What if you have never heard of God, Jesus, or the Holy Bible?

If you read the Bible literally, then the people would go to hell, and the babies would go to hell, too.

Well, I am an Agnostic, so I read the Bible differently as a believer would.However, there are plenty of people who say that the Bible should be read literally, and they say it is quite clear and needs no interpretation.So, I would ask the same question of them that you are asking.Interestingly, this very question of fairness and reasonableness was the "last straw" that caused my now-husband (at the age of 12) to stop going to church and away from Fundamentalist Christianity.

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I think what he is saying is if noone heard of it would beliefs be the same as they are today?

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Well, there's no way of knowing for sure, but I would say that it is doubtful that people would spontaneously begin believing in Jesus of Nazareth as their messiah if they had never heard of him.Nor would they particularly envision the Judeo Christian desert uber-god unless someone suggested it to them.People make their own gods within their own cultures.

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i was trying to say that a little boy has no need to teach about Jesus or even mention him , let alone come up with an experience which agrees whith hundreds of other cases. (is that ok teach,lol)

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Well, if his parents or anyome important to him was Christian, he most certainly would have a big reason to talk about Jesus.Kids aren't stupid. In fact, children are strongly inclined to try very very hard to please their caretakers. (Evolutionarily this makes a lot of sense, of course. The young, vulnerable offspring that the parents like because the kids try to please them are going to get more attention and protection and nurturing than an annoying, contrarian child)So, what all this means is that the child probably made up a story that fit his 'memories' about what happened which pleased his parents or fit into the cultural ideas he has been exposed to.I would also take what four year olds say with a very large grain of salt, particularly about what might have happened to them when they were three. They are still in the process of determining fantasy from reality at those ages.

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the brain hallucinating is also a bit silly to me as i seen a case (was televised in the east ) of a man who came back to life after being dead for 24 hours, thousands were praying for him to come to life and eventually he did. also i remember how blue and cold he looked ,it took him ages to recooperate

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Gee, mike, don't you think if this was a true story that it would have made worldwide front page headlines or something?How come I couldn't find anything about it when I did a Google search?What show did you see this report on, anyway?Sheesh, do you believe ANY outlandish story as long as it supports your preferred belief? Talk about credulous.

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That my own personal feelings were a terrible arbiter of what was real and what was not.

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Very well said.

I went through something similar growing up. My sisters and brother were raised as Catholics, although my parents were so unhappy and codependent it made for a pretty unpleasant home life. Dad was an "Easter/Christmas" Catholic, and Mom and the kids went every Sunday. We never talked about God or anything at home, though. I mean, never. There were just things we were expected to do; hoops to jump through.I always considered CCD and Mass a pretty big waste of time. I was always terribly bored, although we got a new priest when I was a teenager whom I liked a lot and who had useful things to say in his sermons. (He actually married my husband and I, and I am nearly certain he is gay) I was a sort of de facto, casual believer until I began to seriously question everything in my early adulthood. At that time, I also began the process of dealing with and recovering from my abusive childhood.At the other side of all of this, I emerged happier, more self-accepting and more accepting of others than I ever was before. Christianity and Catholicism injects an awful lot of guilt and self-loathing into a person's psyche. I also couldn't understand the point of believing all of this and going through all of the motions if the result was people as miserable and cruel as my parents, or as wonderful and loving as my grandparents. Clearly, belief had little to do with behavior or self-esteem.Anyway, that's my story.

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You see all of us understand that we have a higher being,

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No, "all of us" do not.

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what has happend is many of us have changed the uncorruptible God into an image made unto corruptible man and therefore have moved away from the truth of God the Father and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Um what the heck does this mean?

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The bible teaches that if people are truly seeking God then it is God's obligation to send someone there way. Therefore that is where missionaries come into play.

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I find missionaries arrogant and annoying.I "truly sought God" for the first 20 years of my life, and now I'm an agnostic.

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How did the Gospel get to America, Australia, India, China? because men and women answered God's calling to go and preach the Gospel to every creature.

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Again, how arrogant. All of these places already had their own religions. who are Christians to decide that they are right and all other s are wrong. Christians don't live any better or behave any better than any other group. In fact, they have been much more murderous and oppressive than many other religions. Besides, many of the early "missionaries" were basically doing government work; if you convert the locals to your religion, then you can more easily control them, because your king is endorsed by God, after all.

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You see if every single Christian follower took the Gospel to the world than everyone would hear it and therefore would be confronted to accept or to reject.

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Oh, please, no more Jehova's Witnesses or Mormons or Baptists ringing my doorbell! Why do so many Christians arrogantly think that I haven't thought about each and every question they pose to me long before they came to my door?

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So to conclude children do not go to hell but if you are at an age where you can activate your conscience and you do not accept Christ as your Savior then yes you would go to hell

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So, the death row inmate who has raped and murdered a bunch of children who accepts Jesus as his lord and savior WILL get into heaven, but the Athiest who has spent her life helping other people, giving to charity, raising moral and productive chilren and basically being an all-around great person will go to hell?If so, the God is an egomaniacal bastard who cares nothing of how we treat each other as long as his ego is stroked.

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Well Schrafinator you brought up some interesting points in your reply. And to respond I would like you to answer a few questions and would be interested in your answers or anyone else's for that matter.

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You claim to be an agnostic: Define for me an Agnostic?

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Well, everyonce defines it differently, I suppose, but for me it means that I don't know if God exists or not. Additionally, I doubt (but do not actually know) if God can be knowable even if it exists.

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An Agnostic is just an Athiest who compromises between Theism and Theology, or could you better explain your difinition. Or should I say in brief "One who is too confused to believe in either God or No-God"

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Ah, yes, more condescension and a patronizing attitude from the Christian Theist.I just love that character quality!

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You see at the end of the day if there is not one true God, and one true way to know him than does that not make us all agnostics trying to create our own God or whatever else we would like to worship? If nothing at all.

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Well, that's really the question for each person to decide for themselves, isn't it?

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Another Question:

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How many different races are there?

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Your answer to this question at first might be hundreds, but the fact is there is only one - The human race, made up of different cultures but scientifically proven to have come from one set of DNA.(And you thought Science disproved biblical events)

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Um, what the heck are you talking about?Of course there's only one race of humans. Please tell me why you are bringing this up because it surely seems out of left field to me.

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You said you could not understand why some one who has murdered and raped and then accepts Christ as their Personal Savior should get to go to heaven, but someone who hasnt and lives a good life doesn't.
well answer this

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How Good is Good enough?

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I don't know. You tell me. You're the one who seems to know what God's rules are concerning who gets to go to heaven and who doesn't.I was simply posing a scenario which was completely consistent with the rules as you stated them, but would seem to be grossly unfair and illogical, not to mention immoral.

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Another Question:

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If you think about killing someone but dont actually kill them, does this change what is already brewing in your heart?

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If you are asking do I think it is just as bad to think about killing someone than to actually kill them, then the answer is no. While I think that a person is probably pretty disturbed if they think a great deal, and very seriously, about killing someone, and this person might well be abusive or harmful to people in other ways, it is the actual harm one causes to another, the actual killing, that counts. We all have disturbing or otherwise inappropriate thoughts; it's part of being human. It's how we act upon them, or not, that makes us moral.

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Another Question:
Define for me Christianity in it's biblical sence? Not according to the experiences you have had of so called Christians.(Mormans, jehovah's, Baptist etc.)

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Christianity is a religion based upon the belief that a person named Jesus was actually the son of the Jewish God, died for their sins, then was raised from the dead three days later. I could go on...

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Just because a missionary claims they are a missionary does this mean God has sent them? Remembering the Bible says "by their fruits you will know them"

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OK. What are these "fruits" supposed to be?

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Now to answer your questions.

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what has happend is many of us have changed the uncorruptible God into an image made unto corruptible man and therefore have moved away from the truth of God the Father and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
Um what the heck does this mean?
It means that through the ages even in the times of Moses people have chosen to glory in an idol or something they can worship that they can see. For example the Israelites who made the golden calf. The Hindi religions who have made statues and even Catholics who worship the statue of Mary and so on. The Bible says people have made there own images of God.

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Sure, but wouldn't this be a natural thing for people who are promoting their religion to do; make it illegal or "wrong" for people to tolerate other religions and crush them out of existence?Of course, I have no "image of God" and I don't worship anything, so this doesn't really apply to me.

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The bible teaches that if people are truly seeking God then it is God's obligation to send someone there way. Therefore that is where missionaries come into play.

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I find missionaries arrogant and annoying
And to be honest Schrafinator I do to. But all I am saying is that in order for people to hear the Gospel, someone needs to be sent to tell them and if everybody God called to be a missionary actually went then all would hear one way or another. And in our day and age if there is a group they truly seek to know God, there are plenty of means where this can happen.

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I have two questions.1) Why can't I seek out God on my own; why does there have to be a missionary at all?2) How do I know which group has the true message of God? There are over 600 demnominations of Christianity in the US alone. Whaich one is correct?

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I agree with you Schrafinator that there are so many different types of Christianity and therefore who to believe? Well if this helps I found that Christianity is soley based on the Bible if there is any extra or any less to whatever denomination than it is not biblical Christianity.

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But, given that there are no original copies of the Bible, and all of the current versions have been translated many, many times over by imperfect (and often politically-motivated) humans, how do you know that so-called "Biblical" Christianity is dependable, either?

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You see this word has been stereo-typed so much even to the point where it does not actually reflect what it means. And to this I say I follow Christ according to the Holy Bible, not according to it's worldly interpretation.

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So, are you saying that you do not interpret the Bible at all, and that you take it entirely literally?If so, I have a few questions for you.

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There's the change in chemical states in the brain.

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Oxytocin, baby.http://www.oxytocin.org/oxytoc/

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There should be a Guiness world record category for "Most Insulting Religious Statement." Of course, it happens so often that the above probably wouldn't be able to compete, but it's way up there.

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It's embarrassing. I apologize if he/she doesn't.

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You are some kind of stand-up guy, TL. Thank you.Just so you know, I don't think that many people, when they learn that I am Agnostic (and they are Theists and somehow threatened by my beliefs), think that I can be insulted WRT my worldview.I actually had to set my well-educated, bright, wonderful, loving, ordinarily very respectful older sister straight some years ago.She kept making rather patronizing comments to me, saying things to the effect of "You don't know what to think", or "You're just confused", or, my personal favorite, "I feel so sorry for you because you are missing so much in your life."We had a big fight about it and I told her that she wasn't allowed to talk down to me. I told her I had come to hold the world view that I did after years of introspection and self-searching, and I also had to correct all the assumptions she had about what I thought.So, She didn't feel she needed to show me, an Agnostic, the kind of respect she would need to show someone of another religion.

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Oh, and I think you're way off on those 600 Christian denominations. A 1984 US News & World Report article stated there were over 22,000 registered in the US. I found the reference in the book _Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up_ by David Bercot.

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Holy Crap! (so to speak)Even better for my argument!

Just eat some chocolate.Seriously.