Religion Anyone?

We all think about religion whether we acknowledge any particular formal faith, religion or not. 

I know a few atheists, a good sprinkling of secularists who believe in God but not much else, Jews, and many flavors of Christians. 

I do not know any Muslims and I must confess I don’t particularly like them due to a murder of a friend of mine in the name of their religion. I suppose I will forgive them one day but until then I harbor hate for them.

The culprit in question for the murder was killed by a US bomb. I still miss my friend and his death was unnecessary.  

Of all the flavors of Christianity I have two friends that are polar opposite in beliefs but base their rewards in the afterlife on their behavior during life. Their life is ruled by guilt, not joy.

One person is certain that good deeds will redeem him and he does some mighty find things for humanity even Jesus would be proud of but he doesn’t believe in the basic tenants of the faith. 

The other person believes in the avoidance of well documented sins and spends his life covering his ass by avoiding sin and forgets the good deeds. He believes in whatever is necessary to get him in heaven.

I believe neither of the above will redeem them based on classic Christianity and think they are missing the point of Christianity.

What do you think? 

7 comments:

terri said...

I think that there are no formulas for getting into heaven. We are sinners and we can't change that. We can try to be good and avoid sin, but we'll never become perfect. We're always going to slip up. God knows that and he loves us anyway. So we need to keep doing our best to avoid the things that hurt ourselves and others while at the same time, reaching out to others to give of ourselves. I think in the end it's going to boil down to "Did you love others selflessly? With everything you've got? With all your heart and soul?" Someone will argue with me, I'm sure. But I think at the very heart of it, this is what is important, because if you're able to love selflessly, all the other stuff kind of falls into place.

Anonymous said...

this is a tough subject for me at present. At one point I was a very devout cradle Catholic. Now. Well I have no idea what I would say about my religious identity, but I am aware that faith and relgion are two different things.

Nice post, Wreg. It reminded me I had to readjust your pimpage on my blog. I forgot a few adjectives. Have a nice Sunday.

Michael said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TerryC said...

Ooooh RELiiiiiGION.....

Tough subject.

Like POLITiiiiiCS.

Brave of you to go there, though.

You've read my spouts about devouts.

With few if any comments following as if readers are thinking that I'll go to hell in my own hand basket!

The other night we were with some new friends who are EXTREMELY religious and had to pray for all of us before we left this meeting to ask for a safe trip home and a good night's sleep.

Well, I had the WORST night's sleep I'd had in a LOOOONG time.

So if there was any chance I'd have believed in it, especially for her deep sincerity, it went down the drain at 3 am while I sat wide awake reading......

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

Hmmm.... I am very comfortable in my faith, I sin way too much, sleep very good, and am comfortable with my lot in the after life, and I love my life, and all or most of God's creatures.

I hate folks that tell me that they want to "pray about something" that involves me and my advice and God gives me the thumbs down which I interpret God ruled against my suggestion.

Religion is tough.

Anonymous said...

To think we can do ANYTHING to get into Heaven is a silly thought to me. Why, because there is always someone who can do it better and I just keep falling farther back in line.

So I'm really glad it's God's grace and Jesus' sacrifice I accept that gets me into heaven. Because well, I'm basically lazy.

Knot

Judy said...

No one can get to heaven by their good deeds. Only by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ do we arrive in heaven. But because we love him and want to live in union with him we try our best not to sin because sin seperates us from God. When we do sin we have to go to God thru Christ and ask for forgivenes.
God knows our hearts and our motives. He judges us accordingly.
These are my beliefs.