People can/should believe in what they want to. In my opinion if you consider yourself a true christian you should follow the bible to a T. I believe in a higher power that created everything you see around us. I also think the bible is nothing more than a fairy tale, and that church is an excuse to throw your money away to (pastors) who somehow think they are closer to "god" than everyone else. I hope there is something after we die, but until our last day we will never know for sure. Anyone that claims otherwise through "faith" or "science" are liars.
I don't really like to get into this sort of thing because people pretty much have made up their minds and this board in particular is anti-religion and, more specifically, anti-Christian. But, many here who like to lecture and point their own holier than thou finger seem to lack a basic understanding of Christianity which never seems to deter them from their Christian admonitions. They, who really have no objective standards or ideals outside of themselves, i.e., they are their own god and answer only to themselves and their morality based primarily on their feelings and the whim of moment; like to point out a perceived hypocrisy in Christians. Let me state unequivocally and clearly that Christians rarely, if ever, "follow the Bible to a T." In fact, I'll go as far as to say that, other than Jesus Christ himself, a practicing and devout Christian NEVER follows the Bible to the T.
The difference between Christianity and, say, Judaism, is that a Christian cannot earn his way into heaven. Being good, doing good, is not going to do it. With Judaism you do not have to practice the Jewish faith to achieve salvation. Your good deeds, your goodness, will get you there. Jews care far more on how one behaves whereas a Christian cares far more on what you believe to achieve salvation. Which, of course, is Jesus Christ.
Looked at from that perspective it seems very obvious that Judaism is a far more superior belief system than Christianity in making for a more decent and better world. I know in my personal life I care far more how someone treats me than what they think about me or feel about me or believe about me. Who cares if someone is at heart a racist as long as it is never acted on. That's why I never got this notion of a woman staying in an abusive relationship because "he really loves me." This may very well be true. The love may indeed be there but what good is it if it is never expressed? If you rarely or ever act in a loving manner what good is your love? Many a stern father committed this sin on his own children whom he truly loved but never expressed often with unfortunate if not disastrous results. And one of my most favorite group of people, though I think their theology is wacky, are Mormons, because they are overwhelming good and decent people though I'm sure many here will yell about how many Mormon's they know that have gay sex and and a back yard full of buried corpses. I admire Mormons because of how they behave and not because of what they believe.
But, to paraphrase Shakespeare, "Aye, here's the rub." In Christianity we believe that we are not perfect, we are inherently flawed, we can never be perfect, we can never follow the Bible to the T, we can't do it all on our own. We need Christ. No one -- NO ONE -- can achieve salvation by themselves on their own. They need Christ. His dying on the cross paid for our sins and is a gift freely given. All one has to do is accept it. So we are saved by grace through our faith and not because of our good deeds. No one can earn their way into Heaven as no one is perfect. Good works and deeds are a response to God’s grace and not the cause of it. If one could simply earn their way into Heaven on their own then Christ dying on the cross would be meaningless.
Now I know majority of people on this board laugh at this notion. It's all a fairy tale and a way for others to make money, kill people and have sex with children. Fair enough. You are entitled to your beliefs. This is why it's a matter of faith. You can sit on your rational high horse and declare yourself "spiritual" without really defining what that means. And that you believe in a higher power though it seems to come without an objective, existing outside of yourself, standard of behavior. You are your own god and answer to your often fickle and elastic sense of goodness and morality. You trust human nature to do the right thing. You trust your own human nature to do the right thing.
I don't.
My main point is, is that one of basis of Christianity is that we are all sinners. We are all hypocrites. We have a fallen nature. Point out our failings and we will sigh, "I know." But that is why we need Christ. That is why we BELIEVE in Christ. And it is simply a matter of faith which is by definition believing in something for which there is very little, if any, logical evidence or proof of it's validity or truth. But for many of us, when contemplating what kind of person we want and believe we should be. How we view life, the universe and everything. Is there really an ultimate cosmic justice and it does matter whether you are a good person or an evil one. Or are we just a product of the random concussions in the universe stemming from matter that simply always existed. That a Mother Teresa and an Adolph Hitler share the same eternal fate. For many of us we don't want to go through our entire life sitting on the fence. Either life has transcendent meaning or is doesn't. And because, as you mentioned, we can never know in this life with certainty, one at some point opts to take a "leap of faith." And I know in my life, though far from perfect, I have not done some bad things and have done some good things, simply because I want to go to heaven. Believing that there is such a thing as good and evil and it does matter what you live for has made me a better person. And I think it is no coincidence that as our society has become more secular it has also become more immoral and less decent. After all, if it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things whether you are good or not why bother? It is certainly much harder to do the right, noble and moral thing. Might as well just live for yourself. Be a hedonist.
Which is what we are, or have, become.
We are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; not of works, lest anyone should boast. We live our lives in as righteous a manner as we can in thankful response to the priceless gift of God, our salvation, freely paid for on the cross by Christ himself.
