[billyboyjohn]

Dude... you're intense. If I may say so.

It certainly keeps the ball rolling in these threads though, and I do believe
your views force people to think and may inform on certain scriptures and interpretations.
Sometime I feel you clump the naysayers into a bunch of obnoxious people.
enough about you though..:-0

Me, I am fascinated by the yearning for us to have some explanation of things,
no matter what mythology it invokes. A slippery slope. The power of religious faith helps melt away all the questions that boggle the mind and tie up the heart. It mostly feels
like a sell out to me though, to think one way is the only way.

[Quix]

Unless . . .

the truth

REALLY IS

only THAT WAY.

There's something about trying to say all roads lead to Rome

that is inherently rebellious . . . because we instinctively know that saying everything is OK is the same as saying nothing is important enough for me to have to obey it.

[Quix]

Yeah, intense . . . guilty. What can I say. Mellowed--even mellowed is still intense. Sigh.

[PetroniusMaximus]

***It mostly feels like a sell out to me though, to think one way is the only way***


A hundred years ago, an average American - someone quite similar to you perhaps - couldn't have imagined uttering those words.

That was before the multi-generation reeducation campaign began with the purpose of convincing the masses of the equality of all religions and ideas. (With the reality being that if all ideas are equal then, in the final analysis, none are objectively true).

Follow this logic.

I doubt you believe ALL "ways" to God are equally acceptable to Him. For example, I doubt you believe that God requires, or is pleased with a person who would throw their infant into a river to be eaten by crocodiles.

I doubt you believe that Satanism is a valid way to God.

I doubt you believe that fanatical, suicidal fundamentalist Islam is a valid way to God.

So we are narrowing down the count here.

There are not an "infinite" number of ways to God. Some "ways" are clearly wrong. If the ways to God are not infinite in number then there are a limited number of ways

Let's say there were 10 valid ways to God (i.e. 10 major world religions). Would that be OK? Or would that evoke a knee-jerk negative response? (No offense to you, but we have all been conditioned to be offended at the idea of "exclusivity" in any shape or form).

If we have already concluded that there must be a limited number of ways, then logically there is nothing wrong with limiting that way to 8, or to 5 or to 2 or even to 1. Especially if that one way is open and available to people of any class, race, intellect, age etc. as Christianity is.

But in the end we must come face to face with the words of Jesus when he said...

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John 14:6