Posts Tagged salvation
The Problem With Salvation #2:
The Deal Of A Lifetime?
Posted by Rational Dreamer in religion on April 21st, 2009
One day, you find yourself walking past a large curtain draped along the side of the street—a curtain like those they use in game shows to hide the grand prize from the audience and contestants. Suddenly, a salesman jumps out from behind the curtain to inform you that he is about to make you an offer that you cannot possibly refuse. He tells you that for a mere $100,000, he will sell you the brand new, top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benz luxury sports car (worth a cool half-million dollars) parked on the other side of the curtain. Your interest is piqued and you tell him to go ahead and show you the car, but the salesman says no, he can’t do that, and that you will just have to take his word for it that the offer is genuine.
Naturally you are very suspicious, believing that the salesman may be trying to scam you. When he notices your skepticism, the salesman pulls out a thick brochure and hands it to you, saying that it contains the answers to any questions you might have, and that it will explain how he is able to offer you such a fantastic deal. You take the brochure, expecting to see glossy photographs of the car and a fancy sales pitch, but all you find are pages and pages of dense technical information about the car and even more pages of barely decipherable legalese describing the terms of the deal. Undeterred, you decide it’s worth investigating further since it does sound like a great deal, so you take a deep breath and turn to page one of the brochure.
The Problem With Salvation #1:
Introduction
Posted by Rational Dreamer in religion on April 19th, 2009
Of all the religious concepts I wrestled with while I was still a Christian, it was the doctrine of salvation that proved to be the decisive factor in my transformation from a believer into an atheist. No matter how much I tried, I could not find a way to rebut the logical inconsistencies that kept popping up all over the place when I thought long and hard about the issue.
I was born and grew up in Britain, where my family were heavily involved with the Methodist Church—a very liberal denomination by American standards—and I continued to attended church services, if somewhat sporadically, after I left home and well on into my twenties. Although I have always had moments of doubt about Christianity, I didn’t seriously consider the possibility that it may only be the elaborate invention of the human mind until I was in my early thirties, soon after I had arrived in the States. (The two events are not entirely coincidental.)
Having made several trips to the U.S. before moving here, I was already aware that the Christian community is divided into two camps when it comes to the doctrine of salvation—one that believes you must ask for and receive personal salvation before you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and one that believes personal salvation is not essential and that you can get into Heaven as long as you a lead a reasonably decent and honest life, even if you are not a Christian.
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