-=> Quoting Louis Rizzuto to -= The Master =- <=-
 ->                 God's simple plan of salvation is
 ->
 -> You are a Sinner.    Therefore, unless you believe on Jesus Who died
 -> your place, you will spend eternity in Hell.  If you believe on Him a
 -> your crucified, buried, and risen Savior, you receive Forgiveness for
 -> all of your sins and His Gift of eternal Salvation by Faith.
 ->
 -> I John 1:9
 ->     If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our
 -> sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness..
Again, I know this is old, but it's worth replying to.
 LR> Sounds familar.  Must be the Catholic version you are quoting.  But
 LR> don't be overly concerned SysOP, if you ever get disenchanted with
 LR> that particular fairy tale their are plenty of other versions used by
 LR> as many christen religions.  Then, of course, there are all the other
 LR> possible religions as well.
  LR> Ever read "1001 Arabian Nights'.  You can find it in your local
 LR> library. Tell me who the authors were?
 LR> Are you familar with the query, "Did God make man or did man make
 LR> God?" 
 That's funny, I always heard it as "Did Evolution invent man, or did man
 invent Evolution".
 LR> Do you believe everything you are told or taught to read.  Why do you
 LR> or anyone *choose* to believe the Bible as written by admited
 LR> imperfect men(no women, what a shame?) as being the word of God?
 Why would anyone want to say they're accidents of nature?
 LR>
 LR> When was the last time God spoke to you or visited you or anyone
 LR> recently?  You know the Mormons, whatever their short comings from
 LR> history do beleive you should not beleive what others tell you.  You
 LR> should beleive what God tells *you* personally.  An intersting belief.
 LR> Perahps you should get out more, SysOp and read a lot more and maybe
 LR> take a frew history courses or watch the shows based on scholarly
 LR> works on the Learnign Channel or the Discovery Channel or read books on
 LR> this stuff.
 The Learning Channel also had documentaries on Extraterrestrails,
 Spontaneous Combustion, and psychic phenonmena which explored
 the topic and attempted to persuade the viewer into beliving it was
 proven fact.
 LR> Look you are going to die; so am I.  If there is a God and it is true
 LR> he is all merciful aand all forgicving He will understand your human
 LR> doubts and he will forgive you and be merciful - no matter what you
 LR> have done. 
 LR> The Catholics teach this.  They tell whoever listens to them all they
 LR> have to do is say a prayer asking for forgiveness - even moments
 LR> before their death and God will forgive them.  The confession is not
 LR> the last resort for the sinful according to Catholics.
 LR> 
 LR> Relax.  When you die if there is a God He will forgive you.  And if
 LR> there is no God, you will cease to exist and it won't matter since you
 LR> won't get angry or remorsefull or anything because there will be no
 LR> you as you are now.  Just nothing - - like sleep but no dreams.
 Now there's a fairy tale. Humans are evil by nature. You don't believe
 me, take a look at the world around you! Every day people are murdered
 in the  streets, every day there are people who seek to hurt others.
 God is good by nature. God can't stand evil. God loves humans. God loves
 humans so much that he gives them the choice of asking to be CHANGED,
 converted from their evil selfs into redeemable people. If someone
 dies who has not accepted God, then God doesn't accept them, and they
 are left to the alternative (Seperation from God a.k.a. Hell)
 LR> One Catholic priest (a religious instructor) at FordHam told his
 LR> students he beleived there was no Hell or if there was there was
 LR> nobody there except crazy people.
 LR> 
 LR> His reasoning.  Just after you die, Christ comes to you and says here
 LR> I am - touch me, feel me, I am.  You no longr must have faith.
 LR> 
  LR> Then he will tell each of us that he will give us a second chance to
 LR> make a bad sinnful decison a good one - sort of reliving out lives in
 LR> super fast speed.
 LR> 
 LR> The Christ will tell each of that if we make the same sinful mistake
 LR> He will send us to Hell and if we make the good decison we will go to
 LR> live with him and hsi father and everyone else up there(dinosaurs,
 LR> cats, dogs, etc. move over).
 LR> 
 LR> So this priest concluded that only crazy people would make the same
 LR> bad (sinful) decison they made in the first time now that they know
 LR> Jesus Christ is the Son of god, etc.
 LR> 
 What's the foundation for his reasoning?
 LR> Makes sense to me.  We live in America.  Do it your way while you
 LR> still free to do so!  :)   Who knows?  In a few years - another 50
 LR> years the USA will be history and you will have to beleive in some
 LR> human god like they did in ancient times.
 And the correlation between this priest/professor and America is...
 LR> Whatever strokes your juices SysOp but please don't ask me to explain
 LR> the un-explainable.  I am human and just as ignorant as you.  You are
 LR> on your own on this one - just like all the rest of us.
 LR> 
 LR> You want to believe the Bible is the word of God - do it.  I just hope
 LR> you will be as tolerent if I choose to believe in the '1001 and Arbian
 LR> Nights' - and that I cease to exist when I die.  ;>
... "You keep saying that, I don't think it means what you think it means"
--- Renegade v5-11 Exp
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