Saw this on a liberal religious forum,it touched on things that bother me. Lets discuss,intelligent minds only



Hi,
I'm a Muslim and lately I have been reading
many of the questions and answers on your site
and thought to myself that I needed to express
my thoughts and feelings too and hear what you
have to say about it.
The two biggest religions in the world, Islam and
Christianity both have a rule that is extremely
disturbing when the two religions have so many
followers and both make a lot of sense.
According to Islam, if you believe Jesus as the
Son of God you go to hell, and according to
Christianity if you believe that Jesus is not the
Son of God you go to hell. Now living in the 21st
century in Australia, how are we supposed to
know what exactly happened in the Middle East
2000 years ago? Of course we cannot know, we
can only believe. Lately this has been really
stuck on my mind. I still believe in God but I
feel very lost and insecure.
People and religions say you should love God,
but I do not understand how I could love
someone who would put me into hell for eternity
based on what I believe about Jesus, even
though God knows my situation and knows that I
could never be sure about which belief is true. I
do not want to lose my faith and I do not want
to not have a chance of going to heaven either
and so we must do what we can to try to find
answers.
In one of your responses you said that no matter
how much you have sinned, if you repent and
believe Jesus is your savior you will still go to
heaven. So on judgment day if I was to see very
bad people who have repented and been saved,
and if I was a very good person who always
believed in God and never did bad things, only
small mistakes that we all do and I go to hell
being a much better person, then where is the
just, merciful, understanding and loving God that
I used to know and believe in? It looks as if
Christianity shows an easy way out for Christians
and makes it impossible for everybody else. I
don't like the thought of this as it does not
sound fair and at the same time it sounds scary
since I am a Muslim.
If God was to toss a coin and ask you "heads or
tails? If you are correct you go to heaven, but if
you are wrong then you go to hell", then would
you see this as a fair way of deciding who goes
to heaven and hell? Of course you wouldn't but
when you think about it, you have a much better
chance this way since it is fifty-fifty. In real life
it isn't fifty-fifty between Muslims and
Christians, there are more religions too. Knowing
that God has the power to do anything, both
religions would be possible in terms of who
Jesus really was.
I feel insecure but it is not something that can
be ignored. My eternal life and all of ours is at
stake. Now before you reply, instead of listing
more contradictions in the Qur'an and trying to
persuade me that your religion is correct, if you
could just think what if YOU were born into a
Muslim family and it was ME who was born into
a Christian family, then who would be correct?
Who would go to heaven and hell then? I was
born into this game without a choice where if I
win I have nothing to gain (Heaven is unneeded
if one does not exist) but if I lose than I have
everything to lose.
When there are so many murderers, rapists,
people who do not believe in God at all, so many
people who do not deserve to go to heaven, why
is it that somebody who believes in God should
burn for eternity just because they didn't
correctly guess the right religion? People are
going to be eternally punished for being unlucky.
Why should I be one of those who end ups
burning forever for a reason so unreasonable
and for something not in my hands (as you
notice nearly all people raised in a family of a
particular religion would stick to it and if I was
to think about changing religions I am tossing
up between a chance of guaranteed hell and a
chance of guaranteed hell).
Nothing feels as bad as living blindly, knowing
you might go to hell no matter how good you are
as a person all because of something that is not
in your hands as you can never know for sure
what is right. I cannot accept something like
this but cannot do anything about it. God is
supposed to be fair but I do not see any
fairness in this. If God understands our
situation then why doesn't God forgive us for the
incorrect belief of Jesus a lot of us have? (I am
not saying which is right and wrong)
Thank you for reading, I really hope to get a
reply from you and I really do not know what
sort of reply to expect for something like what I
wrote. There are so many little questions in my
writing and you probably will not have the time
to answer it all in detail and I do not know how
helpful any reply would be keeping in mind that
even the good go to hell but I would really like a
reply not only for me but for all the people who
visit www.comereason.org that have similar
thoughts to what I have since I believe that
what I wrote about is the most important and
the most scariest thing of all.
If I had a choice right now to die and never
come back, I would choose that than to go on
with this and have a high chance of ending up
in hell. Nothing is worth the risk of eternal pain.
It is not our fault that there are so many
religions to choose from that sound right.
Thank you for having the website to give people
the opportunity to express themselves and ask
questions.
Sincerely,
Omer

source http://www.comereason.org/religious-exclusivism.asp