> There are many sects of christianity and I will be the first to tell you
> that I don't really know what I am talking about here so I can't really
> argue this point too well but I have started to ask people about what they
> belive in -the ones who don't just come up and tell you- and I hav found
> that the specific sect that preaches 'all non christians go to hell' is
> not very highly regarded by the people who belive in christ as more of a
> means of moral and spiritual guidance. they are the loudest amongst them
> but they are not representative of all christians.

    Yes, this is very Adorian.

    If they accept Mohammad and Budha, and who ever else came to Earth to
leave wisdom, then they are well on their way and worth knowing.


after talking
> extensivly with  xxx, who is currently attending lancaster
> theological semenary, my understanding is this: the bible does not teach
> that all should be converted and in fact jesus specifically says that
> everyone *EVERYONE* will be forgiven, saved, or whatever and get to go to
> heaven weather they accept him or not.

    OK, I would like to see exact quotes in the Bible New Testament
that says this.

> I guess you are right you aren't really saying the same thing I read some
> words that rubbed me wrong and read into them something that wasn't there.
> anyone telling anyone else that their religion is bad scares me.

    Not *BAD*, but *WRONG*, dangerously so.

    And Bigotry is always bad as it prevents intimacy with others just
because they hold a different world view.  One can accept just about any
view in another being no matter how different, but once you cross the line
into "You are going to hell *FOREVER*" then acceptance and intimacy
becomes factually impossible.  THIS is what makes bigotry, bigotry.

    For example, what happens to us after we die?

    Do we get reborn with varying degrees of amnesia?

    Do we go straight to our just 'reward'?

    Do we have a choice to come back if we want to?

    Where were we BEFORE we were born?

    You see if I have lived before, then that is true, and any
religion that says that is false is factually incorrect period,
no two ways about it.

    It is fine for a person to tell me that THEY are going straight to
their reward, but it is not fine for them to tell me that *I* won't be
reborn again.  It can conceivably be different from being to being,
depending on what they have set up for themselves.

    Religions that then go and say I am deluded by the Devil because
I remember past lives etc, are just as factually wrong as those
that teach that the world is flat or the center of the universe,
or the only planet with life on it.

    Anyhow, if we stick to the basic definition of bigotry as defined in
Adore: "I am blessed and you are eternally damned because my
God/Prophet/Doctrine is better than your God/Prophet/Doctrine' then it is
pretty easy to see the bad apples from the good ones.

    Religions should not have a lot of disagreement on factual items, and
in particular faith and belief should not be confused.  Belief is just
that, a bet based on probabilities.  Faith is an inner confidence that you
will be ok even when all outward appearances contend otherwise.

    Faith is a 'belief' in self mostly and thus in the eventual outcome of
all things.  Faith in 'God' is mostly a trap, as it separates God off from
self and anthropomorphizes it into something you can solicit favors from
by behaving properly.  There may be such 'gods' in the world, Greek gods
etc, but they aren't the God which is the AllThatIs, which includes me and
thee.

    "Confidence is to confide that one did this thing to oneself." -
Adore

    Once confidence in one's self is confused with doctrinal rightness and
wrongness, then we have blind belief based on nothing but what benefits
the priest hood (parents, society, government, clergy whatever).

    Now Adore is basically a doctrinal matter, it says we live
forever, have always lived forever, can not help but live forever,
and have no choice about living forever because WE ARE the eternal
God incarnated in space/time continuums to play games of intimacy
with each other.

    One has to understand 'forever' though in this context, this does not
mean we must live in a space/time game stream forever.  It means we are
fundamentally co eternal, and time like space is a hologram which is
engaged in FOR A WHILE.  Thus any dreamtime is finite in length, thus all
heavens and hells must end one day, no other way to have it, and return to
eternal peace which is spaceless, timeless, and free from impingement.

    That is either right or it is wrong.

    Adore believes that if you take the commonalities of all religions,
including the Hindus and Buddhists, you will have something bordering on
the truth.  The differences are injected by men to control, enslave and
enfear a population.

    A person who is not worried about his eternal future or anyone else's
future is a very dangerous being, because he is much too fearless to be
introverted and thus controlled or trapped in lies.

    The minute a person buys into "I am going to hell *FOREVER* unless..."
he has had it.  He might as well nose dive into the abyss with
afterburners on.  If he teaches it to others or his children, well then he
has some karma to pay.  Again by his own choice once he sees the damage he
has partaken in.

    "Here dear sweet child, point your nose down this way, and turn your
afterburns on!"

sorry. I
> need to learn more about religion before I can really hold a theological
> debate.

    You are doing just fine.  I am INTENSELY interested in the
answers to the two basic questions from your CHristian friends.

    "Where were we before we were born?"

    "What happens to us after we die?"

    When you start hearing "We didn't exist before we were born, and then
God made us without our choice, and stuck us here on Earth without our
choice, and then He sends us here or there after we die without our
choice, depending on such and such, then you know you have lies speaking."

    Homer