Hi guys. I'm sixteen and I started to get a keen interest in God and Christ in about December. I've always been a very deep and philosophical thinker unlike most teens my age. Before then I was an atheist agnostic but I was nudged to consider God. It couldn't have happened at a worse time... I had just been on a school trip to see Auschwitz and I was very depressed about suffering. Because I am pessimistic I started having massive incapacitating fears about hell, but Ray's site was one of the first I came across when I started to look up on the topic.
Over the past two months I've done a lot of research into the bible, it's origins and church history. I can honestly say I've learned more about Christianity in the past couple of weeks than I ever have in my whole life. I was not brought up religiously myself and the only information I really had was from my mother's side of the family who are mormons.
Ray really surprised me in the extent of his study. I was already a determinist so I could grasp the whole free will thing easily. However, although the scriptural evidence is against hell is very large, I still find it very hard to shake off my mind. This is mainly due to people such as Bill Wiese who claim to have been to hell in a vision. I believe him, because I know that out-of-body experiences are real, and it really shakes me up. It's taken a while just to tell myself that it was a bad dream, but I'm glad to say that ever since March began I've been getting a lot better and more optimistic. As Richard Dawkins once said, "The sheer horribleness of hell as depicted by many Christians is maximised to account for it's implausibility". He might be an atheist, but that's one of the truest things I've ever heard come from his mouth.
I hope to discuss Ray's ideas, but mainly I will just be asking for info and opinions. I am no bible scholar, I've never read it myself, so there's still a heck of a lot I don't know and understand.
- Ryan