My Problem With Religion

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Danzig

hell, pg i've been told i have no soul, been judged by many around here because i don't attend church, or because they find out i've been raised catholic, apparently that in itself warrants eternal damnation in some circles....
thing is, how does anyone know anything about what happens next? lol you don't. they don't--yet 'they' (who is they?) know that 'they' are right, and everyone who is different is wrong, and dammed for it!

but the have faith part-i have to confess, i'm pretty lacking in the whole faith dept. i think there's something bigger then us out there--but i'm not so sure what!

You Deist, you-- well, if it worked for the Founding Fathers...

No kidding about the Catholic thing- I have a friend of 20 some years in Florida who told me she doesn't think Catholics are going to heaven because "They're more concerned with doing good deeds than with their relationship to Christ." Sigh...

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

You Deist, you-- well, if it worked for the Founding Fathers...

No kidding about the Catholic thing- I have a friend of 20 some years in Florida who told me she doesn't think Catholics are going to heaven because "They're more concerned with doing good deeds than with their relationship to Christ." Sigh...

ben franklin is my hero...and it cracks me up when the whole we are a christian nation look at the founding fathers dialogue starts. t jefferson was accused of being an atheist back then, now he's been redeemed i guess.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Danzig

ben franklin is my hero...and it cracks me up when the whole we are a christian nation look at the founding fathers dialogue starts. t jefferson was accused of being an atheist back then, now he's been redeemed i guess.

Since you brought up Old Ben- in his own words....

To Ezra Stiles, 9 March 1790 (B 12:185-6):

"You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But I cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavor in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequences, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure."