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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Interesting post, OP.

I am also a Christian, probably not as liberal in thought as you say you are.

I completely agree that many people's adult religion is an accident of/ result of their birth. In fact, just about everything in the way our lives play out is a result of our births -- the location, the timing, etc. Someone born on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 2015 is going to have a completely different point of view as an adult, based on that fact alone, than some born in rural India in 1965.

And, partially for that reason, of course there should be tolerance of all faiths, assuming that they are not out to kill us all, e.g. radical Islamists. [b]However, tolerance for another person's beliefs does not mean that I have to agree that it is "right" or even "OK." I can still tolerate and live with what this person says, but sincerely believe that they are "wrong" in their faith.[/b][/quote]

OP here: I am fine with what you state above.

I take a slightly different view in that I believe that the faith I follow is A path to God - as opposed to THE path. It is certainly the path for me but as I stated in my OP, it is because I was brought up as a Christian that has influenced my belief system - what I referred to as an accident of birth. If my parents were Muslim or Hindu or some other faith, I think it is more than likely that I would have believed my parents faith to be my path to God.

However, I don't knock anyone else for believing that their path is the only path for themselves as long as they don't try and coerce others into their faith. Of course, depending on how rigidly they hold on to that point of view, there is a risk that they could be intolerant of others and the faith they follow with all of the attendant ramifications.
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Me again.  The problem, if you want to call it that, for Christians, is this: Jesus Christ Himself said "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. NO ONE gets to the Father, except through me." (emphasis mine). Yes, of course, if your parents had brought you up as Hindu or aetheist or Wiccan or anything else, that very well may be your life-long belief. But that still doesn't mean that it's "right," or even "right for you."  To partially be able to live with this, I always fall back on Matthew 7: 7-8:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."

To me this means that anyone who sincerely seeks the truth -- be it a Buddhist in Asia or a Muslim in the Middle East -- who truly and sincerely asks God to reveal Himself to them and reveal the truth -- God will do so. And the answer will always be -- guess what -- Jesus Christ.

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