That's what I always thought, too.
It's why I decided pretty early in life that all three of the Abrahamic religions were bogus.
How can our performance on a test- ie, this short life- be the sole determinant of whether we spend eternity in paradise or roasting in eternal torment, when everyone is laboring under different conditions?
um, you realize that, according to at least one of those Abrahamic religions, it's not only not the sole determinant, it's not even
a determinant?
It would be real easy to be "good" (in the Biblical sense) if you were, say, blind and confined to a wheelchair.
:hah: i doubt it; human weakness seems a universal characteristic
It would be pretty easy if you were outlandishly wealthy and had everything handed to you on a silver platter.
like Paris Hilton? wealth doesn't make it easier for you to be good; if anything it makes it more difficult because it keeps you from experiencing consequences from your actions, and tends to surround you with people more likely to excuse your behavior. as the man once said "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle".
at
best wealth simply magnifies what you already are by increasing your ability to turn your tendencies into action.
But some people, you know... they suffer a lot early in life. And it causes them to grow up unstable and possibly cruel. Maybe they can successfully combat their natures and impulses or maybe not. But either way, the way they are is not their fault.
your temptations may not be your choice (often they are as well, however). your
actions always are; when you perform wrong
deeds, it is most assuredly your fault.
Same with this whole "you go to hell unless you accept Christ as your personal savior" stuff that the protestants are always peddling. If there's a God, is it my fault he gave me this particular brain, which is incapable of blind, illogical faith? Why would he condemn me for being what he made me?
well, firstly, we would state that He didn't; that faith is a choice, just as love is. secondly, though most of us would say that the choice seems to be forgiveness or hell; that frankly we're not on the Heaven/Hell Allocation Committee (that's a committee of one. or three, i suppose, depending on how you're counting), and that He is of course free to make whatever decision He see's fit to. frankly, i have no idea how you can go to hell (if that was where you wanted to go). i just know how you can enter into the most wonderful relationship you will ever know; which has the side benefit of being able to continue said relationship after death.
It's as if God arbitrarily decided that he'd condemn everyone to hell who'd never seen an elephant with their own eyes, and was completely unsympathetic to the fact some people are born blind, and others are born into dire poverty in geographical locales where they'd never have the opportunity to see an elephant.
Paul addresses this on a couple of occasions; simply never recieving the Gospel doesn't doom you for eternity. for before they had the law the law was emplaced in their hearts.
A particularly well done impression of this (i think) is seen in CS Lewis' last installment of the Narnia series, where Aslan has returned and is taking those who have held true away from a civil war and destruction to a far better land (heaven), and Emeth, a foriegn soldier who had invaded Narnia and made war against 'the people of Aslan' finds himself called by Aslan to come with them, despite his service to the 'god' Tash, who demanded cruelty of his worshipers.
" the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then, by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which though hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath's sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Doust thou understand, child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek."
