Religious Question/Opinion

[Loren]

Originally Posted by Kaotic Lazagna

I find it extremely hard to believe that a person who is genuinely good, but does not necessarily follow all of the Commandments/the Bible will not get into Heaven; yet, let's take a "bad" person (what ever that may be) that follows the Commandments/Bible; does that mean that that person has a better chance of getting into Heaven than the genuinely good person?

Okay, here's a quick stab...

I don't believe that there is a god (or a God, no offense) or a heaven, but I prefer to think of myself as a devout agnostic rather than an atheist. Why? Because I don't "know", which is the very definition of agnosticism. I'm really, really close to being an atheist, though.

That said, if there were a god who created the universe and ME, then that god gave me the freedom of thought to come to my own conclusions based on my own personal observations, NOT on the writings of men who have been dead for thousands of years (and who's words have been translated and revised to suit the political ideals of kings and churches over the years), or on the preaching of other men who are convinced that these writings are "the word of god" and that THEIR interpretation of these texts are correct. If such a god exists and there is a heaven waiting for us, I would think that regardless of my lack of faith, being a generally "good" person, good ol' St. Peter would open the gates for me.

FWIW, I was raised Southern Baptist. I think I'm a better "Christian" than most Christians that I know, in spite of the fact that I do not believe. Think about that for a moment.