While there are many different versions of Christianity there are many more versions of heaven and hell existing in people's minds, I suspect. I can only hope to tackle each variation or misconception on an individual basis. However I usually find that the nature of the Christian God typically expressed seems to reflect much of the wishes of the particular believer.
Indeed. Your observation is accurate and true based on how Americans understand God. All the christian variations, sects, denominations and subcultures come from America because people there refused the objective truth of the Church (the church being understood by them as the institution of the priests and a man-made doctrine and tradition) in favor of subjective feelings, emotions, auto-suggestion and other self-induced religious experiences (some of them are very extreme, such as shaking, falling on the ground, hysteric laughing, speaking in tongues etc.).
Well, there are many such "just-so" stories and parables connected with Christianity, all of which are intended to make a salient point perhaps, but in real life there are usually many more factors involved in individual situations than the rather simplistic little story can deal with. If all the relevant circumstances of each scenario are not considered then the story, however charming, isn't ultimately of any great value imo.
Don't take it as an arrogance from my part, but I have to note that you ignore what a parable (whether christian or not) is (because you call it "a rather simplistic story").
I let you alone discover the beauty and richness of a parable (if you are curious, of course).
We may all be somewhat hardened to the suffering of others these days because we can see it on TV or read about it from all parts of the world, but if I personally were confronted with human suffering, where I am, then I'd never even want to walk by. In fact I rather resent the implied Christian assumption that I would.
I am not sure where did you see an implied christian assumption that you would pass by the human suffering...
Now that you said this, it is even clearer for me that, not only you don't know what a parable is, but you don't know the parable of the Good Samaritan either. Maybe you heard about it, but never read it.
Anyway, if you are interested to read it, you know where you can ind it.
Yes that was rather the intent of the "just-so" story and as I have already said above I rather resent the doctrinal condescension that it is more natural to shirk a clear humanitarian obligation. But fear not, the world will probably never run out of human need somewhere that we can all be made to feel guilty about.
...I wonder if, in general, when you read a story, a novel, a poem etc. you suspect the teller/the writer of "condescension", or other hidden, mean intentions that have the purpose to make you feel guilty about something...
But you personally don't actually seem to know how real Biblical hell is, or even if it exists at all in a real sense? You simply seem to accept what an anonymous gospel evangelist has written concerning Jesus Christ some decades after the claimed events?
I am aware that for a lot of Americans, the Eastern Orthodox Church (the faith -of more than 2000 years- of the Romanians, Russians, Ukrainians, Serbians, Bulgarians, Greeks etc.) is a sort of catholic variation, a combination between christianity and hellenism or a weird, mystic, anonymous gospel.
See? That's what bothers me about a lot of Americans (whether christian, theist, atheist and whatever): that they make assumptions, speculations, ignorant remarks about what other people believe or where they come from instead of simply asking "hey, what is that you believe?", "what kind of christian are you?" or "what church do you belong to?".
It is not a shame to admit that you don't know, it is actually proof of honesty, simplicity and good-willing.
Theology typically relates to doctrine/philosophy based on a belief in god(s), but I think that whether or not a god exists at all is also theology, not just to assume that the question of God's existence has been settled. There is surely no point in any specific religious philosophy if no specific god actually exists.
No...theology doesn't typically relate to doctrine/philosophy based in a belief in god(s). Theology is the study of God (not gods), a systematic, separatist, rationalist study that was started by the western christian (soon to become roman-catholic) scholars and continued by protestant scholars.
Hindus, buddhists, shintoists and all the eastern cultures don't have "theology", but philosophies.
It is not, of course, a secret for anyone that the universities (the place where each intellectual and spiritual preoccupation is studied as a science, in a separate way) are 100% the western christian invention.
All the people and cultures of the world had (and still have) music, for example, but only the christians from the western Europe made a systematic study/science of music. The same thing they (the westerners) did with God: they invented theology (they tried to submit God, the unlimited, to a rational and intellectualist study; they were wrong, in my opinion; however, this doesn't change the fact that precisely this erroneous understanding of God lead them to a certain discipline and to a social, political, cultural development).
Also if non-believers are fair game to be preached to, or indoctrinated as children then imo non-believers can preach back with a little theology of their own
As long as they actually have an idea of what they are talking about, no problem. It becomes boring and tiring when the person in cause combines the indifference with the ignorance and sometimes, he adds, to this two minuses, even the bad-will. In these conditions, a honest dialogue is no longer possible.
No I wasn't relating to your own particular Christian beliefs at the time, I'm simply claiming generally that my motives are honest and that, should I nevertheless ultimately be wrong, then it would be petty, arbitrary and pointless to punish me for it, perhaps eternally. "I told you so" would do imo.
Well now you know that God doesn't punish you with hell, since you have a better understanding of what hell is (if it exists).
"Sin" however is imo unreal and arbitrary doctrine, a religious construct with no real purpose other than to implant guilt and remorse into believers.
I noticed that you have more opinions, than actual, punctual knowledge about what christianity is.
However, you are not wrong when you say that sin is supposed to make the christian feel guilty. And you can point, of course, at what moment in the christian history, "sin" has ceased to be understood (by some christians) as an ontological disease and started to be perceived as an offense to God, and thus making the christian be guilty in front of God, or justified(?).
I'm an agnostic atheist because I don't claim to know that no god exists, but I don't believe that any do. I don't understand how anyone can honestly claim to be a gnostic theist or indeed gnostic atheist, nobody actually does know nor do you, because it probably isn't possible to know.
I am eastern orthodox christian. I believe that Christ is God incarnated. Not too hard to understand, I hope.
Well, you talked about babies and love, is it a baby at conception or does it have to develop some physical capacity first to arguably become a person to love rather than just a few human cells, that could potentially become a future person to love?
Ask your mother what she felt when she got pregnant with you. She might enlighten you better than me.
I simply think that your concept of love is perhaps all fuzzy and warm but actually isn't particularly well thought through, not for real world practical purposes anyway.
lain:
Interesting how you perceive me. I guess this perception comes from our different cultural backgrounds. In my country, for example, the letter that this mom wrote to her future aborted baby, would be considered by most of people as a cynical (in essence) letter covered with fuzzy, warm, weird type of compassion (in form).
Also, love (and beauty) isn't serving a practical purpose, that's why most people don't understand it
.
