The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom

[JGRaider]

That's already been addressed a few times in this thread.

Romans 1:20
New International Version
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

If human beings do not "work out" the basic nature of God from what is seen in creation, and seek Him from there, they are simply "without excuse." They are willfully ignoring the obvious. God insists that He has made it plain to human reasoning and that to decide otherwise is to suppress the truth we know by nature.

 

[dylanvb]

“For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,”
‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

 

[Shortschaf]

My main problem with Christianity is the belief (or whatever it’s called) that anybody who isn’t a Christian goes to hell.

I have a hard time with this too, but I have an equally hard time believing that all people will deserve heaven too

For the record, the church does NOT pretend to know that anyone has gone to Hell.
It does claim to know that certain people's go to heaven (like saints). But--not a safe bet in my opinion to knowingly live a life of sin, banking on God's mercy to save us from hell either

Our human idea of fairness may not agree with God's plan for justice.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I have a hard time with this too, but I have an equally hard time believing that all people will deserve heaven too

For the record, the church does NOT pretend to know that anyone has gone to Hell.
It does claim to know that certain people's go to heaven (like saints). But--not a safe bet in my opinion to knowingly live a life of sin, banking on God's mercy to save us from hell either

Our human idea of fairness may not agree with God's plan for justice.

I know some terrible “Christians”, it would be sort of a shame if they got into heaven while some decent people who simply didn’t know about Christianity were condemned for eternity.

That’s just one thing though….

A few years back I was out fishing with a buddy who happened to be religious, as we started talking, he told me the world was only like 6 or 7 thousand years old and that all the biology and geology and other science stuff was lies, he then went on to talk about how god put dinosaur bones in the ground to test us.

There was more but as the conversation went on, I felt like I was in the twilight zone, I couldn’t believe this guy was serious, it was the craziest shit I’d ever heard in my life. But kept getting more and more ridiculous as he talked.

I couldn’t even try to not be shocked.

 

[JGRaider]

I have a hard time with this too, but I have an equally hard time believing that all people will deserve heaven too

For the record, the church does NOT pretend to know that anyone has gone to Hell.
It does claim to know that certain people's go to heaven (like saints). But--not a safe bet in my opinion to knowingly live a life of sin, banking on God's mercy to save us from hell either

Our human idea of fairness may not agree with God's plan for justice.

The Bible distinguishes those who have eternal life from those who do not: “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). It all goes back to faith. Those who believe in Christ are made the children of God (John 1:12). Those who accept Jesus’ sacrifice as the payment for their sins and who believe in His resurrection are going to heaven. Those who reject Christ are not. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).

 

[JGRaider]

I know some terrible “Christians”, it would be sort of a shame if they got into heaven while some decent people who simply didn’t know about Christianity were condemned for eternity.

That’s just one thing though….

A few years back I was out fishing with a buddy who happened to be religious, as we started talking, he told me the world was only like 6 or 7 thousand years old and that all the biology and geology and other science stuff was lies, he then went on to talk about how god put dinosaur bones in the ground to test us.

There was more but as the conversation went on, I felt like I was in the twilight zone, I couldn’t believe this guy was serious, it was the craziest shit I’d ever heard in my life. But kept getting more and more ridiculous as he talked.

I couldn’t even try to joy be shocked.

Only God knows the heart, not you, me, or any other human being. Sounds like you are confused between a man being religious, and a man being a Christian. Religion is man made and not even God is thrilled with that. He's only interested in a personal relationship with those he created.

 

[eddielasvegas]

For those of you who are non-believers and cannot comprehend the power of prayer, I offer you THIS as evidence (you know, because evidence is where it's at) that prayer does work.


Eddie