From: thughes@ug.cs.dal.ca (Tracy L. Hughes)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Is Christianity really the only way ?
Date: 16 Dec 92 08:17:38 GMT
Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

Stephen Tseng writes :
>I've been having difficulty trying to understand something. Doesn't Jesus
>say that belief in Him is the only way for salvation, and that we cannot
>be
>saved through our own efforts? However, this would seem to cut off
>millions
>of people who have never heard of Jesus, and millions more who died before
>Jesus even walked the face of the earth.

   The sad truth about the universe is that most people believe what they
believe because they were born into it, not because it has appealed to them
as the inner truth of the universe.  You see, contrary to popular belief, 
faith is a poor substitute for logic (and not the other way around, which
most religions teach their adherents (with the notible exception of Hinduism
at least....or some forms of it).  You see, the problem with faith is that
anything and everything appeals to it... everyone has some sort of faith
in what they believe in, and faith is strong enough to keep even the most
thoughtful and intelligent individual clinging to a misconseption, or worse,
clinging to something that is evil to all those not in the same religion,
merely because it happens to be a part of their religion.  Christians 
themselves have been accused of this (I heard someone complaining once that
modern day Christianity was becoming too humanistic... I think perhaps
if a religion is performing an act that even athiests think is evil and
of which the general consensis is that it is not humanistic, then it is
the religion that is most likely in error.  In this way is faith most
dangerous to someone trying to come closer to God.  Mind you, I am
speaking of social and moral "evils" here). Only those who
change their religion for a reason other than brainwashing (ie cults) or to
appease their loved ones actually exercise true logic over faith... ie rather
than applying their brains to justify their faith, they apply them to
actually examine it... Jesus' own apostles were people of this nature...else
they would not have followed him as the strength of thier faith would have
held them to Judaism.  After all, if God wished us to hold faith completely
above human logic then Jesus probably would not have spoken in so
many parables (and the Bible would be quite clear instead of so open to
interpretation as it appears to be).

   Anyway, the question is... are our beliefs (and consequently our faith
in them) important to our salvation?  I think saying that they are would
be the same as saying that a person who believes (and has faith in) the fact
that the world is flat is somehow less special in God's eyes than a
person who believes the fact that the world is round (assuming neither of
these two people have actually been around the world of course)...Both
types have been persecuted for their beliefs at one time or another but I
doubt that their beliefs would have made any difference to their standing
in God's eyes....after all most of what we believe in has no external proof
(else we all would believe in it)... or at least no obvious proof... so why
would God judge some of us more worthy just because we happened (usually
by luck of birth) to chance upon the true version of the universe  ?

In other words, I do not think there is a reward waiting for someone because
of his/her beliefs.

The value of a belief is what it makes the preson into inside... how close
it brings him to God.  Obviously a Christian would wish to emulate Jesus'
behavior as close as possible... out of love for him and faith for his love
for us ( which is a different sort of faith than faith that this or that
system of beliefs is the right one).  This is the greatest value of the
Christian teachings.. that practise of them brings our inner selves closer
to God.

You see, God's will is God's will, whether you call God by a different name or
not, or don't even realize there is a God... why would your creator
punish you for not knowing him in your mind when, in becoming close to
him in your thoughts you know him instead in your heart.  And many other
religions besides Christianity do bring some of their adherents closer to
God....they teach love of all humans as vigorously as Christianity at times,
although the theological expression of that love is different.  And hence,
perhaps there will be some "unbelievers" who are admitted to God's presence
before some "believers".

(* Note this was probably the greatest part of the sin of worshipping false
idols... Idols, of man's making, could be said to uphold things that
man liked...and thus people could feel free for faith reasons to continue
their sinning... so the idols would stand very strongly between a
person and God.  But this is not true of all other religions today. *)

....God gave us brains for a purpose.  Your choice to use them or not.  After
all, even faith is based on logic (ie our brains tell us that this or that
is logically true so we base our faith on it...:) )

-Tracy