My whole life i’ve been an absolute atheist, with some pagan beliefs along the way for a bit as well.
My grandma is a jehovah’s witness and overall i’ve found a lot of issues with christianity as a whole.
I never thought id ever even consider asking this, but how can i start educating myself on christianity? it feels like out of no where i started having dreams about god, having the desire to pray, and just a sudden interest about it in general.
i just feel kind of stuck, the idea of heaven and hell troubles me, the idea of sin, etc. is it possible to view these things as strictly symbolical?
I am so so uneducated on christianity and the bible, I don’t even know how to start reading the bible or where to get the “right” one.
sorry if any of this sounds totally ignorant! i’ve been trying to do research on my own, but I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on this.
Thank you!
Christianity, as an organized religion, is rife with issues and inconsistencies. In some ways that’s reflected in the extreme diversity of the religion. You’d literally need a spreadsheet to keep track of all the denominations, splinters, and factions within Christianity because none of us can agree on anything. To make matters worse, for much if it’s history, the church has been a tool of oppression; completely antithetical to the teachings of Jesus that it claims to embody. Because of that, the church – and by extension Christianity – get a lot of well warranted criticism.
However, that’s not to say that the church as a whole is inherently bad or lacking in value. There are plenty of Christians who genuinely believe in God and want to live in a way that exemplifies the teachings of Jesus.
If you want to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus, there are two passages in the Bible I would highly recommend. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew Chapters 5-7) and The Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-49). In those sermons, Jesus outlines what [we believe] God expects from us and what it means to be his followers.
To address a couple of your other questions:
Sin
Sin is the things in our lives that separate us from God. Some Christians make the mistake of trying to distill sin down to a list of “Do’s and Dont’s”. It’s really a lot simpler than that. Read the gospel passeges I mentioned above and think of “sin” as failure to live up to those ideals. It’s something we all do at times.
Heaven
Scripture does support the idea of an afterlife and “heaven”, “paradise”, etc. are mentioned on numerous occasions. The details are vague and honestly, some Christian traditions place way too much emphasis on “heaven” as though we were given life on earth only to speed run our way to death and the afterlife. That sort of thinking makes light of the miraculous gift that is this life.
Hell
Much of what you probably think of when you hear the word “hell” comes from fiction (think Dante’s Divine Comedy) rather than from the Bible. English translations that refer to “hell” are actually referring to one of several different places depending on the context. Scripture is even more vague on this than it is on “Heaven”. Personally, I do not believe in “Hell” as a place of eternal torment.
I hope this is helpful. My faith is an important part of my life. It didn’t start out that way though. I nearly gave up on Christianity altogether because I grew up in the church and saw so many things happen that were the opposite of Jesus teachings. Eventually I learned that not all Christians are like that.
I’m no theology major but I’m happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability.