Lately, I question my life and I have to wonder how things would play out if I said goodbye to religion.
Now, I am a Theist, and I always will be. I can't accept the idea that matter came from nothing, and there have been times in my life that I swear to God, he was intervening. But it's the religion that gets to me. I love Jesus, but why did he die for my sins like he did? Why did he have to? Why would God require sacrifices? Why am I held responsible for those sins? Why would God allow an infinite hell for finite sins? Why are victimless things, such as homosexuality, sinful?
It makes sense from a sociological standpoint how religion would benefit people. Creating a religion gets people to do things that you can't get them to do. If you tell them the almighty God says this is the best way to do something, it motivates them more than you telling them, because you are not powerful to them.
One of the biggest factors that causes me to hesitate on changing my ideology is my fear. If I say Jesus is not my savior, I am not a Christian. According to my fellow believers, I am no longer one of them, and am going to burn in hell. That is a special kind of deep rejection. However, it is a necessary one to acknowledge. Why should this fear dictate my faith?
It is an understood concept that the simplest solution is most often the truth. I feel like making this religion make sense requires extra steps and exceptions. I feel like I have to twist my natural inclinations in order to make it work.
I wish I could just pick and choose. But I know I can't, and this brings me a great sense of unrest. It is highly plausible that the bible is untrue and true in some areas. Which are which?
Perhaps I will use the bible as a source for promoting true love. Perhaps I will just have faith in Jesus and say he is the son of God, because he said he was. If I choose this stance, however, it is a personal choice, and I don't really believe I have an obligation (or right) to evangelize it.
I think there are some important considerations that you're leaving out. When you say that you feel like you have to twist your natural inclinations in order to make it work, what you're saying lines up precisely with what the bible says. Faith goes against your natural inclinations and following God on the premise of the bible informs you that you will have to leave all of your old ways of thinking and behaving behind. It isn't a natural inclination to want to give up your own way of doing things and submit to a higher authority's way of doing things. Secondly, I think that it's important that you consider the source of the rejection that you fear. You say that you fear the rejection from other people. However, you say that you are a Christian, and as a Christian the greatest source of deep loss that you can possibly experience is through denying Christ and thus separating yourself from your one source of life and salvation. As a Christian, you would feel immense loss at the consideration of rejecting your salvation before you would feel the loss of rejection from your friends. When you say that the simplest notion is most likely the truth, you have to think about what a simple decision it is to follow Christ. All that he asks is that you have faith in him, the one thing that you want to give up. He doesn't ask for you to pay for what you have done or that you follow a set of rules. He just wants you to follow him. It's a simpler notion than any other offered on this planet because it's the only one in which it isn't up to you.
ReplyDeleteI know that you've heard this before, but if God is wholly just and completely holy, he cannot tolerate sin. If he tolerated it, he wouldn't be completely holy. If he didn't have punishment for sins, he wouldn't be just. If you are questioning the necessity of salvation for your sins then you may not see a large gap between who you are and who God is. What makes him higher than you? If your sins are not really all that bad, yet still present, then why should the almighty God, pure and righteous, tolerate you?