Sin, and redemption, is pretty much the biggest part of Christian theology. A vast majority (no percentile, again just personal notion) pretty much agree on the following: we all sin, and are born with sin, stemming from the whole Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and snake, thing. Catholics call this Original Sin. Us Christians haven't given it a name (that I know of), but the premise is still the same. Believing in Jesus, accepting Him as Saviour, and believing that He died for us on the cross is the only and only way to absolve us. Rituals such as baptisms spawn from this belief. This point, essentially is Christianity. Anything varying is either cooked up by some cult leader, or has been heavily influenced by people.

So then, people ask, what about people that were never given a chance to even choose to believe? Are they all condemned to hell? Well, according to doctrine, apparently yes. It's shitty, and makes God look rather unfair - it's like some people were pre-selected to be "saved", while others were condemned from birth. This, logically of course, is a huge flaw in the concept of Christianity. But again, there's no real answer, and therefore, no real reason to debate it. Jesus asked his disciples to spread the word. Maybe we (as Christians) failed to do that, resulting in this condemnation of people who never got the chance. Maybe God has some other "backup" plan. Who knows.

The concept of "free will". This is another huge point of contention, and the majority of people that don't/refuse to believe say that they don't like the idea of having no control over their lives. I would agree. But my belief (again I stress, my belief) is that God has indeed given us free will. We can do whatever the hell we want, as long as we face the consequences. Any modern, civilized society follows the basic premise: you can say whatever you want, but if it's racist, you get in trouble. You can hit someone if you really want, but you'll get in trouble for that as well. God hasn't taken away free will from anyone. This is why even today we fight, have war, 'sin', whatever. But you'll have to face the consequences when you die. So what if you live life doing whatever the hell you want, and minutes before you die, you repent and say sorry - does that absolve you? Well, again, who knows? Maybe if it was sincere and heartfelt, God will accept this. Again, may seem a bit unfair, but maye God will reward those who lives a much better life with great things in heaven, while the jerk who repented at the last minute gets the bare minimum. Or maybe if He doesn't believe that the sorry was sincere, you're screwed. The "omnipotent" actually means something you know. If you approach this whole thing with a small amount of common sense (which some people will say is mutually exclusive from religion), things appear a bit more sensical. IMO anyway.

Are Christians all good people? Probably not. People are all greedy, self-intersted, etc. (original sin, cough cough). The point of Christianity is to try to live a good life, while also believing the first point of Jesus dying for us, etc. How many scandals has the Catholic church been involved in. How many pastors are in jail for stealing money from their church. How many people died because of Christian crusades for the sake of religion. The questions, rightfully deserved, are endless. And therefore a moot point. None of them have answers. There are good people who will never call themselves Christian, and shitty people who do call themselves Christian.

All in all, finding a balance is the key to MY faith. Some diehard Christians will call me blasphemous for interpreting faith to my own liking, but I'd like to think it's not up to them to judge me, it's up to the guy above. I pray before eating when I'm out with my friends who don't go to church, because they're cool with it. If I'm invited over to dinner at a Muslim household, I'll do it subtly so nobody knows, as to not be disrespectful. If God is going to get mad at me for that, then that's something I have to deal with. I have gay friends, and while I don't fully understand yet nor "condone" homosexuality, I am not going to stand in front of his house with a sign that says God hates Fags; they're still genuinely nice people. I read Harry Potter because it's a good book, not because I promote witchcraft and paganism.

I'd like to think the majority of Christians are like me, who are trying hard to find a balance between not being too liberal with faith, but also not becoming the next Westboro. And as I've said, there's no real right or wrong way. We have a book that was written 2000 years ago, written by people. Do I believe the things it says? Yes, because I believe that if things in it were all false, the omnipotent God would have done something about it. Can I prove it? No, of course not.

Speaking of the Bible, another hot point, here's my personal view, in case you've bothered to read this far: Do I believe the world is only a few thousand years old, refuting scientific evidence that it's 4 billion years old? No. I do believe God created it, as to me, the Big Bang theory is just as farfetched as an omnipotent being making it. Maybe the Bible skipped over a few hundred million years here and there. Maybe the "7 days" God took to create the universe was much longer, and 7 days is just a symbol. Did we evolve from monkeys, instead of coming down from Adam and Eve? I don't know. Maybe Adam and Eve were monkeys.

But all this is to just prove my original point. There's no real answer to any of the questions posed in this "debate of religions". You start bringing in other religions and their beliefs to the debate, and it becomes exponentially more complicated. And unproductive.

There's only one real way to find out, and that's going to happen when you're unable to post on RS. If there is truly a God, then I would have "won" while you guys have "lost"; if there isn't, then you would probably have had a bit more fun in life than I had. But consider the consequences, on the chance that us Christians were right. Of course, I don't believe in God "in case" he's real, but it's something to consider. Likewise, if you call yourself Christian, but live the most un-Christian life, and hope that just calling yourself one will give you a ticket to heave...well, good luck.