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Originally Posted by cylon  The only denomination of Christianity (current times) I personally know of that do not believe non-christians will go to Hell are unitarians.
Whereas most people tend to take the parts of the Bible they like and focus on those (the word of god) and pretend all the scary stuff (same word of god) isn't there.
It's there though. |
I'm not wanting to argue with you about this, just say that again I'm surprised to hear these views. I expect it may be something to do with UK/USA differences too, but I imagine that if I were to stand on a street corner and ask people if they are Christian, and then if they say yes, ask if they believe that the Bible is the word of God, most of them will say no. They seem much more educated and sensible than that, not the kind of people who believe that God authors books, and knowing that the Bible (at least the New Testament, if that's what we're talking about) was written by several different human authors, fallible human authors, trying to attest to what they had witnessed in their dealings with Jesus Christ. I even imagine that a good few of them will know, or offer the information, that the 'books' were chosen out of a larger number, some of which are therefore missing...various other controversies, etc....and may have read the Essene Gospel of Peace (an amazing insight into Jesus the wilderness-activities group facilitator, BTW).
You may know much more about the different churches and their official beliefs, but I think you may be ignoring the fact that a great many liberal christians take even the tenets of their own denomination with a pinch of 21st Century maturity of thinking, knowing that there are important truths in there for them, but not fighting over every sentence like the fundies do.
Of course, the Old Testament is another big complication - the God of vengeance and jealousy and genocidal tendencies! Psycho-killer God! I think that's the one the fundies worship, actually - they call him Jesus and wait for him coming back with an AK47 to smite all the damn heathens with his psycho-killer Love! You have to feel sorry for them. Is that the kind of thing your mother believes, or was she crying for some other reason? Sorry I didn't quite understand, cylon.