(June 12, 2016 at 8:56 am)robvalue Wrote: Ok thanks ignorantI can sort of see where you're coming from.
What happens if I sin then? [1] Surely I have sinned at points in my life, according to most people. I apologize to wronged parties for my mistakes and I try to learn from them. In other words, I try to make ammends. [2] But I don't feel I owe anything to any sort of deity, nor do I enter into any bargain with them. [3]
What shall become of me? [4]
Thank you for your very thorough and thoughtful answers. I'm glad you agree about animals!
Steve: It only takes one sin for what? And apparently I already have it (original sin), so what's my incentive not to do more?
I certainly don't love God, because I don't even know what it is, nor have I ever met it. I have no feelings about it.
1) The same thing that happens to everyone else, you miss out on the fullness of human life.
2) Forgiveness and reconciliation are essential to a full human life. Keep that up!
3) I imagine it is difficult to feel like you owe something to some thing you don't think exists. =)
4) How could I know? I would have to either be you or God to know how culpable you are for the way you live/have lived and to know what will become of you in the future or eternity.
What I can say is that continuing down that road, you may or may not reach a sort of human happiness through the human relationships you described as growing through reconciliation and forgiveness. God is offering you something that goes beyond that. He is offering you a share in his own divine happiness which you can reach through your humanity, through your human relationships, and through a relationship with divinity itself which grows through reconciliation and forgiveness. Right now, you don't believe that offer is real, much less the God who supposedly offers it. Who knows, maybe he'll give it to you anyway at the moment you die, just to show you how much he loves you.
