gissy truly sux.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

An email from a friend of mine asking me what religion I was suddenly reminded me of what I really believe and don't really believe in the religion I am in(Christianity). *blinks* Don't really know why, though. Here's what I believe:

How true can religion be where humans are involved? Ordinary humans who became something because of what they did? Miracles happen, I do agree, and that is God's doing. How do you know the Bible is real? What if the Bible was just a really good book someone's written and called it "The Bible"? Which is why, my sister says that religious matters are based on trust. Only with trust do you truly believe in a faith. I'm not even very sure if Jesus is truly the Son of God. And no, I wouldn't ask for forgiveness even if it is. It wasn't really my fault. Some people(like me) are rather materialistic and straightforward, sometimes refusing to believe in stuff unless there is ultimate proof or convincing logic. Therefore, I can conclude that I should convert.

Call me traitor, I don't care. I believe that people should respect what others believe in, regardless of race. According to a source.. "Judaism accepts the worth of all people regardless of religion".

But, then again, I found some things I don't agree with. "Judaism sees Christianity's trinitarianism as a weakening of the idea of God's oneness." Basically, it means that Christians believe there is a God of the Father, God of the Son, and God of the Holy Spirit. God shouldn't be split like that as it is "a weakening of the idea of God's oneness". Aha! BUT... "Jews don't have a set group of beliefs about the nature of God; therefore, there is considerable, and approved, debate within Judaism about God. " So, I'm okay. I fit the bill so far.

And yes! "To Jews, whatever wonderful teacher and storyteller Jesus may have been, he was just a human, not the son of God (except in the metaphorical sense in which all humans are children of God). In the Jewish view, Jesus cannot save souls; only God can. Jesus did not, in the Jewish view, rise from the dead." This supports my statement just now. "I'm not even very sure if Jesus is truly the Son of God."

"He[Jesus] also did not absorb the sins of people. For Jews, sins are removed not by Jesus' atonement but by seeking forgiveness. Jews seek forgiveness from God for sins against God and from other people (not just God) for sins against those people. Seeking forgiveness requires a sincere sense of repenting but also seeking directly to redress the wrong done to someone. Sins are partially removed through prayer which replaced animal sacrifice as a way of relieving sins. They are also removed by correcting errors against others." Good. Very good. Now I don't have to keep praying and hoping that my sins will be forgiven when I'm not even sure. I shall do this now.

*is reading and learning and trying to remember* Because I don't see Jewish around anywhere in Singapore, I shall have to study everything myself. *shrugs*

"Some respect him as an ethical teacher who accepted Jewish law, as someone who didn't even see himself as the messiah, who didn't want to start a new religion at all." That's good. So I can at least avoid all shots from my Christian and Catholic friends.

"Whatever the Jewish response is, one point is crucial. No one who is Jewish, no born Jew and no one who converts to Judaism, can believe in Jesus as the literal son of God or as the messiah. For the Jewish people, there is no God but God." Whoa, this sounds terribly strict.

"In contrast, the Jewish view is that humans are not born naturally good or naturally bad. They have both a good and a bad inclination in them, but they have the free moral will to choose the good and this free moral will can be more powerful than the evil inclination. Indeed, Jewish ethics requires the idea that humans decide for themselves how to act. This is so because temptation, and with it the possibility of sin, allows people to choose good and thus have moral merit. The Jewish view is not that humans are helpless in the face of moral error." I think I'm gonna love this religion. *crosses her fingers and hopes that there ain't anything she doesn't agree with*

This religion's really logical and.. its so.. me.

"The fear of death, concern about the fate of our own soul and those of our loved ones, ethical concerns that some people die unfairly, all these and many other issues are discussed in Jewish literature. Since God is seen as ultimately just, the seeming injustice on Earth has propelled many traditional Jewish thinkers into seeing the afterlife as a way to reflect the ultimate justice of human existence. " Wowee, boy, do I smell logic.

Just in case I forget... Gehenna is the name for a place where souls are punished. (Pronounced as: Gay-henna(but don't pronounce the 'y' too much))

"Many Jewish thinkers noted that since, essentially, God is filled with mercy and love, punishment is not to be considered to be eternal." Great.

" Judaism doesn't have a clear sense of Heaven and Hell, with different places in Hell for different punishments. Rather, the idea is that God uses the afterlife to provide ultimate justice and for the wicked to seek some sort of final redemption. " Good. Good, good good.

*BLINKS* 613 commandments. I have to read them!:P

Stopped at rule 35.

Courtesy of this webby: http://www.convert.org/differ.htm

darkness falls at 3:39 PM