004 0]

The more I read about religion, the more confused I am.

For now, I believe in something. I can't imagine that we are here by random chance.

When I'm more well educated about the religions of the world, maybe I'll discover one that is right for me.

Jump, Land, Pack, Repeat...

[wmw999 2,167]

Try finding a church that really encourages questioning (I say church, but that can mean synagogue, temple, whatever). Just go sometimes, get a feel. You might find it's the wrong place, but, well, that'll be one down.

Some of it is the community of people, and the kind of thinking that communicating with them brings. Some of it is the activities.

It doesn't sound like you're looking for firm answers, but instead for a place where you can explore the questions that are important to you. You might find that you are looking for a more fundamentalist approach or a single answer, but it's better to learn that for yourself, rather than have it shoved on you. When you find it for yourself, you're coming in with knowledge, rather than subject to being disillusioned.

How do you figure out where will encourage questions? Websites, the tone of what they have out there, etc. If they seem pretty open-minded, they probably are.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)