Don said:
Everyone I have ever cursed at I have successfully apologized to.
Very good! It's often hard to do.
As for God - to the extent I can talk with God, I admit and beg for
forgiveness for my sins.
(There is one thing I do that I consider the Bible to poorly support
being a sin - well-exemplified in 1-Corinthians 6:9. In most modern
versions of the Bible, the English translation of the 2 verses of most
concern to me are "homosexuals" and "sodomites".
In the "King James Version", those were "effeminate" and "abusers of
themselves with mankind".
In the original Greek, that was "malakoi" and "arsenokoitai". "Malakoi"
is well-enough-known to be something very specific, as in a youthful
(often teenage) femininely-dressed male prostitute. "Arsenokoitai" is
at least arguably "johns", fairly arguably literally "men who sleep around".
By a small number of accounts, Paul invented that compound word as a male
equivalent of "slut", a "negative version" of "stud".
That is why I think it's important to have a well educated pastor who
has a thorough understanding of the old language. Ours regularly goes
back to that when he (or someone else) really wants to know.
Furthermore, 100% of the words in all "holy books" known to humans were
written by humans. My "nominal religious faith" says that one Jew who
walked on Earth about 2,000 years ago had divinity along with human-ness
and may be infallible, and that all humans born by women via sexual
reproduction (and probably most soon-to-come otherwise humans) are
inherently sinners contaminated by "The Original Sin".
So, to the extent that I can talk with God (low at best), I decide what
to best ask for forgiveness for my sins that I see need to refrain from,
and what I would rather defend (however successfully or otherwise) in some
heavenly courtroom after I "give up my ghost".
Your only counsel and attorney up there will be Jesus and he's going to
go by the bible, so arguing some of the teachings could be dicey
The Roman Catholics believe in "purgatory" where souls of
recently-deceased humans endure "hell fire" temporarily before proceeding
to heaven. The Unitarian Universalists are Christians that believe there
is only 1 God and not 3, and also that everyone gets to go to heaven -
no exception even for Adolf Hitler. (Though I suspect plenty of Unitarian
Universalists would want Hitler to be faced with plenty of "hellfire" and
need of major repenting of major sins to get that far.)
IIRC, some Presbyterians believe that people are mostly born onto a
course one way or another, as in even often doomed-from-birth for people
hitting the ground with the wrong foot.
I truly wish that all denominations that add to the bible or interpret
something different into it would stop doing so. The bible clearly says
that everyone has a chance if they are only willing.
I seem to think that Isaac Asimov said it better in "The Last Question".
As I see that, the souls of deceased intelligent life forms have to work
through the ending of this universe (as in retirement is not permanent
even if you spend billions of years RIP-ing or "6 feet under"), to
consolidate into a deity that creates the next one.
I don't believe a "next" deitiy will be created. There is only one, and
eternal.