I asked them many questions. Why do you believe in Intelligent Design? What about the Big Bang? Why can't we legalize gay marriage? Why do you believe a book that was written by men?
They gave intelligent and reasonable responses to each and every one of those questions.
They felt like the improbability of life having evolved on its own was too great to have been left to chance. They think the Big Bang happened, and it's hard to argue against that. They worry about what opening the doors to other kinds of marriage may let escape. They (unfortunately inaccurately) told me that the eye-witness testimonies were credible, just like a biography of George Washington is. (I later found out that each of the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John have unknown authors, and that some of them seem to reference the others in a derivative sort of way).
And for the first time in a long time I understood a Christian point of view.
However, I still can't agree with it. I can't agree that the extreme improbability of life evolving in the universe means there must be something more. I can't agree that the sometimes contradictory accounts of eye witnesses (if they even were eye witnesses) are credible enough to hold water. And finally, I can't agree that perfectly good people deserve to spend an eternity in damnation because they are homosexual and wish to marry.
If God sent Jesus to Earth as our savior, and if when I die I stand before the gate, I won't wait in line to be judged. My soul will plummet to the depths of hell with the rest of the sinners and non believers. I go there knowing that I lived my life full of love, positivity, happiness, and compassion. I learned today that Jesus and I don't agree morally; we have differing views of virtue, goodness, and love. We don't have complementary views of slavery, planned parenting, sex, or gender. The many things that I think we could agree on are not enough, by his standards, to save my soul.
Even if this religion condemns me to hell, I think it is a beautiful religion. The core of who Jesus was and what he believed resonate with me in a lot of ways; I think it is sad to see how much Christians have destroyed their own religion, but today proved to me that there are still those who follow Jesus as I think he probably wished to be followed.
