The fact that there are many religions has no bearing on the possibility that most of them are wrong. It is true that had I been raised as a Muslim I probably would have concluded that it is inspired, but that isn't what happened. I had Christian parents and when I was in the midst of my existential meltdown and read through the Bible, I decided it was inspired.
Then how could you possibly believe that they deserve to go to hell when you know that their parents are basically the ones who taught them their book is the truth? If they never got the chance to hear the gospel, or even got the chance but the way they were raised made them believe the gospel was a lie, how is it fair that they go to hell?
I have addressed this countless times. I believe in total salvation; everybody's' sins are forgiven. Only those who reject the gospel after it is presented to them go to hell.
What is your favorite vegetable?
I like avocados, do they count as a vegetable?
I think Jesus would be as disgusted with them as he was with the pharisees of his times. He had no problem cavorting with prostitutes and tax collectors and people considered "unclean" by the standards of his time, but when he saw religious leaders abusing their power he wouldn't hesitate to start flipping over tables and call them out on their hypocrisy.
You know, I honestly like Jesus as a character. He is compassionate for the right reasons and he shows signs of weakness, while still standing for what he believes to be right. It's the difference I see between what he obviously wanted from his followers and the reality of modern churches being frequented by bigoted gaybashers, that turns me away from religion.
Why is Jesus' message so clear to a heathen like me and almost every religious person I know (with exceptions) can't be bothered to really live it? Why was Jesus cavorting with prostitutes and outcasts, while his proclaimed followers condemn them? Why would he send someone like me to hell for being born critical and curious, while mean spirited bigots go to heaven, because they preyed their knees raw?
This breaks my heart, to think that most people believe that mean-spirited bigots go to heaven, while a true Christian cannot be critical and curious.
Jesus is not religion; not to me. That's not to say that I do not do religious things. I go to church, I was baptized, I take communion, I pray and sing hymns, but at the end of the day the single most defining feature of my existence is that I believe in the divinity of a man who lived 2000 years ago and seek to model my own life on his. Take your curiosity and run with it. God programmed us with a desire to learn and to worship. If you are serious about what you said regarding Jesus, I can only recommend that you explore it further. You may very well reach the same conclusions i did.
The no true scotsman fallacy still applies, because your the one drawing the line. When you say 'That being said, I think for things such as genocide and molesting children, we can easily say that no Christian would do something like that, because it implies such an egregious act of rebellion away from the will of the Lord that if the person had in fact accepted the Holy Spirit into his life, he would be incapable of committing such crimes." Yet the text you provided me claims "19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like." These bold ones are not uncommon in regular everyday people, and if your using this as your source of attributes that disqualify you from having the holy spirit, who are you to say that genocide disqualifies someone from Christianity but cheating on your wife does not? I smell Scotsman.
When did I say that cheating on one's wife is not evidence of somebody not living in the spirit?
Because you consistently only used mass genocide as your example, rather than something easier to relate to, such as cheating, envy, drunkenness etc.
Do you really think that an act of drunkenness nullifies your Christianity? If so, I would say its reasonable to say there are significantly more atheists in America than Christians.
I was using genocide because somebody brought that up a few pages back.
Nothing nullifies one's Christianity, this is the point I am trying to communicate to you. Habitual sin is an indicator that you never received the Holy Spirit in the first place. However, since the Bible indicates in other places that God will forgive us if we sin, one can conclude that the passage I quoted was not referring to single "deadly sins" but habitual sin as a whole. A single act of sexual unfaithfulness does not necessarily indicate that you never received the Holy Spirit, but doing it continually could be considered good evidence. Likewise, getting drunk does not mean you aren't a Christian, but being a slave to booze can. I used genocide and molesting children as examples because they indicate a lifestyle apart from the Holy Spirit, one in which acts of sin are chronic.