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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I absolutely believe in hell and Satan.  But I believe that hell is reserved for the truly evil.  Simply being uncertain of God's existence is not evil, in fact, I would say that it's pretty human to have doubts. God isn't going to send you to the depths of hell for having doubts about his existence. If you are otherwise living a good and decent life - you will be o.k.  At the same time, I don't believe that simply showing up to church every Sunday is enough to save your soul from hell if you are attending church just for appearances - to make yourself look good.  What you do when no one else is looking is just as important.  God knows what is in your heart.[/quote]

You not the previous pp then?  The one who said "Don't forget the many, many people who believe in god(s) who do not believe in hell(s)"

At any, it still sounds iike you're making up your own religion -- saying what God does and does not do.

As for "having doubts" - many people who had doubts and struggled with them for a long time, don't have doubts anymore -- they studied and pondered and arrived at non-belief. They do not believe in god.  I know Christianity embrace people who doubt, but it does not embrace people  who have gone beyond doubt to non-belief.

According to Christian beliefs, those people  will not have eternal life and will go to hell.  It's not a matter of what you believe  god will do, it's a matter of what god made very clear in the religion on Christianity.[/quote]

To clarify, I was not the pp who said that many people who believe in God do not believe in hell.  As far as struggling with doubts, having some sort of shattering of faith and/or just never having been taught about religion to begin with - yes, that happens.  Some people over time might work through that conflict and some people die before they can resolve it.  God isn't going to kick a good person into hell just because they had doubts or even denied his existence.  In the other hand, God is not going to put up with someone who worships God in appearance only.

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What is said above about how god thinks are nice ideas, but they are personally determined and  not what Christianity teaches.  Also many people who are nonbelievers have not had their faith "shattered" and don't consider their non-faith as an unresolved "conflict."  They simply don't believe.  They think they and everyone else are going nowhere when they die.  Christianity says they are going to hell. [/quote]

My own interpretation of these teachings is that people who decide that God is not real are less inclined to listen to their conscience.  Without God there is no real reason for them to keep their own wants/needs/greed/desires in check.  Why not steal?  Why not cheat?  Why not murder someone standing in your way?  Why not take their money?  Why not lie?  Simply put, why live by the golden rule when doing so makes it harder to get the things that YOU want?  Be nice to another person's face but stab them in the back if it gets you what you covet.

Of course there are plenty of people who are basically decent, they do right by others, they just don't happen to believe in God.  There is no crisis of faith, that's just what they think is true.  Yet, they are still good people.  It is my feeling that they do feel God's love through their encounters with other people who do believe in God. And that goodness that they feel in their heart radiates back out from them.  They are good because God is good even if they don't believe in God.  Heaven isn't an exclusive club no matter what anyone says.  Getting to Heaven is not about jumping through hoops, performing rituals, saying the right words (although these things can help people to stay on the right track)...it is about doing your best to do the right thing and owning up to your mistakes. Church groups help believers to combine their efforts to make the biggest possible good impact in this world. [b] I am not a church goer...yet.  But the more I see, the more I wish to be.[/b]

God wants you (all of us) to be good and to feel loved.  But there are folks out there who find it easier to take a different, unloving path.  They radiate evil even though at times they can be wolves in sheeps' clothing.

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This can't be real.  If a person wanted to be a church goer they would go to church, yet she sanctimonusly knows what what god thinks and what he wants. When everyone has their own idiosyncratic ideas about god it's evident that they're just making it up.  but why? for comfort?[/quote]

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