re: #275 realwest

Well, see that’s what you get for wanting to delve deeply into religion. To most Christians (including myself) belief that Jesus Christ is our Savior and the Son of God is what really counts. The rest of it (the bible and different interpretations of it), don’t really matter to us. I find it to be a fascinating discussion to have with some folks but I can understand someone simply answering the way he did, too.

BTW, another comment here….

I find this attitude to be really shocking.

Jesus had darn good reasons for saying the things he said. He also didn’t go around just telling people to think this or that. He used stories and parables to make his point. He wouldn’t have bothered doing that if he didn’t think them to be important points. Also, his followers didn’t go around just telling people to believe just because they had to believe. They had a story to tell, ideas to share, a philosophical “revolution” to impart. These things were important to Jesus and the apostles and others as well and represented true arguments at the time which were very important for historical, political, and theological reasons. These things mattered and people gave their lives for these ideas.

To just throw all that away and say that you “just gotta believe” because that’s the way it is completely ignores the message they were trying to impart. They were, in part, trying to get people to think for themselves. If you don’t understand that message, if you don’t care about it one way or the other, you’re destroying the message within. It wasn’t just about “believing” - it was about understanding why as well.

There is something very twisted in not understanding this and just “accepting” that Jesus is the savior. It doesn’t work like that.