Read this brilliant essay on Redemption by Steve Jones, author of the Freethinking Faith blog. Excerpts:
The common view is that every person enters this world in terrible danger. The sword of divine wrath hangs over each head that exits the womb. Being human is a burden, a condition that exposes one to the most catastrophic afterlife imaginable. . . .
As an aside, I wonder why some Christians even celebrate the birth of a child. Shouldn’t we mourn that another sentient being has begun an existence that places him or her in such jeopardy? * * *
Why did Jesus spend so much time urging his hearers to show mercy, forgive others, [etc.]? Why didn’t he spend all of his preaching time repeating the need to just accept him as personal savior so that one can bypass hell and go to heaven?
Against the tide of popular religion, I believe in an incremental redemption, a progressive change of one’s heart and mind into something spiritually beautiful. . . .
[I]n our redeemed journey, we don’t focus chiefly on streets of gold by and by, but on this life and this day. We focus on how we might love and serve others as Jesus did. This, I submit, is redemption. A life of love toward God and neighbor is salvation.
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