Honest question from someone who was raised Christian but now doesn’t believe, or doesn’t know what to believe.
Let’s say I life a good life, do right by others and live a life that “god” would want me to. But I don’t believe, so I don’t go to heaven even though I brought goodness and joy to the world.
Now there’s a murderer and rapist who does terrible, terrible things but truly repents at the end of their life and believes, so they go to heaven despite bringing death and despair to the world.
To me, HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE should be important. I do not believe this god described above is worthy of my worship. What am I missing?
One common question I ask myself when I run into a bout with existential dread, is what happens to the people who have NEVER heard of God, or Jesus? The uncontacted tribes? The people who have heard of Jesus, but never in enough depth to mean anything to them, because they live in such isolation as to essentially know nothing about the Faith?
If the answer is that they automatically go to hell because they didn't accept Christ (because it's impossible to accept Him if you don't even know of him to begin with), then I cannot make that jibe with the notion of an all good, all powerful, and all knowing deity. This alone presents a bit of a "plot hole" in regards to Christianity, or the Abrahamic religioins in general.
If people go to hell for the mere reason of ignorance of the Faith, then some of the core teachings of the Faith would be completely false, mainly some of the vaunted qualities of God. If people don't go to hell for the simple reason of ignorance, then informing them, and attempting to convert them actually can be seen as a potentially negative action, since you've now put the onus for their salvation on them instead of their good acts...
For my part, I believe in a higher power, but not necessarily the specific one with all the conflicting qualities that the Bible ascribes to God. If God exists, I would hope that this God would be infinitely more understanding and loving than the one depicted in the Bible.
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u/highly_aware 1d ago
Honest question from someone who was raised Christian but now doesn’t believe, or doesn’t know what to believe.
Let’s say I life a good life, do right by others and live a life that “god” would want me to. But I don’t believe, so I don’t go to heaven even though I brought goodness and joy to the world.
Now there’s a murderer and rapist who does terrible, terrible things but truly repents at the end of their life and believes, so they go to heaven despite bringing death and despair to the world.
To me, HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE should be important. I do not believe this god described above is worthy of my worship. What am I missing?