By the way, while you are complaining about Christians not being very loving, I hope you are objective enough to read your own post and see why a Christian might think you are being a bit hypocritical as it seems you are being pretty hateful towards Christians... I mean, here you are, coming to a Christian site, saying how much you dislike and disagree with the Christian's worldview..... I realize that in the world today it seems as if it is perfectly fine to believe anything you want to, as long as it is not evangelical Christianity!!! lol... if you can't see the hypocrisy in that I just don't know what to tell you.... at any rate, you should not, therefore, be upset when Christians say they disagree with you, when we state our beliefs in very strong terms... after all, you have done exactly this yourself.... you think you are right, you believe certain things, and are seemingly very dogmatic about those beliefs, it should not be a problem for you when Christians have the same strong beliefs.... of course the consequences of our disagreements are quite different, we believe, or many of us anyway, that if you reject Jesus as the Messiah you will spend an eternity in torment in Hell.... and you think that we are wrong, and that there just isn't much more to it than that, you live, you die, so drink and be merry for tomorrow we die... but that is not the case, when you disagree with us, we believe that you are disagreeing with the very words of Christ Jesus, of God Himself, and that is just as big a deal to us as your psychological feelings regarding the doctrine of eternal punishment is to you... that is, we are just as entitled to our strong feelings, beliefs, and convictions as you are to yours.... so when you write a post filled with the kinds of judgments you are making about Christians and their beliefs, do not then turn around and accuse Christians of being hateful or judgmental when we are only both sharing our passionate beliefs and convictions.... just because we are Christians doesn't mean that we are not entitled to our beliefs... though the secular world seems to want to trey and have a double standard and be totally hypocritical about this... ... anyway... we think denying God's word, deny Christ as the only Savior, etc is being "hateful" to God.... you may disagree, but that does not change our feelings and beliefs anymore than our disagreement with you makes you change YOUR beliefs and feelings. But that is just a side note... On to your post......now wait a minute.... you mean you used to think non-Roman Catholics weren't "real religions" or you still think this....? I can see that perhaps a naive Roman Catholic might think this, despite the affirmations of Vatican II which embraced nearly all religions as being valid paths to God.... but if you are not a "religious person" now, why would you think non-Roman Catholics beliefs are not "real religion"? If you aren't particularly religious, I would think that you would say this of all religions, that no religions are "real"..... that is why I ask....Secondly, I, as a non Roman Catholic think that Roman Catholicism is indeed a real religion, not a true religion, but a real one... IOW I do not think it is a valid religion, though there is still some truth in Roman Catholicism, i.e. belief in the Trinity, the existence of God, the inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures. I personally do not think true Christianity is a religion at all. I have heard it said that religion is man reaching out to God, but Christianity, especially as seen in the person of Christ, is God reaching down to man.Next, there is a fundamental difference exists between your view of man, and the view of the Scriptures and classical/historical orthodox Christianity. This may not matter to you, but it is important to understand why you differ from Christianity on this important topic of anthropology. You see the Bible -- and therefore we believe God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit teach that man is NOT fundamentally good as you suggest.... the bible teaches in a pretty direct manner that there is no one good, whether they be gay, straight, muslim, white, buddhist, whatever their cultural background may be, whatever their "religious" background may be, even if, and really, especially if it is that they think of themselves as a "Christian" simply because their family is Christian, be they Roman Catholic or Protestant... everyone outside of Christ is considered an enemy of God, even if they themselves do not think so.... people outside of Christ are God haters... again, even if they themselves do not think so.... because their mere rejection of Jesus as the Savior, the Messiah, is enough to have them thought of and considered by the Scriptures as being under the wrath of God. Here are some Scriptures to help you see where I am coming from in saying these things.... and let me just say this is not so much as me trying to get you to agree or disagree... I am just trying to get you to see where we are coming from... its a pretty grim picture, and I ask that you read the following description of man and try to see why it is that we cannot really speak of "the innocent native" who has never heard, the "good buddhist" or the "good" anyone...firstly Jesus makes it clear that no one is good but God:Mark 10:18 (ESV) 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Jesus also says pretty directly that to deny Him is to reap certain consequences, namely condemnation, and that anyone who denies Him hates God, where here, "light" is a metaphor for God...John 3:18-20 (ESV) 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed." Next, Paul says that all of us, every human who has ever lived except for Jesus, is a "child of wrath", following after Satan (the prince of the power of the air) deserving of God's punishment and disfavor...Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV) 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. andRomans 3:9-18 (ESV) 9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” People are simply considered as fallen sinful creatures outside of Christ, so much so that Jesus says that no one even has the ability to go to God for salvation unless the ability is first granted to him, that is, no one can pick themselves up by their own bootstraps and just decide one day that they want to believe in God.... God has to first change their heart, then they can believe....John 6:44 (ESV) No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. andJohn 6:64-65 (ESV) 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” Of course, this is a "hard saying", people want to think that they have the ability and choice to do whatever they want, if they want to decide to become a Christian one day and decide not to the next, they can if they feel like it.... and the fact of the matter is this truth (people's radical inability due to their sinful hearts) was no more popular in Jesus' own day as it is today, and the very next verse, following verse John 6:65, it says....John 6:66 (ESV) After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him."At any rate, this is how the bible describes man... like it.... don't like it... that doesn't really matter.... for those who accept the word of God as being, well, the word of God, we think God has spoken on the matter and that’s it. So that is where we are coming from when we speak of the doctrine of Hell.So from a biblical worldview, what people deserve is justice, that is all. And everyone gets justice. However, some get mercy and grace, and by their very definition, neither grace and mercy are ever "deserved". In fact, they are given and are called as such precisely because they are NOT deserved. I do agree that people are supposed to love each other. The problem we will have is that I suspect that you and I define "love" in very different ways. So the thing is not to simply say to love one another, though that is a profoundly biblical thing to say, but it is to see who's definition of love is the correct one, or who's definition most closely lines up with the definition of the One who created love in the first place. Today's secular world has a very sloppy ambiguous vacuous definition of the word. They seem to think that having sex with a perfect stranger is "making love". People glibly say "I love you" to one another all the time, but do they mean it...? Do they understand what real love is? I do not think so. I do not think anyone but a Christian really can love at all. Read 1 Corinthians chapter 13 for starters, and then just consider what Jesus did for sinners, and there, you will see love.At any rate, you seem to have your own moral code. I am not sure what authority this is based on, but Christians have their own moral code as well. And just because "you" say that you don't think things like sex before marriage hardly changes the fact that according to God's word they are "bad", eg sinful. So we are faced with a choice, we can accept your moral code, or we can accept God's. For me anyway, the choice is clear. You say not to act on "natural urges” is bad for the soul. I am curious, what makes you think people have souls? Upon what exactly is this belief based on?Next, you accuse Christians of brainwashing their children. Really? How so? From our point of view, insofar as you tell a child YOUR own beliefs, even if it is "you must decide for yourself, there is no god, you just need to believe in “you", that sex outside of marriage is "just fine"”, whatever... that it is YOU who is "brainwashing" your child with false beliefs. And to us, THAT is scary on so many levels. Even more so than for you, for we believe that such beliefs have eternal consequences, that you would, in effect, be teaching children to sin insofar as wherever you teach them something contrary to God's word. And Jesus Himself said Matthew 18:6 (ESV) but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." you say
Nothing in this world we live in has a truth
Really? Then this statement of yours isn't true either. And therefore I can go on believing that there is truth, that primarily truth is Jesus Christ, and in His written word. And since you don't think this world has any truth, then you will have to go ahead and think that your very own statement is itself not true, and that if your statement is not true, then there is nothing that is true, but then if you are making THAT statement, then you are saying that there is at least one thing that is true, namely that there is no truth, and you can be like a dog chasing it's tail as long as you like. The fact is, your statement is self referentially false, absurd, and irrational. Again, I see no reason whatsoever to accept your dogmatic religion (you "believe in" you, so THAT is your religion) over the revealed revelation we have establishing Christianity.Next you say
It is all just something we can never hope to understand.
Really? And what makes you think you can decide for others what they can or cannot understand? You talk about Christians being dogmatic and shoving their beliefs down other people's throats!! Here you are deciding what others can or cannot understand!!
I hope my forthrightness has not come across as rude either.blessings,ken