Reply #8: That's the heart of the problem right there. [View All]

Traditional Christian theology explains this by saying we are imperfect ("fallen") but that God cannot force us to love him and be good, because that would have no more validity than programming a robot to "love". Apparently God wants us to figure out things by ourselves. Perhaps we're making progress, through science and through the abolition of slavery and ancient prejudices. I would suggest we have a lot better notion as to right and wrong now than fifty years ago: in my own lifetime, I've seen victories in feminism, civil rights and for gay people. Many of these advances happened with the support or active participation by Christians. The abolition of slavery and the modern civil rights movement are good examples of this. Of course we have a long way to go (and Chimp isn't helping things very much).

I think in the future Christianity will become a true universal religion, if it survives, by finally understanding what Jesus taught: the important thing is to care for each other; differences of race, class and religion are not important. Read the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Sheep and the Goats, and you'll see. (The Good Samaritan was a Samaritan who showed compassion to an injured Jew -- these two ethnic groups hated each other in Jesus's time. The Sheep were the ones who cared for "the least of these, who are my brothers", and were welcomed into heaven -- unlike the Goats, who did not care for the hungry and the vulnerable, and were sent to the hot place.)