[BlackThornn]

I believe in Jesus because of my upbringing.. but the Bible was not even written by the SON of god.. It was written by a man, Paul the Apostle, I believe.. who probably had his own opinions, his own ideas.. and his own slant on writing it.

Men, looking to create order and safety, or to maintain and/or gain power, Idunno, took it upon themselves to declare Paul's words the word of God. This is wrong; 'cause God hasn't written anything.

The old testament is folktales.. I have NEVER put any real stock in that. God has far too much on his mind (come on.. the entire cosmos) to worry about one city, or one man, or even one world.

I think that god is utterly indescribable and incomprehensible by man.. and that we assume he made us in his image because we are the dominant species on this planet.. But even when I consider that I believe that Jesus was his son, a son that advocated nothing but love for other humans and kindness to all god's creatures, God has been MIA from any kind of direct intervention for millenia.

God was a guiding hand in evolution.. he gave the power of life (and life energy: IE the bioelectric charge that runs your brain.. or a soul, if you will) to EVERY creature.. not just humans. That's why I believe in an after life too. Paraphrazing Einstein: "Energy cannot die.. it can only change form.."

Anyway.. I've gotten off track.

I believe in Jesus mostly because he was the bastion of love and kindness for me in my early life. He was how I was raised. I believe he was the son of god because of that.. but even when logic prevails I think he existed.. just that he was a groovy guy that did his best to stop violence from completely and utterly destroying humankind.. and for that he somehow gained God's favor, if that's possible.

I however do not believe in the bible, at least not in taking it as the word of God.

I believe in a heaven and a hell, because while God is busy he probably at least has some judgement over who goes on to the "good" next life and who to a "bad" next life.. if nothing else than an attempt to filter out any bad influences from a higher plane. BUT, I think that the only thing god asks is that you try your best to be a "good" human being.. I don't think that any superficial differences (race color, lifestyle choice, homosexuality or masturbation... or eating pork or not being jewish) make the slightest bit of difference to him.. That's man talking. It is my personal belief that if you go through life not harming (or at least trying not to) all of God's creatures for a reason other than survival then you'll get into the pearly gates I was indoctrinated to believe existed. If you go around raping, pilliaging, conquering, and killing when there is absolutely no aspect of survival to it, then you are going to the fire, with all of the other universal rejects.

EDIT: Cannibal.. ugh. I'm sorry dude, but that's just kinda naive. Mankind invented those rules. A "Better Safe Than Sorry" attitude is all well and good, but that is just supposed to include you. You're not supposed to go around casting judgement on others and condemning them.

If you know the cheat sheet of getting into heaven, try and convince your closest friends so they'll go with you, if not, please just sit down.

...and it wouldn't be 25%. If you go by that crap the pope spouts every male ever concieved would be in hell, along with most females. The population of heaven would be in double digits while hell would be in the 80 digit range about now, and that's just for earth.. That's just inefficiency, man. Not something God's exactly known for.