| A clarification, you are completely wrong here. Judaism has satan in the Torah. Starting in Genesis. Getting into heaven in OT times was based upon first, being a Jew, second following the commandments. |
Now that's very interesting because there is a Jew here at the office and I asked him specifically on this. Are you Jewish or are you assuming that Judaism is merely OT?
| This is interesting. I am curious as to what basis in fact is there that you would believe God exists but not biblical stories? Was "critical thinking" involved? |
It is a lot easier to make the leap of faith into believing in a supreme being who created the universe than to believe specific assertions in a book that defy physics and science as we know it.
| I am not meaning to pick on one person especially one that appears to not have a lot of knowledge concerning biblical issues |
I'm pretty comfortable with my knowledge of the bible. I do, however, find it pretty telling that you can somehow, almost by magic, tell that I don't have knowledge on biblical issues from what little I wrote about the bible. I can only assume that those who don't believe in the bible must therefore, in your mind, lack knowldge in it.
I tend to think that this whole conversation could be summed up as follows:
JillUser: I don't understand why a good person could go to hell. Can someone explain this to me?
Responder: Because the bible says so.
JillUser: Yes, but WHY?
Responder: Because you have to accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior to receive the gift of salvation.
JillUser: But why?
Responder: Because the bible says so.
So ultimately if you have read the bible and you don't find it credible on its own, then you have to find your own answers. That is the conclusion I came to. I don't find the bible to be credible for concluding whether there is a heaven or hell and even if there is whether I would go to heaven or hell. I don't find it remotely intuitive that one would interpret the torturing and murdering of Jesus to be an act of love on his part to remove the problem of original sin or whatever. I just don't find that credible.
Good for those who believe though. I think Jill wrote elsewhere that she wishes she could have faith like that. I know I don't. I don't have a problem with people of faith at all. I think faith is a great thing. I don't have a problem with it until people get uppity about it. When they start trying to claim that the bible is somehow scientifically proven or start trying to argue that creationism or "intelligent design" are somehow viable theories.
The bible is what the bible is. Ultimately each person has to decide whether they have faith in what it says and then how much faith (i.e. all of it literal truth or whether it's more symbolic). I think the bible contains a lot of good lessons and the world woudl be better if people would observe those lessons (well at least the NT ones). For myself, I try to live an honest, moralistic life the best I can. I do so because I think we all have an obligation to try to leave the world a bit better than we found it. My belief isn't based on the bible or any other religious document though other than indirect influence through our culture.