Faith and religion

Well, happy New Year to all!

I confess that I was a bit stuck for a subject to write about, and then happened on a blog called Christian-With-A-View, which I think I've linked below.  This is an interesting, and I think fairly intellectual look about faith.  Good stuff; I recommend it.

Today's subject from that blog revolves around multiple translations of the scripture.

I read that, and being the malcontent that some say I am, got to wondering, why are so many people faith (of any faith), so convinced that their flavor of faith is the true one?  Even we Christians, who all profess to believe in largely the same idea, that Christ is the son of God, and was sent to save the world from sin and to offer salvation to the sinner, immediately digress from that point and fall to arguing viciously over what I would think would be some pretty minute points about the overall faith (forms of baptism, for example).

I sometimes wonder if God sowed all of these multiple religions over the world just to see how we simple humans would deal with the idea of conflicting views. 

Who's to say that all religions can't offer salvation?  After all, if God's making the rules here, there's nothing to keep Him from sliding that trick card into the deck. 

The classic example is the person from some remote part of the world that has never been exposed to Christianity, or Islam, or any other religion aside from the one that his people practice. I have a hard time believing that God says, "Sorry, friend, you're out of luck...into the fire you go."

I would suggest that an all powerful and ever living God would look at how this person lived his life according to his own faith. 

Most religions, I gather (though I am certainly no theologian), seem to espouse peace and love as their primary principles.  It's only when humans get involved in the process that things get mucked up.   All faiths seem to have long periods of history where the devout didn't exactly behave as demanded in the manual.

Before anyone spouts off thinking about how Christianity, or Islam or any other faith is exempt from this, let me suggest a quick review of the Crusades, various jihads, the colonization of the Americas and Africa...you get the idea.

I guess at the heart of my argument is the proposition that people, no matter what faith they espouse, should look inward before pointing fingers at anyone else's faith and squawking that they are doomed to hell.

There may be someone with a theological background who's reading this and muttering, "What a fool."

Well, I'm probably a fool about many things, but I would suggest that theology and formal religion can really get in the way of  faith.