I went back to church, but I just DON'T believe...

[Justtristo]

Well, these are some of the major problems that I have with at least Christian theology:

1. The idea that disease and disasters occur on this earth because of sin. Now, I'm not going to deny that we as humans can negatively impact our environment-the recent BP oil spill proves otherwise. But, this idea that there are diseases and disasters because (and I'm just using one example) gay people have sex, is as ridiculous to me as the ideas put forth by astrologers that the alignment of the stars plays a role in people's lives. I simply do not see the evidence in either case.

Oh indeed it is ridiculous, however if you read the bible closely enough things like death, disease, natural disasters, etc are according to the bible the direct result of sin entering the world after the fall (read Romans 8:19-22). I spoke to a Christian girl a while back about the Earthquakes in Haiti and she believed that. hock:

2. The idea and concept of hell. I simply do not believe that those who believe differently then I do are going to spend eternity suffering for that. Now, Christian theologians have different ideas as to what hell is like-some say that you burn alive, some say that god is present, some say that hell is simply the absence of god's presence. But it doesn't make any difference, because, even if it's just a nasty waiting room, as C.S. Lewis described in his book "The Great Divorce", it is still eternal torture-not a million years, not a billion years, not a trillion years-it lasts forever. I was with a church group who visited a mosque, and we met a young lady there who went on some college trip around the globe and said that she choose Islam because she thought that it made sense to her and was the religion that she thought fit her best, and she was very happy about that-but according to church doctrine, if she doesn't repent and receive christ, she's going to hell!! That's outrageous to me!

Outrageous to you and me yes, however Yahweh is a sadistic prick who will send a saint of a man like Fred Hollows to hell for being an atheist and a murderer like Jeffrey Dahmer to heaven because he accepted his son as Lord before he died.