Church gets you to meet other people,and share things.  You also get common teaching and inspiring and so on from pulpits.  For myself, when I go to church, I get to meet people after service in the coffee area, to help me playtest my boardgames.  I also get to discuss books and so on.  

The Bible says to not foresake the assembling of oneself, and Jesus spoke of where two or three are gathered in his name, there he shall be.  I would also question the concept of "accept Jesus as your savior".  The Bible doesn't tell people to do this.  It speaks of a lot of other things, which could result in people accepting what Jesus did, but it isn't what is called for.  It is a flawed and incomplete Christianity that really isn't of value to anyone for much of anything, but I guess works for people who really don't need God for anything in this life, but are concerned they may be going to hell.

1. My opinion on if it's fair for someone who has found faith in another religion to be punished? I suppose I don't really see it as punishment. I see it as an offer. You can accept Jesus' sacrifice, or you can reject it. Both choices will lead to some result, and the result of both is known to us from the Bible. So if someone rejects Christianity by finding faith in another religion, then they have rejected that sacrifice and the means to salvation from sin. 

2. Quite possibly. I never said that life was fair. You need only look around the world to see that. Much like how Christians see us all as sinners and sin originated from one person, perhaps people in a worse place are in that place because the sins of their ancestors were greater, and they live in a culture with more sin. It's not fair, but it's also not of God's doing. 

However, my point was that if a religion is true, then you should be able to objectively see that all facts point towards that religion at the exclusion of all others. You can then see that this one religion is the only logically consistent religion and then, you may choose to take that step of faith. 

The Bible warns in false prophets, and it is up to us to be wary of them. If you are in doubt, you are supposed to look to the Bible. If it is not in the Bible, it's wrong. Satan is the father of lies and works to decieve all of us; to lead us away from God, who is referred to as the Truth in Christianity. 

What you're seeking is fairness. That's just not how the world works. What you need to keep in mind about the Christian God is that while you could say that his lack of intervention is the cause of all of this, you could make a much stronger case that we are in this position because humanity has sinned and has chosen this world in which we live. It's not God's fault that we're here; he gave us free will after all. It's our own fault.

3. Satan is a fallen angel, not a person. Regardless, I see your point. Let's look at it this way. If God used his power, then people are still free to not love him. It's not forcing them to. But if they do love him, would it be because he has shown himself to be powerful, or would it be for he himself? More people would likely love God if he showed his powers, but I don't believe it would be love of God himself; rather, it would be love of what he can do for you. 

I'm saying that I don't know if it is or not. That's why I'm studying it. I've mentioned a few problems that I'm having with it, but that doesn't mean it's wrong. I can't call it quits this early on, because I haven't gotten close through going through the entire thing yet. I haven't researched these problems that I'm having where it seems to contradict science, which is something I need to do for myself to see if these are actually problems or not. It'll be a long process, but I think it will be a very good experience.

According to Christianity, people must either accept or reject Christ's sacrifice. Everyone who has heard of Christianity has had the choice to look into it for themselves. (Again, I'm confused about people who haven't heard about it... not sure how that works out). If people choose not to look into it, or look into it and choose not to believe... then they have still rejected Christ's sacrifice. That is a pretty darn consistent basis from which to determine who is saved and who isn't. 

These are some of the passages that I read to come to that conclusion.

Romans 10:9-10

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Acts 4:12

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Acts 16:31

And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

John 3:17-18

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3:36

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 8:12

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Am I misunderstanding this? When I say accepting Christ as your savior, I do mean that literally, but to me, the act of accepting him as your savior is not just saying that you do. It's believing that he is the Son of God (or the sacrifice would be pretty meaningless), that the way he lived is the model after which you should live as well (in the sense that he died to save you from your sins, and he lived a sinless life), and that you love him for what he did for all of us.

Unless you are chosing to make those verses mean "accept Christ as your savior", I don't see where the Bible says that, because none of those verses tell people to "accept Jesus".  What I see over and over is whether or not God will accept someone or not, not the other way around.  The final judgement isn't people accepting or rejecting Christ, but whether or not they are accepted or rejected by God.  There is calls to confess, believe, repent, call upon the name, and even be baptized, but not accept.  Now one can maybe measure a person's faith by whether they accept information about Jesus or not, but to say that is what one needs to do falls FAR short of what the Bible say, Christian tradition says, or actually how people who genuinely do stuff close to what Jesus called people to do.  It is just part of one manifestation of Christianity, the born-again evangelicals.  

I interpreted those verses to mean that only by accepting Jesus as your savior can you be saved. If you don't do that, you can't be saved. "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.'" 

I suppose you are having a problem with me saying that accepting Jesus saves you, because final judgement is left up to God? I guess that's fair, but John 3:16 seems to say pretty clearly that if you believe in Jesus, you will be saved. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

These threads are always a good read. But people arguments are going to be the same no matter how you answer a question they are going to spin it to make up another question. For example who created us? God, who created God? someone higher than him, who created him etc...

Jay asks why would god organize such a complex tombola to salvation since no proper logic or argument allows to place one religion ahead of others

you reply that there is a logic placing christianity ahead of others without specifying it...

i imagine you must have compared quite some religions to finally come up with such an established position

about the people who didn't choose christianity as their religion and, by your words, will not be saved, are children / handicapped / aborted babies / muslims / jewish / budhhists / atheists / agnostics / pagans / satanists / shintuists / etc. etc. 

and you still get that as logical ?

My friend, there is no logic in your text, and i am not satan trying to push you from your righteous path, nor a jealous person that you might be save and i not.

For me, I worship/pray to God because I appreciate all the things he has done to be. I.. I just do it you know. I think worshipping him is one way to express my gratitude to him. I worship at my own will.

Personally, I dont think it is REQUIRED to do so. But by just believing in God, not doing anything about it and just keep it at the back of your mind is kind of... not morally right.

What I find even worse is that if you refuse to obey his demands you are commended to eternal damnation. From this, you can draw quite a few parallels with modern day dicators (which is essentially what God also is). I think this is why religious fundamentialists oppose democracy (well, at least partly), as it brings people round to this way of thinking which is in conflict with their own religion order. They aren't exactly going to look kindly on some kind of Heavenly revolution that seeks to bring elections to choose the ruler of the universe are they.

Yeah.. when you dont ask for forgiveness. Anyway, I think you have to be pretty sinful to be in eternal damnation. Something of a murder or suicide, a caliber of a mortal sin. These things can be overcome by human judgement and only God will know if you truly committed those crimes. IE: not hindered by a mental illness of some sort.

Plus if you think about God's commandments. They are actually for the good of mankind.