18+ General Discussion Forum

pentatonic,

You outline well what I understand to be the traditional Christian point of view. However, you must be aware that there are many non-Christians who believe in God as fervently as you do and feel just as graced by His presence. There is more than one set of "Gospels" so to speak.

What you write raises some of the fundamental differences between Christianity and Judaism, the religion I was raised in.

• Judaism does not recognize original sin as something inherited from Adam and Eve. Children are born morally neutral.
• Judaism does not stress the importance of an afterlife. Although I think there are references to heaven and hell in the Bible, they are hardly ever talked about, and never in anything but a speculative way.
• The purpose of living is life. We’re supposed to enjoy it in spite of the inevitable suffering. That’s why God gave us, good wine, the Sabbath and sex.
• We are expected to be moral because it is the right thing to do. We don’t always do the right thing but we keep working on it.
• Even the concept of sin is different between Christianity and Judaism – at least in modern Judaism. In the Jewish community I belong to we use an archery metaphor to describe sin and repentance. Sin is missing the mark. Repentance is pausing to take better aim.
• I think it was Rabbi Harold Kushner who said that we need to believe in God not because it necessarily makes us more moral by doing so, but because it gives us strength to carry on in times of adversity.

Thanks for offering your perspective – you too, Igor. Let’s keep up the conversation.

Marcia

Quote of note: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn." – Hillel the Elder, a Pharisee sage who taught from about 30 BCE - 10 CE.