Jesus was a hippie.

totally agree w/ justice conservatism

Finally someone who isn't taking things so literally.

That's an interesting theological question. I doubt that telling people the existence of a particular God and their failure to worship that being means they are damned (unless of course we live under an old testament fundamentalist God). I believe that God judges people ultimately by what they do in life, not where they pray in life.

replace "we" with "you", since I don't subscribe to the theory.

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Original Sin: A Genetic Defect we all Share
Original Sin is the genetic defect we all inherited from Adam and Eve. Through this genetic defect we all inherited death -- both physical and spiritual – and were separated from God. Through Jesus Christ, we all have the ability to conquer this genetic defect – sin and death – and be reconnected to God eternally. Paradise was the original state of Adam’s garden on God’s “very good” earth, not millions and millions of years of death, decay, disease, and naturalistic trial and error.

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original sin, in Christian theology, the sin of Adam, by which all humankind fell from divine grace. Saint Augustine was the fundamental theologian in the formulatiom of this doctrine, which states that the essentially graceless nature of humanity requires redemption to save it. The purpose of baptism is to wash away original sin and to restore the individual to an innocent state, although even after baptism a tendency to sin remains as a result of original sin.

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Original sin in the Old Testament
Many Christian theologians regard the Garden of Eden story in Genesis as describing the first sin, and the consequent "ruin" or, the "Fall" of man. The doctrine of original sin attempts to explain how that sin affects humanity today.

Adam and Eve disobeyed the command of God, "Of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Genesis 2:17). Eve was tempted by a serpent to eat the fruit of the tree ("you will not die, you will be just like God"). After she did, she convinced Adam to eat of it as well. Adam and Eve then made aprons of fig leaves to cover their lower parts. After this God expelled them from the Garden of Eden.

In some traditions, the covering of the lower parts means they became aware of their nudity for the first time, and hid from each other in shame.

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Original sin in The New Testament
The concept of original sin underwent development by Paul, in Romans and First Corinthians, in the New Testament. Paul placed special emphasis on this by stressing that belief in Jesus would allow Christians to overcome death, by earning salvation in the hereafter. The New Testament teaches that rejection of Jesus as the path to salvation must be viewed as willful disobedience, and a rebellion against God. This choice then compels a just God to enforce that person's separation from Him, causing such a person to be sentenced to Hell, or in Roman Catholicism, Purgatory. Only belief in Jesus, as a savior and son of God, could rescue a person from this fate.

Although the character Satan does not appear as such in the Biblical text, by the time that the New Testament was canonized, the serpent mentioned in Genesis became identified with Satan; this identification is so strong that many believers interpret the Biblical story as Eve being tempted by Satan.

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I should be teaching bible class...jeez

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God the father doesnt choose to send people to hell. the people choose.

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More Christian double talk, if according to you God were truely loving, he would allow us into "heaven" regardless of what we had done. Therefore it is "his" choice not to let us in and to send us to hell. And rabble rabble rabble...

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what about before jesus?

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I've been asking that question for a long time but with no answer.

"But I think I've figured it out... According to Christianity, God plays favorites!" ®
Oh yeah, that was ALL me.

God the father doesnt choose to send people to hell. the people choose. the choice to accept Christ or not lies with them. if they choose not to, they have signed their own sentence. and about the people that died before Christ, they went to sheol. contrary to popular opinion, sheol is not hell. sheol is the holding place of the old testament, divided in two by a great void. paradise was on one side, torment on the other. those that died that followed the law and had their sins COVERED by sacrifice went to paradise, and those who didnt to torment. Sacrifice before Jesus wasnt good enough to eliminate sins, so they were just atoned for, not erased. therefore, they werent allowed into the heaven that is mentioned in this question. but by all means they werent in hell. to enter heaven, you must be sinless- not a good person, not a fair person, not a person whos had a bad life- sinless. thats why jesus is necessary- to erase sin.

i am a christian and have been for all my life. i study the bible, have read the gospels as well as the prophetic books and most of the old testament. i have never heard of innocents, which is why Jesus said take the gospel to all the nations. just because you dont know that you are about to fall in a hole doesnt mean if you step on top of it you wont. it makes no sense. every man and woman makes their own choices. if a person accepts Jesus, then their sins are taken care of. if not, then they are condemned. there are two ways- either you've accepted, or you havent, and there is no gray area. whoever preached these doctrines needs to get back to the basics, and btw, the bible was written in respect to the old testament thousands of years before Jesus, and the new at different times after his ascension. the claim it was written 300 years afterward makes no sense and has no ground in reality at all.

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Ive also always wondered that if the Bible, Koran, Torah, etc, didnt come from God, then what nut sat down and made up all that crap?!? It wasnt very nice of them!

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It was a whole bunch of "nuts" interested in money and power. Allah of Islam is most famous for being paid to convince people a metorite was a God. 40 people contributed to the 66 gospels of Christianity...

so...there is alot of hear say and this is how I see it type stuff in any revealed religion.

It would be so much easier if things were spelled out nice and plain and simple instead of having that big ol book!

Ive also always wondered that if the Bible, Koran, Torah, etc, didnt come from God, then what nut sat down and made up all that crap?!? It wasnt very nice of them!

Tweet...I understand you!!

I sometimes think it was meant to be so confusing and everyone changing everything around and putting it into their own words never helps.

Life is something to celebrate and something to do good with. That's all I try to do.

After Jesus died he descended into hell (those are the three days between his death and ascension) and preached to the people in hell to give them a chance to believe that he was the savior and therefore go to Heaven.

I have been a christian all my life but I, too, am very confused. i wish I knew the answers, and i wish that all good people went to Heaven. In our modern world it is soooo hard to believe with all of your heart. I often think that i will go to hell for my lack of faith. Why is religion so complicated?!? The Bible can be interpreted so many different ways. I still have figured out whether or not you actually have to be baptized to be saved or if just believing is enough. Oy im so confused!

i had that same question three years ago. here's the answer i recieved [which i think is a bunch of bull]

imagine the whole world and all the people in it. god walks around and gives people boxes, theyre presents, the gift: heaven. but he leaves some people out. why? dont ask me. but here you have those who have never heard of jesus. now those people who have recieved the present have a choice: to open or not to open? some do, you have your christians, some dont, you have everyone else [love how they catagorize]. the word that was used to describe this? predestination

like i said, i think its bull. if yahweh is so loving, why does he choose to send people to hell? he chooses. the bible does say that you need to believe that jesus was the son of god and died and rose in 3 days and accept his sacrifice for you in order to go to heaven. those who never heard of him cant do that! like ive always been about this topic: confused.

another thought... what about before jesus? how did those people go to heaven? the "ritgeous" [never figured out how to spell that word] ones did, and here we are again, god choosing.

Depressed WaveMaster

yes, because their souls are going through karma.

the people they killed planned to go, planned the way they wanted to go, before they even died. no they don't remember it, but once they get to that better place, they are at peace. we are loving and understanding on the other side. we learn from our mistakes, and then we go back to earth and try to make the next life better.

once that serial killer get on the other side, he feels the pain of the victims and their loved ones. he learns his lesson, then goes back and tries to improve the next lifetime from the last.

i kno you don't believe that, but it's ok, cuz i do.

i mean that would be a true loving god.

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if anyone should go to hell i think it is god. for he murders, and make ppl suffer, which are against his own rules. i mean he sents people to hell.

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Huhhh??? Since when does God murder?? Tell me please?? Who did he kill? People kill people. Disease kills people. God gave people free will and some choose to make people suffer and die. And do you think a person who killed 7 people deserves anything remotely good?

if anyone should go to hell i think it is god. for he murders, and make ppl suffer, which are against his own rules. i mean he sents people to hell.

i still think he needs glowsticks

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a lot of people on this thread seem to have forgotten that God is good, fogiving, and loving.....I don't think He wouldn't send someone to hell because they didn't believe him! No one can really say what God would do (that wouldn't be right) but how can you think that if you don't believe in him he won't have mercy on you???

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God is good and forgiving and loving but he is also just. He has set laws into place, and he has to up hold justice. He has given us a way to escape from hell, all he asks for is us to believe in him, beleive that Jesus his son, and that Jesus died on the cross to take our sins upon him. This is the provision he has set forth for us to spend eternity with him.

What's up with this thread????

In the bible, God says about either Cain or Able (can't remember which was the murderer) should wish he was never born. This is interpreted as God saying he went to hell. That is the only person in my religion (Roman Catholic) we know went to hell. .

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I think it is sad when a baby dies and the parents are not believers, because they will never see their child again.

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Ummmmm...a lot of people on this thread seem to have forgotten that God is good, fogiving, and loving.....I don't think He wouldn't send someone to hell because they didn't believe him! No one can really say what God would do (that wouldn't be right) but how can you think that if you don't believe in him he won't have mercy on you??? Ugh I just can't be talking about this anymore. -Many- atheists on here are taking everything too literally and logically. It just isn't like that. Or at least that's what I think.

is it just me, or do a lot of people who are christian in this thread seem to have conflicting beliefs...