THE IMPORTANCE OF BELIEF

I – an agnostic – do not reject the idea of a God of love (one who wants us to treat our fellow man with compassion and kindness and grants eternal life to anyone (atheists and agnostics included) who strives to help his fellow man and make the world a better place). However, I find it impossible to believe that God is going to burn me in Hell if I refuse to accept that Jesus was God/that God came down to earth in human form and died on the cross in order to forgive us for our sins. .Consequently, I am not a Christian in the accepted sense of the word. However, I sometimes think of myself as one, arguing that I am one of Jesus’ followers by virtue of the fact that I agree wholeheartedly with him on the importance of trying to love my enemies and trying to keep turning the other cheek etc.

Simply put, I do not give a frog’s behind about the opinions of the Apostle Paul, who in my opinion corrupted Christianity and made it acceptable to Rome by arguing that good deeds are virtually worthless: that a miser who exploits his employees to the hilt in order to amass great wealth could gain entrance to the kingdom of Heaven if he believes that Jesus is God/that God died on the cross etc. etc. etc.

It goes without saying that I am extremely antagonist towards the idea of a God of Fear (one who punishes us ruthlessly for the slightest infraction). I hence have a huge problem with the Old Testament and Islam in particular. They are, in my opinion, the fruit of a primitive mind .

Terence Grant

South Africa.