A Jesus By Any Other Name

I was surfing the AIM chat rooms again. This time I popped into the Christian singles. Nothing gets my brain juices pumping like a good conversation with the Jesus-freaks. By that I mean not just any Christians. I know a lot of cool Christians, who just don't rub it in your face all the time, and live a good life, the way they think Jesus would have wanted. I have nothing against them. I DO have something against the people who feel driven to convert people to seeing it their way, because they're afraid that if someone else is right, then they may be wrong. They're fun to talk to, simply to see where they go with my questions. While I won't show exactly what the conversation was, because it's just a long IM session that really doesn't get anywhere, I'll describe the highlights.

To start, here's what I believe. I believe that most major religions agree on basic principals. Life is important, be a good person, help those who need helping, etc. Those are all good things to live a life by, as I try to myself. Where they differ is in some forms of semantics. They all proclaim that their God is the one true God, or, if they have a pantheon of gods, that theirs is the correct pantheon. As I said, this is all just semantics. I used the following analogy to try and describe this:

Suppose there was a secluded tribe of islanders, with no contact to the outside world. One day, a man gets stranded on the island, after being presumed lost in a wreck. He integrates into the natives tribe, learns their language and customs. He begins to teach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, he cannot find an appropriate way to translate Jesus for them, and ends up with something random like "Tomato Sause." So the natives continue to worship the being known as Tomato Sause. Now the question: Does that count? Does Jesus care what name you use for him.

The answer, as I see it, is that it does count, Jesus is just a name, and it's really the person that name represents that you are worshiping. So if Jesus is God, then you can worship God and you will be fine, right? Along those terms, if you worship Allah, or Jehovah, or Krishnu, you are still worshiping the same God they all stand for. So really, the name of a religion you worship doesn't matter, as long as you believe the truth in your heart.

As to what the truth is... I spent a good deal of time talking about how Jesus' death on the cross matters. I kept hearing from the guy "Jesus died so your sins could be forgiven, but your sins are only forgiven if you believe He died for them." That seems rather twisted. And really, I don't see a connection between His dying and my redemption. The connection is simply "That's what the book says!" I mean, its like me saying "Hey! I broke a concrete slab with my pinky so you could have toast! But if you want the toast, you have to believe that you're getting it because I broke the slab! Get it?" Do you? Cuz I don't.

The bible is true because it is the word of God. And it is the word of God because it says so, and it is true, so it can't be wrong about being the word of god. That's another thing that got me. It's cyclical logic. The guy I was talking to said that I shouldn't question things like that, and just accept them on faith, but I really think that questioning is good. Without questioning, authority becomes tyranny. Now I'm not saying God is a tyrant. But Churches and other religious leaders could. The Bible was presented by man, published, written, and analyzed by men. It may have been divinely inspired, but that doesn't mean it's perfect by any means. I need more than the book itself to tell me that a book is true.

Okay, my head is starting to hurt. I'm gonna go lie down now. Love you all. ^_^