notes@isucs1.UUCP (11/03/85)
I'm curious. I was just browsing through the text and I
read were you stated that you were taught that non-Jews
had their own religion and that it was good enough for them
but not good enough for you [ Jews ]. And as a non-Jew I was
wondering exactly what you meant by that. How do you define
"good enough" ?
I see the purpose of religion ( and I choke on that word since
I feel that it is terribly misused ) as serving God. And in fact,
religion is simply the word usually associated with the collection
of practices by which we serve Him. Is it correct then to say
that a certain amout method of serving God is sufficient for one
type of peolpe but not for another ?
Also you mentioned that it's better to lean heavy on the good
works than the faith. As I remember, when God called Abraham
out of Ur and told him that he would give him a land for an
inheritance, it says ( in the Bible which as I understand is
a very accurate translation of the original 'Torah'? or
whatever ) that Abram believed and his FAITH was counted to him
for righteousness.
And in the wilderness, when God sent the serpents in among the
people because of their transgressions, He commanded Moses to
erect in the middle of the camp a serpent so that when the people
looked upon it and believed ( i.e. had faith ), they would not
die. ( if of course they had been previously bitten ).
So surely, faith is not to be taken lightly.
I find difficulty in understanding exactly what the focus of
the Jewish religion is, having come from the southwest where
the jewish population was less than 5% in the entire state and
most surrounding states.
Never-the-less, I would welcome any enlightenment you might
offer in the matters put forward above and I would be most
curious to here were, as you said, the other religions ( i.e.
christianity ) went wrong.