Theology upate
becky had some comments on the most recent post. and rather than struggle with Haloscan's 1000-character limit, I'm just posting my comments here...


becky,

Again, I hope I don't offend you, but since you did ask, here we go:

After I wrote that comment, I worried that you would think I meant joining an organization. Yet I know it is possible to be a Christian without any group to join. By church I meant joining the community of Christ, accepting him.

When you do that, it supposedly has a big impact on your status in the afterlife. What I was trying to highlight was the binary nature of this inclusion. At some point along the line the turnstiles admit one either to heaven or some other place. I believe that this mechanism is a major coercive feature of many historic religions. I find it distasteful, and ultimately demonstrative of the cruelty of the doctrine in question.

> What would it hurt at this point to add
> another adventure to your journey....
> seeking whether or not there is a God??

becky, I sincerely hope that you are not trying to convert me. I have not read the author you mentioned, but I have done enough thinking and reading regarding religion and Christianity to know where I stand. My time is limited on this Earth (and that would be true regardless of ALS), and I see no value in exploring avenues I have already resolved.

What intrigues me is to know whether the perspective from which you read this translates or filters my words into something else, for example, a rejection of love, or hope. I would expect the dominant faiths to do that for you, to categorize me as a lost soul.