Quote Originally Posted by ATrain
I have a question I was looking to get answered. From what I understand of the Christian faith, those that aren't apart of the flock are in for an eternity of harsh times. What happens though to people that haven't had access to that religion? If they have never been exposed to it how can God expect certain things from them and punish them accordingly?

Make any sense? Like the way I hear it is that the good people of North America have been exposed to the faith and have chosen our path of acceptance or not, and because we've at least been given the option and chosen for ourselves we are in line for punishment if we die and it turns out Christianity was the smart money.

Seems pretty shitty to me to penalize someone when they didn't even know they were playing.

Thoughts?
Good point! I wondered the same thing when I was a child. But as I grew older I started to realize that even though Jesus was (and is) right in ALL that he said while he was on earth, Man has buggered it all up and created a religion that is a money grubbing crock of shit.
They have used and instilled guilt on many people thru the years to stuff their pockets.
I read a book awhile back about a girl that was an orphan and raised in catholic orphanages went to their schools etc and had the wrath of God beaten into her mind so much that she was actually scared to death of God. The same God they in the church preach as a loving God!
Well, later in life she had a medical emergency and died in a hospital. She was revived and came back to life because she had a near death experience and she later went on to describe what she experienced during this time of NDE.
She initally was scared. She had been taught that God was a harsh wrathful being and she thought she was surely going to be punished. But instaed she was met with a very bright light that emanated the most intence love that she had ever felt. She felt that this light was the essence of God and felt complete and utter love so much so that she said that mere words were not enough to explain it.
She was told that she needed to go back into her body because there was something important that she still needed to do in her life, so she woke up in the hospital and not long after gave birth to a daughter.

I have always felt even as a child that God is not going to put you into this world just to punish you. We are here to learn and learning from mistakes is part of it.
I dont go to church. And I dont follow any religion. I used to....but I found that MY God is a lot more than what religions preach.
Religions especially the baptists completly cheapen the whole idea of religions and all they do in my opinion is try to instill guilt on people.
How in the world can you have a powerfull & rich religion that makes you feel guilty and will excomunicate you for things like adultery etc,...yet their own priests are busy in the back rooms fondling young boys?? Religion is a crock!