Posted: May 02, 2010 5:33 am
heyjude wrote:
. . .
So of course, I didn't start believing as he hoped, and in fact, my (now) husband discovered science and became an atheist, which his Dad said was more hurtful than when his wife died!!Actually, he doesn't even really know he's an atheist - he just knows he won't do all the meaningless ritual anymore, and that is bad.
That's really sad, but it just shows how important it is to religious people that other people AGREE with them. In Christianity, it's so important to Christians that people agree with them about God that they actually create detailed fantasies about non-believers being eternally tormented in hell. According to conservative Christians, a person can be forgiven and go straight to heaven no matter what he's done, as long as before he draws that last breath, he admits that he was wrong and all the Christians were right! In fact, most Christians have no trouble believing that someone like Hitler (that "good person" your father-in-law referred to, haha) could be in heaven while little Anne Frank could be in hell. Christians believe that a rapist could be in heaven while the rapists's victims could be in hell. Why? Because in Christianity it doesn't matter what a person does, it only matters what a person believes. According to evangelical Christians, heaven will be filled with pedophiles, bank robbers, child abusers, rapists, wife-beaters, murderers, and jackasses galore. Noticeably absent in heaven, however, will be thinking people who failed to believe during their earthly lives as the Christians told them they should believe. The one "sin" Christians (and the Christian God) cannot forgive is failure to believe. Kind of shows you what drives their religious fervor. It's all about ego.