Thread: "Faith"
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Old 03-17-2005, 06:50 PM
BluffTHIS! BluffTHIS! is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2004
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Default Re: \"Faith\"

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Actually I should have stuck only to the second problem as it is the more clearcut one. And it is so unassailable. If all religions claim that part of the reason to believe in them is pure faith, how can they expect someone to switch from his religion to theirs? Worse yet, how can they believe that God would expect it, perhaps even sending them to hell if they don't? That person who doesn't switch will point to his own faith and what can they say in return? If they try to say that evidence is overwhelmingly in their favor, their own faith argument goes away. (And even if they were right about their own evidence they are basically saying that the guy who deeply believes his own religion should be punished merely for being stupid, as opposed to lack of faith.)

I suppose one way out of this would be to say that Religion A has a 3% chance of being right, Religion B a 2% chance, All the rest are 1%. So you use your mind to switch from D to A and your faith to go from 3% to 100%. As farfetched as this is and as unacceptable as this explanation would be even to most religious people, it still doesn't explain why almost no one switches from the religion of their birth.

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I do not not believe, unlike the doctrine espoused by some Christian denominations, that all who are unbelievers will be 'punished' by going to hell. That punishment is reserved for those who consciously reject God and His law and true doctrine knowing it to be true. Thus a Jew or Moslem who honestly believes in his faith and honestly does not believe in Christianity will not be punished and has the same ability to go to heaven, based on his own conduct in this life. Similarly, a tribesman in New Guinea, who has never heard any Christian minister preach and thus has had no opportunity to believe, still can go to heaven as well. Obviously for him, somethings such as plural marriage that are forbidden to Christians will not be a sinful act for him because he has not been taught better or believe it to be wrong. What he will be judged on is what St. Paul wrote about in Romans regarding the 'natural law', that is, the innate minimal conscience that God gives to all human beings. Only a Christian's failure to lead a Christian life (since he knows better), a refusal to worship and follow God when you nonetheless believe Christianity to be true but just don't want to conform you life to it, or a refusal of a non-religious person to follow the minimal moral code given by God to all, will result in eternal punishment. Again, what I have said here is not what all Christians believe (especially those espousing a more Calvinist interpretation) , but it is compatible with my denomination's doctrine and is what I believe.

Also, what I believe accounts for the relatively small rate of conversions to Christianity from other religions, besides the fact that most non-believers don't ever actually hear the word of God preached by a Christian minister, is an unwillingness to examine one's own faith that he was born into in general, and especially because leaving the faith of one's birth for many if not indeed most, would entail banishment and rejection by one's family and friends, which is just what Christ forwarned might be necessary to endure to become a disciple.
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