My family has never been particularly religious - singing Christmas
carols is about the limit for them. Thus I've never really believed in God and
heaven, although I don't actually believe that they don't exist either -
I'm sort of undecided, probably like a lot of people I guess.
        Lately I've been thinking about it all a lot more, and I wondered how
religious people can be so convinced that there is a God. I feel as though
I want to believe, but I'm not used to believing things without proof -
just as I can't believe that there definitely isn't a God, so I can't
definitely believe that there is. I wondered if most of you were brought up by
religious families and never believed any different. Can anyone help me to
understand how your belief and faith in God can be so strong.

        Another question that frequently crosses my mind is which religion is
correct?? How do you choose a religion, and how do you know that the Christian
God exists and the Gods of other religions don't?? How do you feel about
people who follow other religions?? How about atheists?? And people like me -
agnostics I suppose. Do you respect their religion, and accept their
beliefs as just as valid as your own?? Isn't there contradiction between
the religions?? How can your religion be more valid than any others?? Do
you have less respect for someone if they're not religious, or if they follow
a different religion than you would if they were Christian??

        Also, how much of the scriptures are correct?? Are all events in
the bible really supposed to have happened, or are they just supposed to be
stories with morals showing a true Christian how to behave??

        I generally follow most of the Christian ideas, which I suppose are
fairly universal throughout all religions - not killing, stealing, etc, and
'Loving my neighbour' for want of a better expression. The only part I find
hard is the actual belief in God.

        Finally, what is God's attitude to people like me, who don't quite
believe in Him, but are generally fairly 'good' people. Surely not
believing doesn't make me a worse person?? If not, I find myself wondering why
I so strongly want to really believe, and to find a religion.

        Sorry if I waffled on a bit - I was just writing ideas as they came
into my head. I'm sure I probably repeated myself a bit too.

                        Thanks for the help,
                                Paul Simmons