Exodus 21:7-8 It's not something you can look at figuratively or whatever. It's not a lesson. Literal is pretty much the only interpretation possible.
And in any case, God is two distinctly different entities between the New and Old Testament. And isn't God supposed to be unchanging? I know that this is straying from the question being asked, which is why people believe, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to state that none of my claims in the previous post have been adequately refuted, because I don't think they were fully understood by everyone.
What I was saying is that God is sending people to Hell for things he designed them to do. I believe that the Christian idea of a person's creation includes the shaping of their personality by God, and then God determines where they are placed in the world. Their surroundings and their personality will determine the choices they make. Therefore it is God's fault if the person chooses to become a Hindu. This would also disprove free will, but that doesn't exactly shake Christianity because I don't believe free will is mentioned in the Bible. Prayer’s ability to comfort had nothing to do with what I was saying.
But the previous comment brings to light another reason why people believe. In my case, it was the fear of the afterlife that kept me hanging on after the doubt set in. However, I think that some people hold on to their faith because of the fear that all of their time as Christians has been wasted. It isn't necessarily ALL wasted time, because a lot of Christian activities are very helpful to people in need, and I admire that.
Another thing - I don't think you can just pick and choose the things you want to believe from the Bible. In my opinion, if one thing is false in it, then that calls into question the integrity of the entire book, and there are plenty of questionable things in the Bible.
..its not suprising that someone would question the validity of a book historians say was compiled after no less than 60 years of verbal story-telling (but im sure the stories remained intact, its not like any bias or personal belief may have changed them, oh no).
it also doesnt help that the books included were included because a very small group of people decided that those were the best for bringing christianity under one specific belief, and excluded many other texts of the time.
i think its ridiculous that people consider the bible to be the "word of god". no! its not! PEOPLE WROTE IT! and considering that during that time, literacy wasnt exactly common among the worlds population, there would be very few people to question any changes made when the stories were recorded on paper.
It's not something you can look at figuratively or whatever. It's not a lesson. Literal is pretty much the only interpretation possible.
And in any case, God is two distinctly different entities between the New and Old Testament. And isn't God supposed to be unchanging? I know that this is straying from the question being asked, which is why people believe, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to state that none of my claims in the previous post have been adequately refuted, because I don't think they were fully understood by everyone.
What I was saying is that God is sending people to Hell for things he designed them to do. I believe that the Christian idea of a person's creation includes the shaping of their personality by God, and then God determines where they are placed in the world. Their surroundings and their personality will determine the choices they make. Therefore it is God's fault if the person chooses to become a Hindu. This would also disprove free will, but that doesn't exactly shake Christianity because I don't believe free will is mentioned in the Bible. Prayer’s ability to comfort had nothing to do with what I was saying.
But the previous comment brings to light another reason why people believe. In my case, it was the fear of the afterlife that kept me hanging on after the doubt set in. However, I think that some people hold on to their faith because of the fear that all of their time as Christians has been wasted. It isn't necessarily ALL wasted time, because a lot of Christian activities are very helpful to people in need, and I admire that.
Another thing - I don't think you can just pick and choose the things you want to believe from the Bible. In my opinion, if one thing is false in it, then that calls into question the integrity of the entire book, and there are plenty of questionable things in the Bible.
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it also doesnt help that the books included were included because a very small group of people decided that those were the best for bringing christianity under one specific belief, and excluded many other texts of the time.
i think its ridiculous that people consider the bible to be the "word of god". no! its not! PEOPLE WROTE IT! and considering that during that time, literacy wasnt exactly common among the worlds population, there would be very few people to question any changes made when the stories were recorded on paper.
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