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Hi, I'm 19/f
my whole life, I have been to maybe 5 different churches, and for some reason, I just feel as if church isn't for me. I find it very boring.
I believe in God to the fullest, but sometimes I have my questions, and of course, everyone's answers are going to be different depending on their beliefs.
But within the 5 churches I have been too, I have got many different answers regarding the following question:
DO YOU HAVE TO BE BAPTISED TO GO TO HEAVEN?
I have heard, Yes, you do; and I have heard no you don't, as long as you believe you have a right into God's Kingdom.
Personally, I believe that IF God is as mightly and loving as others make him out to be, than shouldn't he know who believes in him, and who doesn't? Why does baptism give you the pass to Heaven? Why can't believing just be enough??
I have never been baptised, but I have been saved. I pray to God; not just when I want something, but to let him know that I appreciate the things he has given me, and letting me live another day.
Everyone tells me to 'read the bible' but personally, I don't want too. How did God write the bible when he didn't have anything to use? Idk where it came from, who really wrote it, or even if it is true.
Is it wrong for me to have all these questions and these doubts? Does that make me a non believer?
My father told me to talk to a priest, but honestly, I won't get a solid answer, and I feel as if I'll be wasting my time. No one knows the REAL truth about any of it.
Sometimes I question if there is a Heaven or a Hell. How do we really know if they are real; has anyone died and came back and said, 'Man, Heaven is amazing; or Hell is hot as fire!"
I feel so guilty questioning this- but I'm just curious.
SOrry for the length. (link)
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You say you're been to five churches, and gotten many different answers. Go to ten more churches, and you'll get ten more answers. Go to a hundred churches, and you'll get about eighty more answers (some of them will probably agree with each other just by coincidence).
The inescapable conclusion is that the churches have no idea what they are talking about.
The Bible won't be much help either; its lack of consistency and clarity is one of the reasons why there are so many different religious opinions on the matter, and they all can point to the Bible for justification.
You already have your answer, insofar as the Heaven/Hell question: No one knows the REAL truth about any of it.
The simple fact of the matter is that we have no idea what happens after we die. Those who say they do are basing their beliefs on nothing factual. It is nothing but pure speculation.
We have exactly one thing to go on when considering the question of what happens to us after we die, and that is to consider what it was like for us before we were born. For me, it was a timeless oblivion; I recall absolutely no sensations of any kind, no thought, no activity, no feelings, no existence of any kind. Before I was born, I experienced absolutely nothing. I suspect that the same is true for all of us, even those who claim otherwise. And therefore, the only fact-based conclusion we can draw is that it will be the same after we are dead: a total end to any and all consciousness.
But maybe there is something else. The important thing to remember is that those who say that they know what the "afterlife" is like are deluding themselves. They have NO IDEA what it is like. All they can do is make stuff up or repeat what others have made up. No one has ever come back from real death, and those who have "near death experiences" invariably report exactly what they expected to experience, depending on the belief system in which they were brought up.
The good news, if you can call it that, is that eventually we're all going to find out on our own.
Where does that leave us? Well, it strikes me that there is one way in which we live on after our deaths: in the memories of others, and in the words and deeds which we leave behind. So, we must all consider what we want the nature of those memories, words, and deeds to be, and strive to make them that way. For myself, I want the memories to be good, the words to be meaningful, and the deeds to be beneficial; and I think the world would be a better place if everyone made that a priority instead of performing meaningless rituals like splashing water on their heads and mumbling nonsense.
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