What are your thoughts on automatically adopting the religion of our parents?
Should our religion be determined by a geographical accident of our place of birth ?
Is it reasonable to assume that God gave a different set of instructions to those living in Germany than those living in India, Arabia or Japan?
Should we unquestionably accept a religion because it was inculcated to us from our parents and from our society from birth ?
The words of Roger Shinn makes me think that perhaps it is God's will that there should be only one religion that is acceptable to him, just as there is one truth.
(R.S professor of ethics).
"Religious wars tend to be extra furious. [secular] wars tend to reach a point of compromise, when the war is religious ... conciliation seems to be evil."
Around 1740, kids moved from Virginia colony to cheaper North Carolina colony. But, they didn't have access to their own religious services. Instead, they figured that another Christian religion was close enough in moral values, and any religion was preferable to none. So, they switched, and generations that followed liked their new adopted religion.
So, it doesn't matter much if you are used to a religion or not, as long as you get from the religion what you intend. Teaching kids not to steal, or take someone else's wife, or make wars (like the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the torture camp in Guantanamo), should suffice.
Our original religion is only as strong as the preacher who ran it. For example, in modern times, Reverend Hagee was saying that we have to pray to Jesus so we can kill more effectively in war. He just doesn't understand his own religion.
We rely on the education of our clergy to tell us what God wants, but, invariably, they are wrong. Education doesn't seem to count for much, though you would think that they would understand the bible very well if they have studied it for years.
In short, we take the religion that is offered to us, and what we do with it is up to us. My advise is to read the bible (and ancient texts) for ourselves, and make up our own minds. After all, it is our decisions that make us go to either heaven or hell.