Still Buddhism has it's dark side as well. Really all religious are as good and as bad as each other.
Please explain how Christianity is bad. And don't start talking about wars and violence in the Old Testament--that's Judaism. Tell me how the teachings of Christ are bad.
The teachings of Christ are only good. Not only that, but beautifully articulated with every language we can all relate to. However, there are many people that claim to follow the teachings of Christ that intermingle their own ideas and so the overall message gets corrupted by them and their behaviour is not Christlike. They do not do the will of God: Jesus' Father. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23 [ESV]
I never liked all that stuff about eternal hellfire. I do like some things about Christianity though. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/...ubject-jesus-addressed-more-than-anyone-else/ Of course the Bible was written in ancient languages and without punctuation (and even without vowels), making it hard to be precise about things.
Well, I think it would be really odd if you liked the parts of the Bible about hell. No one should rejoice about hell. But making a decision about a particular faith shouldn't be about whether or not you happen to like it. It should be about whether or not it's actually true. If hell is a real place, and if we're doomed to go there if we don't receive forgiveness through Christ, then I say it's a very good thing that Jesus talked so much about it. It was written in three languages, with only minor variants in translation. Yes, there are variants between translations, but nothing that throws into question any pivotal doctrines like Jesus, his death and resurrection, guidelines for Christian morality, hell, etc. The variants are sometimes as trivial as the place for certain punctuation.
Welllll... That's not completely true... (I'm referring to how some versions chose to translate certain parts of the old testament).
Being a "good" person does not mean being saved. Despite all the good deeds somebody can do, he still a sinner in God's eyes. That why Jésus came and died. He paid what we should have paid. We are not saved because we are good person but because we sinners despite all the "good" things we can do, we are saved by Grace alone which lead us To live in holiness. Also; you said You refuse To believe that "part". The bible was never written To agree with our feelings, to refuse à part of thé bible is To refuse God sovereignity. Instead of refusing that part of the bible, read it; pray To God to help you understand it. Be changed by the Word of God.
When you gaze at the sky during the night, you see the beautiful stars shining. What about during day time? did someone take all of the stars and hide them? no, they are still there-- you just can't see them during the day. Just like you can only see the beauty of the stars at night, you can only see the beauty of Christ when it's against the backdrop of our sins. We can't save ourselves. We are so addicted to sin that it took the death of God's own Son to redeem us. Rather than thinking that we don't need Jesus, consider the fact that our attempts at righteousness are like filthy rags. Trying to earn your way to Heaven will only lead to pride or despair. We can try to be good, but that will only lead us into the wrath of God.
That's fair enough, but it kind of makes you question the whole "loving God" thing, unless I'm missing something. Also, a lot of religious people are very keen on promoting belief and eternal life for its likability rather than its truthfulness. They say things like, "What would you prefer, a world where there is a God and eternal life, or a world where there is none of that?" That's just a stupid question. I'd prefer to be a millionaire than not be one, but it doesn't change my bank balance. So at least we probably agree on that point. Yeah, probably most of the basic stuff is uncontroversial from a translation perspective. A problem is the way words change over time. To take a modern example, the word "gay" changed its meaning a lot in the last hundred years. According to some the fact of Mary being a virgin may be questionable, and the word used actually means "young woman of a marriageable age" or something like that. Don't underestimate punctuation by the way! "Woman: without her, man is nothing." "Woman, without her man, is nothing."
When I read this the first question that comes to mind is. What do you mean by worship? I mean if everything hangs upon that and the alternative is being "heavily punished" we should probably determine what you believe worship to be. What does it mean to you?